Database Users

Did I buy my MDA Vario too soon?

I just got my Vario, but now i am thinking that i should have waited for the Vario II (Hermes?). Have i made a mistake? Should i send it back under my 7 day return and wait?

aint being funny but i fink it looks crap...
http://www.newmobile.nl/eur/en/photos.php?phone_id=18fc907
i'd rather have the current Vario...as it's got style to it....that looks like a simple t mobile phone :roll: looks a bit blaah if u get me

Eh? I think it look pretty nice, better than the Vario I. And a 400Mhz CPU? I would not mind some of that.
What should i do?!

well the 200mhz aint bad....plays movies without a problem...music is fine...tom tom works; so it aint a bad phone...
but if your main concern is the CPU speed then go for it...

I think the hermes looks like a great device, an evolution on the current vario. If you can wait and afford the difference in price go for it, i'm sure it will be a cracking device.
Otherwise go for the vario, the hermes being available will not make the vario any less useful and there are already loads of hacks available for the vario.
A tough choice, but bear in mind even if you hold out for the hermes, there is always somethings bigger and better just around the corner.
whichever decision you make enjoy your device
R

No matter what phone you choose to buy, there will always be something better coming out on the horizon

mattucd said:
No matter what phone you choose to buy, there will always be something better coming out on the horizon
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed, but the when the device is coming out so soon (this month?) it might be worth waiting.

Where are you based ?
I just got a vario and asked about release date of vario 2 ... (Assuming you actally mean the vario rather than i-mate or xda mini S) then Germany will be getting it this month but the T-Mobile aren't planning on releasing it in the UK till Q3 (ie October at the earliest)
BTW isn't it a 300Mhz CPU rather than a 400 Mhz one ??
HTH

Too soon? You mean too late!
I've had mine for aaages now, i'm nearly ready for an upgrade!

Other than that rather tasty looking camera application on the Vario 2 i think the XDA Mini S looks far nicer, as an ex XDA IIi user im finding it very hard to fault the XDA Mini S at all, its a great phone.

The Front-side looks okay to me, but the keyboard is ugly as hell, I like the keyboard of the MDA Vario a whole lot more.

I'm also keeping an eye out for the hermes but i haven't heard anything about any official release dates. I'm leaning toward the Imate branded JasJam but no clue when its coming out. Anyone have an idea? also is its 3g/umts compatible with the Cingular 3g?

At last I heard, the Hermes will not be compatible with US 3G networks, but that may change by the release by Imate or Qtek.
A

hi, im also having the same dilemma, i currently have the imate JAMin and looking to get a device with a keyboard and im leaning towards the imate k-jam, but i am eagerly awaiting the release of the hermes or imate JASJAM.......i dont know if i should wait for the hermes or get the k-jam for now.......i have emailed and called the imate company in dubai and they advised me that they have no idea when this device will be released internationally......it is still under testing they said.....

irv777 said:
hi, im also having the same dilemma, i currently have the imate JAMin and looking to get a device with a keyboard and im leaning towards the imate k-jam, but i am eagerly awaiting the release of the hermes or imate JASJAM.......i dont know if i should wait for the hermes or get the k-jam for now.......i have emailed and called the imate company in dubai and they advised me that they have no idea when this device will be released internationally......it is still under testing they said.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm actually looking for an i-mate jamin and i currently have a vario (k-jam). i'd gladly trade mine for yours.

You dont say which country you are in so we can give you valid advice. The vario 2 has a 300mhz processor and uses a microsd slot - so 1gb max for now. It has a better camera but far as i can see does not have stereo speakers like the vario. If sound is a priority or if you already have a minisd card stick with the vario - otherwise go for the vario 2, i am certain that overall it is a better device. see here http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=41660

waiting can be fruitless
I've waited since November for the Nokia N80 to be released. It was always just around the corner. Now here we are in May and still no US N80. There are even rumors that it will not be released due to some G3 issue.
I wish I wouldn't have waited and just got the Cingular 8125 back in November. I could have been enjoying it the last six months.
Point is... you can drive yourself crazy always looking out on the horizon. I would recommend getting the current version and having fun with all the mods. When the Hermes comes out, give it another six months for more mods to come out and the price to drop and then you can switch again if you want. But by then rumors of Hermes II will be floating around with beter keyboard, 800mhz, 5mp camera, built in 10gb hard drive optionsl, thinner, built in GPS receiver. LOL Just my opinion.

My brother just got an N80. I had a friend of mine buy it for him from Saudi Arabia and then had one of my friend's mom bring it with her to texas. But i'm gonna say its gonna be a while (2 to 3 months) until it gets released on cingular.

Should I buy a Wizard or wait for the Hermes?

Got my wife a wizard about 2 weeks ago and been playing around with it. Its a great little phone. I'm due for an upgrade now and am wondering if I should wait for the Hermes to be released in July (as someone posted on another thread) on Vodafone or just go for another wizard now. What do you guys think?

The Wizard is a great phone no doubt. Seeing that you already got your wife a Wizard, I would just lend her your current phone and use her Wizard until the Hermes comes out. Tell her its essential. If that fails, I would wait. Its only a month away. BTW I think they changed the name from Hermes to TyTN (Titan) now. HTC TyTN.

I think so too. But I've been waiting for this phone from vodafone (as they are out of stock) for over 2 months now. They've been pushing back the date continuously. It might be when the TyTN arrives when the qtek 9100 come back into stock.
Anyone knows how much the unit will be on contract? (How much was the Wizard on contract when it first came out? - It should be similarly priced)

I have heard on the grape vine that T-Mobile will not be selling the Hermes due to the high price, it will be simliar to the MDA Pro, contract price about 200 on a 35 a month contract.

if you can wait for may of next year for a herpes then get that instead

If you want to wait for the heremes, may be because of:
1. Wizard's bad camera.
2. Slow bluetooth transfer rate.
3. maybe the heremes will have a faster processor.
Otherwise, the wizard is great, I compared my mini s with my friend's JAMin, I really liked the wizard more!!!

Picking out a Hermes. Do most of you use 8525's?

I'm kicking around the idea of buying a Hermes, it's a sweet phone and it seems to have fallen a bit in price since I last looked at it. When searching for the different branded versions on eBay, I noticed that I could pick up a Cingular-branded Hermes (8525) a good deal cheaper than the rest of them. Are there any major shortcomings to the 8525 over other versions of the Hermes outside of the missing front camera? Using an American GSM provider, would I even miss the front camera?
I'm on T-Mobile, but if I grabbed a Cingular Hermes I'd obviously just go ahead and unlock it and use it with my service. Honestly, I think it would be pretty sweet to get the T-Mo UK branded Hermes (MDA Vario II) and carry that around instead. Then my friends would be like "whoa dog why does my T-Mobile store not have this phone how did you score it!!!" and I would be like "hell nah homies this **** is elite". But alas, it's not worth paying $600+ for a T-Mo Europe branded one when I can get the Cingular-branded one for well under 500.
Do you guys who have used multiple Hermes' have any preference? Would I likely be just as well off with an 8525 (given that I plan to flash it) as an HTC branded "TyTN" or other HERM200 version of the phone?
Thanks!

I got the 8525... If your not going to use the video calling, why pay more?
Ron

lokmeup said:
I got the 8525... If your not going to use the video calling, why pay more?
Ron
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's just it, though -- I'm wondering if it's even possible to use video calling in the United States. Is it?
More importantly, are there any replacement shells or cover-ups available for the 8525 such that one could make it appear not to be a Cingular device? I know I'm weird, but if I buy a Hermes for use with T-Mobile USA, I think it looks silly to have Cingular branding on the ****.
Thanks so much!

kalibar said:
That's just it, though -- I'm wondering if it's even possible to use video calling in the United States. Is it?
More importantly, are there any replacement shells or cover-ups available for the 8525 such that one could make it appear not to be a Cingular device? I know I'm weird, but if I buy a Hermes for use with T-Mobile USA, I think it looks silly to have Cingular branding on the ****.
Thanks so much!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I bought a Vodafone 1605 on Ebay and used it with T-mobile and now Cingular....I don't mind the brand name on the phone cos I know it's all the same inside

The Vario II pricing is coming down in the UK ... just got given one for £50 on a renewal which is roughly 60% less than I was quoted about six weeks ago.
(typing as I wait for a full resync on my shiny new wm6 black to complete )
You might be able to snap one up off eBay UK on the cheap if your timing is good ...

kalibar said:
I know I'm weird, but if I buy a Hermes for use with T-Mobile USA, I think it looks silly to have Cingular branding on the ****.
Thanks so much!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am pretty sure a little alcohol and rubbing would remove the branding.... if your really desperate you could use a little nail polish remover...

I think you can buy "shells" for these phones on ebay. I don't know if they are interchangeable, aka using a Vario II shell on a Cingular 8525, but I would assume they would as long as the button configuration is similar.

chachi said:
The Vario II pricing is coming down in the UK ... just got given one for £50 on a renewal which is roughly 60% less than I was quoted about six weeks ago.
(typing as I wait for a full resync on my shiny new wm6 black to complete )
You might be able to snap one up off eBay UK on the cheap if your timing is good ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's actually a really good idea; I could only find about two total MDA Vario II's on ebay.com (which makes perfect sense), but when I went to ebay.co.uk there were ****loads. Unfortunately, it seems that most sellers only offer to ship within the UK so I'd have to find one ahead of time that would be okay with shipping to the States.
That brings my next question though. What's the deal with QWERTY vs. QWERTZ keyboards? The MDA Vario II seems to be the latter, and I've typed on a QWERTY all my life and really have no intention of switching. Is it possible to not only map the buttons to QWERTY on a Vario II, but to physically switch the keys?
Man, what a pain this is all turning out to be. I guess I should probably just score a Cingular-branded Hermes and be done with it.

HTC Advantage X7500 or X7501?

Hello,
I want to buy a HTC Athena. My preference is the HTC Advantage X7501. X7501 comes out at the end of this month at most places. I really don't know the difference between X7500 and X7501 and would like to know. Other than the WM6 i don't see anything. But it could be more.
Anyways I live in Canada and I would like to buy X7501. Can anyone provide me with some good place offering a nice price? On eBay brand new ones are going for $900. Anyone know some other place cause I don't want to buy one from eBay.

I got mine from CompUSA for US$900. I beleive that Amazon has them for US$850
Practically, you get Tom Tom software but no maps on the 7500. 7501 has shovelware GPS with a monthly cost (I wouldn't call that preloaded....)

keithwwalker said:
I got mine from CompUSA for US$900. I beleive that Amazon has them for US$850
Practically, you get Tom Tom software but no maps on the 7500. 7501 has shovelware GPS with a monthly cost (I wouldn't call that preloaded....)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am in Canada. Need some place that will ship to Canada.

keithwwalker said:
I got mine from CompUSA for US$900. I beleive that Amazon has them for US$850
Practically, you get Tom Tom software but no maps on the 7500. 7501 has shovelware GPS with a monthly cost (I wouldn't call that preloaded....)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
can i just install tom tom on it

I would suggest the x7500 since it has the front VGA camera.
Then just unlock it with olipro's unlocker and use a branded WM6 upgrade (eg. Dopod U1000 WM6).
Software is software. It is always, in my opinion, better to get the software you like/need instead of looking for bundles of crap.
There is always free alternatives to everything. Or you could be shrewd and hard reset your device each 30 days (when most trialware expires) and voila, you get another 30 days. Of course you backup your important data first.

Calavaro said:
I would suggest the x7500 since it has the front VGA camera.
Then just unlock it with olipro's unlocker and use a branded WM6 upgrade (eg. Dopod U1000 WM6).
Software is software. It is always, in my opinion, better to get the software you like/need instead of looking for bundles of crap.
There is always free alternatives to everything. Or you could be shrewd and hard reset your device each 30 days (when most trialware expires) and voila, you get another 30 days. Of course you backup your important data first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What are you saying? X7501 doesnt have a front VGA Camera?
And all thats happened in the X7501 is the WM6 change and some other software?
Well plainly i dont require all this software and what not. I just require a Vanilla WM6. I thought they might have fixed some bugs and twitches here and there. But looks like none of you got any insider.... If they had to update the devices with WM6 and other software could have released on their site.

I posted the same question on here a few weeks back. I went with the 7500, mainly because it had the front camera and TomTom. Even though it has WM5 on it, I knew the WM6 upgrade would be out soon, so no big deal waiting a bit.
If I had purchased the 7501 at CompUSA for $900+tax, it would have only been about $175 less than what I paid for the 7500. Besides, my CompUSA has been out ever since the first week they started selling them.
I needed instant gratification, so I paid a little extra for the 7500, and got the front cam as a bonus. It might not ever be of much use, but at least it's there in case some cool app comes out that can utilize it.

I just found one at CompUSA in Indianapolis; its mine now. One thing to consider: You can get the two year Advance Exchange extended warranty here. If the thing quits 23 months from now and they cannot replace it, you get a comparable (meaning usually current and better) model or full credit.

Damn... why would they remove the front camera from 7501???
that only makes the phone worse. I dont need any apps. Tomtom / WM6 or whatever you know. We can get wm6 from here and i have a preloaded tomtom software that i can setup in 10 minutes. Well i have no choice. i will get one from amazon for $850.

nuclear said:
Damn... why would they remove the front camera from 7501???
that only makes the phone worse. I dont need any apps. Tomtom / WM6 or whatever you know. We can get wm6 from here and i have a preloaded tomtom software that i can setup in 10 minutes. Well i have no choice. i will get one from amazon for $850.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Weren't you asking the same questions here in March of this year x7500 vs 7501...Saying you could get a x7500 for 850 canadien or something??
And all you wanted was a vanilla x7500.....You should have boought one in March or April of this year as your were previously talking about
It is a great device...Good Luck

O2 Trion (tytn) vs Tytn ii

OK here's the thing...
I've been eyeing on the Tytn II for a while now but im starting to think it's way over my budget...
so today, i called O2, threatened them that i wanna leave since my contract is over, plus i wanna move to Tmobile, jus to see what they can do for me
they came up with this upgrade deal which i do admit, im very tempted...
FREE O2 TRION (tytn) 600min 500sms + FREE 1GB memory card
25 Pounds, 12 months contract.
i can add the 7.50 for the o2 data tarrif
Reason y im so tempted to this deal is cuz, to be honest, it's WAAAAY cheaper than what T-mobile is offering me for the Vario 3 (tytn ii)
yes they're offering me the standard flex35 with webnwalk for 37.50pounds a month + 70quid for the phone, 18 months contract
Thing is, as far as i know, the tytn ii is a slightly thinner version of the tytn with a tilting screen.
i don't need the built-in GPS at all, and the 3MP camera is still gonna be crap anyways
the processer is the same and im sure i can always install the today plugin to the tytn.
so wat do u think, people?
assuming that i really dun need the GPS, is it really worth the upgrade?

I would go with the TYTN deal for 12 months, and then re-avaluate your TYTN II upgrade options.