Julie's Web Journal

Today Sprint and HTC finally released the much-anticipated ROM update for the Mogul. If you have this phone, you can get the download directly from HTC.

The big features of the new ROM are GPS and EVDO Rev. A. speeds. The phone has a real GPS (not fake triangulation) built in, and at last I had a chance to try it for real. Rev. A is the faster EVDO speed usually reserved for laptop cards, but Sprint is starting to build it into some of their mobile phones. Rev. A is supposed to provide close to DSL speeds on a mobile phone.

So, what's the lowdown?

Before I get into the goodies, I should mention that last week I dropped the leaked update onto my phone last week. My ROM update saga is in this post. Suffice to say that it didn't go very well under Vista and I nearly bricked the phone. I've seen varying reports from Vista users who have applied the update today. If you have an XP box, that's probably your safest bet. (The problems I've heard with Vista are that the update just doesn't get to the phone, so you probably won't brick it. You may have to disable your firewall.)

Updating is a snap: Just connect the phone to your computer and make sure ActiveSync sees it. Run the .exe file and follow the prompts. HTC estimates about ten minutes, but the reality is that it takes longer. One precaution you may want to follow before you load the new software is a hard reset. Once you set up the software then the Sprint customizations will load. This takes another few minutes.

The first thing I did was load Google Maps and try the GPS. I had a very difficult time getting a fix using the leaked ROM. Most GPS units work best when they have a "view" of the sky, and being outdoors did help. Still, it took a little time to get a lock. This morning as soon as I selected "Use GPS" from the menu, Google Maps had found eight satellites. And this was sitting at the desk in my home office. The best I had ever been able to get outdoors had been five. Very cool.

The next trick was to try a speed test. This was not successful at first as the speeds were terrible. Then I realized - doh! - I was still connected to the desktop computer. I unplugged the cable, let the EVDO provision, and then discovered I was getting close to 700kpbs download speeds - on three bars.

Another new feature is an integrated task manager. Windows Mobile is notorious for not actually closing apps when you press the X button. To be fair, this operating system does not window, so you may want to easily switch between apps. In most Pocket PC systems (the Ipaq models being an interesting exception) the user has to go into Settings and find the icon for Memory to kill running programs in order to free up memory. Either that, or soft reset the device. The task manager is integrated into the Today screen, and shows all of the running programs. Click the red X icon to close. In addition, you can click and hold the X in a running program to close it.

There are other enhancements and fixes. So far the response seems peppy, as though they've gone in and further optimized memory usage. One downside of the Mogul is that it only has 68 MB of memory. Newer models have 128. I've noticed that startup from a soft reset is much faster, as is the initial portrait-landscape screen swap when sliding the screen open to expose the keyboard.

HTC supposedly has a video driver update on the way. That's another of those things the phone should have had in the first place. Hopefully it will be here before the month is out - if the rumors are to be believed.

So far, so good. My only complaint is one I've made before: I wish HTC and Sprint would have been more forthcoming about the timeline for this update, problems, etc. Some of us have been waiting for this since September.

Tags: Technology