Bushwalk Australia

Hi

Well bite the bullet and decided time to enter the modern internet age with a PDA type mobile phone. The stand out choice was the Apple S4 but decided for bushwalking to go with the Motorola Defy Plus as sold as a semi tough phone. Below are a few things that I have "discovered"

1. Major issues of the Internet dropping out. Might be that the phone has a night mode where it disconnects the internet to save batteries. Yet to be tested but I sure hope so else as a Wifi hotspot the phone is a disaster

2. You can not successfully install Hotmail and likely a few other programs when the phone is running as a hotspot. It seems to be that not much thought or testing is given to the hotspot feature and the requirements and problems that this might cause.

3. Once again I believed the sales assistance Lied to again. The USB on the phone is not a standard connector, mini or micro but what appears to be yet another propriety brand. Motorola does not have customers, they have a market to exploit So, yes one again I have many nearly identical looking leads and the need to plug and unplug them because a self absorbed marketer has decided that I am to be exploited by having to buy their version of the cable. So much for standardization. Annoying the cover on the phone's USB port has the standard USB diagram

4. Motorola have cloned Nokia's trick of demanding their own charger. I tried charging it with a Garmin USB charger and a two AA powered USB chargers but none worked. An after market USB charger did work however. Basically Motorola believe that you need to carry their charging cable plus charger. Yet again I am not a customer but some sod to be worked over but a market driven company. The inability to use at least some (if not many) remote charging packs makes the phone almost useless for bushwalking as the battery has a very short life. You however can replace the battery but given Motorola's form on the charger I dread to think of the cost.

5. The sound quality is rather tinny compared to the Apple.

Basically, a sensible semi tough phone yet again mucked up by the greed of a stupid marketer. I got so feed up of chargers not working or pin tip changing continuously with Nokia I vowed never to buy that brand again as with Sony Ericson. Honestly, if the I-Phone had a water resistant case model I would avoid the Motorola Defy like the plague. Motorola had a chance to make a phone that could use industry standard items to make its buyers life easier but instead adopted a greedy propriety approach that it has not disclosed to its unsuspecting buyers. Do not be mislead into believing just because their propriety cable is terminated in a industry standard USB connector that any USB charging device will work. In fact, I have yet to establish is a computer USB port will charge it. But that is a job for another night. In all rather underwhelmed by Motorola's greed is good approach.

Cheers

They must have changed more than just the CPU after all, cause my Defy had a standard micro-USB. That's a real pita cause it was great being able to get cables 3 for like $3 on eBay. And use any old USB socket/charger.

Some of the hotspot issues could be the Telstra and/or Motorola bloat ware causing issues, god I wish you could get them running vanilla Android!

Could try and change it? iPhone 4S + "Lifeproof" case? They look very good but a bit dear for me.

You got it on a plan or per-paid?

Hi Sthughes

It is on a Telstra $49 plan. Appears to be the best one going at the moment.

Did some digging around on the chargers. Yes, Motorola are been cute. Others have experienced the same problems. As usual, you have the “experts” that make various statements and claims that you should only used genuine Motorola accessories, etc, etc. But this is typical background noise from people that do not understand that what people want is a simple life, not having to carry a charger and cable for every device that they have. However, on person did post that the phone monitors two pins looking for either a short or a certain amount of resistance. This apparently is a latest trend to con people into buying “genuine” massively over price accessories while given Motorola sales people the ability to claim standard “USB” charging will work. Does explain while another USB charger worked as that company has made the change to the “standard” to work with Motorola.

Bloatware! When will the marketing gurus realise that people want things they have to buy work, not be a means for push marketing. What next, a TV that decides to show additional advertisements?

Honestly, the Defy Plus has been stuffed by some “expert” to flog a few more accessories rather than an engineer looking to make a great product for people that want to wander in the wilderness. I wonder if the same “expert” was responsible for mucking up the first Defy blue tick classification?

Yes an I-Phone in a ruggedised case is the likely go. Teach me to take glasses and standard plugs and chargers to a Telstra shop to check out the misrepresentations told by the “hip” crowd that see customers as cows to be milked. As you may gather, I am annoyed that yet again sales “advice” and statements by Telstra are wrong. Heck, it only took four phone calls and three hours of my life before Telstra acknowledge that they had set the account up wrong. Oh yes, there systems were down again! Why Telstra, well as we both know, Optus is much, much worst in Tassie.

Cheers

Ent wrote:1. Major issues of the Internet dropping out.

2. You can not successfully install Hotmail and likely a few other programs when the phone is running as a hotspot.

Install on your computer? You mean you can't download the install package? Sounds like your NextG connection is not great. Metal roof? Mine plays havoc with my NextG signal. I bet your getting dropped or corrupted packets. Also, if you have another wireless AP or portable 2.4Ghz phone nearby it could be interfering with your signal.

Ent wrote:3. The USB on the phone is not a standard connector, mini or micro but what appears to be yet another propriety brand.

4. Motorola have cloned Nokia's trick of demanding their own charger. I tried charging it with a Garmin USB charger and a two AA powered USB chargers but none worked. An after market USB charger did work however.

The phone probably requires higher amps than usual. Let me guess - phone charges from wall socket but not from laptop? Many laptop USB ports only send out about 200ma, whereas wall chargers will usually send out 500/1000ma (if memory serves). Otherwise, if it's a diddled cable, then that sucks. Doesn't explain why your other after market charger works though other than delivery more amps?

Ent wrote:Bloatware!

Screw bloatware. Install a custom rom. I've got Android 4.0.3 on my almost 24 month old HTC Desire and it's brilliant.

Ent wrote:Telstra

Sorry, I got nothing.

Odd that Hotmail wouldn't offer an app for Android. Though it would be understandable, given most people use Gmail these days.

Motorola use the same charger as HTC, and the same USB connector as Nokia - which is a Micro USB (there are two types, A and B, phones tend to utilise the B version).

Hi Ollster

1. Think I might have found the reason for poor internet performance. The phone has a night power saving mode that shuts down the internet connection if not used continously. I will disable this and find out if that was the problem. Be nice if the Wifi Hotspot would do this but at this stage only a suspicion.

2. The Hotmail is a free application from the "Market". Puts you through endless attempts to put in your password and fails with server not available. Disconnect the hotspot and it installs like a treat. Issue appears to be it gets confused where to check the server and might windup thinking that the server is on the local hotspot?

3. Attempting to educate myself on the USB connectors. I am familar with the Mini one and that is standard to most items. The Panasonic uses a micro connector or so I thought but this is different to the Defy +. I will have a hunt around to see if Panasonic is playing silly buggers or if it is Motorola.

4. Found out on Whirlpool that Motorola checks that certain wires are transmitting data or are shorted out with high resistance resistor. If these signal wires are not then the phone refuses to charge. As usual, newer charger manufacturers are able to circumvent such tricks but my AA ones are not, nor is the Garmin USB one. Yet another "socially irresponsible" attempt to add even more old USB chargers to landfill and flog new ones. If I was bold I could make a special cable that does this trick according to the poster that identified why. This means it is a chooks lottery what will work or not. Hence, bun fights and flame wars over this issue. Just have to love the techs that post. Should issue them with medals

I need to test out the charging from computer. As you say voltage from computer ports can be anything. The worse I have experienced is my HP so called professional laptop that most USB drives fail due to over power demands. Ironically my ASUS netbook hangs in the best. My larger ASUS is ok but can be fussy with USB devices and loves to hang the computer. The display driver just loves to crash with Monzilla but is happy with any other application so no idea what goes on with that beast.

5. Custom rom. Maybe when out of warranty (2 year) as not too familiar with the process and creating a brick can be the result.

6. Telsra. I have yet to meet anyone that has extensive dealings with Telstra that has not had a bad experiences. It is a weird mob as some people within it are very good and many total drop kicks. Went to Dodo that uses Optus network and found a pattern. If you use Optus in major regional centres the data transfer speeds are slooooow with constant disconnects. Use it in smaller centres like Stanley, Waratah, etc and the speed is good along with solid connection assuming that Dodo’s own servers are up. Dodo servers crash more than a ZX81. But travel out of these places and goodbye coverage. It appears that Optus are getting coverage but with limited number of towers so their service is swamped in towns were the Optus uptake is good but in remote areas the locals just do not trust Optus so the towers have capacity but then you go out of town and you entered the blackout area.

Sthughes I believe is experimenting with an Optus prepaid phone and found their coverage maps more works of fiction than reality. So yes, suck it up princess, if you want coverage in Tassie it is Telstra is what I was forced to accept.

O’well more playing is needed to work out if I zigged when I should have zagged to the I-Phone fan club.

Cheers

1) Nice. If you were running it in wifi AP mode, then perhaps something else was hogging all the bandwidth (ie: laptop downloading stuff?). Wireless is a messy business and can be hard to diagnose issues.

2) You shouldn't need to install an application just to get basic email working. Just go to the system config page, and add an email account under Accounts and Sync or whatever it's called and use the inbuilt email application. Then you can have all your accounts in the one handy package. It's fairly straightforward but I don't use hotmail so can't really test. Sounds to me like the Hotmail app is just crappy. There should be instructions on the web somewhere about setting up Hotmail on Android as either POP or IMAP protocols.

3) check out the wikipedia article on usb, as usual a font of knowledge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB

4) I think some companies are doing that so they can guarantee charge times (maybe?). As you noted with some USB ports the power delivery can be less that suitable for charging. I use wall chargers for all my USB devices where I can anyway - I just have a couple of the high powered ones around the house - no issues.

5) It's usually pretty easy - depending on how hard the manufacturer has made the process (ie: locked bootloader makes things tougher) and how popular the device is with "hackers". I've had experience with a couple of HTC phones and a HP Touchpad (another devices requiring a shorted USB cable, incidentally) and never bricked one. If you can find good instructions and follow them to the letter it's almost always impossible to brick stuff unless you do something dumb/pannicky like pull the cable partway through or restart the device. Even then there are usually unbrick guides. It's well worth it and give some excellent benefits apart from higher performance ROMs without bloat, such as ad blocking and being able to install full system backup software like clockwork mod.

6) Telstra currently pay me $5 to buy my phone, rather than me paying them (so on a $49 plan plus "mobile repayment option", I pay only $44). This due to some clown who changed my plan up to 1Gb (when I whinged about not getting the new data bonus on an existing plan) accidentally appliying some refund thing. Sometimes you win, but they are still hopeless. Consider that wireless is the liberal party's solution to the need for broadband internet... we'd need a *&%$#! tower each.

As you've noticed, carrier choice isn't an issue in Tassie, it's Telstra or worse.

PS: If I recall you are a "rather large chap". I'd suggest that the iPhone's tiny screen and lack of a useful keyboard (ie: can't run Swype, which is great for those of us with larger hands) would be a big issue. Thumb tapping is so 2009...

Hi Ollster

Well I got it wrong with the USB port b It appears that Panasonic is the villan, not Motorola. So I have to do some editing and appologies to Motorola.

Lunch time I went shopping and found the usual drongos in the "Phone" stores but went to an "Electronic" store and the guy was most helpful. So fifty bucks later a few bits and pieces (I do buy when someone gives good advices in spite that the internet is cheaper). The cable is a universal standard USB one that can charge Apple, Nokia and Micro USB so covers the common things that I or my friends have. Also brought the dual car USB charger with the 2.1 amp output for the I-Pad and I-Phone for faster charging. I am curious why the cable works as it is only two pins where it joins the various adaptors. Be interesting if it works with the other chargers and make them work? Me think it will. According to our young salesassistant the reason for the data pins been wired together is a sign to the device that it has a high capacity USB port connected rather than say a passive hub. Anyway, be interesting if it does work with the other chargers. O'well it did come with an AC adapter.

Might prowl Flebay for a cheap Defy + to practice the black are of rom flashing it to be bloatware free. I will try the standard mail application again but when I did it asked for G-Mail account info and then other mail services and everytime I push the icon it askes me again if I want to set up another mail service rather than going any further. Not sure what the heck I am doing as it appears to be locked into setup mode. The phone also has a G_mail icon. Frustrating neither give the abbility to add attachments but I can send a file by email from the file manager. One at a time.

I have the swip keyboard set as default but no idea what that means or best how to use it. So looks like back to the internet for an idoits guide to this. I am actually tempted to see if a blue tooth keyboard will connect as spent huge amount of time re-keying and back spacing as my size 49 fingers are not delicate enough to hit a single key. In fact three fingers cover the screen keyboard. Where has the tooth pick gone

So gradually sorting out the beast. As for hotmail, well in the days of the Ark that was the email address that I used. Got trapped when running away from a once great ISP that was taken over by blood sucking idots (yes EFTEL that is you, are they still in business?) so lost my email account of many years after that split up. Never want to be trapped into a non mobile e-mail account ever again was the learning from that experience. Though the Hotmail application is a power hog. Appears to stay connected but this might just me going around in circles.

Cheers

PS Yes I agree that the Liberal Party telecommunications plans are seriously flawed. Might suggest that they venture outside their capital city and experience what rural Australians get for 3G coverage and speed

Ent wrote:Might prowl Flebay for a cheap Defy + to practice the black are of rom flashing it to be bloatware free. I will try the standard mail application again but when I did it asked for G-Mail account info and then other mail services and everytime I push the icon it askes me again if I want to set up another mail service rather than going any further. Not sure what the heck I am doing as it appears to be locked into setup mode. The phone also has a G_mail icon. Frustrating neither give the abbility to add attachments but I can send a file by email from the file manager. One at a time.

Makes sense. Both Gmail and Android are Google products

I'd suggest checking out how to use swype correctly. It's "the shiz". Basically rather than tapping from key to key, you trace out the word moving your finger across the screen from letter to letter. lifting your finger inacts the word suggestion or space (depending on how it's set up/accuracy etc. It's very fast once you're used to it, and you'll find typing on things like the ipad a pain in the backside (assuming you get to like Swype).

Hi Ollster

Ok, at the risk of making this thread "the confusions of a luddite" I am giving it a shot. Does seem a bit more promising than the tapping method for the larger sized fingers. Now all I need is transparent fingers.

On hotmail and g-mail I stumbled across the “contextual menu”. What does this mean? Well actually what it says, based on the application it brings up a menu relating to that task. Even found the button that does this! Yes, with both hotmail and g-mail I found the attach file feature So I can now take a picture and attach it plus its friends in the one email!

Hotmail has “push” which means you know when an email it sent to you. Great idea for the “must stay in touch crowd” but murder on battery life. So found you can go to manual or any interval within reason.

Must admit that Android is very weird for a first time user. Apple is rather more intuitive and lets face it, as much as a love to hate Microsoft, for all the right reasons I add, I have gotten use to its crappy ways. I used an IPAQ for my communications while travelling for four months in Europe in 2004 and loved the ability to use an external keyboard and got to know my way around it. Also, it avoided me having to learn numerous keyboard layouts. Anyone every tried to use a Greek internet café keyboard. First most of the letters are worn off without even figuring out what they mean

Now next step. Protective case.

Cheers

Ps thanks for the help.

Ent wrote:Now next step. Protective case.

Look no further.

http://www.otterbox.com/Motorola-DEFY-C ... defy-cases

Not sure if lifeproof make one for this? They seem pretty much the ducks innerds! Worth swapping phones for their IP'ness
I too have noticed double buttoning on an iphone, even my little ol mum has a struggle and she has little stick fingers.

Strider wrote:

Ent wrote:Now next step. Protective case.

Look no further.

http://www.otterbox.com/Motorola-DEFY-C ... defy-cases

Yep that's the case I used, offers great protection. Actually so happy with it that my iPad also got an Otterbox case, as did my new iPhone!

Ent wrote:Ok, at the risk of making this thread "the confusions of a luddite"

Lol, I like it! Hence forth you shall be known as The Confusable Luddite!

Ent wrote:Does seem a bit more promising than the tapping method for the larger sized fingers. Now all I need is transparent fingers.

Lol, my thoughts on Swype exactly You do get used to not being able to see though!

Yes results from my Optus Dual Band network testing (on a cheap Android I bought as an MP3 player) is that it still sucks. To be fair I must say in Port Sorell the 3G is faster than NextG. And somewhere down south last week (near Buckland I think) I nearly passed out when my NextG 4S had nothing and my Optus phone had a whole 1 bar. Didn't last long and soon the Optus phone was back to it's usual "Emergency Calls Only" status whilst NextG held on.

P.S. I actually prefer the Iphone keyboard over Swype and/or the larger Defy keyboard. But I just can't work out why! Is the predictive text better at sorting out what I mean than the Android version?? You need Siri Brett, no fumbling fingers, just talk to her! Sometimes she even gets it right - sometimes!

Well, I find the iphone interface to be weird as it's just so limiting in what you can or can't customise or configure. If buy a phone I expect to be able to make it work the way I want, not the other way around.

I found Swype does need to be taught before it becomes most useful, and the prediction has become better as it's been updated. It does also require a bit of a rethink on how you construct the typing of words in your head, but otherwise it's great and means you can type fast with one hand.

Also, push or pull email- one won't necessarily be noticeably more or less battery efficient. The thing that will have more of an influence will be things such as how much of the email you configure to be downloaded by default (ie: headers only) as they use more data if you download full emails, and therefore the radio is in use more often. Display brightness and time on, and how good/bad your signal is will have more of an influence.

sthughes wrote: Actually so happy with it that my iPad also got an Otterbox case, as did my new iPhone!

Damn, iv'e gone and bought second best? I think I was thrown by the guy making calls or listening to music while on his board in the surf

Nuts wrote:

sthughes wrote: Actually so happy with it that my iPad also got an Otterbox case, as did my new iPhone!

Damn, iv'e gone and bought second best? I think I was thrown by the guy making calls or listening to music while on his board in the surf

not at all! the Life Proof cases are waterproof, the Otterbox ones aren't. So for iPhone I'd go Lifeproof all the way if water resistance is important, and cost is no problem . Bit pointless for a waterproof phone though.

Yeah if the iOS interface isn't for you then your buggered, where as Android is much more customisable.

I think i get stuck on some lines. I really don't understand enough to weigh all the advantages (and have been hit with enough sledge hammers lately ),the cord/charger thing...so on... so wont go further but couldn't help noticing this conclusion:

Ent wrote: Honestly, if the I-Phone had a water resistant case model I would avoid the Motorola Defy like the plague

The LP case makes the iphone waterProof, havent done the bucket test but they say to !P 68 standard (ie bucket test?) while fully functional...

As admitted, numpty around IT, perhaps comparing the Defy is like a Holden/'Ford argument (there, that should ease the blow ha har)

O, yer, and it was fairly expensive for what it is iirc

Hi Strider and sthughes

Yeap, the Otter does appear to be the best, that is for the Defy.

Nuts

Horses for courses. Every piece of electronic equipment (bar cameras just have to love the major camera brands ability to perform above and beyond the call of duty) flunks out in cold weather. Never gave much though to dew point but it has killed (or at least temporary) every phone and IPAQ I have. Nokia are shocking as they never quite die just get very weird with battery life measured in hours rather than days and flashing displays plus keypads that stop working on some numbers and then work again to stop again. By contrast waterproof GPS sail on untouched. Heck, if sthughes could not kill a Defy then I figured it might survive me. Also a lot of after market waterproof cases add bulk and get difficult to use. Main issue I found was condensation on the screen.

sthughes again

Remind me to fall very hard on you Honestly, brought up in a era of command line system I find graphical ones just too annoying. I now understand way kids spend hours playing games looking for object, this is training for using most computer software nowadays. The "context" sensitive menu button has revealed all to me. Sonia is still to work out mail on the I-phone.

Hi Ollster

I think that the swipe approach might just work once I train my mind and finger.

Everyone else

Back on chargers. Well after a long play I can confirm that with a standard USB to Micro USB only the newer chargers work but with the charging cables all all chargers work So to be safe you will need a power charging cable which as commonsense dictates come with chargers. Now what I would love is a three headed USB cable, Mini, Micro and Panasonic. My work space is been consumed by every possible permutation of USB cable. For a standard it has rather a large number of standards.

Cheers

Fair enough, my last phone died in a sunscreen bath so this one could be an expensive exercise..

The nightmare continues

In this day and age where contacts lists are king many people use Outlook, for better or worst. Now I figured if my Nokia phone could sync the contacts on connection so should the much smarter Defy. O'boy, no! Some person has decided at Motorola that a simple contact update feature is not who they are. There website talks about calendar sync and yes I install it (more bloatware for the computer) but it does not appear to update the contact. I found Deja Office but they demand money with menace and even more software that can stuff things up.

Has anyone any clues on this? The Telstrashop claimed to have imported my phones contacts but appears I got some of them but not all I wish Computer companies will finally get the message that user data is important, not a play thing.

Cheers

Ent wrote:The nightmare continues

In this day and age where contacts lists are king many people use Outlook, for better or worst. Now I figured if my Nokia phone could sync the contacts on connection so should the much smarter Defy. O'boy, no! Some person has decided at Motorola that a simple contact update feature is not who they are. There website talks about calendar sync and yes I install it (more bloatware for the computer) but it does not appear to update the contact. I found Deja Office but they demand money with menace and even more software that can stuff things up.

Has anyone any clues on this? The Telstrashop claimed to have imported my phones contacts but appears I got some of them but not all I wish Computer companies will finally get the message that user data is important, not a play thing.

Cheers

Apparently MyPhoneExplorer is the go.

http://www.fjsoft.at/en/

Um? I did give that a try but can not figure out how the link it to Outlook. Can get it to link to the phone and it does give some nice information. I changed an address and did a sync but nothing appeared to have happen. I did a CSV export from Outlook and uploaded this to the phone using the Motorola import feature and this worked but this a stupid thing to do frequently. Then just to have access on the internet I uploaded the CSV file to Hotmail. Will read more up on Myphone Explorer to see what I am missing.

Still a huge hole in Motorola's functionality as I can not see many business wanting to stuff around with third party software to do what should be a native function. In fact, today at a Business Continuity Plan test, missing or more accurately out of date contact details was a big issue picked up. Heck even my old HP IPAQ from many years ago did this well. Big black mark against Motorola and probably more than a few Android phones, though HTC apparently got this functionality from the start.

Also another big issue is spare batteries. In the bush a couple of spare batteries is a good thing. I am not sure on the loss of energy when using an external battery pack to recharge but me thinks you would need to lug a bigger than 1700 mAH battery pack to charge the beast. But I can not find any of the Defy Plus batteries locally or for that matter on the web. Just a few of the older 1500 mAH ones. Batteries is one thing that I like to go OEM as found with Nokia most after market batteries have mAH printed on them that have no reflection on reality.

Cheers

Maybe try a mobile phone users forum?

stepbystep wrote:Maybe try a mobile phone users forum?

They're not called mobile phones any more. They're called "durpa durpe durpey durpa durp". Let me know if you need an explanation, I know you struggle with new technology.

Ent wrote:In this day and age where contacts lists are king many people use Outlook, for better or worst.

Keeping your email/contacts/calendar on a computer is so last decade...

I use a corporate exchange/outlook setup and gmail and both work like a dream. I'd suggest probably trying to find something that syncs your Outlook info with gmail or whatever.

So last decade. I wonder how things worked Hunting around for such an application. Still having Outlook manage my contacts has worked well in the past.

I do wonder how business will handle a collapse of Google, if it ever happens

Oh, and yes 3G is very unreliable form of internet connection as I am finding out now. Makes you wonder why people in power are claiming it as the way forward

Cheers Brett

Wow thanks Brett for bringing this up! On my Android I gave up on proper syncing and moved on. But your comments made me look into it for my iPhone, and turns out it is oh so simple! Go to control panel, open iCloud panel, tick boxes to say turn on, pick up phone, turn on icloud, go to contacts and press refresh button and hey presto it works!

Only issue is there is no way to merge the contacts already on my phone with the Outlook contacts I add, so two of a lot of contacts, often one with email address only (from outlook) and one with phone number only (from phone). Actually I could fix this in a jiffy with a 99c app...

"This is not the Driod that you are looking for"

Now never has a truer word been spoken in fiction that applies to fact.

1. The Motorola Defy Plus continued to behave strangely with applications failing and having to be terminated. Connection speed at night was either very high or dead. It lost and found then lost and found the SD micro card along with the sim card. And the data download meter packed it in, stuck for two days on twenty perecent.

2. Rang Telstra to find out what my data usage has been as not wanting a huge bill that Telstra specialises in sending out to the un-expecting customers / victims. Anyway, I believe that the weather is nice in Philippians as that is where the call centre is based. Hopeless is a word that can not even cover that experience.! Twenty minutes later, I was told that I had in the billing period downloaded a sum total of, get ready for it, 847 kilobytes, less than a megabyte of date. What a load of rubbish. The meter froze on 200 megabtyes. I was told that I was right to down load stuff as I had hardly touched the limit. What do call this? Push marketing, fraud, or total incompentence? If you see the poor people being thrown out of their home to pay a huge Telstra bill it might be that when they checked a day before the eviction notice that they were comfortably within their agreed usage limits.
3. So the Defy Plus was melting down. Time to take it back home. Yes it was dying was the confirmation from the harassed technical guy at the Telstra shop (had a line of five people). It needs to go back to its maker. Hang on, I brought it Friday did not actually get the connection issues sorted out with Telstra until 8.00pm that night and it started misbehaving that night and now declared terminal Wednesday morning and no phone. “Oh it is an ELF” was the reply. My blank look did encourage him to speak in English. ELF mean Early Life Failure. So I should be given a new phone right? No wrong! I have the privilege of paying connection fees for a minimum of one week if not a month before it would be returned to me. In a performance more appropriate to a seed than a tree they reluctantly offer a loan phone. Yes, the cheapest nastiest thing they had. I quoted the Trade Practice Act and merchantable quality requirement and demanded a refund or replacement. No was the reply. About now the only option left to me was crying. They relented and found the older model second hand Defy out the back.

4. It took and hour before they worked through their warranty return screen. No point jumping up and down you could see the staff member struggling with all the error messages generated by Telstra warranty return screen. I never want to be a Telstra employee if that is the systems I had to work with. Finally, I was given a many page form to sign. Actually, it was longer but they had not printed out all the pages. I was told that it was to acknowledge the receipt of the loan phone. Then they handed over the old Defy. The battery was flat so they could not set it up.

5. Charged it up and it did not work! Well it did but Motorblur bloatware would not allow me to go past enter account and password for this “service”. Try as I may it would not work. Reset the password on the Internet and it still did not work. Rang up Motorola and after half an hour they figured out that the phone was already locked to a Motorblur account. Yeap, the one that the original owner had!

Warning, Warning, Danger, Danger. If you swap out the sim card the phone will not work with the new sim card. If you put the old one back in then your will need to enter your Motorblur account details. This design feature is intended to force you to give up and buy another phone? The only option with a new sim card is a hard reset. Ok, half an hour later I could enter the Motorblur account and setup a Gmail account. Not sure what did it but my contacts came up so something must be working?

6. The Defy Standard versus the Plus is rather different in subtle was. The Plus is better assuming that it works.

Motorola service is not bad. Just the mandatory two attempts to get through. But their phones are junk. Their return to base warranty for a brand new phone is nearly criminal. As for Telstra. The problem starts with the Board of Directors and works it way down. The only reason I went near Telstra was you are forced to in Tassie if you want coverage. There is absolutely no other reason.

Yes complaints have been filed. Just for fun file a complaint using Telstra’s website and you will have a little two line box. Might be simple just to type “Telstra” as that says it all. Received plenty of advice from others and the consensus was to file a complaint with ombudsman. Did that as well. Ten days is the period that they will wait before acting. Is you phone plan extended by that period? No. The Telstra rip-off never stops.

Honestly, the above treatment is against the ACCC guidelines and the “merchantable quality” rules. Telstra can flog you something that does not work and then instead of replacement can put you through hell in getting it fixed and still charge you at the same time.

Not happy Jan, Not happy at all.

Cheers

PS, my past approach was hunting ebay for unloved phones and having the ten dollar plan. I think I should have stuck to that

sthughes wrote:Wow thanks Brett for bringing this up! On my Android I gave up on proper syncing and moved on. But your comments made me look into it for my iPhone, and turns out it is oh so simple! Go to control panel, open iCloud panel, tick boxes to say turn on, pick up phone, turn on icloud, go to contacts and press refresh button and hey presto it works!

That's exactly how easy it is on Android. Except rather than "iCloud", you're using primarily Google services, or exchange (if your work uses exchange). Using a Google account on my phone I can sync: browser bookmarks (I use Chrome), calendar, contacts, currents (google reader RSS feeds), gdocs, gmail, and google photos all through one account.

The problem is trying to get contacts/calendar OUT of Outlook is a PITA, unless you're using a corporate MS Exchange system. Obviously Apple supply some interconnector with iCloud for the desktop, whereas unfortunately Google don't (unless your a business customer), but there is software out there that do this.

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/busi ... _sync.html

Either way desktop synching is archaic. What would be NICE would be if MS could make add ins for Outlook to properly sync with other cloud-based services... chances of that?!

PS: I've always hated Motorola, these hardware issues don't really change my perspective... For some reason I always read them as "Mordorola".