Help Spica(i5700) Issues

kedi · May 2, 2010

Hi all,

Got my Spica three weeks back but I'm still not able to use it as my primary phone

. Undoubtedly it's a great phone with excellent value for money however few issues are really bugging me. I've already googled a lot and found various solutions or workarounds out of which some worked while many did not work for me because of various reason.

There are already many similar threads floating around, The reason of starting yet another thread is I wanted all these issues to be put at on place for any new user who have either already bought or are considering buying spica. I understand the people may get irritated seeing same topic (that might have been already answered somewhere else) being raised again, But please do me a favor and just post the link to the solution which worked for you.

So here it goes:

PC sync - This is the issue number one. My phone is not even identified by the New PC Studio (NPS). The CD that came with the phone installed older version of NPS and I have updated to the latest version of NPS v 1.4.0 IL5. Also installed the driver. For many people it does seem to work but not for me.

I can not synchronize the contact list or calendar. I can't just import contacts from SIM as lot of data is lost that way. Although i can sync with Gmail contacts and google calendar but i dont want 600+ contacts to fill up the phone book. Secondly my gmail contacts do not even have phone numbers associated to them.

File Transfer from Memory card - I have to either reset to factory setting and/or restart the phone and/or format the Card to get it identified. Dont know what exactly works. I have installed the Automount App but it doesnt help much

Update to 2.1 - How can i even think of it when i am not even close to getting my phone identified by NPS?

MS Exchange support - You call it a smart phone? As of now it doesnt support MS Exchange email and calendar synchronization out of the box (This is not problem only with Spica, it is Android 1.5) and i guess this is done in 2.1 but dont know whether Spica supports it! Can anyone with Spica on 2.1 confirm?

Substandard earphones - Earphones are simply pathetic. I was used to sony walkman w580i and now these do not even compare with cheapest in-ear earphones i've ever heard. It was totally unexpected. Please share your comments, May be it its just my piece thats crappy. I need to know that and if that's so i may get them replaced.

App Development - I am a java developer and the basic motive behind buying an android was to be able to write own apps in familiar environment. But most have reported problem doing so. I could not even verify it ( as again the same old story, phone is not even identified)

Bluetooth transfer - you simply can not transfer a file using bluetooth. No workaround. wait for 2.1

GPRS is always on - How stupid, there is no way to disable it. The only workaround is to create a fake APN and point there. Setting > Mobile Network settings > Access Point Names

Any help on the first three issues is highly appreciated.

PS:

Model - Samsung Galaxy Spica i5700
OS Version - 1.5
Place of purchase/usage - Pune, India

Spica is branded as Glaxy Lite/Portal in some countries.
Firmware update's availability is specific to country.
Thanks for reading through such a long post. I'll keep this thread updated with any other issues i face or solutions i find

And please excuse my English.

Venian · May 3, 2010

Hi mate.
Didn't have all those problems.
I had crappy earphones, i just can't get myself to like having earphones that need to stick inside your ear. I hate this kind of earphones, but the good thing is the adaptor is a 3.5mm jack which means i can connect any kind of earphones and that's awesone.

Second, i downloaded NPS 1.5 off of the web and installed flawlessly. Installed it and restarted conected the phone and every driver installed perfecly thus i can use my SD card diretly through the data trasfer cable which is great. But the NPS though detects the device corectly doesn't allow agenda transfer and such.

I also installed Android Manager which allows installing and uninstalling applications, agenda calendar and sms transfers from and to the PC.

So the best bet is to ge bought cuz i don't know which of them installed my phone drivers corectly. Once you have the drivers installed you will only use direct SD card transfer and Android Manager.

kedi · May 3, 2010

Thanks Venian for sharing your experience. So you feel the same about those crappy ear-phones

(though you don't like in-ear ones)

A quick google taking keywords from your post gives:
- this thread which says that NPS1.5 is unofficially out and floating around on the web.
- Android Manager is a phone manager and is in public beta as of now.

I'll test these and post about outcomes.

Thanks again for your post.

gusto5 · May 3, 2010

Seems like MS exchange is merely lacking in your area. When I had 1.5, there was the Moxier series of apps that allowed you to sync MS exchange items such as email.

remolon · May 4, 2010

@Kedi,

Hi,
1)The Samsung PC Studio apps provided with the bundle cannot do anything other than updating your Phone. This simply means you cannot sync your phone with PC. Yes this was a real burden for me. I had to transfer all the contacts from my previous phone to sim and then later imported to my new SPICA!!!! No matter whichever version of NPC or KIES you use, they simply dont recognize your phones internal memory.So theres nothing much you can do here

2)It would be good if you can let me know what exactly is your problem with memory card??? In case if the following is wat ur looking for :
=>if your PC is not recognizing your card from phone
a)connect your phone to PC via USB. Then you would be notified with a message stating the the phone is connected as usb. Click on menu->notifications and select to transfer files from/to Card. Make sure that USB debuggin is off in the settings menu.
When done, select the notification area again and unmount the device.
==>If your sd card is not identified in the phone.
b)Make sure that your card is formatted as fat32.It would be better if you can plug in the card into your phone. Go to settings and format the card from there(make sure that your card is not mounted).
===>If your sd card is corrupted.
c)Whenever you remove your card from the phone, make sure that it is unmounted. Else chances are that your data in that may get corrupted.

If these are the things u'v already done, let me know what exactly is the problem with ur card.

Yes the the earphones were not something real good. The sound is real flat. But trust me, i used a creative earphone and the sound reproduction from the device was very good. And i quite often use my phone as mp3 player with my Altec Lansing vs2421

!!

And regarding your development i would suggest you look out for some how tos in the net. I am still in the learning stage, so cannot say much here.

I hope this helps.

Metalspree · May 4, 2010

OP the earphones are not at all substandard .I had a doubt for some time that they are Sound Magic becuase they sounded really good.Try to change the eartips with a better ones.I use the biflanges given by the Head direct RE1 IEM's .The bundled earphones sound brilliant.

kedi · May 6, 2010

Thanks gusto5, remolon and metalspree for your valuable replies. Keep 'em coming. In the meantime i found a very nice way of sync'ing the contacts (Of course, many of you are already doing this way):

Sync you last phones contacts with windows address book (using any PC suite that you use, ieMyPhoneExplorer).
Then export address book as csv file (if your pc suite allows you to directly export as csv then you can skip step1 ).
login to gmail contacts.
import the csv file.
check(select) all the contacts, and add them to a new group called 'phone' (or whatever u wish).
go to android's Contacts and edit sync group to 'phone'. DONE

You may also sync 'all contacts' or 'my contacts' and set display group 'only with phone numbers', But i didnt prefer this because more then 900 contatcts would pollute my phone address book and some non phone contacts which might have had some phone numbers associated with them in gmail contacts would also get displayed in phone's Contacts.

Venian · May 12, 2010

Ya. You could do the google way. Also you could transfer them by bluetooth. That's how i've transfered mine from my previous htc touch diamond to spica.

I didn't commented about the sound quality but about shape of the earphones. I use a panasonic on ear headphones which are very cool.

guptasulabh · Jul 11, 2010

Hey,

I m owning Samsung Spica 2.1 update, I m loving this device but have few points,

1) PC Sync - This phone connects with the PC quite well and can sync everything well

2) Bluetooth - I dont know about 1.5 version spica, but with 2.1 update, i can transfer file, audio, video anything via bluetooth.

3) App Development - I m android developer and this phone support well. I can easily run my application and do device debugging as well.

Although with above point i have one major pain point with this phone. It auto sync'd my contacts from gtalk and SIM contacts. Now major of the contacts are not shown in the phonebook but when i get call from such number, their name is displayed.
And how can i add birthday to my contacts and set reminder as well.

nailz · Jul 11, 2010

I have no such problems at all. Bluetooth works fine, I rarely connect my phone to my PC. The only problem I have is the vid/sound sync issue.

Help Spica(i5700) Issues

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