Since late 2006, Spectec has been touting their MicroSD wi-fi card for Windows Mobile devices, and it has always been billed as 802.11b/g compatible. Of course, that was two years ago and the SDW-823 has not yet arrived. In fact, it’s been so long that the much faster 802.11n has become the standard for new wireless devices, and Spectec has apparently been busy adding it to the product.

Was 802.11b/g

The old product page listed the specifications as Network Standard Support: IEEE 802.11b/g; Network Architectures: Infrastructure, Ad-Hoc; Data Rates: < 802.11g: 6, 9, 12, 18, 24, 36, 48, 54 Mbps; < 802.11b: 1, 2, 5.5, 11 Mbps; Modulation Techniques: BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM, CCK, OFDM, DSSS; Receiver Sensitivity < 802.11g: 73-91 dBm; < 802.11b: 89-97 dBm; Power Consumption: Receive: 188 mA avg; Supply Voltage: I/O: 3.0 - 3.6 VDC; Operating Temperature: 0 °C to +70 °C, <95% humidity; Host Interface: SDIO Now! 1.0; OS Support: Microsoft Windows CE 4.X-5.X; and Package: 23.3 x 11 x 0.7 mm.

Now 802.11n

As you can see, the new card is longer and unlikely to fit in the typical MicroSD bay of a Smartphone device.

The new product page has the specifications as follows, with changes in bold. Network Standard Support: IEEE 802.11n; Network Architectures: Infrastructure, Ad-Hoc; Modulation Techniques: BPSK, QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM, CCK, OFDM, DSSS; Receiver Sensitivity: 85 dBm; Power Consumption: Receive: 150 mA; Supply Voltage: DC 3.0V – 3.6V; Operating Temperature: -45 °C to +85 °C; Host Interface: Micro SDIO; and OS Support: Windows Mobile 5.0 / 6.0.

Still not available

It’s great that the card now supports the faster, longer-range 802.11n specification. The only problem with it, and this is just nit-picking, is that it is still not available yet!

Since the Samsung Blackjack and other Smartphones have QWERTY pads, they lose the standard letter-number associations that have been on phones for decades. Many phone numbers are published as letters, such as 1-800-FLOWERS, or 1-800-LIVE-LOB (Lobster Gram), which makes them easy to remember. However, that does you no good if your phone doesn’t have the letters printed on the right keys.

There is also the problem of having to enter a name to navigate a phone directory in a voicemail system. It will ask you to enter the first several letters of the name of the person you wish to reach on your keypad. How can you do that if you don’t know which numbers map to which letters?

Dialing Letters on a Smartphone

There are several approaches to this problem.

One solution is to memorize which letters go with which numbers. ABC=2, DEF=3, and so on. This is great, except that it gets a little tricky with 7-8. 7=PQRS, 8=TUV, and 9=WXYZ. It really isn’t too bad:

The letters start at 2 (abc) and continue with three letters per number until the last row, where 7, 8, and 9 are a symetrical four, three, and four letters each.

Another solution is to save the information as a wallpaper or background image for the dialing screen, or to print out an image and keep it handy.

And yet another possibility is to download and install software like Alphadial. I have not used this and can not vouch for it. Use at your own risk. Etc etc. One downside is that you have to run it separately, so it isn’t really all that handy for entering letters during a call.

QWERTY is Great, But It’s Still A Phone

It’s nice to have a QWERTY keypad, but the primary function of the phone is to function as a phone. Phone manufacturers are welcome to add features, but in the process they shouldn’t take away other, important features. Dialing for flowers or lobsters is not that critical, but navigating a phone directory is, or at least it can be.

Unless things change, the answer is going to be “no,” at least for this Blackjack owner.

Spectec Announced In 2006

Around October 2006—more than eighteen months ago—Spectec was promising their SDW-823 MicroSD WiFi card.

At that time, Spectec told me the product would be delayed until August 2007. Since then I have heard nothing about it, other than questions from readers asking about it.

Last week a Spectec sales rep told me that it is not ready due to the chipset maker needing to modify software. It will take 3-4 months. Sorry to keep you waiting. So that puts it out to July or August.

No SDW-823 Wi-Fi For Now

So, for now, there is no Wi-Fi for devices like the Samsung Blackjack. In fact, by the time the Spectec card is available—if it is ever available—I may have decided 3G or Edge is good enough or simply moved on to another phone.

Over time, the Samsung Blackjack has become a bit of a burden for me. At first, I really liked it, but it has developed some troubles. It drops calls, gets poor reception, and decides to turn its phone radio off (almost randomly). Speakerphone and other problems compounded my frustration with it. Windows Mobile 5 has some issues as well, and a WM6 update was not available when I had last checked.

Then, out of the blue, AT&T called last week and offered to replace it, as it was in the Jan 2007 batch of phones with antenna problems. Sure enough, a replacement arrived a couple days later.

I updated ActiveSync and sync’d the phone to my PC. While getting the latest ActiveSync I discovered that Windows Mobile 6 was available as an update as well. So, in one weekend two of my biggest gripes about the Blackjack have been rectified. It remains to be seen whether the reception stays solid or not, but if it’s like the original refurbished Blackjack I got (which had to be replaced due to charging problems), the reception should be much better.

Updating Blackjack to WM6

To update the Blackjack to WM6, visit Samsung’s WM6 update site and follow the instructions.

Though I highly recommend you follow the instructions listed there verbatim, essentially the process is as follows.

Turn off anti-virus and firewall software – I needed to turn off ZoneAlarm before sync-ing the phone.

Download and update ActiveSync – You will need version 4.2 or greater.

Download and install the Samsung Modem Drivers – Not sure the reason for this, but probably it’s got to do with the flash process.

Download the Blackjack Software Update – This is the WM6 update for the Blackjack.

Run the WM6 Blackjack update – this should take several minutes. You’ll see a downloading screen on the phone (shown below).

Backup data from your phone – The WM6 update will erase all data on the phone.

Reset the Blackjack with *2767*3855# – This simply reboots the phone.

Verify the phone’s software version with *#1234# – should be something like I607UCHA1.

WM6 is now installed – enjoy.

So, thanks AT&T! (And Samsung.)

It’s nice to see a big company make something right without me having to spend hours on the phone talking to customer no-service. Yes, I know other customers have probably taken care of the complaining for me, but it was nice to have AT&T take care of the replacement so quickly and easily.

WM6 is nice too, so thanks, Samsung.

Update: Though WM6 and the replacement Blackjack are definitely a step up for me, I have noticed an occasional issue where the phone will lock up and require a power-off, power-on cycle. tmantist wrote in to say “I am having issues with WM6. I have trouble making calls now. This is so weird, before I installed WM6 I didn’t have any call connectivity problems.” So heads up. WM6 is not all sunshine and light for everyone.

Earlier this year I upgraded to a refurbished Samsung Blackjack (from a Sony-Erricson W800i). After trading it in for another (refurbished) Blackjack that would take a charge, I was fairly happy with the phone. It had a full QWERTY keyboard, nice screen, and handled text messaging, web browsing, and email pretty well.

Over the last six months it has become a very frustrating phone. Calls are dropped, “no service” situations where there is clearly a cell signal, and apparently random shutdowns of the phone.

The dropped calls are apparently due to a faulty antenna that is the subject of a product advisory. If your Blackjack was built between November 2006 and February 2007 (mine was), you can get it fixed.

Terrible speaker phone

The speaker phone feature is great until there is any ambient noise, such as while driving. The Blackjack “helpfully” increases the volume automatically, and unfortunately beyond the meager ability of the built-in speaker. So what should be a hands-free situation becomes a chore of manually compensating for the fluctuating volume, ambient noise, and a weak speaker.

Granted, it is entirely possible that this refurbished Blackjack is suffering from a damaged speaker. But in this case, the changing volume makes a bad problem worse.

Blackjack annoying design

It does not help that there are physical design issues with the Blackjack — for me, at least.

First, the phone feels nothing like a phone; it is wide and flat. Maybe that works for some people, but to me it feels weird.

Second, the number keys are positioned on the QWERTY keyboard so that a column of keys is between each number column. On top of that, if you need to dial a number with letters in it or have to enter letters into an automated answering system, you are out of luck unless you remember which letters correspond to which numbers on a normal phone keypad. The first part of this appears to be fixed with the Blackjack II, but as far as I can tell you will still be guessing which number matches which letter.

Finally, the cable connection design is poor. The covers are flimsy and prone to falling out. The USB cable shares the charging connection, so if you are connected via USB you are limited to a USB trickle charge. Yes this is common with cell phones. Yes I know these companies love their proprietary connectors. It is still, however, very annoying. I have too many special cables and chargers and whatnot already.

Nitpicky problems abound.

Did I say finally? Actually, there are a lot of little problems with this phone. The camera is crappy and annoying to use. Common menu choices are nested too deep for normal use. Accidental button presses are too easy. SpecTec promises aside, there is still no wi-fi option available for the Blackjack. Yes, Blackjack users are still stuck with Windows Mobile 5 Standard. No WM6 upgrade, though it has been available for nearly half a year.

The Blackjack Is Still Pretty Nifty

All that said, I still want to like the Blackjack. For the fifty bucks I paid it is not terrible when it works. The Sony W600i felt more polished and more like a phone, but it had its problems too. None come to mind right now, but I am sure there must have been problems (besides the Vitamin Water I spilled on it).

Blackjack II?

The Blackjack II is available now and seems to correct some of the problems. Better antenna, number keys now in a more sensible layout (but no letter-dialing equivalents), Window Mobile 6, GPS, slightly better camera, improved battery life, stereo Bluetooth, a jog wheel, and other minor tweaks.

On the downside, the camera is only slightly improved and there is still no wi-fi. And it is a bit bigger and heavier.

I am torn. It seems to fix a lot of the problems, but part of me just wants a normal cell phone that acts and feels like a normal cell phone.

Spectec micro SD Wi-Fi Card

So it was welcome news to Blackjackers and other micro SD gear owners when the Spectec wi-fi micro SD card was announced last October. No dates or prices were given and the many internet postings repeated the same story. A couple sites pre-selling the card say June 2007 is the expected date.

Responsive Spectec

However, an email to Spectec in Taiwan got an immediate reply – by which I mean five minutes – that said it would be another two months. I have to say that the quick reply from Spectec was so unexpected that it bought a load of repect and patience from me. Heads up to other businesses: you can learn a thing or two from that.

Will It Work On The Blackjack?

There is some concern about whether the Blackjack supports SDIO, but I found some specs that say it supports SDIO. Also, the Spectec site says Smartphones, but says it requires Windows CE, but of course I hold out hope that Windows Mobile Standard (WM5 or WM6) will make the grade.

Still Waiting For Wi-Fi

The news of a summer without Blackjack wi-fi is disappointing, but the device is so otherwise capable that I think I can manage (this post is being drafted on mine and will be easily sent off over the interweb). Hopefully when August rolls around, it will be clear that the card works on Windows Mobile and isn’t priced too high.