Usually I do not misuse my status as webmaster to point at companies who obviously have a massive problem, but Pearl Germany managed to enrage me that much, that I want to warn others.

All started out when I bought two german computer magazines which had advertisements of Pearl’s new “XP-25” smartphone, which they do offer in cooperation with SimValley. The specs and the price are pretty much amazing and everything looked like a good deal. It was also the perfect chance to get my hands on a PPC and try out some of the programs I always post about. In particular the XP-25 is a cloned I-Mate 101 anyway…

I’ve ordered the XP-25 on 5th August along with a 2GB memory card. One week before start of September I called the hotline and asked where my already paid smartphone is. The service center lady talked about massive problems due to the fact that they were just hammered with orders and did not count with it in the beginning.

Okay… that can happen, even in the best company.

I pointed out that I am going on vacation on 4th September and therefore would like to have my phone as soon as possible. Of course no promise has been made. In particular she said we will get a bunch of XP-25 in the next 5 working days and things will be sent out by first come first serve concept.

Two days later I got an email with a pretty hughe explanation why there are delivery problems and how they are going to solve it. Pretty much it was putting you into the “waiting position” again with vague information and no fixed date set again.

I’ve responded to this email and explained my situation again. I am off for almost three months, the money is paid and I want to have that item. I also asked if there is the possibilty to exchange the given adress to my vacation adress – Up to this day, I do not have an answer.

Today I called the hotline again. The guy was not really what you would call friendly – anyway. The result of the discussion as follows:

– A given adress can not be changed once it’s in their system. If you want to have your item delivered to a new adress, the current order must be deleted and a new one must be given, which results in NEW waiting time.
– A parcel with the 2GB SD card has been sent out, but without the ordered smartphone. I wonder why they did not send that SD card at least three weeks ago. I’d like to have seen everything together in one parcel
– I’ve been advised to deny taking the parcel and he can delete my order for the XP-25 too – tho I never even mentioned that I don’t want to have it.
– According to the information I got on the phone I have to wait three to four more weeks!!! (if that is true at all and not beeing extended over and over again)
– As I’m away and things need to be claimed within seven days I asked him what to do. He responded that they will be fair and I can mention any problems even after this limitation. When I asked him to put a note into the system so I wont get any troubles, he said that this is not possible. Everyone with basic trading skills know, that a spoken word is absolutly nothing worth.
– The partitial good delivery mail said that I do have an open account of 12,90 EUR, but everything has been paid together and in advance. The “friendly” guy said he does not have access to information, why this amount is declared as not paid in the email.
– I told the guy that this is the first and last order I am doing with Pearl, he pretty much was angry and dropped the call in a rude way with a short “Aufwiedersehen” (goodbye).

I’ve found a webboard and the guys there have similar problems, see here: http://www.mobi-forum.de/simvalley-xp-25/fragen-probleme-zum-simvalley-xp-25/5-wann-liefert-pearl-endlich/.

Pearl simply can not handle the run for the XP-25 and people need to wait and wait for their paid goods! The costumer service lags, does not respond or is rude

To be honest I can buy a SD card in every shitty corner and do not need Pearl for this. Probably they even do not have people who can count one and one togher, that the SD card is an item which just makes sense delivered together with the smartphone…

It was for sure my first and last order from Pearl and I encourage everyone to think twice, where to order.

PS: I’ve contacted Pearl’s press department so they have a chance to answer. Any possible answer will be published directly in this newspost.

iContact is designed to be an all-inclusive finger-friendly contact manager for Windows Mobile PocketPC phones.

Changes:

Added settings editor!
Added icon for settings editor into control panel
Changed add contact icon in default skin
Fixed “auto” email account
Bugfix: An upgrade will no longer overwrite your settings
Added GPLV3 License text to source code
Added iPhone skin to standard distribution
Removed ListBackground from .skn file, added to .png file
Added DetailMainText and DetailMainShadow to .skn file
Removed TitlebarBattery and TitlebarBatteryCharge, now uses .png to fill battery
Changed “Show Summary” to the less confusing “Manage Contact”

Discussion: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=395829

http://www.supware.net/iContact/

G-Alarm is an alarm clock with a special mechanism to wake you up. Before the alarm clock stops you need to guide a ball through a labyrinth.

Changes:

– [FIX] QVGA support
– [FIX] Error when trying to add files to the playlist
– [FIX] Error when creating alarms on devices where time format is not 24h
– [FIX] Error on reloading alarms on some devices
– [ADDED] Better power management support

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=422362

nueNoBar disables the bottom bar on the today screen, giving you more space on the today screen. The softkeys are still functional in this mode.

nueNoBar is WM 5, 6 and 6.1 compatible, and should run on WM 6.1 builds 20000+ as well.

Discussion: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=422521

http://www.nuerom.com/BlogEngine/page/nueNoBar.aspx

SetVolume is a finger friendly volume changer.

Changes:

* fixed bug with not setting a needed registry value

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=395695

ScummVM is a program which allows you to run certain classic graphical point-and-click adventure games, provided you already have their data files. The clever part about this: ScummVM just replaces the executables shipped with the games, allowing you to play them on systems for which they were never designed!

Some of the adventures ScummVM supports include Adventure Soft’s Simon the Sorcerer 1 and 2; Revolution’s Beneath A Steel Sky, Broken Sword 1 and Broken Sword 2; Flight of the Amazon Queen; Wyrmkeep’s Inherit the Earth; Coktel Vision’s Gobliiins; Westwood Studios’ The Legend of Kyrandia and games based on LucasArts’ SCUMM (Script Creation Utility for Maniac Mansion) system such as Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle, Sam and Max and more. You can find a thorough list with details on which games are supported and how well on the compatibility page. ScummVM is continually improving, so check back often.

Release notes:

We can call it a tremendous development. Half a year since 0.11.1 passed pretty quickly, and we are pleased to announce the release of 0.12.0!

This new version of ScummVM adds support for 5 completely new games. The games that now run smoothly on many more platforms than was initially intended are: The Legend of Kyrandia: Book Two: Hand of Fate, The Legend of Kyrandia: Book Three: Malcolm’s Revenge, Lost in Time, The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble and Drascula: The Vampire Strikes Back.

The number of supported platforms grew as well. The PS2 port has been revived, and the GameCube and Wii are now supported too. Take your Wiimote and make your beloved adventure game protagonist run around the screen :).

No need to go any further into details here, those who want to know the gory details can always refer to the release notes, and all of you are invited to go to our downloads page.

P.S. Soon, pretty soon, look out for more news from us.

Changes:

New Games:
– Added support for The Legend of Kyrandia: Book Two: Hand of Fate.
– Added support for The Legend of Kyrandia: Book Three: Malcolm’s Revenge.
– Added support for Lost in Time.
– Added support for The Bizarre Adventures of Woodruff and the Schnibble.
– Added support for the PC version of Waxworks.
– Added support for the Macintosh version of I Have no Mouth, and I must Scream.
– Added support for Drascula: The Vampire Strikes Back.

General:
– Added CAMD MIDI driver for AmigaOS4.
– Revived the PS2 port (was already in 0.11.1 but was forgotten in the release notes).
– Plugged numerous memory leaks in all engines (part of GSoC’08 task),
– Added audio double buffering to the SDL backend, which fixes the problems with the MT-32 emulator on Mac OS X (for now only enabled on Mac OS X).

AGOS:
– Fixed crashes during certain music in Amiga versions of Elvira 1 and Simon the Sorcerer 1.
– Fixed palette issues in Amiga versions of Simon the Sorcerer 1.

Queen:
– Speech is played at the correct sample rate. (It used to be pitched a bit too low.)

SCUMM:
– Rewrote parts of Digital iMUSE, fixing some bugs.
– Rewrote the internal timer code, fixing some speed issues in e.g. COMI.
– Improved support for sound effects in Amiga version of Zak McKracken.
– Added support for mixed Adlib/MIDI mode in Monkey Island 1 (Floppy).

http://www.scummvm.org

pRSSreader is a RSS reader for PocketPC. pRSSreader can handle many versions of feeds: RSS 0.90, 0.91, 0.92 and 2.0, RDF 1.0 and Atom 0.3.

http://code.google.com/p/prssr/

WirelessTime is a small tool to automaticaly switch on an off your GSM, Bluetooth, and WiFi connection, depending on time profiles.

http://freewareppc.com/communication/wirelesstime.shtml

Twobile (pronounced Twoh-bul, a mixture of the words “Twitter” and “Mobile”) is a new Twitter client for users of Windows Mobile Pocket PCs.

Thanks to http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ for the news.

http://www.infinitumsoftware.com/twobile

SecondToday adds the ability to have a second TodayScreen / HomeScreen.

Thanks to http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ for the news.

http://www.chi-tai.info/cs_wm_tools_im_cs.htm