Asus P320 Bluetooth Problem WM 6.5

Since upgrading to Windows Mobile 6.5 I along with others have not been able to receive files via bluetooth. This has been true for the 23016 / 23085 versions of WM 6.5 that have been release for this device at the below locations

WM6.5 build 23016

WM 6.5 build 23085


However recently I came across a post that mentioned how to fix this problem courtesy Hdubli. It requires to make he following registry change.

If you don't know how to do this, I would recommend you go to the following post and download the registry editor

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/02/mobile-registry-editor-for-asus.html

Once you have the registry editor, carry out an active sync with your device and run the registry editor. You should be able to see the following screen.





Navigate to the following key

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE --> Software --> Microsoft --> Obex



Right click the screen and say new String Value


Enter the Value Name protocols and Value Data as bth,irda


Say ok, and you need to restart your device, bluetooth should now be working !

Hope this helps, do drop me a comment, would love to hear from you, if your feeling generous you could donate a dollar :)

The main article on this phone is located here ..

http://p320.blogspot.com/2008/11/asus-p320-how-what-where.html

Mobile Registry Editor for Asus

As you begin to play around more with your phone, you realize being a windows device there is not too much you can change without being able to open the registry and make some tweaks here and here.

In one of my earlier posts I had talked about using Total Commander as a a registry editor but it still is quite difficult to navigate in the small screen and make changes using your stylus. Wouldn't it be great to be able to make all these changes from a computer with a a key board ?

Well that just what this program does , its called Mobile Registry Editor v1.1 from Breaksoft. Unfortunately I could not find the original site as the page was down however I was able to find an alternative download here

http://www.mediafire.com/?xyn0znz0tmd

The way the application works is that it connect to the registry on your mobile phone once you have connected it to your computer via activesync. You just need to run the MobileRegistryEditor.exe on your computer.

It will pop up the following screen on your computer. You should be able to navigate the entire registry just as you would with regedit on your windows machine. Have just browsed the registry using my mouse ....





In case you want to make can changes you could either just double click on an existing entry and make a change



In case you need to add an entry , it can be done by using the right click on the location you are required to make the addition in


Hope you have found this useful, do drop me a line would love to hear from you, if your feeling generous do click on an ad :)

The main article on this mobile is located here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2008/11/asus-p320-how-what-where.html

Asus P320 File / Communication Manager

Windows Mobile 6.1 does have its own file manager but its quite limited in its capability. There is the really neat application that I use called Total Commander. The main screen of the application looks like this ....


Just like the windows file manager you can browse all your directories including the storage card by just clicking on each of the items. You can do the standard stuff like copy a file, renaming it, moving a file, creation /deletion of directories and file as seen below



Additionally for viewing there are various options to see the files and folder via a tree mode / large icons etc for your easy navigation. This can be brought up by selecting the show button at the bottom of the screen as shown below.


Now onwards to the really cool part of the application :)

It has an built in text editor, that allows you to type and create files a shown below.





It has the capability to browse zip files, they show up as a small cube, on selection you could extract it to your required directories.

It also has the three following plugins for

ftp / LAN / Registry editor, to activate this select plugins in the root directory as shown below


It will show the following options


On selecting ftp, you will get the following screen pop up which requires the details for setting up an ftp connection as shown below


It also has a functional registry editor that can be used for minor changes for the registry, the navigation is similar to that of the file manager as seen below


The best part is that the application is free and is available here ....

http://www.ghisler.com/pocketpc.htm

Hope you find this useful, do drop me a comment would love to hear from you, if your your feeling generous do click on an ad :)

The main article about this phone is available here ...

http://p320.blogspot.com/2008/11/asus-p320-how-what-where.html

Asus P320 Tweaks : Mail on SD card

There has been some discussions on the main blog in the comments section about moving the emails from the phone into the storage card. While nothing conclusive has come out from that after checking it is very much possible to shift not just the attachments but the email message as well to the SD card.

I have picked this up from another site, I have tried it and it works well. The only reason I am republishing it is that the method to do this in Windows Mobile 5 and Windows Mobile 6.1 is different and in a lot of site where this information is available this has not been clarified.The method available below is what needs to be done for the Asus P320 which is on WM 6.1. Credit goes to the original poster (JeffC from pdaphonehome.org).

You first need to get hold of a registry editor to carry out all this. I recommend Total Commander, ( I will blog about this application separately). You have to create a folder (call it "Mail") on the SD card. Then, create a sub-folder under "Mail" named "Attachments".

Once you've done that, go into Outlook and then to "Options". Navigate to the "Storage" tab and place a checkmark in "When available, use the storage card to store attachments".

Now it's time to go to the Registry. There are 2 entries to make, both found in

"HKLM\System\Inbox\Settings"

First, set the Mail diverter:
HKLM\System\Inbox\Settings\PropertyPath = "\Storage Card\Mail"
(assuming there is no "PropertyPath name, create it. For the string, enter your SD path as shown (do not use quotes). Don't forget the space between "Storage" and "Card".

Next, create the Attachments diverter:
HKLM\System\Inbox\Settings\AttachPath = "\Storage Card\Mail\Attachments"
(you will probably see an existing string, which you should delete and replace with the correct path (again, no quotes). If AttachPath does not already exist, create it. Don't forget the space between "Storage" and "Card".

Exit from your Registry Editor.

Finally, soft reset the device. All should work now. Hope you find this helpful, the main article is linked here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2008/11/asus-p320-how-what-where.html

If you find this useful do drop me a comment would love to hear from you, if your feeling generous do click an ad :)

Asus P320 Remote Control

MyMobiler is this nice application that I have been using to bring you all the content especially screenshots of my phone to all you users out there.

It is currently freeware and is located at the following location

http://www.mymobiler.com/



Once installed you can connect to your computer once an activesync connection has been established. Hence it will work either through the wired connection or even the wireless bluetooth connection.



The key features that is allows are

- Mimic touching the device physically by clicking on your mouse
- Mimic motion on the device by holding your mouse button down and moving
- Type text to the phone that is typed on the key board. (very useful to send sms)



- Allows saving the screen as a jpg image, (all pics on my blog are taken using this)
- Allows for saving of videos
- Paste data into the phone
- Rotate the phone into landscape mode

The main article for this phone is located here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2008/11/asus-p320-how-what-where.html

Do let me know if found this useful, if your feeling generous you could click on an ad :)

Asus Applications - Home, PointUI

Hi, its been quite some time and I haven't had a chance to update this blog. Want to take you all through this wonderful application that I can't manage without and I personally believe its a must have !

Its called Home, made by a company called PointUI. It sits on top of Windows Mobile and allows you to control your device quite a bit without having to take out your stylus for every little task. It is a Today screen replacement plus application launcher and it looks like this .....


What I really like about this application are the following

1. very light, takes only 3MB during runtime.
2. Its not at all very CPU intensive because the ASUS doesn't have the best processor on board.
3. It extremely simple to use.
4. Very easy installation, can be easily stopped at anytime.
5. It uses the entire screen, which is important when your devices is a little smaller.
6. It seemlessly moves between its own shell and the actual windows programs once opened.
7. Works with the buttons available for navigation.
8. Believe it or not, its free !!!


The screen can be shifted by flicking right or left to move to your calendar items / pending tasks / Weather as can bee seen in the screen shots below.






It has a soft lock/ screen option located on the top left , that once activated looks like this ...



The next icon the top of the signal strength take you to the following Wireless Manager screen.


The next icon on the screen takes you to the screen where you can change your ring type to vibration / silent or your ring volume.



The battery icon on the top take you to this screen


The last icon on the top takes you to the configuration page where you would end up reaching by programs ---> Settings


To move between menu you need to flick across the screen


Navigation in any screen is by flicking up down on your screen as show below ...


That complete what are the option on the top of the screen, on the bottom you have Recent Calls / Email / SMS / Recent programs as the large icons with the Contact list and program below them, the Contact list looks like this ...


Navigation here as well is by flicking your finger up / down.

The last screen I am posting is of the program files to be used to launch applications.

What I really like about this application are the following

1. very light, takes only 3MB during runtime.
2. Its not at all very CPU intensive because the ASUS doesn't have the best processor on board.
3. It extremely simple to use.
4. Very easy installation, can be easily stopped at anytime.
5. It uses the entire screen, which is important when your devices is a little smaller.
6. It seemlessly moves between its own shell and the actual windows programs once opened.
7. Works with the buttons available for navigation.
8. Believe it or not, its free !!!

It can be found here http://www.pointui.com

The best experience for this product would be to try it, images can never truly represent the user experience.

The rest of the articles on this phone can be found here

http://p320.blogspot.com

Hope you found this article useful, do drop me a comment would love to heard from you. If your feeling generous you could donate a dollar via paypal

Asus P320 GPRS / Internet Access

In order to enable GPRS access on this mobile you need to first get the same activated from your provider. Once this has been done you could do the following steps to activate it on you Asus P320 if the settings do not automatically update via sms.

Go to Start --> Settings ---> Connections Tab ---> Connections



Select Add new connection


Enter any name for the connection and in the choice of Select a Modem please ensure you select Cellular Line (GPRS). Click Next.


In the next screen, enter "airtelgprs.com" in the Access point name, if you have another provider you need to put the relevant access point name here. Click on Next.


No need to update anything on this screen. Click Finish.

A new connection will be created. You need to restart your phone to make this operational. Do check out any program such as internet explorer to see if it is working after the restart.


Now the second part is to use this connection to access the internet from your PC / laptop. The way to do this is described below. Remember this mobile is Windows 6.1 hence there is no longer any support for Bluetooth Modem. The only way to access the internet is to create a working GRPS connection as described above and then use internet sharing.

To do this you also need to have installed activesync on you pc and successfully paired your device with you computer.

Now you need to go to Start --> Programs --> Internet Sharing



There will be two options, one called Bluetooth PAN, the other called USB. Network Connection should be what you have setup earlier or whatever you are using to access the internet currently from your phone.



Select PC Connection as USB and press connect. It will automatically create a Local Area Connection which can be seen network connection. You internet should be accessible now from your PC !!

If you need to do this via bluetooth select Bluetooth PAN and press connect.


Now in your Bluetooth connection select Network Access Point, it will now create a bluetooth Network between the device and your PC / laptop and you should be able to Use the internet.


The main article on the Asus P320 is found here
http://p320.blogspot.com/2008/11/asus-p320-how-what-where.html

Do drop me a comment would love to hear from you. If your feeling generous you could donate a dollar via paypal :)

Asus P320 Review Information

I know that there are hundreds of pages that would appear while googling this phone. A large bunch of them just give statistics about the dimensions / hardware / OS. Some of them even wrong unfortunately.

The objective of this blog is to put together all the stuff I have grasped being an owner of the Asus P320 all the other users / potential users out there who are planning to pick this phone up. What all can you do with this phone, and more importantly how to do it.


A lot of what you would read here would be available on the comments section of gsmarena but I hope this would be a lot easier for a user to access the information rather than scouring the 30 plus pages that already exist.

have tried to make each part a bit detailed so do skip to parts you feel are relevant to you ..


Specifications

The best place for these details would be the Gsmarena page for the phone. This would be available here

http://www.gsmarena.com/asus_p320-2347.php

The important points not mentioned on the above page according to me are the following

1. It doesn't have support for 3G, not to relevant to people in India as 3G is still not available to the subscribers and will definitely take some time.

2. It doesn't have a 3.5 mm audio jack or a 2.5 mm audio jack. The audio jack for this phone is co located with the mini usb charging slot so you could do only one if you haven't purchased a splitter that allows you to plug in both.

3. The external card works upto 8 GB without any issues, haven't heard of any people trying with 16GB but no reason why it should not work. Please also remember that Kingmax ( not Kingston) cards have capability issues with this phone as reported by some users, so probably a good idea to avoid.

4. There is no FM radio on this model.


GPS

Yes this found supports it, questions have been asked about it too many times. The phone is equiped with a Sirf Star III chipset that supports GPS.

You do not need anything external for the GPS to work.
You do not need to plug in anything.
You do not need to pay anything to use GPS.


You do however need to have a clear view to the sky for it to pick up the satellites. So its unlikely for it to work from inside a building.
It takes sometime ( upto 10 minutes) to lock onto the satellites so please give it some time.



Maps / Navigation Software

Most importantly you need a program that will use your hardware to plot your location on a map. Yes its the most important part and its missing on the device. There are various options such as Nav4All, Mapmyindia, Googlemaps. Some of them have the maps as part of the install, the other download them on the fly depending on where you are using GPRS / EDGE / Wifi.

Google maps is free but you need to have internet access else it won't work. The others need to be bought.

Also note, the GPS Catcher that comes with the phone is an application that only downloads the locations of the satellites, this helps the above mentioned programs to find the satellites faster. It is NOT a program to view your location etc.


Connectivity

The Asus P320 supports GPRS and EDGE where ever available. Please remember that usage of data in these two methods are typically NOT free. There will be a charge by your serive provider to use / download information using these capability.
Typically if you subscribe to the service, you provider would send across an sms that would auto configure the settings and you should be good to go for either internet explorer / Google Maps etc

Wifi supports both b/g. So if you have a wireless router you could switch on the wifi on the Asus P320 surf without having to pay your provider for GPRS access. All application that require an internet connection work seemlessly in both environments with the Wifi typically working much faster due to faster speed of your internet connection.
The Wifi supports connections to secure wireless networks as well, you will need your security key to connect. Once connected , it locally caches the network key so you do not need to reenter the key everytime you want to connect the network.


Activesync via the USB connector, The normal wired active sync creates a small 2 system LAN with your device acting as a DHCP service assigning a 192.168.2.1 for the handheld and a 192.168.2.2 for the computer. This can be checked in the networks page, it will be a LAN type of connection. Ideally it should not take more than 10 seconds for this to happen. You will be able to sync only to the PC that you have connected too. Activesync 4.5 ( the version bundled) no longer supports capability to sync across a network due to security issues. This issue is for Windows mobile in general and not limited to this particular model :)


Bluetooth works with for sending / receiving files. For receiving you need to make the following setting change to accept incoming beam as shown in the figure below.




You can also carry out active sync via bluetooth. To carry this out open ActiveSync, from the Menu option select Connect Via Bluetooth. If an existing connection to your computer does not exist. It will ask you to establish a new connection. Once you now pair your device you should be able to carry out Active Sync via bluetooth.

Couple of problems I have faced that have caused this not to work. The incoming port for Activesync could cause problems preventing the incoming connection if pairing has not happened properly. In this case make sure that the Secure connection for Activesync has been set to Not required. You can reach this screen by right clicking the bluetooth icon in the task bar and selecting Advanced configuration. Check the image below



Being a Windows device , you could also use application like Total Commander to enable LAN access as well as FTP, will detail this out separately later on.


Firmware Versions

The mobile initially shipped with the following Firmware
ROM 4.8.0_0612_WWE

The next release was
ROM 4.10.0_0718_WWE

The Current available firmware upgrade is
ROM 4.13.0_WWE which is available from the Asus website here

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

I would recommend upgrading to the latest firmware, I am currently on the 4.10 version I have seen better battery performance, higher stability in the overall usage. Others users have also stated similar benefits. Please remember when you upgrade the ROM you will lose all of the following

1. Contact Information
2. Application Settings
3. Messages
4. Installed Applications
5. Other data stored in the ROM

The install instructions would be available in the download, please follow them carefully.


Input Options

The device comes with the following options for inputting as do all other Windows Mobile Phones

1. Block Recognizer
2. Keyboard
3. Letter Recognizer
4. Transcriber

The expectation is to use the stylus for all these forms of inputs. There are additional third party keyboards that could be downloaded and installed as well, with some mimicking the iphone input.

I use one called Phonepad, it simulates the T9 that I am so used too , and also allows me to type messages without the need of the stylus.

This is available here for download

http://www.venukb.com/downloads/phonepad_atom_wwe.cab


Battery

I have added this section based on the feedback that this is a cause of concern for everyone using this phone. I do understand as even I felt the battery life is really sad but with proper settings you can get upto two days of use with this phone for normal usage. Will detail out the steps in terms of settings to help you achieve this sort of capability.

First you need to make changes to your Back light Setting. This can be reached by
Start ---> Settings ---> System Tab ---> Backlight

Make sure that you make a similar selection to turn off backlight if device is not used for 1 -2 minutes.


This setting for the external power tab is not important but would definitely help charge you phone faster plus save your screen as well.


Next you need to make changes to your brightness setting. This can be found in the below location.

Start ---> Settings ---> System Tab ---> Brightness



Make sure you reduce the Brightness to a level you are comfortable using. The lower you go the better the battery will last. For external power it does not matter much.


Finally you need to make changes to the power setting. This can be found in the following location.

Start ---> Settings ---> System Tab ---> Power ---> Advanced Tab




Its is extremely important to ensure that this is done otherwise the battery gets drained really soon. You need to check the box to Turn off device if not used for 2-3 minutes. Please remember that this does not mean your phone is completely switched off, you can still receive calls. As soon as a call / message is received it powers back on.


Service

What good is a phone without proper support for the same, I unfortunately did run into some problem with my phone which the Asus service center in Bangalore quickly sorted it out. The contact details of the Bangalore service center is here

http://piglings.blogspot.com/2008/10/asus-mobile-phone-service-centre.html

Please note its different from whats available in the Asus site as they have not updated the contact details for this particular center. For the remaining centers the details are available here though am not sure if there are all still valid.

http://in.asus.com/aboutasus.aspx?show=3

If you do find this useful do drop me a line. Also incase you want me to add something to the blog. I will be adding in useful application on a subsequent blog.

Firmware Upgrade

Have added in details of how to upgrade your phone as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/04/asus-p320-firmware-upgrade.html


Reset Options

Have added in details of how to reset your phone as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/12/asus-p320-reset-options.html


Windows Mobile 6.5 Upgrade

Have added in details of how to upgrade your phone with various builds as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/05/asus-p320-windows-mobile-65.html


IMEI Problems

Have added in details of how to solve any IMEI issue as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/12/asus-p320-imei-fix.html

Internet Access

Have added in details of how to connect to the internet as a separate blog here
http://p320.blogspot.com/2008/11/asus-p320-gprs-internet-access.html

Antivirus

Have added in details of options / Requirement of Anti Virus as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2008/12/asus-p320-antivirus.html


Tweaks : Mail on SD card

Have added in details of moving mails and attachments to the SD card as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/02/asus-p320-tweaks-mail-on-sd-card.html

Web Camera Capability

Have added in details of using this device as a web camera as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/07/asus-p320-web-camera.html

Document Capability

Have added in details of what document capabilities exist on this mobile for xls / doc / txt / ppt /pdf files as a separate blog here

http://p320.blogspot.com/2008/11/asus-p320-document-capabilities.html

The applications I plan to review for this phone are the following

1. Pointui

http://p320.blogspot.com/2008/12/asus-applications-home-pointui.html

2. S2P

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/01/asus-p320-music-player.html

3. My Mobiler

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/01/asus-p320-remote-control.html


4. Total Commander

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/02/asus-p320-file-communication-manager.html


5. Registry Editor

http://p320.blogspot.com/2009/02/mobile-registry-editor-for-asus.html


6. Bluetooth Remote

Coming Soon ....

so do bookmark / follow this blog and come back sometime. Also do spread the word of this site to other users out there ! If your feeling generous you could donate a dollar :)