This website, VoyagerHQ.com, is for sale.Check out the listing and auction at Digital Point. 

I’ve made some modifications and I believe I’ve fixed the problem with wallpapers not being sent. And, based off my testing tonight, a side-effect of the fix I’ve put in place seems to be getting wallpapers delivered in about half the time. It’s now only taking about 1 minute to be delivered to my phone. Lots of things affect this, but it is definitely working much faster now.

Happy wallpapering!

Unfortunately, the site is experiencing some problems sending some wallpapers out directly to phones. The problem has to do with the way the wallpaper images are encoded. For some reason, the Verizon servers are interpreting some of the wallpaper attachments as containing “spam words” and rejecting them.

Some wallpapers are affected, but not all of them. I’m working on a solution, but sorry for the inconvenience!

I was at Office Depot last night and near the checkouts there was a shopping cart FULL of Foray brand phone/pda case/clips all marked 75% off. I dug in the bin for about 5 minutes and found a few variations on one size that fits the Voyager pretty well. They have a leather-ish one and several colors using a different material. I went with the leather because I thought it looked a little nicer. The case has a belt clip attached to the back and a magnetic latch over the top.

Below are a few pictures I snapped of the case. It fits the Voyager snugly, but not too tight. I even tried it with the extended battery. It fits, but just slightly akward. I’ll try to post pics later of the Voyager actually in the case. Hopefully, you can find these at your local Office Depot. I got mine for $5.30 after clearance and tax. I’m not sure if I’ll be using it a month from now, but for $5 it was a good find.

Want to visit a link you were just sent via a text message? There is a simple, but non-obvious solution:

When viewing a text message that contains numbers or links, simply press the SEND button on your phone. This will take you to a menu of all links and numbers found in the message.

Easy.

Sometime in the past week, Verizon began rolling out the first firmware upgrade to the Voyager phone since being released to the public. I walked into my local Verizon Wireless store (Indianapolis, IN) and requested the firmware upgrade (they tend to look at you funny until you use the term “flash”). The rep had to check because he didn’t think there was an upgrade out yet. Sure enough, there was. He wanted to know how I found out about it because they (and him) had just found out about it today (I told him from reading message boards).

The upgrade took about 30 minutes because they were quite busy. But, no problems and so far I’m quite happy with the results. Here are a few photos of my phone (and comparisons with my wife’s yet-to-be-upgraded Voyager) with some of the new features.

The new browser bar at the bottom, including the thumbnail screen preview at the top-right.	A comparison shot of the new browser.	The dial digits are slightly larger with the upgrade.
“Full Screen View” at the top of the menu.	New “Favorites” menu (can be set as your homepage).	The call answer button is now much larger.

You can find similar lists from various places on the web about the new features.

As far as I can tell, the biggest changes are:

• Fixed issue with V CAST Music and 4GB+ removable memory read error
• Update power settings to improve battery life performance
• Mobile Web - HTML browser enhancements
• Fixed to access to keypad through only one step while in a call
• Fixed when device goes to maps.google.com, the device resets
• Added Favorites, Full View, Cursor to the browser

And some others…

• Adds ability to reset V CAST Mobile TV client
• Bluetooth enhancements to audio, pairing, and key tone
• Fixed to display ‘=’ symbol on the bottom in the calculator for LG Joy font
• Fixed the auto lock setting so that the touch screen will not lock on its own when auto lock is set to off
• Fixed to allow ESPN application on external touch screen
• Fixed to allow Mobile IM on external touch screen
• Fixed to have no difference between the displayed image (to let you know which scene was taken) and the actual saved image, when you take a picture aiming at any moving objects

I’ve just added a few dozen new icons to the list of icon choices for Mobile Menu. These include some “social networking” icons which some of you might enjoy. For now, they are all scattered around. If I add many more, I’ll have to look at some kind of structured organization for the icon list to make it easier to browse. Let me know if you have any ideas (or icon requests).

Check out the new icons by editing your current menu or starting a new one.

As of yesterday, I added a rather useful feature to the wallpapers section that lets you send yourself any wallpaper you like straight to your phone. Once you receive the wallpaper (as an MMS message), you simply save it to your My Pictures and then you can set it as your wallpaper.

In order to try and cut down on potential abuse of this free service, I’ve added an extra step where you must verify your cell number. Basically, you just need to enter your number and the website will text you a verification code. Just enter that code into the form on the verification page and you can start sending yourself wallpapers. The verification page will automatically come up the first time you try to send yourself a wallpaper.

There is no extra charges for using this service, other than the standard text/picture messaging charges you might get from Verizon Wireless (depending on your plan). So, enjoy and let me know if I can make this feature any better!

Here’s a helpful hint that’s been useful on many cell phones for a while. With the hassle of having to bring up your dial pad each time on the Voyager, makes it even more convenient.

STEP 1: Go to your Contacts list and bring up your voicemail contact (should be one of the last items in your contact list).

STEP 2: Select EDIT and make sure your cursor is at the end of the number (which should be *86).

STEP 3: Select the OPTIONS button and select “2-Sec Pause” (do this at least twice, maybe 3 times if it doesn’t work with 2)

STEP 4: Enter your voicemail password after the P’s you just entered and Save the entry.

What you have just done is add 4-6 seconds of pauses (the P’s) after the phone number is dialed, followed by your voicemail password, which will be automatically dialed for you. Go ahead and give it a try.

Keep in mind that you have now stored your voicemail password in your phone’s contact list. If someone were to take your phone, they would have access to your voicemail.

I just received the extended battery for the Voyager in the mail a few days ago. I was able to get it on Ebay for $10 less than what the Verizon store is asking. Plus, as of last week, the Verizon store was sold out of the extended battery.

As you can see, the battery definitely sticks out the back. I was worried that it would be clumsy and annoying. But, after a few days of using the new battery, I hardly notice the extra size. The battery is a bit off-center, so it actually helps me determine which side is which when I reach into my pocket to take it out.

The battery life is great. I’d roughly estimate about double the battery life at least. Of course, it all depends on your usage. If you are having battery life problems and don’t mind a small protrusion on the back of your phone. The extended battery is worth it.