I'm due an upgrade on Orange in the UK and I need a bit of advice. I've searched through other forums, but I'm either finding it difficult to get answers in terms I can understand, or the information seems like it might be buried in a 300-page thread.
I could have upgraded last December, but the horror stories about the P990 were legion, so I thought I'd wait and see if the situation improved.
It now appears that a recent firmware upgrade has addressed most of the problems. However from reading various posts on the subject, there is some doubt in my mind as to whether or not I can use SEUS to upgrade an Orange-branded P990. Can I do this or not, and if so are orange updates as successful or frequent as those for unbranded phones? If not is the orange firmware as much of a disaster as the early non-branded phones seem to have been?
The thread, "P 990 i firmware upgrade" seems to suggest that the firmware is not upgradeable, but it only received one reply which was not definitive and other recent posts on other forums are contradictory.
Are there any other UK providers (T-mobile, O2, Vodafone) that allow SEUS updates and which of these has the most stable firmware and frequent updates?
Please bear in mind that a lot of this stuff (CDA numbers, firmware version numbers etc) flies straight over my head!
I would also be interested to know if any of the wise heads and those, "in the know" think it might be better to further delay upgrading in anticipation of a successor to the P990. In other words is such a phone likely to be released in the next six to eight months or so? (If one is going to be released in that time it might be worth waiting).
Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.
I'm on Orange and I upgraded my phone using the SEUS - it recognised my phone as an orange phone but it upgraded it nevertheless.
Hi folks
I've been tearing my hair out ever since I first got a SE P990i from Orange because it wouldn't work with iSync on my Mac. Then when someone was kind enough to develop a plugin and SE took the credit by suddenly coming up with an official version, I was delighted to think I could finally sync my phone.
However it turned out that when I tried to run the SEUS application on a friends PC, I was told that my phone was up to date. When my P990i eventually went on the blink, I assumed the one advantage of replacing it might be that I could get iSync to work, as I imagined the phone might be a newer batch.
Sadly I tried to install the iSync plugin but it's even less friendly than with my old phone (as when I try to sync it fails almost immediately, whereas with the old P990i it at least looked as though it was trying for a few moments before failing)
As a result I've since borrowed a PC from my neighbour but again when I try to run the SEUS application, I am informed that my software is up to date (and having spent a couple of hours setting the phone up, I am loathe to run it and delete everything, only to find there is no update for the Orange version of the firmware)
So please, please, pretty please, can anyone advise me how I upgrade the firmware (to the one which works with the iSync plugin), or any other means by which I can get iSync to work with my replacement phone?
FYI the relevant details from the phone are:
Phone: CXC162037 R9EC001
Organiser: CXC162036 R4B03
CDA: CDA162008/16 R6A03
And I am currently running OS X 10.5.1 which includes iSync 3.0
With my utmost thanks in advance, in the vain hope that one of you good people might be able to assist and finally put me out of my misery (while I still have some hair left)
Kind Regards
Bernard
I am on OSX 10.5.1 and iSync 3.0 with an Orange UK branded p990i.
Exactly the same experience as above. As we all know, being able to backup data is key to our lives now and only via a PC or with a SD card reader is rather fiddly and limiting. Orange firmware for this phone has always been apparently more stable than the SEUS update unbranded version - but Orange obviously take more time before they release their version. Consequently, it looks like their firmware still lags behind, although it is relatively stable.
For me, the phone has been a disappointment. Not less so, because it was supposedly the top device available at the time and costs a lot. The Calendar and Contacts functions are fine, as it the Speakerphone, MP4 video, handwrting recognition and even the built-in Web browser and wifi access ... not bad. But I've never been able to handle any WORD documents over a few kb in size.
One bad thing though, is the ridiculous fuss you have to go through to find out if a SEUS update is available. For us Mac users, we have to seek our a PC and use that. The other poor thing is the number of taps you have to make in order to backup calendar and contacts to an SD card - surely should it be simpler and quicker.
Also, Orange seem never to have released a 'remote sync' for this phone - it just isn't listed as an option for backing up contacts and calendar with the Orange site: something that is possible with most lesser phones.
I'd have loved to say that this phone was brilliant, but, sadly, I cannot.
Having seen the Apple iPod Touch in action - I can see the way it syncs, links and operates and will consider that as a replacement, plus a smaller, far simpler separate phone, despite the cost.
All in all, I sense that the p990i has been troublesome for all third parties. Sadly, this far on, problems still linger, and it is that aspect which is disheartening. I also sense that Orange branded versions have shown more stability in some aspects, but suffer from poor development from Orange.
Orange don't seem to have had the p990i in their stores for a while now round here. Shame, as it always had the potential to be a winner in its concept.