Database Users

Just ordered a T-Mobile Compact (Imate Jam)

After much deliberating and forum reading I finally gave in and purchased one from eBay today. I will need to unlock it when it arrives but I'm not worried about that.
First things I will do is
1) Unlock it
2) Load latest ROM if not already on there
3) Do the big storage update
Any tips / tricks people have learnt that would help me? I also have a BlueTrek G2 bluetooth headset on order.
I have TomTom5 so I will need to order a GPS device. Which ones are you all using / recommend I get?
I'll also need a car kit mount for the phone which also charges it. Again, which do you recommend?
Finally I'll need a 2GB SD card. Again, recommendations on if purchasing a high speed one makes any difference or not?
Many thanks in advance.

hi, i was thinking of doing the same thing, but i have a few questions to ask first before doing so.
1. If i get the mda compact and unlock it and update the rom to say like the i-mate one, will that basically make it an i-mate, without any of the t-mobile stuff?
2. What is a reasonable price for a t-mobile mda compact
3. what would happen about warranty if anything goes wrong with the phone, and your not a t-mobile customer?
thanks in advance

I bought an MDA compact locked to T-Mobile last week on e-bay. Paid £250 and then paid £20 to unlock it.
I have updated the Rom to Imate and can confirm that once it is unlocked it stays unlocked.
Stu

once you updated the rom, does all the t-mobile branding stuff disappear as well?

chenman said:
once you updated the rom, does all the t-mobile branding stuff disappear as well?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Obviously...

If you use the Imate rom then all the T-Mobile branding is removed.

so what about the warranty on the phone, do you just take it back to t-mobile if there is any problems?

I once had a problem (speaker not working) with my Compact purchased from T-Mobile Germany. I sent it back for repair with an imate ROM without any problems. When it came back, it had the T-Mobile ROM installed though.

kta said:
I once had a problem (speaker not working) with my Compact purchased from T-Mobile Germany. I sent it back for repair with an imate ROM without any problems. When it came back, it had the T-Mobile ROM installed though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I´ve bought a UK T-mobile Compact for 250 pounds through modaco.com, sim-unlocked it and made the suckar trick with the logo/brand and NOW I want to change the rom to I-mate or Qtek - but when I do i get an country failure code?
Has anyone the latest I-mate rom???

any way/place to get an 8125 in Europe?

Hi all,
pretty newbie here (first post!), and I want to buy an HTC Cingular 8125. I already read that the european version is the HTC Wizard, but I prefer the 8125 shapeform and keyboard. Is there a way to buy a new one in Europe?. All the customs clearance foms&procedure for one shipped from the states is even harder than paying them. Any advices? Did anyone had such a problem, how did you solve it?
TIA.

Try eBay. I live in Canada and there is no version of an HTC Wizard here, but I bought my 8125 from eBay unlocked. Has been working great for about 6 months now. Best phone ever! Generally, most sellers ship everywhere, and I am sure you will not have any trouble getting one shipped to Europe.

The shape of the Cingular 8125 is actually based off the Asian market Dopod 838. If you can find a shop out in Europe that sells second hand phones, you may be able to get one that is branded with the Dopod logos. AFAIK, Dopod (Asia) and Cingular (US) were the only ones who got the 838/8125 body style. Everyone else got the Wizard body.

Thanks zakhir_n and deathMiata for your replies, I wonder if the inner is the same in 8125/838 and in the Wizard, in terms of geometry... I mean, buying a wizard and the housing of a dopod or a 8125 and replace the bodies. Any experience?.
I was asking to buy one in Europe also for the warranty issues (buying an ebay unit from a private seller, no matter if it's unlocked or not, is warranty=0, right?). Also not to mention if something happens, I have to ship the unit to the States.
Can one buy it directly to cingular but without a contract? (the problem is not unlocking... the problem is billing, US bank account, etc...)
Thank you all!

Yeah warranty will always be an issue when buying things off eBay. Although I am pretty sure you can get warranty no problem, the issue is having to ship it and waiting for a long period of time without a phone if something happens.
Somebody I know just bought a locked 8125 from the states and then paid only $2 to unlock it. There is probably threads all over this forum showing how to do it for free. But the warranty issue is still there; even if you buy it from Cingular, if they are like any other phone company, they take their time fixing phones. Not to mention that they might not help because you aren't a customer. Anway, the wizard is a solid phone I wouldn't be too worried about anything.
And from what I can see about the housing form the 8125 and 838, the phones are exactly the same with different logos. I am pretty sure you can buy the housing and change it, but you would be getting the same looking phone with a different logo. This assumption is based on a quick glance only so don't take my word for it.
Good luck, buddy!

zakhir_n said:
Yeah warranty will always be an issue when And from what I can see about the housing form the 8125 and 838, the phones are exactly the same with different logos. I am pretty sure you can buy the housing and change it, but you would be getting the same looking phone with a different logo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks, maybe I misexplained, I meant buying a Wizard or a Qtek (the ones available here) and also a 8125 housing (or Dopod 838 housing) via eBay, and swap the housings.... but everything points that I'll have to buy directly a 8125 from there (HTC TyTN/8525 has almost the same keyboard, but I don't need its extras over the 8125)
Thanks for your replies zakhir... I'm going to see if I can persuade an ebay seller with a good bottle of wine, in order to get lower declared value in customs declaration form
In the meanwhile, I'll keep reading the forums and learning... I soon will be posting my doubts

Hi again!
Any kind german forum-user can confirm if the VPA Compact II housing is the same as the cingular 8125 or Dopod 838 (and different than the Qtek 9100, that is the one whose keyboard I'm avoiding).
If the VPA Compact II has the same housing as the 8125 or 838 I would get it from germany... any advice on on-line shopping?
Thanks!

I'm in Europe for the holidays
I just replaced my 8125 with an 8525. Perhaps we can work something out?

PL3/384EI said:
Hi again!
Any kind german forum-user can confirm if the VPA Compact II housing is the same as the cingular 8125 or Dopod 838 (and different than the Qtek 9100, that is the one whose keyboard I'm avoiding).
If the VPA Compact II has the same housing as the 8125 or 838 I would get it from germany... any advice on on-line shopping?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, I had a feeling that I forgot about Vodafone offered the Cingular 8125/Dopod 838 as the VPA Compact II. If Vodafone does offer the phone still I would imagine you could get it with no problem and unlock with Machina God's lokwiz unlocker (which is free, by the way).

PL3/384EI said:
Thanks zakhir_n and deathMiata for your replies, I wonder if the inner is the same in 8125/838 and in the Wizard, in terms of geometry... I mean, buying a wizard and the housing of a dopod or a 8125 and replace the bodies. Any experience?.
I was asking to buy one in Europe also for the warranty issues (buying an ebay unit from a private seller, no matter if it's unlocked or not, is warranty=0, right?). Also not to mention if something happens, I have to ship the unit to the States.
Can one buy it directly to cingular but without a contract? (the problem is not unlocking... the problem is billing, US bank account, etc...)
Thank you all!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the last part of your post, I can comment. I purchased my 8525 from www.letstalk.com without contract. I use an AT&T SIM and I am out of contract so I wanted to keep my plan. It is possible to purchase the phone only in this way. Even though they are reputable, I would imagine the warranty only applies within the USA.

T-mobile MDA vario or Cingular 8125???

1-) I've been using T-mobile MDA vario for 4 months. I love it. Now, I want to buy the same phone for my sister. However, I am not sure which one to buy. Cingular 8125 or T-Mobile Mda vario. As far as I know they are pretty much the same phones, however, there might be some littlie difference that I don't know. If anyone know what the differences are please help me to choose. (differences not including the appearences of the phones)
2-) I am also not sure why Mda costs a little bit more than the 8125.(compared prices at ebay) I would appreciate if someone could explain me this point too.

there are only one or two differences.
1 the rom (which you can change anyway)
2 the serial number, and g3 or g4. it seems that as htc were building the wizards, they changed bits as they went. for example, 4gb mini sd cards work only after the serial number ht605... and g4s are more difficult to flash a rom to.

So, does the Cingular always comes in G4 and the T-mobile MDA alway comes in G3?

no, sorry, I was very unclear, what I meant to say was that those are the only differences between any wizards. and it would just be random luck what you get, though if you assume that g4 are a later serial number, maybe they all are g4 by now.
the only difference you can know in advance is the rom.
you could try asking to boot up the phone before you buy it to check for g3/g4 if you're buying in a shop.
I would just buy the cheapest (or get a hermes)

bbobeckyj said:
no, sorry, I was very unclear, what I meant to say was that those are the only differences between any wizards. and it would just be random luck what you get, though if you assume that g4 are a later serial number, maybe they all are g4 by now.
the only difference you can know in advance is the rom.
you could try asking to boot up the phone before you buy it to check for g3/g4 if you're buying in a shop.
I would just buy the cheapest (or get a hermes)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you. I'll keep my fingers crossed for the G3

To sell or not to sell?

Okay, so I just bought a new Herald off eBay for use with t-mobile (I do have Insurance through tmobile for my phone, and as far as I can see in terms, it transfers beause of the fact both phones have the same deductible).
The thing is, just recently, I CID unlocked my Wizard thanks to this site, and installed TNT 5.0 with Tmobile's 2.26.
And I just bought a new battery for it...
Whatcha think I should do? Sell the MDA with new battery? Sell the MDA and return the battery? Or keep it? What would you do?

MDA is easy to customize ..,
I love it, I also have T-mobile Wing and SDA, I love to keep my MDA-Wizard

What is a Wizard worth?

I have just bought a HTC Kaiser on flebay and even though I will miss my Wizard(s..) I think it is getting a bit long in the tooth and I fancied a change
Anyway I was wondering what a Wizard is now worth? I think I paid roughly UK £150 about 18-months ago. It is a G3 & SIM/CID Unlocked and is 'as new' (i.e. box & all original bits) however it is showing signs of wear and tear as it's been in and out of pockets, the screen is perfect however. It is currently running a customised WM 6.0 ROM, though this would be changed before selling.
Any ideas what I should be expecting on eBay?
Cheers
Andy

I was wondering the same thing as I've been toying with selling mine. I think as long as the screen and slider are good and the device is working 100% then I don't see why you shouldn't get at least £100 for it and maybe more. Have you looked on fleabay to see what others are going for?
It's still a capable device so still has value in my opinion. Just depends on how tatty or not it is as to whether you'll get a premium for it.

EUR100
A friend of mine would not bid further than EUR100 for one and after only a few auctions he got one.

My Wizard is worth a LOT!!
I've been with it for more than two years now (longest i have been with a phone) and it's still running WM6.1 without any hassle (who would have thought) and has also allowed me to write WST for it.
Man, even if i get a new PPC i don't think i'll ever let go of this baby.
just my 2 cents
cheers

It's hard letting go....
I have two Wizards, I bought one about two years ago because I was after a new Windows Mobile Phone that ran WM5.0 (I had a HP iPAQ 6300 previously that I couldn't upgrade). After I received it I immediately unlocked it and started to experiment with ROMs, so much so that I managed to get another one off fleabay quite cheap and used it as a 'test' Wizard so I didn't screw up the one I use for work - a 'guinea pig' to test my customised ROMs on before flashing them to my 'work' phone.
It has been excellent and I am sad to see it come to an end, however I think the Kaiser is an obvious evolution. For the last few months I have been constantly hacking OEM & SYS packages to try and make them fit in the Wizards ROM and with the latest Diamond 5.2.19588 port I simply couldn't get everything in there that I wanted.
Anyway the Kaiser has turned up, its been SIM & CID Unlocked, HardSPL'd and is running a customised WM6.1 ROM and I'm now back in business
I will be selling both my Wizards (probably on eBay as there isn't a for sale forum on here is there?) and I'll offer to install whatever ROM the buyer requests - as long as it's a Wizard ROM
Thanks for the help I have received & the effort from everyone involved in getting WM6 ROMs ported to the Wizard.
I'll be haunting the Kaiser forums from now on but will pop back if I can offer any help to anyone.
Cheers
Andy