Mobile OS Love

or about updating the operating system on your Windows Mobile based phone.

 In the hunt for Windows Mobile 6, the next unofficial mobile operating system upgrade for the Dopod 838 Pro, I came across a few sites to help learn the process and terms involved in the upgrade.

 First up, although there is a Windows Mobile 5, there are different iterations of it, much like how desktop Window’s OS’s have Service Packs.  These are called AKU’s or Adaptation Kit Update and provide extra features or security fixes with each release.

My Dopod was shipped with AKU 2.6 but there was a subsequent 3.0 release which provided vast improvements.  This included upping to .NET compact framework 2.0, Internet Sharing (in place of the wireless modem program), an Javascript enabled Internet Explorer for AJAX based sites, better bluetooth support inc FTP for BT filesharing, vCards sent by SMS and WPA2 support.

You can read more about AKU’s, how to determine the version installed on your phone and the different releases available for Windows Mobile 5 here.

 I have since read there are AKU 3.2/3.3 versions out there too which improve on the wifi aspect.  More importantly though, you will need an updated v3+ AKU to upgrade to WM6 successfully.

 To upgrade to AKU 3.3 you can follow this post on the xda-developers site.  Beware, this isn’t a simple how-to, you’ll have to do some pre-reading to get the right software and know what you are doing before performing the upgrade.

 Acknowledgement: the links above were pulled from this discussion on the MyPDACafe.com site.

Ok, so now the first hurdle has been achieved, here are some discussion posts around WM6 on the 838 that I found useful

MyPDACafe.com :: View topic – WM6 “XDA Live” 0.1 for Hermes (Dopod 838pro) – Upg – links back to XDA developers but also demonstrates the use of the new rom

[REPORT ISSUES] WMXL v0.20 Released… – xda-developers – the main page for the newer release and a discussion of the issues faced.  There are potential issues with connectivity, not across the board, but some people are finding bluetooth headsets, wifi and hsdpa connections a little different.

Windows Mobile 6 Thread Links – xda-developers

XDADeveloperWiki – HTC_Hermes – great site for all sorts of HTC / Dopod info

 

The final considerations are finding a way to backup the existing rom, backup your existing data, applying the new platform and having a means to roll it back should it all go haywire.  This is no small topic in itself so I will post again once I found out some more.

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