Android

Tesco Hudl 2 Date and Time Repeatedly Incorrect

Richard Green on

Since about a week or so ago, the kids Tesco Hudl 2 tablets that they got for Christmas have been consistently reporting the wrong date and time. The issue is easily spotted because anytime they launch an app or open the Google Play Store or perform any action that depends on an SSL certificate, they are shown a certificate warning due to the inconsistency between the server date and time and the client date and time. Sometimes the tablet can appear just a few hours out of sync but in the main, it seems that the devices reset their date to January 1st 2015.

Yesterday, I noticed for the first time that my Hudl 2 tablet started exhibiting the same behaviour which led me to look online to see if this is a widespread issue as I couldn’t believe that all four of our Hudl 2 tablets could show the same symptoms and problems within two weeks’ of each other, especially considering I bought my tablet about a month after we bought the kids theirs so they would likely be from different batches of manufacturing.

Searching online, I came across a thread on the Modaco forums at http://www.modaco.com/topic/373796-misreported-time-and-other-things/ where other users are reporting the same issue and that it only seems to manifest after circa one month of using the device: an interesting observation given that I first powered up the kids tablets the week before Christmas to configure them and I got mine the week after Christmas.

Several users have tried contacting Tesco Technical Support and are advised to hard reset the devices or to exchange them in a local store but the issue continues to return and it appears from one commenter that Tesco is now working on a firmware update to address the issue. To me, this says that the current firmware build clearly has an issue relating to the CPU clock and tracking the time in relation to the CPU clock.

I reached out to Tesco on Twitter today to try and find out if it’s possible to contact their support via email or Twitter as opposed to phone as I don’t want to have to call them to add four new serial numbers to the list of effected devices that they are tracking. If I get a response, I’ll update the post here but in the meantime, if you have a Hudl 2 from Tesco and are experiencing the same date and time reset issue, it’s not you, it appears to be a known problem they are working on but please do report it to Tesco.

The more people that report the issue, the faster Tesco are likely to work on the firmware update and get it released.

 

Whats Missing in the Lync Client for Windows Phone 7

Richard Green on

Microsoft Lync is one of those fantastic products that I yearn for. It cross cuts the entire communication eco-system and gives you fantastic integration across the Microsoft stack including SharePoint and the Office application suite, however much to my dismay we don’t use Lync in my place of work and instead use the mediocre Cisco CUCM. To this end, my only experiences with Lync in a real-world ‘anger’ situations are when participating in calls hosted by other companies using Lync, Microsoft themselves being the main player for me.

For a long time now, there has been speculation of a Lync Client for Windows Phone 7 being released and this week it finally hit the marketplace not only for Windows Phone 7, but also for Apple iOS devices, Android and Symbian.

The app looks great in the screenshots, showing the features on offer well, however one huge feature is missing for me. The ability to use the app as a Lync Attendee Client: See Lync offers two different clients. The full blown corporate use client and the Lync Attendee Client. If you use Lync in a corporate scenario you will have the full client, however if you are like me and only use Lync to participate in sessions hosted by others, you use the lighter Lync Attendee Client which doesn’t require credentials and is designed around guest access.

Sadly, the Lync Client app for the mobile handsets released this week is only suitable for full client use scenarios as told by the app guidance notes in the Windows Phone Marketplace:

IMPORTANT: Microsoft Lync 2010 for Windows Phone requires a Lync Server or Office365/Lync Online account and will not work without it. If you are unsure about your account status, please contact your IT department.

He being me, I decided to install the app and try it anyway, but sadly the prescribed guidance was correct. This was a sucker-punch to me, and I think it will limit somewhat the ability for people to use the Lync Client. My only hope is that a separate client is released which does give you the ability to participate in Lync sessions as a guest.

If you are lucky enough to use Lync in a full deployment, you can get the app for Windows Phone 7 from http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/9ce93e51-5b35-e011-854c-00237de2db9e.

Sky Remote Record for Windows Mobile (and BlackBerry)

Richard Green on

4943510[1] Remote Record is one of those excellent features which Sky offers but doesn’t flaunt anywhere near enough not helped by the fact that Sky are loving the iPhone and ignoring Windows Mobile, Symbian, Android and BlackBerry in the process.

In the past I spent a long time looking for a Windows Mobile application for Remote Record, and I managed to find one which was a Java hacked version of the application which was previously available for the Orange SPV however as this was a non-touch screen device the UI was clunky on my touch screen device to say the least.

Needless to say, you can imagine my surprise when I discovered an article on wmpoweruser.com at http://wmpoweruser.com/?p=10795&cpage=1&mobile=1 about Remote Record for Windows Mobile which was posted in November 2009.

The application looks like something genuine that Sky would have produced, however it appears via the website of a software design company called Wecomm who seem to specialise in mobile application development. Even more surprising is that all this development seems to have been done without Sky ever officially releasing the product to the market.

Hitting the link to http://p.wecomm.com/prov/prov.action?releaseId=10 will give you a list of mobile manufacturers (including RIM for BlackBerry owners) which then takes you to a list of models. Once you have selected your model the site will provide the appropriate download link.

I downloaded the version for HTC HD2 which has the same resolution as my HTC Touch HD and installed the .cab file.

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