XV6700 firmware uprgrade adds MSFP and Voice Speed Dial
Remember that firmware upgrade for the XV6700 we mentioned last night? After getting a good night's sleep to prepare for the experience, I ran the upgrade this morning. It went without a hitch and actually came with a surprise as well: looks like Verizon has bundled a third-party voice dialer with this upgrade; either that or I always had it and never noticed. (Goodbye Microsoft VoiceCommand!)
There's a few installation points worth mentioning so read on for those as well as some screencaps of the install and the new Voice Speed Dial application.
Right off the bat, I should mention that if you run this firmware upgrade, the EV-DO radio will constantly be on going forward. If you don't want that radio on when your device is powered on, then this isn't the upgrade for you. Keeping the radio on will use more juice throughout the day, so be advised. Oh and if you plan to use the push e-mail feature, you'll need to be synchronizing with a Microsoft Exchange Server running SP2. OK, 'nuff said on the disclosures!
The firmware upgrade is very straightforward and only took me about 20 minutes with a USB connection between the XV6700 and the Samsung Q1. I didn't see any option to backup the old ROM in the installation, which is a little disappointing. The first screen tells you what version your current files are and what version they will be after the upgrade.
Not many choices here, just *gulp* Update or Cancel. First for the upgrade is the radio image.
As shown in Red, you don't want to disconnect the device you run the risk of "bricking" it. I'd recommend any phone upgrade to be done in a powered cradle if possible; if you run out of juice while doing this...well...let's just say it isn't pretty.
Stage 2 happened so fast that I missed it, but it basically looks like Stage 3 above. Only it's 2. Not 3. ;) After a few more minutes, I saw this screen and knew I was in the clear.
Isn't just special how you're told you can continue to use your device as usual....but with the increased benefits? I did a soft reset of the XV6700 after this and had to run through all of the hoops you have when you first get a new Windows Mobile device. Once I aligned the screen and did a few quick configuration settings in ActiveSync, new mail started to arrive immediately. Looks like the push e-mail is working just fine. Nosing around the menus is where I saw the Voice Speed Dial option:
Tucked at the bottom of the Settings screen is the Voice Speed Dial option. Previously I had Microsoft Voice Command on the XV6700, but since I hadn't installed it just yet on the "new and improved" 6700, I figured to check out this application. Right off the bat there's a huge difference: you need to record "voice tags" with this application. In Microsoft's Voice Command, there's no training involved and you definitely have more voice options. Clearly, it's a much more intelligent application than the one that Verizon includes, but the Verizon application is free.
Basically, you pick a contact in the Voice Speed Dial setup and speak to record a voice tag for the phone number of the contact. Think of it as a verbal speed dial command. I tend to call my significant other the most, so I wisely recorded her cell and work numbers in the application. Here's what the app looks like after recording the voice tags. You can see intuitive buttons to record a tag, play back a recorded tag and delete a tag.
This firmware upgrade automatically assigns the record hardware button for Voice Speed Dial, which saves you configuration later on. Another nice feature is the ability to add voice tags for applications; if you click the Application tag, you get a list of your installed apps where you can record a tag for each.
Usage of the Voice Speed Dial is simple: just press the hardware button and you'll be taken to this screen while the device listens for you to speak a voice tag. If it finds a matching tag, it executes the call or application launch; I only used it for a few minutes, but it seems fairly accurate. It will also repeat the recorded tag back to you so that you know the proper command is run or caller is dialed. All in all, a nice little add on to the XV6700 firmware upgrade.
-kct
Well, after seeing Kevin had no issues I decided to do the upgrade. Everything went according to plan. I got all the same screens as Kevin. I received the Condratulations screen which said perform a normal reset on the device. I took it out of the cradle, did the normal "soft" reset and then.....nothing. No lights, no screen...nothing. It now sits here like a black paper weight. I did everything I could do to revive it. Take out the battery, perform a hard reset...which by the way did come up with a screen that asked me to confirm the hard reset. However after confirming, the screen blanks and then back to paper weight. ARRRRRRRGGGGGG!
Posted by: Stu Gisburne | June 22, 2006 at 10:29 AM
I wonder if it will allow initiating calls from a BT headset? That is a failing of MS Voice Command, IMHO.
Posted by: jk | June 22, 2006 at 10:30 AM
Make sure the screen is not turned off by tapping it. I've seen a device "play dead" like this before and it was really just the screen off.
Posted by: jk | June 22, 2006 at 10:32 AM
Yeah, tried that. It's way dead.
Posted by: Stu Gisburne | June 22, 2006 at 10:34 AM
Well, Verizon tech support could not revive the paperweight. Although their only option was the hard reset which I had already tried. Funny thing...I ordered another extended battery (I seem to have misplaced my other one) for it and it will be delivered today. HA! The battery in it will last a lot longer now that it won't power up. Oh, Verizon said it was under warranty and they are sending another one out overnight. Sooooo, don't bother to call me unless you want to hear my voicemail. Withdrawls.....no email via mobile. :(
Posted by: Stu Gisburne | June 22, 2006 at 11:14 AM
Sorry to hear about the "bricking" Stu; I hope that the new unit that Verizon is sending ALREADY has the new firmware. It really bothers me how unstable these upgrades tend to be. If they're not 99.999% flawless, they shouldn't be made available. Keep us up to date!
Posted by: Kevin C. Tofel | June 22, 2006 at 11:25 AM
I hope it has the new firmware too. Although I seriously doubt it. Hmmmmm....should I upgrade or just wait.....If I do, I'm going to wait until Monday so I can still get another phone overnight. That is if I get the new phone tomorrow of course. This phone I have was supposed to be an overnight delivery but instead took a week. Oh, I couldn't make the Geek Greet the other day. I don't have a NY trip scheduled until next month. Any more in the works? How about a midwest excursion. Plenty of room and my place in St. Louis!
Posted by: Stu Gisburne | June 22, 2006 at 12:54 PM
I saw that UTStarcom had an update for the Sprint version as well. I've downloaded it, and I expect I will be checking that out in a few weeks. I sure am loving my new phone!
Posted by: MiniMage | June 23, 2006 at 12:24 AM
Update on "Brick" Well, I did indeed receive a replacement phone this morning. Actually 2 of them. I had then add the $14 for AM shipment and for some reason they had to create another order and forgot to cancel the first one. They both needed the update. I thought to myself this is great. I can try the update again on one phone and if that fails, just use the second phone as is. Good news, the update completed as normal and get this...the phone works! I'll keep the other one for a few more days as these phone are probably refurbished ones and I want to make sure the now updated functioning one keeps working. Another new feature is the "Device Lock" on the today screen. This works great! I used to use MORT screen saver to prevent keypresses from activating the phone when an email or message arrives while it is in my holster. Thought you might like to know. :)
Posted by: Stu Gisburne | June 23, 2006 at 02:00 PM
Welcome back to the cellular world Stu and good catch on the Lock function. I saw the icon for it, but didn't click it.
Posted by: Kevin C. Tofel | June 23, 2006 at 02:34 PM
I may be back in the voice cellualr world...but not EVDO. I have been on the phone for that last couple of hours with Verizon. Seems every time I connect for data, I immediately drop from EVDO to 1X. This just started happening two days ago. Well, they are sending out another phone. :( At least I can still talk voice and bring up web pages rather slowly.
Posted by: Stu Gisburne | June 29, 2006 at 02:43 PM
I did the upgrade recently as well, and it went great! Although I made the mistake of upgrading when I was away from a sync'd computer, so I couldn't get all my contacts until last weekend was over!
Anyway, the Device Lock is a great addition, although I'm not certain I like the Voice Dialer. Microsoft Voice Command requires no training, and multiple people can use it. This dialer is basically just matching WAV patterns to a previously recorded clipping. Besides, it can't tell you the time! :)
Although, it was quite a long wait for something that wasn't super impressive.
Posted by: Kevlar | July 08, 2006 at 03:05 PM
My 6700 had been giving me fits for the last week. No signal (no bars) for hours on end and the only fix was a soft reset. I must have reset the device 100 times in about 5 days. Verizon tech support didn't metion the upgrade but in trying to solve my own problems I stumbled across it on the UTStarcom website.
Downloaded and installed the upgrade and it actually solved the problem for all of about 4 hours. I could make and receive calls for about 4 hours and then the phone stated that I had no radio attached. That's right - the hardware was not registering a radio installed so no phone or web. I could get to the my data but that was it.
After hours on the line with Verizon I have a new phone coming in the morning (for a $15 extra fee). I am not hopeful after hearing that the new phones will also most likely have to be upgraded but I am going on the assumption my phone problem was a rare problem. I haven't found anything similar or any of the other sites I have found for the 6700.
Hope to have the new firmware installed so that I can actually see the improvements for more than 4 hours.
Posted by: Robert Barfield | July 17, 2006 at 08:11 PM
Anyone figure wether the Bluetooth DUN hack still works on this update?
Posted by: Ken Schroeder | July 20, 2006 at 01:27 PM
Ken, you can activate Bluetooth DUN using the same hack as before the MSFP update.
Posted by: Kevin C. Tofel | July 20, 2006 at 01:30 PM
I recieved and error message after the radio stack were updated and during the cd rom update. The recovery part of the program did not work. I rebooted my computer. I pressed the soft reset key on the phone and then pressed my device firmly into the cradle. The device seems to stick a bit and may not be all the way in. Then I went ahead and ran the apache update program again.
Posted by: Frank Giese | August 29, 2006 at 04:03 PM
I did the upgrade works great, but I found something I hate. I use to be able to play sound thought my BT headset, but now when I try to move sound to the headset, Voice dial comes up. Can the new Voice Dial be deactivated?
Posted by: Kyle N | September 03, 2006 at 04:26 PM
Have a new xv6700, generally ok, but the hands free volume is barely a whisper. All settings are set as high as possible but compared to my treo you need a real quiet room to use hands free.
Any fixees out there? otherwise there may be a good used 6700 on ebay. I use the hands free daily and this doesnt cut it.
Posted by: dghattierdc | September 12, 2006 at 09:47 PM
You CAN disable voice dial. What you have to do is alter the registry.
1. download a registry editor...I used "PHM RegEdit".
2. Go to the Key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/Software/OEM/VoiceCommand
3. Change Key "LanuchApEnable" from "1" to "0"
4. You can STILL use Voice Command by assigning a button on the PDA to bring it up.
Posted by: steve m | September 13, 2006 at 12:02 AM
I had the bricking issue, too. I looked on PDAPhoneHome and found a solution. Disconnected frrom the computer, and holding down POWER, RECORD and pressing RESET will put the phone in bootloader (?) mode. It says "SERIAL" on the display. Then, when connected to the computer, it immediately changes to "USB" and then you can do the upgrade AGAIN. On the second try it revovers. I found this while ON THE PHONE WITH VERIZON. THEY didn't know about this and they were ready to send me a new phone. Stupid me.
Posted by: John C. | September 22, 2006 at 08:56 AM
I disabled the voice dial and was able to listen to music via my BT headset again. However now the music stops going through the headset after about 5 sec. Does anyone know how to change anything to stop it from doing that?
Posted by: Jason | September 23, 2006 at 12:54 PM
Can I program a hard pause for my password on my voicemail?
Posted by: marc | November 11, 2006 at 07:51 PM
I'm having the same problem w/ playing my music on my bluetooth headset. I made the registry change, it worked for about a minute then it stopped. any other ideas anyone?
Posted by: Jeff P. | November 19, 2006 at 10:41 PM
My XV6700 has the latest firmware which includes the Voice Speed Dial. That works better for me than the voice recognition dialers. My voice must have poor sound quality since the voice recognition dialers never seem to understand my command. Vhe Voice Speed dial is Bullet proof.
1. After recording about 60+/- voice tags it runs out of memory. When I check memory, I have tons left. Is there only an allocated space for Voice Tags?
2. the Lock Device function is nice to use, since unusual things happen when the unit is carried around in the belt pouch. I can answer calls W B.T. in locked mode. It will not let me call out using Voice Speed Dial.
Is there any method for increasing the memory for Voice Tags?
Is there a registry fix to enable Voice speed dial when device is locked?
The device lock function seems to do more than just disable the buttons. Is there another add-on that would just disable the buttons?
Is there a third party Voice speed Dial program that will use other memory locations?
Posted by: Ken C | January 30, 2007 at 02:46 PM
Had the same problem as Stu Gisburne upgrading my buddys phone for him but the phone was not really off if you look at it in biright light it says USB at the top and Com1 at the bottm (the screen light is just not on) i just ran the install again without it being connected to active sync and were it gets to the point where it says your old version it was blank so i hit update anyway it put the new fermware on bingo bango it worked
Posted by: Jonathan Leto | February 14, 2007 at 11:51 PM