Finally Learned My Lesson - Treo Forums

Hollywood · 09-11-2007, 10:01 PM

So I'm sittin' around today, feelin' rather invincible, I mean my 700p's been acting pretty nice.

I've been surfing the web fast & furious with the "old" version of the software (no MR here

), text messaging like a banshee, streaming vids on Kinoma, listening to MP3's on Pocket Tunes w/ a really cool skin set up

, sending and receiving email w/Wireless Sync, (which believe it or not, has gotten rather reliable), performing two to three "flawless" HotSyncs a day, keeping track of my schedule (got a nice background set up on the "Agenda" section of the schedule), working/phoning smoothly with close to 1,000 Contacts, each with multiple numbers, email addresses, pictures, logos, individual ringers...............I mean my gosh.........my handset speaker's even been working (sort of

).

So I'm sittin' here, thinking of how much I've been dying to try ZLauncher, and how cool it would be to be able to customize my home page, make it a little more fun to look at and play with, so what do I do?

I log on, download ZLauncher from the ET site............even got a 15% discount, and got it for $16.96.........COOL!

I proceed to download the prc file to my Computer/Quick Install, Hotsync and in no time I'm up and running. Well, my first impressions left me feeling like I definitely had to get some additional "themes". The one that came with it was rather "bland", but I definitely could see the potential of this app, and thought that with some playing around and getting used to, it would definitely add a "cool factor" to the look of my home page. Not to mention how "functional" the app was, and the tons of options it gives to the operation of the device, tabs, drag & drop, recycle bin, and on and on.

Well not more than 5 mintues into having the app on my device, I stumbled across a "Reset Tab" on ZLauncher, and thought, "what the heck", it'd probably be a good idea to reset the device now that the new application was installed. I've always heard this is pretty standard operating procedure, so I went ahead and clicked on the ZLaunchers "reset" tab.

That was the beginning of the end!!

Here went my perfectly funtioning device, down into the DEATH SPIRAL. Oh NO...............ACCESS POWERED, ACCESS POWERED

...............in a panic I starting trying to push every friggin' button on the damn Treo..........ACCESS POWERED............ACCESS POWERED

...........on no, remove the battery quick...............wait........put it back in.............ACCESS POWERED.......ACCESS POWERED........with a sick feeling in my stomach, and cursing myself for not leaving well enough alone I knew what this meant. HARD RESET TIME!

I'd been through this before, with three previous 700p's and now was praying that this, my nicely funtioning little Treo #4, wasn't soon going to be joing his three brothers & sisters on the death heap! I mean, I hadn't needed to perform a Hard Rest on this one, EVER, and I've been using it for almost six months!

Well I did the hard reset, and then Hotsynced to reinstall everything (my schedule, contacts, and most everything carried over on the initial sync). Thank God I religiously back up to my PC two to three times a day!

Anyhow first thing I did after getting back up & running, was Unintall ALL remnents of ZLauncher. Everything I could find. (Thank God for Uninstall Manager & Cleanup). THEY ARE A MUST HAVE and certainly LIFESAVERS in situations like this.

Well, I won't bore you all with the next couple of hours, reinstalling, reloading registration keys, downloading email clients/programs and on and on and on. I'm sure most of you have unfortunately been through this all before.

Well here it is a few hours later, and I'm just about back to where I was when I got this brainstorm. Of course, only time will tell, but it appears my little friend is back the way it was before this all began, and seems OK. God only knows, I certainly don't want a refurb, and want a device with the MR even less!

Now before all you ZLauncer fans go gettin' crazy on me, I know that TONS of people use and rave about ZLauncher. I've also seen peoples "signatures" displaying a barrage of third party apps. I've looked at those signatures with envy, thinking how cool it must be to be able to do all that stuff and have it look so cool to boot.

Well, ya know what? I'VE LEARNED MY LESSON. Envy I will no more my fine, technological friends

. If it works for you, more power to ya

. I on the other hand, will enjoy my 700p for what it does & has been doing just fine, and will no longer lust to squeeze every nanogig of power out of it, downloading app after app. For whatever reason, ZLauncher didn't want to come out an play nice with MY 700p, and personally, I don't want it badly enough, to care to figure out why. I just wish I'd have downloaded the "Free Trial" instead of purchasing it off the bat, but after all I'd read, I thought this one was a no-brainer! (Now I've got to hope that the developer will do the "right thing", and credit my card for the $16.96)!

No, my 700p will do what it does, and no more! Not until the time comes that all of this happy horse S _ _ _ works the way it's supposed to, and doesn't require hours of a computor programmers time, skill and educated guessing to get it to function properly.

Why don't they just build these things with all the "cool stuff" on them in the first place?

So now, each and every time I look at my "stock" rather lifeless home page, with those boring "Palm" icons, I'll smile, and think of the alternative, as I (hopefully) go through another "more or less" trouble free day in Treo Land!

"Hollywood"

TecFish · 09-12-2007, 04:59 PM

Hi, big signature list here.

I feel bad for Hollywood and anyone else who has had problems with installing software. I am (knock,knock) lucky, I also have the MR installed . I have added apps that improve my productivity. As I added an app I asked myself how much I "needed" it and whether there have been adverse reports of it not playing nicely with others. Z Launcher stopped me cold. I had it on my T-3, but felt it was too large and powerful for my 700 p, based on user reports. I went with Lancher X, for a smaller footprint. From my initial surge of applications and trials I have slowed to a crawl adding apps, they really have to push a button. Now I just use my device every day and love using it.

Hollywood · 09-12-2007, 08:00 PM

What do you mean when you say "ZLauncher stopped you cold"?

Also, what's the difference between that and Launcher X? At this point, I'd be happy with something that would just let me customize the "appearance", even if it didn't add much additonal "functionality".

Opps..............here I go again..............gotta try and leave well enough alone

"Hollywood"

TecFish · 09-12-2007, 09:12 PM

Since I already had Z Launcher I was familiar and impressed with its functionality. As I moved into the ranks of a Treo user I became increasingly alarmed with the number of posts concerning problems with the Treo, most indicating a software connection. I became concerned that a program that streched into interfacing with every program might bring with it compatibility issues. I did a bit of research and found that although X Launcher had to reside in RAM, it used less than Z and, the less robust features seemed to reduce or eliminate the compatibility issues. Call me chicken, but I stopped my plan to add Z and went with X, Not perfect, but way better than stock. K?

benjie · 09-12-2007, 11:33 PM

Hollywood, the third party application is a good animal to have around. Have you considered another one, such as LauncherX or Initiate? They both are excellent applications and I personally lean toward Initiate. If I were to experience problems with ZLauncher, Initiate would be the one I would consider.

Ben

Hollywood · 09-13-2007, 05:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benjie

Hollywood, the third party application is a good animal to have around. Have you considered another one, such as LauncherX or Initiate? They both are excellent applications and I personally lean toward Initiate. If I were to experience problems with ZLauncher, Initiate would be the one I would consider.

Ben

Ben,

One of the problems I noticed with ZLauncher right off the bat, (before the CRASH), was that every time I pressed my "home" button, the Treo would take me back to, and revert back to the "stock"/Palm home launcher screen. When I contacted ZLauncher's Tech Support, they got back to me and said this was probably a "compatibility issue" between ZLauncher and the Treo Launcher, and that'd they'd try to correct it in an upcoming version!

Not much help, and rather bizarre to have to press the home key, be taken to the Palm Launcher, and then from that screen have to click on ZLauncher to get to the Z's Launcher screen, don't you think?

Also, I can't say a heck of a lot for the developer/tech support. The people here at ET/Mobihand have been much more helpful!

I'll check on Initiate. All I'd really like at this point, is something that gives me some "appearance options".

"Hollywood"

Hollywood · 09-13-2007, 06:35 AM

Any "links" as well as additional feedback would also be appreciated, thanx.

"Hollywood"

benjie · 09-13-2007, 01:24 PM

With ZLauncher, was it set as the default launcher? There is no conflict between the default launcher and ZLauncher - the problem comes in with a third party key assignment application.

Anyway, Initiate - http://www.hobbyistsoftware.com/initiate-more.php. I give it a go every once in a while, and that was as of late as yesterday. It is not as fast as ZLauncher, but with the changes Rob has made, it really has come a long, long way. I test drove the application for the while and though it is a bit slower, due to it searching (there is a setting to eliminate the search, thereby making it faster), it launched the various files I selected.

What I do not like: it does not give a 2-column listing of files, 1-column only is what it will show. The file management thing went to FileZ. Otherwise, it has become very feature packed and easy to use.

Ben

Hollywood · 09-13-2007, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by benjie

With ZLauncher, was it set as the default launcher? There is no conflict between the default launcher and ZLauncher - the problem comes in with a third party key assignment application.

p>Ben

I thought it was probably somethin' like that. Why in the world didn't the developer/support know that, insteading of emailing me, telling me it was the "conflict"?? By the way, how do you set a different launcher as the "Default Launcher"?

Thanks for the link. Think I'm gonna just sit cool for a couple days."Hollywood"

benjie · 09-14-2007, 01:02 AM

In the "new" launcher's preferences there should be something that does that. Some like Initiate make it an automatical thing, whereas ZLauncher makes you make it wanna be the default launcher. Also those third party key assignment applications, of which there are 2 popular ones, can really really cause havoc when attempting to determine where the problem lies.

I think it's good to take a breather and make sure the device is stable.

I have a new thing I found today on my 700p - hold most any ole key down and it goes to the default dialer. That's a new one that I found this morning.

Ben