Database Users

HTC i-MATE Pocket PC Phone Edition is the King of the Hill

I wanted to let everyone know that both I and a good buddy of mine are running our brand new (two week old) i-MATE Pocket PC Phone Edition units directly from HTC. THEY are both the FULL ENGLISH ROM right from the factory direct, no flashing required. The are excellent units with good battery life and everything better than the T-Mobile units we have before. They have lots of bonus software and since we didn't flash them, we will have no difficulty loading any upgrades later on from Carrier Devices. If you need to know more about the devices go to www.imate.com
We ordered our from a great company in the middle east called Compume at www.compume.com and the devices were delivered to our doorsteps in Toronto within seven days of ordering. The pricing was excellent and BEST of all. If you order the english full version you get a full year world wide warrenty, yes worldwide full warrenty. We are running them with the our original sync/charge USB cables at work and car chargers from our XDA units - perfect no problems ... Again, ordering the i-MATE from Compume means a full warrenty and full english version and less than seven days shipping. The devices surf very fast and with the patch for the ID caller program provided already for the i-MATE units, its flawless. Battery life (after 12 hours of work today (on the whole time) it sits at 41% still. Multi-tasking is great, pictures are surprising very very good. MSN is terrific as always. It holds its GPRS and if your wondering if it is worth it to upgrade from the original - it is truely like night and day ... Dont' hesitate with Carrier Devices HTC i-MATE or ordering from Compume. This is without question the best unit on the market and I've had them all. Oh btw - HBH-65 BT headset, perfect and flawless. I am running as is my buddy on FIDO in Canada with no difficulties what so ever. Dont play with your money and go for the original English Rom. If your wondering about price, our total bill came to 2200.00 CDN for TWO devices and that included shipping costs (7 days and that was with customs)door to door.

You're preaching to the converted, dude !!

camera issue in imate
hi everybody,
got my imate and i really like it . however there is one issue that i think needs attention. although i know the camera is just a toy but why does it mess up images? when I am trying to fix a position to take a picture, everything is clear but when i take the picture there are problems in the picture such as it's quite unclear. is this an issue with the jpg compression utility or something like that?
oh yeah also, today i recieved a call and i tried picking it up but my imate froze. i had to reset and the call was dropped.. this only happened once but does anyone know what's the issue there?
thanks.

Rather lightweight compared to the XDAII though isn't it? 1/8th of the RAM, 1/2 the ROM, 1/3rd the CPU speed and no bluetooth (even the limited stack in the XDAII).
It comes down to what you want, a phone with PDA capabilities or a PDA with a built-in phone.

I agree....I am the guy with the other I-mate. After using this for a week I have to say is WOW. What a powerful pocket PC. I loved my Tmobile XDA but this just blows it away.
Pics and that are @ http://www.carrierdevices.com.au
The store compu-me is a LARGE retail chain in UAE so very stable. You use your Visa or Mastercard which should have 100% protection so not like buying through paypal or sending some guy money who will get someone else to sent it. So we felt good about buying that way. We spoke to the store and they were very helpful and shipped it out right away.
Just a few notes on the I-mates. They do have support for Arabic. Meaning when you first turn it on, or perform a HARD reset it will prompt you to install Arabic language support, Just click decline to the prompt and your ROM will be fully english. I have not had mine lockup or do anything strange was a very smooth week.
The devices did come with a Full Leather Case (I am hearing some do not), the option CD came with 2 complete high end games, Tennis and Odyssey.
In the Box you Get:
- The i-mate (of course)
- USB Cradle
- Power Adapter (tis a UK plug, you just need to purchase a prong adapter) it is a 110 volt and 220 volt adapter!
- Leather Case
- Stereo Headphones
- Activesync/Outlook
- Bonus CD
- Extra Sylus
- Full Colour Manual in English of course (very good, I actually read the chapter on the camera lol)
I have used my Lili sync from Pocket PC techs without any problems all week at work, also bought some writeshields from them (expensive but glad I did).
If you want to buy XDA2 then this is the only SMART way to go...

What? Who? Promo?
What's with all this "make a huge promo in 2000 words or more"? "Hey you really need one of these"!!!
Bogus. I played with one... yea, if you want a tiny little screen, no RAM, no processor speed, then it's great. If you want a PDA that's also a phone, then that's not it.

Umm 128mb, 400 Mhz...what are you talking about, the specs of the imate are the best there is. You must have the XDA2 / Imate confused with something else?

How to get a cheap Universal

Hi,
First off: thanks to this forum and it's users! I am now a happy owner of a Blue Angel AND a Universal.
I thought it would be nice to share with you guy's these facts:
1) The Universal costs in Portugal 799 Euro in stores and providers tend to ask 849 Euro for it.
2) You may start to find some discounts. Currently they are sold a http:\\www.fnac.pt for just 649 Euro. Obviously the end of commercialization is arraving for this great phone...
3) The cheapest way to get one is through eBay: I got one for 255 Euro + shipping (280 Euro total).
How to do it and why it's so cheap:
1) In Germany, many Universal's are sold by T-Online, branded as MDA Pro.
2) People seem to get them cheap there with a 1-2 year contract.
3) After 6-12 month they want to get rid of it because it is probably TO BIG for them (being a BA user, I will have to get used to this oversized phone, as well - it is really big and clumsy to handle).
4) Because it is normally SIM-Locked (unlocking it at T-Online costs 99 Euro) and because it is branded, it's value is not so high for normal users (I am a freak, so I would pay it's weight in gold, if I had any gold...).
5) There are lot's of them being sold on http://www.ebay.de.
How to do it:
1) Take your time and start observing current auctions.
2) Make a search for all MDA Pro's on the german eBay.
3) Ask each seller if they would ship to your country and if the phone is really in mint condition.
4) If they don't answer fast, remove them from your list.
5) If they have negative feedback (more than 1%), remove them from your list.
6) If they have strange remarks on positive feedback (i.e. difficult contact), remove them from your list.
7) From the remaining, select the ones that offer phones in mint condition without accessories like SDCards (they are cheaper new and will make noobs lose their heads when bidding).
8) Monitor the remaining ones and bid only in the last minute!!! Keep two pages open: one to monitor current bid, one with your bid ready to go.
9) You should not spend more than 300 Euro - if you monitor auctions of these devices, you will see many being sold for less than 300 Euro.
BEAR IN MIND THAT THERE IS OBVIOUSLY ALWAYS A RISK WHEN PURCHASING STUFF LIKE THIS AT EBAY!
What to do next:
1) Use the great SIM Unlock tool available from Buzz.
2) Flash WM6 in WWE.
3) Patch the registry so that it matches the german keyboard. The german keyboard is perfectly OK, the only annoyance is the swapped "Z" and "Y".
4) If this is not acceptable, you can by an english keyboard at eBay as well. It will cost you some 25 Euro, though. Also, you will need to dismantle the whole phone for this replacement.
It is always better to get a second hand Universal from a friend you trust, but if you live in Portugal or other periferic country, it might not be easy to find someone willing to sell his Universal for such a low price.
Hope this helps someone.
Cheers,
vma

Ops - wrong forum! Could a Mod or Admin please move this to the Universal - Universal section?
Thanks,
Vitor

Don't these machines then have the wrong (german) keyboard?

doodle you should read
nice guide vma, also nice to see someone else puls the same tricks as i do on ebay with 2 pages open.. bidding with only 3 seconds left ftw

bidsniper ftw, it bids with 0.5 seconds to go

Does this mean shipping is worldwide?
Versand nach: Weltweit

panzer said:
Does this mean shipping is worldwide?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It means the seller will ship to anywhere in the world

For those who can't understand german, here is a nice link for you:
http://babelfish.altavista.com/babelfish/trurl_pagecontent?lp=de_en&trurl=http://www.ebay.de/
Thanks go to Babelfish, Altavista and of course to Douglas Adams.
Regarding eBay-Tools: I have tried them, but are not very fond of them:
1) Most cost money.
2) You need to give an (unknown) software your eBay-passwords
3) I don't feel confortable having a software bidding for me
The thing is: if you loose in the last minute, then just wait for the next auction. never buy completly out of impulse. Take your time to find the right product being auctioned. Settle the price you are really wanting to pay at maximum. Bid in the last 1-2 minutes with your maximum price. That has always worked for me.
Cheers,
vma

I did the same thig as vma and recently got a UNI next to a BA. eBay is a good place to shop for these phones. But instead to look just for MDA Pro, it's also good to look for the other aliases of the UNI. Like the SPV M5000. Less people will know that this is the same phone and the price is likely (hopefully) a bit less then for a MDA Pro. (at least that worked for me when I bough my BA).
vma said:
....
4) If this is not acceptable, you can by an english keyboard at eBay as well. It will cost you some 25 Euro, though. Also, you will need to dismantle the whole phone for this replacement.
....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The german keyboard layout is quite annoying to me. So I would like to opt for the english keyboard, but haven't been able to find it on ebay yet. You have any links to it?? The problem for me is not with the Z and they Y, but with the special character, eg those above the numbers. So, I rather keep the keyboard layout in english, just like the keyboard of my PC. But the 25 euro would be well worth it.
While replacing the keyboard, it's probably also a good oportunity to fix the little plastic thingie that is preventing the pen from falling out. At least that was a small operation I have done on several BAs in the past and plan to do this soon on my UNI as well, since the pen keeps dropping out.
Talking about pens: On ebay, you'll also be able to find a few shops that sell pens for the UNI. One of the shops in Hong Kong sells you a set of 3 for less than 7 euros including shipping. (just search for "Qtek 9000 stylus" and you'll find several shops)

Look here for example: item # 300098533646
This seems to be a black one, but I have seen many silver ones as well. Beware that they come from Hong Kong!
I don't know how much customs charge for something like this.
Cheers,
vma

Thread moved as requested.

not a reallygood idea since the German keyboard is in QWERTZ!!

Read what I wrote! I mentioned that fact.
Also, you can configure WWE through a registry hack to this keymap, so the only annoyance is that the Z and Y key's are swapped. But they will correspond to the labels on the keyboard.
Also, you can purchase a keyboard at eBay and replace the german one.
Cheers,
vma

i got my pro from t-mobile for sale...,so who ever is interestet please pm me for this..

Just bought me a qtek 9000

Just won an auction for a qtek 9000 with tomtom 5.21 and a tomtom BT antenna..
Paid the ridiculous sum of 265 $ for it all with posting..
did i get ripped of ?
It is to serve purely as a navigation in my car, as i have a hermes as primary phone.
And hence comes my question.
Will there be any need for me to update to WM6 ?
and if not which Wm5 rom is the most stable ?
Hope this is ok to ask and hope i dont start a flame war (distinct possibility in the hermes forum if u aint careful)
Charon

No upgrade needed...
As said above if you're just using the device for navigating in your car you probably don't need to upgrade - it might be a bit slow though... As for the price they regularly go for about $280 here in the UK so I think the price you paid is about average. Oh and I think once you see that 640x480 screen you might just change your mind about using it as just a navigation aid! I think most people here are using Helmi 3.5.1 if I'm not mistaken - don't use it myself as I've got WM6 installed on mine.

You Paid How Much?!
YOU PAID HOW MUCH?!
To my knowledge you got a really really really good deal. I've never paid less than $650 (USD) for any version of the Universal. Where did you auction, Ebay? If anyone has these device for: x< $650 I strongly advise you to sell it on Ebay where I constantly see these things top out at $800.
To answer your origionaly question you got a really good deal and no need to upgrade to WM6. I agree with the previous post that after using the Uni you might find your hermes to be inadequate. If you were to upgrade to WM6 the most stable ROM that I've tested would have to be the Latest Darkforce ROM (the bug for me was with playing Mpeg-4 encoded video files). Ivan's new ROM and Midget's is pretty stable I only have a few issues with email accounts that I posted about. Let me know how it goes with your new endeavor.

Very Happy to know that i got myself a good deal (I love good deals)
I bought it on a danish auction site called mobilauction.dk
it had been on for 10 days with no bidders and 5 min before auction ended i bid the minimum bid 1500 dkr = 265,5$
Normally they sell for 3-4000 Dkr here in denmark used 530-710$
That is what i have seen after digging around since i won the auction.
The main reason i got the hermes as primary is because i use it as modem for my laptop with hsdpa.
Thinking of selling it and getting a Moto Z8 when it arrives.
Have already ordered a Brodit carholder for my universal so i can sit nicely in my car.
If the quality of the calls is good i might use it as primary.
Getting a pioneer 9800BT installed on friday so it might be a nice carphone
And if i decide to use it as primary then i for sure must start flashing, will get serious withdrawel symptome if i dont flash weekly, bad habit from the hermes forum....
So for now i got a new toy to play with until the athena's come down in human prices :8

T-mob Ameo for sale.......Good for Athena project?

Hello peeps,
I am SKINT. BROKE. POOR.
My mate is also giving me his Vario 2......Now I love my Ameo, the speed and everything is great BUT....I dont think I am rich enough to own one at the moment.....
I use the hard drive....but I have a 4 GB mem stick...
I used the GPS on my motorbike....once....Worked out I need a car.
I love watching movies on this, anything I download willl play on this baby
BUT I now dont use my PSP...
I spend too much time installing Crap and finding out I will never use it......
I dont know how much this is worth, it has small mark(tiny) on keyboard at bottom and small mark above the screen on the far right where the keyboard rubs.
apart from that, its mint.
I have everything from the box: (inc box)
Charger
headset
Case thing
Spare pen
Brown leather flip case.
Also in the err...case thing:
one of those 4 in 1 adapters with USB and Svid/composit out from expansys.
An Svid cable
512 mini SD card and adapter
Screen cleaner (nicked it from blackberry)
Its obviously still on WM 5.
Its running Mytrue VGA and works pretty flawlessly.
It has TOM TOM with UK maps.
Microdrive even has some PRON on it for lucky bidder.......
This is the second one I have had from T-mobile. It is about 7 weeks old.
(my mate dropped the other one and I had to do some quick talking )
Anyone want to make me an offer?
I live in London and work in the city, I have motorbike and I can get to most places pretty quick, like Microchip. I will be well willing to travel for some cash.
I would like cash for this beast but I would consider a reasonably specced laptop as a swap.....(as long as it works, condition of laptop is not an issue.)
Anyone>?

How much are you looking for for it ?, I am after one to replace my MDA Vario II and am a cash buyer, I am watching 5 ameo's on ebay at the moment !

Still awaiting your reply...
@Yarod_g14.
I PM'd you a couple of days ago...still no reply either way to date.
You still selling or is it already sold?

I dont need it now, bought one off ebay this morning, cost £450 for a brand new Ameo, I'm happy now !, time to pension off my vario II and XDA exec that it replaces

Interested in your Ameo
I am in Australia and would definately be interested in your unit for AU$500 + AU$50 postage.
Send me an email to the address I left in your private messages if you are interested in discussing further...
Simon

Expansys selling Shifts for £499...

Just had an email from them... half price apparently!
http://www.expansys.com/d.aspx?i=177867&partner=uknews
Limited numbers of course and we're only allowed 2 each...!!!

I've not followed any Shift discussion fora few months, but am interested to see what people here think...
Does £500 represent good value for this thing, given all the advances you guys seem to have made?
Ferg.

Well I was impressed, as that's now only a bit more than I paid for a second hand (though not used) Italian Shift I bought on Ebay... but £499 for something that you have to do so much to do make it usable is a bit of laugh really. I can't believe Expansys was selling ANY at £949
I bought one as I love HTC and have had their devices for years now and wanted an UMPC so I could always carry my work with me (paid employment type work as well as university degree coursework which includes some programming and maths software that needs a full PC). Before I went for the Shift, I thought I'd try some with a smaller form factor as the screen size seemed excessive for my needs, but I was wrong! I tried the OQO 01+ (WAY TOO SMALL and rubbish keyboard) and also a Vaio U390 (very expensive and very pretty but again keyboard too small for me and was surprisingly awkward and uncomfortable to use). Then I bought a Shift and have been fiddling to make it as good as possible ever since!
Am really hoping for SD access from WinMo side, the phone wouldn't be useful for me but just having a decent amount of memory in WinMo would mean I can use the Windows side less for email and calendar type functions and actually make good use of the GPS with my TomTom software.
Having said that I have a car mount and cigarette lighter charger so it's only when I'm on the train that I have power problems (when I don't need SatNav anyway!) so actually I don't even need the SD access, but it'd be nice
So yes, it has lots going for it, so long as you don't mind reinstalling both operating systems provided on it and not wanting to ever be too far from mains power!

WHAT !! according to google thats $1095.55613 Australian!
Here I paid $712.03 AUD (324.312884 GPB) - yes it was new (http://www.google.com.au/search?cli...3+aud+in+gbp&sourceid=opera&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8)

Where on earth did you buy a new HTC Shift for $700 AUD? Back of a truck bargain was it

thats how much they are from cell-com - but i have since looked elsewhere and the going price seems to be around $850 - $950 AUD

Try $1300 AUD...standard price....

FOOFTR said:
Try $1300 AUD...standard price....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.expansys.com.au/p.aspx?i=157607
2 second search on google 924.99 aud

and there are a few places doing them for 895 aud
http://www.pressdigital.com.au/mobile-tablet-ultra-mobile/shift-umpc-clearance-sale-p-5288.html
http://www.calculatorking.com.au/product_info.php?products_id=1216

It seems both of those sellers only ship to Australian addresses. =/
It is a great price and I wish I could ship it from there to the US, sadly this does not seem to be an option.

I want to buy the shift (the ROM which enables phone is very close now..).
The price of the australian expansys is just great.I couldn't believe it!
But I live in Europe.
i) is shipping from au possible / does it cost much?
ii) will toll taxes be huge?
iii) can the "australian" shift work in eu? I mean GSM or anything other.

Shift Pricing
Apoparis,
The www.pressdigital.com.au units are genuine HTC Australia stock - and as a local HTC dealer, are not allowed to be exported (at least there's no warranty if they're exported!).. But if you're REALLY keen can get one picked up via Fedex or TNT from one of the local pickup points (eg Press Digital allow collection from Pymble) - Then you're onto a winner.
Given HTC internationally are clearing the line, the "good deals" should be available from all the HTC dealers - BUT there's virtually none left anywhere.
Have fun!
Chuck