Database Users

I think it's time to send out "the letter..."

With E-TEN M500 getting all the goodies, from Voice Command via BT Headset, good technical support, and now Windows Mobile 5.0, I think it's time that we get some serious damage control from i-mate.
Please take as much as 30 seconds out of your life to copy and paste the following letter and send to [email protected]:
Hello, Mr. Morrison,
I am writing to you in reference to the recent press release on Windows Mobile™ 5.0 from Microsoft®, and your position to support it on existing devices such as the i-mate™ JAM and the PDA2k.
As I am aware of now, there are conflicting reports from your technical support groups to your public interviews as to whether or not current i-mate™ owners will be able to upgrade their i-mate™ devices to Windows Mobile™ 5.0. As a relatively new i-mate™ customer, yet a rather trusted, public individual on various websites, forums, and support groups, I am hoping that I can get a firm answer from you or another trusted, definitive, and reliable source at i-mate™.
Since the announcement of Windows Mobile™ 5.0, manufacturers and companies have stepped up to announce that their existing Windows Mobile™-powered devices will be provided with a firmware upgrade, either paid or free, and within a reasonable amount of time. Most recently, E-TEN Corporation, whose M500 Windows Mobile™ Phone Edition device is in direct competition with the i-mate™ JAM, have firmly announced that they will have a Windows Mobile™ 5.0 upgrade solution in the near future.
Your continued support with your existing product line is just as important as your innovation and development of new devices, such as the yet-publicly-unnamed HTC Universal model. From a technical standpoint, the i-mate™ JAM and PDA2k are fully capable of satisfying the minimum requirements of Windows Mobile™ 5.0. I am also sure you are aware of the unofficial development of Windows Mobile™ 5.0 installed on an older-generation HTC Himalaya model with much success, which further proves that the JAM and PDA2k are more than likely candidates to accept such an upgrade.
I implore you to consider your current customer base in providing Windows Mobile™ 5.0 upgrade support for the JAM and PDA2k, and hope that you can reply with a firm response as soon as possible, as they both will surely reflect on your stance regarding customer service and support, with which many existing and potential consumers will definitely take into account when purchasing their next mobile device.
Thank you for your time and cooperation in this matter, and I hope to hear from you very soon.
Sincerely,
Your Name Here
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good luck to us all.

Done

done

Done

Good idea would be to post this message to other forums as well

If you get something back, put it in here

done
done

dn

great idea... done ofcourse.
edit: could somebody inform ppcw.net / msmobiles.com and all other news sites about this community movement so we will get even more users to join us

done....
:wink:

BTW... I think it would be a good idea to ask i-mate for widcomm bluetooth stack.. instead of the crappy M$ one....

done! :twisted: :evil:

I worte to him 2 weeks ago and this is the letter I got back pertaining to the crappy customer service and hopeless ROM updates that tend solve some problems only to create more.
______________________________________________________
Dear Mr McClure,
Thank you for taking the time to write to us. I apologise that your experience hasn't been first rate.
Certain areas of our products do develop over time and we feel it important that new features an improvements are given to our customers as soon as they are available. Windows Media 10 became available firstly on the i-mate JAM, and we are now rolling this functionality onto our other device platforms. Similarly with video MMS capability on the JAM, improvements in camera software and post processing. New Bluetooth devices continue to enter into the market and occasionally we need to provide patches to ensure correct operation with our devices. We also receive service releases from Microsoft which we endeavour to release to our customers. We do try to stagger releases so that customers are not overloaded with patches and updates. Some critical updates we do release as patches, but we prefer to roll them up into single updates. We do perform stringent quality assurance on new builds to ensure we don't introduce new issues. This is far from our intention.
Best regards,
John Williamson
VP Technology
i-mate™
Office No. 207-213
Building 11
PO Box 500085
Dubai Internet City
Dubai, UAE
Tel: 00 971 (0) 4 390 1989
DDI: 00 971 (0) 4 367 8501
Fax: 00 971 (0) 4 390 4428
Mob: 00 971 (0) 50 550 8879

The camera still sucks.
johnannie said:
I worte to him 2 weeks ago and this is the letter I got back pertaining to the crappy customer service and hopeless ROM updates that tend solve some problems only to create more.
______________________________________________________
<snipped>
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Click to collapse

DONE!

Done

Shouldn't you address HTC? I don't think that I-Mate (or other third brands) have anything to do with the software implementation.
Besides that, I don't know why everyone wants Mobile 5. What do you know exactly about it that is so interesting for the Magician?

done.. i hope they read it though!!!!

Dandie said:
Shouldn't you address HTC? I don't think that I-Mate (or other third brands) have anything to do with the software implementation.
Besides that, I don't know why everyone wants Mobile 5. What do you know exactly about it that is so interesting for the Magician?
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Click to collapse
I would think htc will only do it if imate, qtek, o2, orange, t-mob etc. etc. pay them to develop and 2k5 rom for upgrade.
Why would we want it? Well persistant memory alone would be enougth for me. Seriously, we will all be looking back in a few years and saying "remember when we had PPC's and the battery run out and wiped the memory. What the f*** was that all about??!"

done

Response from O2 re: Blackberry on Exec

Guys,
Thought I would share this update I received from O2 Data Support regarding Blackberry availability since I'd been chasing them regularly for the XDAIIs.
Still unsure whether or not to invest in the Exec, but if they can get Blackberry going on it then I think it would be a winner for me.
Cheers
Thank you for your e-mail.
Blackberry Connect software is at this moment in time being developed
for the EXEC, unfortunately we cannot give any timescales on the release
date.
The reason on this not being released on launch with the device, is due
to the EXEC carrying the WM 5.0 O/S and the present Blackberry Connect
software only being compatible with WM 2003.
When details of release are available, these will be posted on our XDA
web site www.my-xda.com
Sorry we cannot be more precise with our answer, but if you have any
further enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us, we will be more
than glad to help.
Kind regards
Technical Helpdesk Advisor
Customer Technical Support
O2-UK
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Click to collapse

If your company using Exchange 2003 with SP2, it can be used as a blackberry device.

numanoids said:
Guys,
Thought I would share this update I received from O2 Data Support regarding Blackberry availability since I'd been chasing them regularly for the XDAIIs.
Still unsure whether or not to invest in the Exec, but if they can get Blackberry going on it then I think it would be a winner for me.
Cheers
Thank you for your e-mail.
Blackberry Connect software is at this moment in time being developed
for the EXEC, unfortunately we cannot give any timescales on the release
date.
The reason on this not being released on launch with the device, is due
to the EXEC carrying the WM 5.0 O/S and the present Blackberry Connect
software only being compatible with WM 2003.
When details of release are available, these will be posted on our XDA
web site www.my-xda.com
Sorry we cannot be more precise with our answer, but if you have any
further enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact us, we will be more
than glad to help.
Kind regards
Technical Helpdesk Advisor
Customer Technical Support
O2-UK
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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Click to collapse
Remember, it took O2 and RIM nearly a year to get it right; given RIM haven't got a 3G device yet I'd say it will be this time next year when we see it on Exec.
Sad but true - O2 is at the mercy of RIM, and the RIM Connect team are at the mercy of the RIM Core team

We do run Exchange 2003 - not sure what our plans are to implement SP2 and we are a Blackberry house already. Need to have a word with our global messaging team to find out what the plans are.
Also, when I last looked at AUTD notifications for Exchange 2003 Sp1, O2 said that they didn't support AUTD which rendered the technology useless if you were on O2.
I'd sincerely hope that seeing as they are selling a device that has the capability, O2 would have the foresight(?) to look at accomodating customers who was to take advantage of it.
I don't think Rim will take that long to develop a client - given the current state of affairs in the states they'll be looking to increase their userbase with or without their own hardware and what better way that to incorporate support for newer clients? They'll know the Universal supports the Exchange push technology, but while its still being brought into production why not jump in and keep hold of existing RIM customers by accomodating their new devices.

Push email delayed. but Please release the BT stack updates

see http://msmobiles.com/news.php/4684.html
MS being sued again. WM 5 delayed.
I hope MS still release the improvements without push email.
Makes liars out of many service providers unless a 3rd party push application is used.
My universal may be a brick a bit longer than I hoped.
Here is my xmas wish list.
Dear Santa for xmas I would like a new ROM for my phone, a T-mobile MDA PRO UK, all I ask is for support for A2DP in the bluetooth stack so I can listen to my music wire free.

Whats funny is this part:
[quoted from link]
It is like patenting DNA or breathing process and then requesting big money from everybody who has DNA or breathes. [...] Visto's patents are so generic to cover almost anything. [...] Visto are spongers, parasites, who patented generic and totally general procedure and now they want to use these patents to rip off big money from Microsoft!
[endquote]
Considering Microsofts business practice and love for proprietary architectures that pushes away competitors or bleeds them out until they are ready to be assimlated I kinda like that this is coming back on them. Too bad end users are paying the price...

Re: Push email delayed. but Please release the BT stack upda
GDawes said:
see http://msmobiles.com/news.php/4684.html
MS being sued again. WM 5 delayed.
I hope MS still release the improvements without push email.
Makes liars out of many service providers unless a 3rd party push application is used.
My universal may be a brick a bit longer than I hoped.
Here is my xmas wish list.
Dear Santa for xmas I would like a new ROM for my phone, a T-mobile MDA PRO UK, all I ask is for support for A2DP in the bluetooth stack so I can listen to my music wire free.
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Click to collapse
Why post this in a magician thread? We won't EVER get WM5 & A2DP is available in this forum. Just search for BCHS_for_pocket
& push-mail is available under WM2003 courtesy of GeoffreyCross
Cheers, M

I agree
Did not notice I was in magician thread. Perhaps the moderator can move it.
SORRY!

Volunteer Software Testers Wanted

Hi guys,
I'm looking for users who could test some of my alpha and beta apps on devices that run WM5 and PPC2003.
For a mix of apps that I will have available for testing look at the coming soon stuff at http://www.andrewopala.ca.
The testing will be as simple as seeing if they install properly and if the keys, keyboards, and pen seem to work properly with the apps. Finally, seeing that they unistall properly.
Anyone with phones both on and off carriers that have Smartphone Signing Locks for Windows Mobile 5 application installs would be an asset.
In advance of your help here's a coupon for Blackjack that I recently posted on handango. The price for the game with the coupin is about $2.25US / 1.75€. THe coupon expires at the end of February: 79ED923F
THanks.
-Andrew

Forgot to attach the locations where you can download blackjack:
http://www.andrewopala.ca/spec/aoblackjack.1.0.0.spec.php
or
http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?productId=202401

ill test some stuff on wm03 if you want,
also review it.

Sounds good - I'll have some 2003-targetted software also.
Can your device be upgraded to wm5?

BTW I putting on a tester-only forum on my site, so we won't polute this excellent board with specific nonsense.
It should be up on http://www.andrewopala.ca/forum soon. I'll drop a note in this group once it's up. There are a lot of people who have shown some interest, but we'll see how many have the time once we get this setup.

P.S. does anyone want the blackjack app for free? WM5 with CF 2.0 is required.
If so I'll drop the price to $5 so that the coupon will make it free. Let's say I get 4 yes's to this post. I'll drop the price until I see 4 purchases at zero.

Hi,
if you need a Wm5 device for beta testing my T-mobile vario II is at your disposal

The vario form factor is very nice with the keyboard slide-out and has it's uses. What processor does your model use?

It has the Samsung SC32442A-400MHz stacked cpu an ARM type processor.

I'm interested in testing some stuff for the TMO Dash.

The net price dropped to zero from the overwhelming demand on another board (4 responses! ). To restate:
The product is here: http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?productId=202401
And the coupon is good unti lthe end of February: 79ED923F

allo,
nope ive got a special edition of the Magician though (400 hz cpu, 128 meg memory) WM3 with a variation of patches and upgrades.

AndrewOpala said:
The net price dropped to zero from the overwhelming demand on another board (4 responses! ). To restate:
The product is here: http://www.handango.com/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?productId=202401
And the coupon is good unti lthe end of February: 79ED923F
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd be happy to be a tester for you, particularly if there are games!
(Cingular 8125 running Molski's 2.26 custom ROM)

Hi guys, the forum has taken shape this week and we already have one patiently waiting tester.
The testor login is: http://www.andrewopala.ca/forum.
Once you create an account for yourself, the interface will ping me that you want to get on the board. I'll send you an email asking you to introduce yourself and let me know why you want to join. After that I'll wait for your response and then activate your account.
Please read the stuff in how to category. Then we can start writing a few docs on setting up the test environments - not a lot of work, but I expect it will be useful for everyone to be on the same page.
I'm in the eastern time zone (GMT-5), and for the time-being I'm the sys admin for www.sportpools.ca while the real admin is in Cuba for a holiday with his family, so I may be a day or two in responding to you after you sign in. My Sunday is busy with my family to don't expect much until Monday or Tuesday.
-Andrew
P.S. I really appreciate your interest and I know we all benefit from this.

[Breaking News]Next Version of WM will run on current Hardware

Next version of Windows Mobile: Derek Snyder, Microsoft employee, gave this presentation which was under NDA and can’t be discussed in detail. I can tell you that I have seen the next version of Windows Mobile (not Windows Mobile 7) that is scheduled to ship to manufacturers in the 1st quarter of 2008. We saw it running on current hardware, but that does not mean that wireless carriers or manufacturers will necessarily provide the update to consumers. Personally, I think this is the OS that Windows Mobile 6 should have been and I think that consumers will be quite pleased with the functionality and features of this next update.
I found out this Here
So, the xdains here will be able to port it to all devices hopefully.

wont it just be like having win xp and making it look like vista. no real changes just look

No it won't be like changing WinXP to look like Vista... because there are MAJOR differences between XP and Vista.
At the very least theres an entirely new sound and graphics subsystems, all new memory management systems, all new security systems... anyways far too many to list here! but you really should learn about whats different before passing judgement!

ahhh, it's not any where near the coolness of iPhone. I wonder when microsoft going to implement the gesture to its application. I have been microsoft long time fan, hate it to switch provider.

another blog (who was present in Amsterdam) i just read said that along with the new WM6 look, the WM6.1 or the upgrade will have new applications.. among those are : group or team calendar (maybe an outlook calendar update), wherein you can simultaneously see multiple calendars and agendas (from different people) allowing schedule and agenda synchronization between the two (super useful if you have a partner and needs to easily squeeze a meeting/date between two crowded agendas).. no more asking "are you free this afternoon?".. and an application called "Oops! I'm late" (funny name), which uses GPS and mobile internet to automatically pinpoint your exact location, assess nearby traffic and geographical situation, and automatically computes your ETA (estimated time of arrival) based on calendar appointments.. and it AUTOMATICALLY sends out emails and text messages to people in your appointment, notifying them that you will be coming late along with your ETA and the current traffic situation at your location.
very very nice.. along with that.. is a major visual overhaul! i hope it'll look like the glassy vista style interface seen in microsoft demo site here

good news!!!

For the love of GOD, please, PLEASE update that pos Pocket Outlook. I beg you.

Anymore screenshots??? i really dont see MUCH of a difference?

elFahd said:
Anymore screenshots??? i really dont see MUCH of a difference?
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no screen shots are possible or any other info (as of what the real WM6.1 upgrade interface looks like and what are its new features), except those already given by the bloggers who were present at the Mobius event at Amsterdam.. they were all sworn to a NDA or Non Disclosure Agreement.. meaning no information, other than those agreed to be disclosed (the 2 applications namely Team Calendar and Oops! I'm Late - these served as a sneak peak/teaser) should be leaked out or else, those persons will be legally liable to face the law.. they can say many things about the new look in general adjectives such as beautiful, revolutionary and long awaited, but you can't force them to tell the specifics or their asses will be kicked by Microsoft BIGTIME..
so as of now.. we only have speculations about the NEW look, based on what we have seen earlier and the rumors running around the net (the Windows media center-like carousel like that in the T-mobile shadow or the Palm 500v, the integration of Vista Side Show, and a new GUI effect)..
if you'll be patient.. i can feel that this new WM6 will surely be presented to the public at the CES (Consumer Electronics Show) this coming January..

hmm sounds cool! + i would be really happy if i could sync my stuff with integrated vista apps and not just outlook..

I'm very ready to give it a try next year...the sooner the better for us!!!!

Anyone think M$ would have released this update free were it not for the iPhone?
Well I'm looking forward to seeing this.

Come on people - if we're asking for things we can't get without people getting into legal issues (i.e. Screenshots, additional details) why not go all out! I personally would like to request a leaked rom!

I am really glad that I have chosen the WM platform for my phone. It was so much fun being able to upgrade from the very original WM5, then the various flavours of WM6 ROM. My phone is one year old now but it still feels new to me.
I don't know of other phone platforms which let me do the same.