I’ve done it, I’ve just ordered a T-Mobile MDA Vario, it should be here tomorrow, I cant wait!!!
I’m new to this forum and new to the world of Windows Mobile Devices, however I am far from a novice with SmartPhones.
I have been a big fan of SonyEricsson for many years and am currently looking for a new phone, but lately have lost my feel for SE and have discovered then marvel that is the Wizard!!! Wow, I’m so much going to have one of them!!!
I’ve been reading through this forum and well what can I say, what a fantastic resource, well done!
But what I really want to know is: software? I know the MDA Vario is T-Mobile branded, but what restrictions do they impose on you?
I’m a great believer that hardware developers know what they are doing and Phone Network Operators should leave the software well alone. I have read about unlocking the phone and moving Cab files etc, but what I would really want is to flash it with its “pure” software, is this possible and easy to do and how do I then set up my MMS and GPRS setting?
And am I correct in understanding what I’ve read, that, an out the box MDA Vario wont run ActiveSync?
Thanks in advance
Nick
Nick, an excellent choice of name, and an excellent choice of device
The units ROMs all seem to be largely the same, it's the extended ROM which is different.
T-Mobile's extended ROM installs a load of customisations such as wallpapers, GPRS settings, etc... Nothing seems to hinder you particularly badly , however if you don't want it, hard reset then do a soft reset before it installs the customisations. You then have a virgin machine
The only lock is a simlock, which means that you have to use a T-Mobile SIM with the device. Lokiwiz, a free unlocker, gets around this nicely with thanks to Machinagod, and all those whose work he improved
Oh, and activesync works fine with it, providing you haven't got any weird firewalls running
Welcome to the world of windows mobile
I have had my Vario for about a week and a half now.
If you used the P910 like I did, you will miss the jog wheel utility desperately. A brilliant device that was only let down by the lack of symbian (UIQ) development (it's harder to program.
I used to have a compaq 2210 and ran Pocketinformant. I've just reloaded it on my unit. It's brilliant, you give up a lot for the jog wheel but you welcome back the world of 'drag and drop' and 'double tap'.
If you use a PIM then Pocketinformant cannot be beaten.
Incidently make sure you load activesync 4.1 on your pc, providing you set your catergories in your outlook master list to the same as your device, syncing is superb.
good luck :lol:
I've just switched to Vodafone with an expansys contrct deal after four years with T-Mobile. They (T-Mobile) told me six weeks ago, they'd no idea what a Vario was, and had no information that they were going to get them even though Germany had announced them to the press. Expansys had the 9100 on Voda so off I went. The Vodafone "data" bundle which is SMS or MMS or GPRS out of the same pot is better for me than T-Mobile who would only offer web'n'walk *and* a separate SMS/MMS bundle :-(
Vodafone have been fine, but the SMS voicemail alerts that don't activate the little "tape" message waiting icon really annoys me... ;-)
Dox..
I have also gone from a P900 to XDA mini. Its a bit of a transition and can agree - the wheel on the P900 was a luxury I do miss but there are alot moe benefits
Now - just need to try and work out if I can change the whole ROM from the O2 one
Scott
Thanks for all the info fellas, cant wait for it to be delivered…
Excuse my ignorance, but, the ROM, is that the basic OS and the extender ROM is just the individual network customizations?
I will almost certainly, as a matter of principle, do the SIM unlock, but what is the purpose of the CID unlock?
And, if I do the Hard reset Soft reset trick how will I set up my GPRS and MMS?
Sorry about all the questions, but I’m very inquisitive.
Hopefully this will also be helping fellow novices.
Thanks again everyone.
You can enter the settings manually, which if you have them in front of you is fairly simple. If you need to know what they are (I've entered Vodafone's so often for people at work I can do them in my sleep, but don't know the T-Mobile ones), google is your friend. To simplify the whole thing, Raphael over at BeyondTheTech has the cab file with the settings in here for you to download and install as normal.
If you're not going to let the rest of the extended ROM install, put this on a memory card in case you want to run it again after a hard reset..
Dox.
I too like to have a fiddle (I had an original O2 XDA and this site was fantastic for upgrading to later version OS) but so far I can't see any compelling reason not to use the T-Mobile UK custo ROM as shipped.
The only addition I've made is MS Voice with the associated Reg change to allow use with BT headset.
Obviously if there is a superior ROM out there please let us know what is recommended?
Thanks
Nick, check out the wiki which has loads of info about roms, extended roms, radio roms and all that good stuff. Not a huge amount is specific to the Wizard yet, but the information applies all the same.
Has it arrived yet, or are you sitting by the front door like an eager puppy waiting for the postman or newspaper boy (or girl, thank you Stan)
Unfortunately I’m at work today and they would only deliver to my home address
AND they need a signature, so first thing tomorrow morning I’ll be stud outside my local Postal Depot waiting for it to open…..
Oh I hate waiting!!!
Welcome to Vario-ness !
Not coming from a previous PPC platform, you won't suffer the same way i did, by installing all the apps i used on my MDA Compadt some of which may not have been compatable with WM5. That ended up with me having a poor view on the Vario.
Fear not though, i've since seen the error of my ways, thanks to the fine folks on this forum...
I have an XDA II, and would like to update if there is a significant improvement.
I have read from the t-mobile site that the Vario does not have vibrate or voice dialling. Is this true, can Fonix be installed?
The most vital things I use are the outlook contacts, calender, isilo reader and avant go. I guess all standard apps that work on windows mobile 2003 work on 5 right?
How big is the screen?
Thanks for any help.
Well, that just goes to show that T-Mobile don't have a clue, really, doesn't it? I thought you must be mistaken, but sure enough it says that it doesn't support voice dial, and doesn't vibrate either.
It does. On both counts. The vibrate is a lot better than the xda2s in that it almost dislocates a hip when it goes off, and voice dialing works very well. With a quick registry hack, voice dialing works with bluetooth headsets too
Some have found the vario sluggish in comparison to the xda 2; i find it to be comparable to the blue angel (2s) that I had running wm2005 - bear in mind you're reading/writing all files from flash rather than RAM, and that explains the performance.
The screen is 2.8 inches diagonal.
Have any of you got vibrate working on M3000 (Orange)?
I have an M3000 from Orange Switzerland, and cannot get my vibrate to work at all.
Not to get 'off topic' but T-Mobile Czech republic were about to sell me a MDA Vario and at the last moment I noticed a sticker on the box saying it doesn't support character recognizer or transcriber .. anyone know if this FOR ME huge negative can be reversed so I can handwrite sms as MDA II let me .. (perfect solution for me)
kgary said:
Not to get 'off topic' but T-Mobile Czech republic were about to sell me a MDA Vario and at the last moment I noticed a sticker on the box saying it doesn't support character recognizer or transcriber .. anyone know if this FOR ME huge negative can be reversed so I can handwrite sms as MDA II let me .. (perfect solution for me)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both work fine for me on a UK MDA Vario, I don't know why the czech would be different. I must say however that I rarely use them because the slide out keyboard is SO sweet.
On a side note, my brother just picked up the same phone on O2 and personally I like the O2 customisations a lot better than the T-mobile ones. Especially the multiple today screen functionality.
Is it possible to install O2 extended rom and keep t-mobile comms settings? I've only just started to look into this so does anyone with any experience with this have any tips?
Thanks
Hi, i have been searching for a cab file to install just the blackberry connectivity... I used to have it and i am pretty sure i got it from this site.... it was a while ago.
I now have a VPA compact and i dont think it has enough space for the fully loaded custom roms (its only a 64mb baby!)
I'd really appreciate it if someone was able to point me to the right direction... i tried searching for blackberry.cab to no avail...
PS. i have read alot of discussions on here about getting it to work properly... just to let you all know, if your PIN number for your blackberry client meant for another network.... blackberry themselves will cut of the traffic to your pin number... although this may take a week or so for it to cut off. The network you are with will not know this has happened hense you will get no help from them. This is a LICENSING issue... tech support advisors will not have this within thier network's published information.
Thanks in advance for your help!
found the o2 one....
For those who read the title.... heres the o2 version link (from within the site) http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?p=81361
You'll find the CAB you're looking for here ...
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=21991&start=25
thanks, but thats the T-mobile version... I think the german VPA has the bb software that generates a PIN number that will work on vodafone for over a week! i had the o2 one working for about 8 days on my qtek2020i. then it got cut off... I am hoping to get the "proper vodafone blackberry -webclient-" which i know exists as i had a customer in my store show me one up and running. (vodafone branded and all)
Firstly, I would like to say that my mobile provider is T-mobile (The Netherlands). I have the T-mobile MDA Vario.
I have discovered 2 previous threads concerning contradictions in the hardware of the Wizard/Qtek 9100/MDA Vario.
I know that the original manufactor is HTC Innovation (Taiwan). (Under my battery its labeled as the "WIZA200").
The Qtek site for Europe says it supports quadband, 802.11b/g & EDGE.
http://www.qtek.nu/europe/products/9100/specifications.aspx
However, the Dutch T-mobile site says it supports triband, 802.11b & only support for GPRS.
Triband: GSM 900/1800/1900
WLAN High speed data (802.11b up to 11Mbps)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now I am assuming that the Qtek 9100 & MDA Vario devices are hardware wise exactly similar (Seems expensive for HTC to produce slightly different Wizards.). Therefore I came to the conclusion that the it must be locked down through software.
Has anyone been able to unlock some of these features? (E.g. triband -> quadband)
I tested to see if 802.11g would function on my MDA Vario (Through Linksys router working in G-mode only). It didn't work. So I am assuming there are no mistakes on these websites. Also it would be in T-mobiles intrest to lock down these features as the MDA Pro has them, but is a lot more expensive.
If anyone could shed some light on this problem, it would be intresting.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=38898&highlight=
Thank you, didn't know there was a new version out. I saw something about version 1.0, but some people were having problems with this, so thought it wasn't a working fix. Quick question regarding the WLAN G 2.0 patch, does it still also allow to be connected to 802.11b only networks?
Anybody still now anything regarding about going from triband to quadband?
Thanks in advance.
...or at least I hope that this is possible. I really don't want to take the old advice which says "buy a Japanese cellphone and stop worrying" as the MDA is hard to replace and after "teaching" it how to read and write Japanese there's nothing I'd really miss just keeping it. Against the myth you can get standard SIM cards in Japan, too and the only critical point would be the wireless standard used in Japan. The Phone tab say that it supports WCDMA, but I read before that this is not true for every Japanese provider. Softbank (Vodafone) is said to be compatible to the European UMTS standard. Can anybody here validate this? It would safe me a lot of money getting a decent Japanese cellphone as my "brick" still has a year or two of life in it
Yes the Universal works in Japan. At least in most places... it seems to lose the signal in the middle of a subway tunnel but gets it back quickly at the station ;P
I think our 'bricks' will be around a lot longer than that as they don't seem to be giving us a direct replacement :¬D
That's great news, but which provider do you use eksekki? Softbank? Or maybe it doesn't really matter after all? And we're not talking about the Japanese Universal here, right? And about the direct replacement: Is the 'Omni' really vaporware? I always had my hopes up for that one...
SB/Vodafone + Universal works. As for any other operator, if you can get a SIM card that fits into Universal I really don't see any reason why it wouldn't work(*). Hardware wise, I use (UK) Xda Exec brand but all the HTC Universal models are the same and there is no "Japanese universal" right (just ROM maybe)? No problems with different (English) ROM versions including WM6 - hence the "universal" =) There's just no replacement for this brick!
* edit: as long as they have a 2100 MHz WCDMA network :|
Any etra work needed?
I'm just calling back this thread from the ghosts to ask whether any extra steps are needed to use my Universal in Japan. I've seen a patch for the Hermes to use the Softbank AP, but I wonder: Shouldn't the Universal work straight out of the box if I pop in the Softbank card? Is it just because the AP password is hardcoded into the Japanese ROM? Speaking of which: What is the latest native Japanese (Softbank) WM5 ROM? The search didn't reveal anything. What kind of services will I miss if I just leave a Japanese enabled English WM5 ROM on the device? Would be great if someone could enlighten me a bit.
i can't seem to turn my wifi on with the command manager.. the wifi is off and i keep turning it on. i previously had WM5 but just did the CIDunlock and upgraded to TNT 1933. i thought that would fix the problem. but it didn't. please help. any input would be great! thanks in advance!
Do you happen to have a Chinese Dopod 838?
If so, it is standard feature, i.e. not to have WiFi functionality regardless the ROM version.
oh yea i do have the chinese version. thanks for the info.
It only happens on Dopod838 sells in China, Dopod 838 that sells in Hong Kong and Taiwan are wifi-enabled.
Thats not your problem! believe me. I used to have the same problem! IF YOU ARE USING THE WM5 cid locked version then probably trying to hard reset it will give you back the wifi.. It worked for me but if your using the CID UNLOCKED THEN TRY TO USE ANOTHER ROM... it will work... promise
No, China version of Dopod 838 lacks the Wifi hardware, so there is no way to get it back no matter which ROM you use.
OHH... sorry Bro but if you dont have wifi hardware then you might as well buy another ppc..
ANY mobile officially sold in Mainland China lacks of this WLAN feature - unless you get imported ones e.g. from HK as stated from Starkwong.
For HTC/Dopod models it is said that they lack of the required hardware.
Don't know for other brands though, whether they lack of the HW as well.
Just had a quick check, it seems any phone sells in China are not Wifi-enabled (Including Nokia N82). Maybe it is to protect investments of cell operators as most people in China uses GPRS monthly WAP plans...
Anybody here who has been able to port this approach (for Hermes) to the Wizard to recover from a corrupted MAC address in the EEPROM?
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=322225
... or any other way to handle corrupted MAC address of a Wizard?
Cheers!