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Here’s 2 reason why I like Blackberry:

1. Phyiscal qwerty keypads (Not touch screen)

2. Email. All I need to do is to logon to the BIS (Blackberry internet services) from my Telco, do some settings and I could start receiving emails from Gmail and Yahoo

Believe me or not, I used three different type of Blackberry model. First the Curve then the Pearl and now the Bold. I must say I like the Bold for now.

If I would to use the P990I phone camera, it would be the normal point and shoot type of picture taking. Macro mode will be the next feature if I need to take close up objects. I have not really explore the Sony Ericsson P990I camera picture effects until recently. Here’s some of the pictures taken using the phone camera effects.

Black & White

Sepia

Solarize

Negative

Normal

I mentioned in my earlier blog that my P990i had a touch screen problem and would require to get it fix at the Sony Ericsson service center.

It will take at least three days to get it repair. Since I do not own any spare phone, I will need to borrow one from them for at least 3 days. They kindly loan me an ancient phone - Model R600! I had no other options but to use that old mobile phone. It was such an old phone and I felt so embarrassed to use it in public. Is a good thing that I carry a messenger bag, it at least help me to use the phone discreetly in public.

Well, is not so much of me having that ancient phone but Sony Ericsson might want to take an opportunity to keep me or other customer in future. Why? When you use a business phone like p990i, you expect a lot from this phone. I would consider that a premium phone compare to most SE models because of the price tag. This phone was purchased late 2006. Such expensive phone you expect good features, applications and stability. Personally I was dissatisfied over the firmware updates, I wonder how many version of the firmware I need to update to get the phone smooth going.

The service staff was polite and professional but the spare mobile phone they loan me does not reflect well on Sony Ericsson. Since I am using a premiere phone, they should at least loan me a set of reasonably good phone.

In my opinion, Sony Ericsson may consider doing the following suggestions to improve their mobile phone loaning service:

1. If phones like P990i, K810 or other new SE models requires repair, don’t loan us an ancient phone like the R600, loan us a better phone or something that was released for at least 2 years.

2. If the mobile phone were sent for service, isn’t a good opportunity for such user to use and review the latest phone from Sony Ericsson. Remember those that buy phone with rich features and applications are the ones willing to pay more for a phone. If the present phone displeases them, they might just move on to the next competitor. Like it or not there are so many mobile phone brands to choose from. Keep your customer make your them happy, loan them a latest phone and request them to fill in some surveys to review the phone. With quality feedback I believe Sony Ericsson will maintain or perhaps increase their customer base.

If Sony Ericsson can improve on the handset loaning service maybe 2 things might happen:

1. You get to keep the customer

2. A word of mouth will spread to others. Isn’t it fantastic to hear SE users telling their friends or share their experience in forums “SE loan me a latest phone; their service fantastic!”

Hopefully I will not return to the service center to fix the phone again. If I do visit them I hope they loan me a better phone or a latest phone for review. I guess I could only hope

I recently got my phone fix from the SE service center. And guess what kind of phone they loan me? An Ericsson R600! Probably this phone was produced before the Sony Ericsson merger. I feel so embarrassed using this phone in public. What an ancient phone!

I replaced my screen from SE service centre and at the same time they updated the firmware.

Few weeks back I complaint on how updating the the firmware to

Phone: CXC162037 R9F011
Bluetooth: CXC162058 R5A01
Organizer: CXC162036 R5A17
CDA: CDA162007/1 R5A13

and it affects the loudness of the alarm. Well the first I did with the phone was to test the alarm function. Indeed the alarm trigger the normal way it should be. No more soft alarm tone.

The latest Sony Ericsson P990i firmware which is avaliable from June 15, 2007:

Phone: CXC162037 R9G007
Bluetooth: CXC162058 R5A01
Organizer: CXC162036 R6D23
CDA: CDA162007/1 R6D23

A snaphot of the new firmware

However I did find out other issue with the new firmware. When you are charging the phone, the vibrating mode will not trigger when there is an incoming call, text message and alarm trigger. So if you are so use to rely on the vibrating alert for any occasions (charging and non-charging) , you will just have to bear with it and hopefully this issue will be solve during the next update! There could be some other bug that I have not discover but we can always visit forum for the latest information on the new firmware.

I got another problem with the Sony Ericsson P990i. Using the stylus or my fingers touching the Status bar icons (at the bottom of the screen) seem alright, but when I touch the icons above the Status bar and nothing seem to work. Technically speaking if the stylus could not touch the icons it maybe an alignment issue. One of the advantages of this Sony Ericsson P990i is that you can use the keypads and jog mode to control instead of just touch screen. I manage to jog my way to the control panel.

Tools > Control Panel > Other > Setup Wizard > Keypad (Y) > Keypad (Arrow right > Keypad (Arrow right) > Keypad (Arrow right) > Keypad (Arrow right) > Keypad (Arrow right) > Keypad (Arrow right)

When it reaches the stylus alignment screen and tap the center of point 1. It says “Too far from point 1”

I could think of two options:

1. To reformat the internal disk.
2. Send the phone to the local service center.

Is always a good practice and check the forums and see if others encounter the same problem.

Two forums that I always visit for answers: http://my-symbian.com and ttp://www.allaboutsymbian.com/forum

I did find someone with a similar touch screen problem. You can find the solution here.

To save time I decided to skip format the internal disk but send the phone to the local service centre.

Sony Ericsson is launching the P1, the 5th generation smartphone and is 25% smaller than the current P990i. The P1 model is probably going to replace the present P990i. It will be available in selected markets from Q3 2007. Find out more from Sony Ericsson press release.

I normally set my phone with sound and vibrating alert together.

Tools > Control Panel > Sounds & alerts > Vibrating alerts > Message: on

And I remember that the vibrating alert will continue to vibrate along with the message tone. It seem that after I upgraded the latest firmware (Update_Service_Setup-2.7.4.8-2), the message tone will continue to buzz but the vibrating alert could only vibrate once.

Check on this two site for short cut keys: http://www.cic.com and Sony Ericsson official site.