My HTC Shift X9500

I have a new toy, the HTC Shift X9500. One of those weird, unsuccessful hybrids (Windows Mobile and Vista/Linux flavor), the X9500 is still a huge amount of fun.

PROS:

1) Though released without actual phone capability, or even app installation, the gifted hackers of xda developers and elsewhere (the beloved cmonex weighed in big time) allow WinMo to call, receive calls, and sms. Cab files now install. The computer has a SIM slot under the battery, and with a SIM/3g, you can use WinMo IE, Opera, nPOPuk, even Egress RSS

2) Ubuntu Hardy 8.04.1 runs very nicely. With a couple of tricks, users can undervolt the kernel, run an older version of Chrome that's capable of synching bookmarks, and the no-longer-supported Hardy is still young enough for the majority of appropriate apps

3) Great 800X480 touch screen. Very responsive to fingernail taps, even through a screen protector. The Shift comes with a stylus that I'm using less and less

4) Other versions of Linux, even Ubuntu 14.4, will run, the caveat of internal wifi hassles notwithstanding

5) Awesome battery life on the WinMo side (users toggle instantly via a hardware button between the computer and the phone). With Activesync capability (both on Vista and Linux), Windows Mobile 6.1, and 3G internet, you're good for 10-15 hours

CONS:

1) Windows Vista Business Edition. Just awful. Glacial booting, endless thrashing, other than testing purposes, Vista's unusable. Folks at the xda shift forum have gotten Win7, Win8, and beta Win10 to run on the Shift with better results, apparently

2) Lousy battery life on both Linux and Vista. I bought my Shift used, so my battery is probably deprecated, but even owners of new machines complained of less 2 hours of power. I purchased two Tekkeon external batteries, cheap, discontinued models, that increase time away from a/c power

3) Marvell internal wifi. There's an HTC wifi driver for Vista, a driver for Hardy, but I have yet to get the internal wifi to work with any other Linux flavor. This Marvell SD8686 contraption is the bane of many systems. I've wasted much time with unsuccessful workarounds

4) No SD card/USB on the WinMo side. For file transfers, you can set up an Activesync connection or quasi-network, but this means that you have to be booted into both systems (Vista or Linux), draining your battery. Instead, I email files as attachments

5) No wifi on WinMo side, either

Despite its drawbacks, the Shift is becoming my go-to travel machine. Windows Mobile has all the symbols necessary (smart quotes, etc) for professional manuscripts and I'm already used to the limitations of Pocket IE/others.

I rarely use Vista, but an undervolted Hardy is fine. A gentleman named "pof" invented a one-click installation enabling touchscreen, wifi, and SynCE (linux's activesync). His setup won't work on any later Linux flavors, but Xubuntu 14.4 runs successfully on the Shift as long as you're content with a USB wifi adapter. An external battery is a must unless you're willing to live within the limitations of WinMo.

The Shift work has died off, but hackers did a lot of heavy lifting that helps newcomers like myself immeasurably.

(If all goes well, I will have written and posted this via the Shift's WinMo.)

Jake

There's been talk about this toy before here. As I recall, one of the questions asked was whether it can be synched with itself.

Great pick-up! The Shift is one of those devices I've lusted over for quite a while. I'm curious how the keyboard is...can you touch-type? Or is it thumbs or first fingers only? I can touch-type on the J720, though with a higher error rate, so I don't mind small keyboards.

@ ce geek--yes, that's a good way to put it. The goal is self-communion. I can't imagine trying to sync via AS/Vista. By the time you finished, all your appointments would've already happened. As for a Linux SynCE sync, it is also slow, and all-day events can be problematic (a prevalent problem with CE calendars, now that I think about it).

I simply manually insert calendar stuff. As for contacts, in Linux, I sync google contacts with Evolution, then sync Evolution contacts with WinMo. Slow, but not terrible, and--so far--accurate. WinMo is completely passive and the Evo contacts are always fresh from google, which helps keep things pristine.

@PDXMark--I'm not a great typist, so I can't touch-type on any keyboard, but in general, I would compare the Shift keyboard to a J720's. The Shift keyboard holds more keys, and weirdly enough, there seem to be more Italian keyboards than any others on ebay. Mine is an Italian and while it has keys that are irrelevant to a US keyboard, it works in both Vista and Linux as long as you can get used to having the backslash over the 7 key, and other unusual placements.

Jake

I forgot to mention that in both Vista and Linux, you can piggy-back on WinMo's 3g. Obviously, not as fast as wifi, but given the 800Mhz CPU, the difference is not huge...

Jake

Nice to hear you are enjoying your new Shift. I have had one for a few years but recently managed to get a nearly new one as the old one had cracks in the hing of the case.

I have replaced the HDD with 126GB ssd from ebay and 2gb ram. I run dual boot Win 7 as main o/s and Win XP for old archived software. Win 7 runs very well but XP really flies.

I put Win 10 preview and everything works fine and quite snappy too, the only problem I have encoutered is it wont upgrade from my current preview (9860) to 9879 as it says my screen resolution is too low.

Have you tried Win 10?

Allan

I haven't tried Win10 if only because I have Hardy working so nicely and the bootup for Vista was so godawful. I'm glad to hear that you have XP working so nicely; I looked over the installation and found the drivers but it seemed tricky.

Will you buy Win10 for the Shift?

Jake