haha thats every milestone modder's dream..

But so far based on Motorola remarks and the leaked 2.1 ROMs from other countries, seems like bootloader is still locked. Some of these even have a "fix" that prevents rooting too. Anyway still can hope... few more days to Malaysian 2.1 to see....

Well I guess it depends on what is important for you. The new AP price really is tempting. I ended up giving in and ordering a set too. The price difference vs the Ori price is what really sold it for me.

Of course, the Ori price isn't all that bad either and certainly better than what most people originally expected. You get peace of mind from a Motorola backed warranty, Ori Malaysian set (maybe localized?), OS already at 2.1 and chance for extra accessories (first 300 only). I just wasn't as interested in those offerings which is why I opted for cheaper price. I'll let u guys know how the set is once I get it.

This post has been edited by Charcoal: Mar 21 2010, 02:23 AM

I copied this changelog that was provided by Verizon for the US version Motorola Droid.

Some things like pinch zooming, we already have but I'm guessing most of the changes should apply for the Milestone as well. One important update that is not mentioned but has apparently been fixed is the audio skipping problem that occurs for 2.01 milestones. 2.1 users are reporting that this issue is no longer present. Feel free to add on anything u have experienced or heard.

Enhancements

* Pinch-to-zoom is now available when using the browser, Gallery, and Google Maps.
* New Weather and News application plus widget.
o The Weather and News app pulls the information you want from the
Web and brings it to your fingertips. You get weekly and hourly
weather forecasts based on your location, and news headlines.
* New support for voice-to-text entry.
o Whenever a text-entry box appears, simply tap the microphone icon on the virtual keyboard and speak.
* New Gallery application with 3D layout. View and share photos taken with your phone and images from your online Picasa Web albums.
* Live Wallpapers offer richer animated, interactive backgrounds on the
home screen. Access them with a long press anywhere on the home screen. Tap Wallpapers, then Live Wallpapers.

Improvements

* Free Yahoo!® Mail is now supported—simply sign in with your Yahoo! email address and password.
* Google Maps update
o Personalized suggestions and synchronized starring with
desktop maps.google.com.
+ Starred items are stored and synced automatically between Google
Maps on your device and maps.google.com on your computer, making it easy to search for places you’ve searched for before.
o New night mode in Google Maps Navigation automatically changes the screen at night for easier viewing.
* Improved pattern-lock functionality.
* Improved handset audio when disconnecting a wired headset.
* Email accounts no longer need to be re-entered after an over-the-air update.

I got my set recently from Terry too (aka x132755). He's a great seller, great response and kept me updated by sms on the status daily. Got a brand new phone exactly as promised (mine is a AP HK version with QWERTY keypad) and it works perfectly so far. I definitely recommend him for anyone looking to buy the milestone.

I'm still trying out the phone and I liking what i see so far. Build quality is great with a solid feel and the screen is beautiful. I like the nice solid "klack" you hear when u slide and lock the keyboard. Smooth interface and feels snappy.


2.1 removes the bug that allowed for rooting before. In order to root, you will need to downgrade the recovery file to an older version that still has the rootable bug then perform the root. The guys at Alldroid have already created a recovery file specifically for this purpose. BTW i have not tried this so use this at your own risk!

http://alldroid.org/threads/16414-Flash-th...1-Telus-etc.%29

This post has been edited by Charcoal: Mar 26 2010, 01:33 AM

Ya I haven't reboot in at least 2 day too. Android seems pretty capable of handling its memory etc and I rarely notice any slowdowns at all. Great stuff

This post has been edited by Charcoal: Mar 26 2010, 09:15 PM

haha congrats on your new phone and welcome another milestone owner

Actually milestone has already been rooted for several months now on 2.01. For 2.1, rooting was also successfully done by downgrading the recovery file too and then patching too. Rooting lets you run certain programs that require superuser access. I think the main issue now revolves around the locked bootloader which still has not been bypassed yet so far. Without this, we still can't install any custom ROMs.

Overall though, I'm pretty happy with current state and haven't felt the need for custom roms yet. The current regular milestone with 2.1 works great enough for me.

Found an interesting article that discusses the lower effective resolution of the AMOLED screen (Nex1) vs what the manufacturer claims (653x392 vs 800x480). The lower effective resolution is due to the way subpixels are arranged for AMOLED.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news/2010/0...-and-hacks.ars/

Relevent to Milestoners because the article does compare the N1 screen lack of sharpness with the Milestone/Droid at several points. Just another reason for us to be happy with the Milestone.

Maybe try deleting the saved AP and then reconnect it again and save fresh. I assume your router AP is protected with WEP/WPA? Doublecheck the saved login settings too.

I've had a few problems with WIFI connection problems before and mostly its related to the router/settings or physical barriers reducing the signal rather than the phone. One way to test is to go to another AP (neighbour's, friend's, maybe starbucks etc) and see if you have any connection problems. Preferably test this on an AP that has close to full signal.

Also Android marketplace does have a few WIFI management apps. You can try installing those and see if they can help. Sometimes, its just screwy compatibility between router and the unit (i've had several laptops with same settings but one can connect and another just can't, change router then no problem).

Edit: haha i just realized without wifi, u can't access marketplace other than with 3g/HSPDA. Well that might limit being able to install apps if you don't have a data plan.

This post has been edited by Charcoal: Mar 28 2010, 03:45 PM

Just keep scanning a few times. Maybe try checking the "Discoverable" option in the Bluetooth settings too. I took about 4 tries at scanning before I got the Stone to pick up my turned on Motorola bluetooth headset. Once it picked it up, it connected pretty fast and I have had no issues since then.

On another note, I just found out about the Motorola Phone Portal today (its preinstalled in the Stone application menu as Phone Portal). When you connect with cable to your pc, select "Portal and Tools". Awesome, it opened a web browser interface with options to backup sms and contacts + edit photos and some settings too.

The price not dropping much vs 5 months ago is good thing since it means the Milestone is keeping value . I've been using AP set too. All brand new and runs flawlessly and frankly no different from Ori except AP usually come with 2.01 (which can be easily updated now) and may have different country firmware (no problems here because Malaysian firmware does not offer anything special). The current AP price is delicious and Ori price falling like a rock too. Barely a week and already you can get Ori less than 2.1K (see Terry's post).

Now to the question of whether the Milestone is worth it. I certainly think so, and most of the forumers here would agree. On whether you should wait, frankly new tech is always coming out so you would just end up waiting forever. Only you can decide if the current offering is worth the price you're paying.


Having keyboard actually is a pro for me . I can switch between onscreen and physical keyboard whenever i want.

Milestone Pros
The best resolution screen available hands down currently in market for Android. True effective resolution of 854x480.
Solid build quality.
Responsive multi-touch capacitative screen.
QWERTY Keyboard.
A pretty decent built in speaker
Gorilla Glass screen (oh yea!)

Con
Less Ram, it hasn't impacted me but if you run a lot of programs more RAM always is better.
Locked bootloader - no custom ROMs but most folks won't need this.

If you are comparing against Nex1
We have better effective resolution. N1 AMOLED claims 800x480 but effective resolution is actually 653x392 because of the subpixel arrangement.
Colors - Some people like the Nex1 AMOLED screen because of the more saturated colors, however the Stone actually gives more accurate color representation (for ex. saturation of AMOLED is why some reds look like orange on the Nex1). This is up to your preference of color saturation over color accuracy. Some people just like OLED colors better.
Stone has all the better Pros mentioned above vs Nex1.
Stone has much cheaper price, AP to AP its around RM500-600 difference.
However, Nex1 does have more RAM and processor power.

Overall to me, screen, build quality and price were the most important reasons to get Stone over Nex1. Day to day operation, you won't notice the difference in the processor speed cos the Stone Cortex A8 is quite decent already. Most important to me was to have a good quality phone that would last and Gorilla glass added was definitely a bonus. Also, the screen is what I am staring at most so it was important to get the greater resolution + sharpness and I preferred color accuracy over the more vibrant AMOLED colors. Price was also a deal breaker. Unless the Nex1 price drops or if Google sells straight to Mal, its just not worth getting yet vs available cheaper offerings.

This post has been edited by Charcoal: Mar 30 2010, 01:09 AM

Good news for you. This is from Motorola Europe's facebook page

"Motorola Europe Hello everyone! We are delighted to say that the European roll-out of our 2.1 upgrade began today in France and will roll out across Germany, Italy and the UK between now and mid-April as testing and approvals are completed. Stay tuned for your own country's announcement and look forward to enhancements including live ..."

Desktop charger + battery is probably more expensive, although I think that the car charger + mount is probably more useful. When you start using the gps and driving around a lot, having a free charger + mount is a great plus. When you're at home, using the normal charger is just as good as mount unless you like staring at your mount a lot. Spare battery might be nice to have for traveling though.

If I am not mistaken, Motonav comes with a 60 day trial for all sets regardless Ori or AP (AP is just Ori from another country imported in). You will need to purchase the license for a price after that. Motonav is basically the Igo GPS software rebranded. The only free GPS available is Google Maps and AndNav but these two are rather data intensive since they download map data on the go so it can be quite costly for you (eats your 3g for breakfast).

These are the more full featured GPS software in the market with Malaysia maps and won't require constant map data download but of course they cost $$$. We have the:
Motonav/Igo
Ndrive
Sygic Mobile Maps 10 <--- i corrected this (Copilot 8 doesn't support Malaysia)

Papago (supposedly has the best Mal maps) is not in the list because apparently it does not currently support Android 2.1 yet. Anyone got any other GPS to add?

Regarding the Moto Milestone's performance at GPS, based on my limited (last few days) testing, I actually found it to be pretty good so far. I can find and get a GPS fix in several seconds normally. In cloudy/sightly rainy weather, around 10 seconds. Keeps the fix even when driving about so far. Weather will definitely have an effect on GPS performance (like your Astro la) so don't expect the same performance in a thunderstorm . Even if you don't have a gps software, you can test the performance by downloading the GPS Status app (free) from Google Market. Its good for scouting out the sats as it will give you a radar of all the sats around and how many of them can get a fix on you.

This post has been edited by Charcoal: Apr 1 2010, 12:44 AM

Actually I forgot to mention in my earlier post but I've actually been using Sygic Mobile Maps and not MotoNav. Perhaps some of the forumers can feedback for MotoNav. For some reason, my MotoNav was having read errors so I just ditched it early on.

I also made a correction to the Malaysia supported GPS apps. It should be below:-
MotoNav/Igo
Ndrive
Sygic Mobile Maps (earlier I wrongly wrote Copilot)

Yup price is pretty decent, and we can check it out too since PC fair is starting this month across Malaysia.

Haha, you can download a digital compass app from Android Market for free :]. I just installed it.

The funny thing about Apple is that they try to advertise all the apps as a selling point. Actually you can find lots of similar apps for Android in Android market, total already hit 42K apps and growing (already grow 9k last month).

Edit: boy am i slow, i just started reading back a few pages and noticed overclocking was already posted. Anyway rock on Milestone

This post has been edited by Charcoal: May 23 2010, 12:16 AM

Quite a number of the other phone cases will fit the Milestone fine. You just need to go try it out. I'm using a Nokia case i bought from a normal accs shop and it fits the Milestone perfectly.

I'm hearing that Iphone cases will fit the milestone fine too.