Dette,
Here is a complete step-by-step rundown of some of the basic functions, as I tested them:
Ok, I did another hard reset, and I let Tier autoinstall everything.
I noticed that on DCD's Carrier Cabs page, (
http://dcd1182.n715dp.com/index.php?dir=carriers%2F) most cabs have a last modified date of Jan. 5, 2009. To make sure I have the most recent, I re-downloaded the USCC cab, installed, and did a soft reset. For all of the following, I've installed nothing else. No other programs, no backed up contacts. Nothing.
Task Manager says "48%"
Music tab/audio manager: Once again, it only sees two of the songs, and freezes when I tap Library. It says "Audio Manage" on the title bar, and shows an X in the top gith corner, but the rest of the screen still shows the audio tab, and the Audio Manager never becomes visible. It will also not play the 1-2 songs it does see. When I tap the play button, nothing happens. All of the songs on my SD card worked fine in 2.3.
Receiving a call: I'm calling my Vogue from a landline for this test. When I receive a call and use the S2A interface to answer, it works fine, although there is a delay of about 2 seconds between when S2A appears on screen and when the ringtone starts. The Vogue also does not show an incoming call or ring until the 4th or 5th ring for the caller. I haven't been able to recreate the weird crash I had answering with the hardware button yesterday morning, so maybe that was a fluke. Something very weird, however, is that if the Phone app/keypad is not onscreen, the phone _never_ rings and S2A never appears. I tried this nearly a dozen times, and it is the same every time: keypad onscreen, phone rings; keypad not onscreen, no ring, nothing.
Making a call: From the Home tab, when I tap "Phone" it takes anywhere from 1 second sometimes, to 4 or 5 seconds others to load the keypad. This is with no other programs running. The keypad is sluggish, and if I dial at normal speed, the phone lags behind me, taking a couple of seconds to finish dialing the number after I'm done pressing them. Making calls seems to work just fine, however, and the Speakerphone actually seems to be a bit more reliable than in 2.3; others tell me I'm a bit more clear.
People Tab: I tapped "add" on the first box. Created a new contact. Selected it. It went back to the "People" tab, but did NOT put the contact in the first box. I tapped "add" on the first box again, and the contact I had created was not there. I tried every section of the alphabet. The contact was not saved. I tapped "add" on the first box again, and nothing happened. It seemed unresponsive. However, it turns out that it wasn't completely unresponsive, it just took about 10 seconds before anything happened. However, I was still unable to get it to save a contact that I could find again. I tried going to the "Contacts" app via the Start Menu. Same result; no contact saved.
Text Mesages:
Entering the text was _very_ _very_ slow, freezing for a few seconds several times during entry. The message sent just fine, however, and I received a reply with zero trouble.
E-mail: I was able to set up my gmail account just fine, but when it tried to send/receive, I got this error: "Cannot connect with current connection settings. To change your connection settings, tap Settings." I checked, and HKLM/Comm/ConnMgr/Planner/Settings: SuspendResume = #777 was already set.
Internet: When I try to use Opera, Youtube, or the RSS program, I get this error message: Dialed: Cannot connect for an unknown reason. To check your connection settings and change them if needed, tap Settings..." etc.
Photos and Videos: Photos work perfectly!
Videos record and play back in Core player.
Weather: I haven't yet added my city to the weather list, but the pre-loaded cities, it says "updating" and then never gets the info. I imagine that's due to the overall data connection problem.
Maps: Ditto on the data connection.
I hope this helps track down issues in this beta. Thanks for all of the hard work, Dette!