Database Users

T-Mobile MDA

I just wanted to share my experiences with my new phone so far. The T-Mobile MDA (I'm not sure what version it is, it's the only one for sale at T-Mobile right now) is an awesome phone.
Just today I learned how to listen to streaming Sirius satellite radio, and I enjoyed the sounds of dance music by the pool from Windows Media Player on my phone.
The things I hate about this phone are the battery life (it's horrible, especially if I have Bluetooth on all day for my Bluetooth headset or am listening to streaming music), the bad Outlook syncing (I don't know how to set contacts in a group like Personal and ONLY sync Person contacts with my phone), the GPRS connection is bad... I guess when I don't have service it disconnects itself or something, I don't know how to always keep it alive. Also, downloading things from this forum from my phone doesn't work, it downloads the file download.php when it should be downloading the actual file instead.
Are there any solutions to my problems?

How to keep your GPRS alive
1) Go to the following registry entry:
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\ConnMgr\Providers\{7C4B7A3 *****}\Connections\GPRS*****\"
2) Change "Always On" 0 into 1.

Thanks, is there anything wrong with keeping it on all the time?
Any battery saving enhancements or longer lasting batteries?

Battery
I am still looking into that GPRS issue myself.
I am not sure Kenny, but I read that there are two battery versions
for MDA vario. The standard version that is included with your device, and one that is a little bit more expensive, but will give you 50% extra power.
Please do a search on the net.

Tried this... my device will auto disconnect anyway.

JaySea,
Please try again,
It should work.
If it disconnects then something else is blocking it.
And even when it disconnects, it will connect by itself again,
about 2 minutes after disconnecting.

JaySea said:
Tried this... my device will auto disconnect anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do a soft reset, then see if it works...

I'm a total n00b with the T-Mo MDA so please excuse the question.
To view the registry entry must you connect to a PC and access from that or is this done in the phone itself?
Thanks.

Viewing the registry...
You can check/edit the registry on your handheld device with (for example) Resco Explorer or Total Commander...

okay, I'm confused. Is this the right version of Total Commander? MDA has an xscale proc, right?

Sjaakman: Thx so much for the tip.

My MDA has excellent battery life, much better than my previous iMate jam.
WiFi drains your battery life quickly. Set your backlight to the 2nd lowest level and make sure it is set to turn off after 1 min - if it's on all the time that takes a lot of power.
Maybe your battery is bad, see if you can get it replaced.

I'm a newbie in this subject on PDA phones, I just acquired the new MDS Vario T-mobile and don't know many of the great features that some of you mentioned here. If there is any way that I can find more information about the usage of the phone, please send me a PM to guide me through in my initiation. Every bit of advise will be much appreciated.

I'm a newbie in this subject on PDA phones, I just acquired the new MDS Vario T-mobile and don't know many of the great features that some of you mentioned here. If there is any way that I can find more information about the usage of the phone, please send me a PM to guide me through in my initiation. Every bit of advise will be much appreciated.

question how did u get serious radio

Yea how DID you get sat. radio? i mean we all have wifi/gprs/edge...so where do u go to listen?!?!

thanks
Kenny Pollock said:
Thanks, is there anything wrong with keeping it on all the time?
Any battery saving enhancements or longer lasting batteries?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:lol:

thanks
Kenny Pollock said:
Thanks, is there anything wrong with keeping it on all the time?
Any battery saving enhancements or longer lasting batteries?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
:lol:

Battery Good overe here
My battery is good it last a long time for a device of this magnitude, also I foud a thread on here about increasing frame rate of the cam from 10 to 19, well i did this then enabled the frame rate counter, it stayed at 10.06 or so. But yesterday I turned the fram rate enabled thing on again now its showing 30-38 frams a sec for video and 15-16 for Pics!!! I dont know y, anyone experience this!!!

Web Access via Wifi or GPRS/Edge
Hello, I am new to TMobile and the MDA; I have had it for 4 days. For the life of me, no matter what I do I cannot get the phone to access the web. Here is what I have done:
1) At home, my PDA (ipaq 4705) and previous phone (imate Jam mini) both connect to my home wireless acess pont with no trouble. The MDA shows my access point in the Network Cards Settings, but it will not associate with it at all. The battery is fully charged, the mode is set to performance, woreless is on, the acess point shows up in the Settings Wireless status screens, but it will not associate. The access point is a b/g one and it is set to mixed mode.
2) I have set up the GPRS settings exactly as per TMobiles web site with the access point (wap.voicestream.com), the proxy, the 8080 port number etc. When I try to go to a website (any web site), the GPRS/Edge modem successfully connects, but Internet Explorer just indicates 'Locating' and I never see a web site,
I have phone service plus the full internet package at 29.95 per month.
Nothing on the phone makes me think it is broken. For those that may have all this working, is there some magic to it? I'm trying not to call TMobile as the 3 or 4 times I have spoken with them I have not seen very good technical knowledge at all.
I have searched quite a bit but have not seen any mention of these problems. I'm hoping I am doing something wrong. Any experienced TMobile user out there that can give a few suggestions?
Regards,
Bob

Really annoyed data connection problems, and mini review

Got my blackstone today. Network unlocked and my step back into the world of windows mobile.
I stuck an O2 payandgo simcard in and connected the WIFI.
I then started playing, after a bit thought lets see what the 3g data speed is like found the o2 settings and set the data connection slider to on.
I moved out of range of the wireless and went on a couple of websites speed was good and useable for facebook etc.
However one massive problem on reconnecting to the wifi I left the data connection open as you would I mean it's on all the time right.
All of the traffic from the following web browsing nailed my £10 down to 17p.
It would not use the wifi saying in google maps "an internet connection is required" if I turn off the 3G data connection it connects through the wireless, turn it back on and it *****es and moans at me.
WTF I said rather loudly, so a data connection over 3G is a higher priority than my 20Mb cable line here over wireless.
The web stuff is good although opera is a bit irratating at times, we need skyfire for this beasty.
I love the screen and the keyboard works well. The touchflo is lagging quite a lot and the screens can take a bit of thinking before they close.
Not sure if I need to upgrade the firmware. 1.14.405.3 (222373) WWE.
I am really hacked off as now I have to put another £10 on the phone to test properly within my 14 days. Or just straight up send it back and get an X1 or an Omnia. Help me out guys.

Works fine for me, wifi prioritised over 3g whenever it's connected. However, some apps only select which connection to use when they're started, can't remember if this applies to googlemaps. Try restarting it and see if it works over wifi.
Useful tip if you want to control what uses 3g: goto control pannel/buttons, and set the end key to disconnect 3g. Then you have a quick shortcut to turn it off, and you can see at a glance in the status bar if it has reconnected (the H above the signal strength). It's also useful if you set the X button to close apps rather than minimise, otherwise you might still be using an app that thinks it's on 3G even when you come back into range of wifi.

Thanks for the reply arfster. What you say makes perfect sense, I have used the Tweak HD to change the close on x and set the end button as a 3g off switch. Will put another £10 on and see how it goes

With Tweak HD you can easily make the performance of the TF3D alot better. Made the device much better workable for me.

I have changed some settings and it has improved, I'm going to have a proper play with it when it's charged and some stuff has finished copying to it Overall I am very pleased with the hardware (camera excluded but I knew that), it makes one of the guys Iphone's look weak and feeble! the 8gb card in the box was a bonus as well
It's just some bits with the software that are bugging me, after looking around the forum a bit more it would seem that I have a World Wide English rom, need to know if I can upgrade to a euro rom of a later version. I'll keep updating this thread I think with my impressions as I go along, probably from the device most of the time to get used to the keyboard. Good times software can be fixed hardware can't.

There is an app called nodata which allows you to turn on and off GPRS data connection, You can simply toggle data connection off when you don't want to use your PAYG credit, no matter what apps are requesting for data.
BTW, there are tweaks to speed up your Touch HD device including Opera.

Data Connection keeps turning itself on?

I turn my data connection off through the phone settings but it seems to keep turning itself back on? Has anyone experienced this and/or knows how to sort it out?
Cheers guys

Yes there are many threads about this, check you have no auto connections enabled, like weather, facebook, mail ect, but to be honest, if the data connection is idle, it uses no more power than if it were off, i let mine run all day and i only loose 10% battery, and thats checking email every 2 hours and weather updating every 3.
Leo really is an always on device.
There are reg tweeks and cabs, and progs to help, but i found them all pretty buggy and useless, just leave it on and dont worry.
Now if you can stop the damn wireless disconnecting on sleep im a happy man .

I'll take that advice my good man ;p
Nice one bruvver ;p

jrvenge said:
Now if you can stop the damn wireless disconnecting on sleep im a happy man .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You don't want that.. trust me. It brings a whole new meaning to 'battery hog'!

you can also configure another data connection with fake data to prevent it from connecting.

Werid that cus my nokia 5800 stays connected to wireless for 3 days on one charge?

It is strange, but data connection almost constantly on didn't affect my HD2's battery life too badly..in fact it made almost no difference.
maybe because battery life wasn't very good in the first place

Well it should not unless its being used, good advice is drop to GSM only if you dont neet a fast connection, i have my device on GSM always, and use Morits com manager to switch to 3G+ if i need the speed, i have done this with all my phones.
3G is a bit of a power monster, and rather pointless drain unless your using it.

I,m using Nodata program to disable data connections. The draw back is you have to enable them back if you want to use internet. The program is definetly good for roaming if you want to be on a safe side.
http://htcdriver.com/index.php?page=nodata

Hey thats a handy app thanks

nodata switched my data connection back on while abroad. I just hope not to get a horrific bill now!!!

Idea: 3G/EDGE Auto Switcher

Hey guys, I'm by no means an Android developer, so I could never make my idea a reality. But do you guys think this would be possible?
THE IDEA:
A small program that runs in the background, switching the network between HSDPA and EDGE. It would default to EDGE while idling, but activate HSDPA when a user-defined program is run (such as Opera, google maps, marketplace, etc). This way, you can idle on EDGE (and save power), but still have the speed of HSDPA when you need it!
I have no idea if this is even remotely possible so please don't flame the noob

I don't know if you searched the forums...but this was 4 threads down from yours. Don't know if it answers your application or what not...also try out Juice Defender
EDIT: oh hi from OCN

bloke226 said:
I don't know if you searched the forums...but this was 4 threads down from yours. Don't know if it answers your application or what not...also try out Juice Defender
EDIT: oh hi from OCN
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea already tried it But I still have the OCN mentality of "the pursuit of performance".. in this case, the pursuit of battery performance
Juice Defender does not switch between EDGE/3G based on the applications you're running AFAIK

I kinda had the same idea as you so last week I created a topic on the Nexus One Themes and Apps: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=678227
Feel free to join the discussion

I believe 3g uses less power while idling than edge
-------------------------------------
Sent via the XDA Tapatalk App

r34p3rex said:
Yea already tried it But I still have the OCN mentality of "the pursuit of performance".. in this case, the pursuit of battery performance
Juice Defender does not switch between EDGE/3G based on the applications you're running AFAIK
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hear ya about the performance. I guess I read your post too quick and missed the part where it would be application based. I can't think of anything on the top of my head that can do that, it would be difficult I would imagine...

I think there are a couple problems here
1) the "context switch" (if you will) from Edge to 3G and back devours battery
2) its slow, so you grab your idling phone to figure out the nearest Starbucks and you miss your exit while it jumps from Edge to 3G

I know on the google api it isn't possible to do this, but I don't think that isn't the problem.
At the moment you have 3 options. GSM only, WCDMA only and GSM/WCDMA. Whenever you switch between the 3 of them, the phone will lose signal for 10 seconds before it can find the best network. So the switcher here is not the best as you will lose connection, and what if you are downloading something at the same time...
What you need is when the phone is on GSM/WCDMA that it knows the best network to pick from depending on the phones lifecycle. GSM/WCDMA loses battery power because it always tries to find the best network to connect to, so for example if you are on GSM it will constantly try to find a 3G network etc (as far as I understand it).
What we need is the ability for the phone to stay on GSM when the phone is idle and then when the phone is woken up to automatically start to search for a WCDMA network and then gracefully switch over like it does now. For this I have no idea if it is possible as I don't know how the scanning of the network works. If it is possible then that would be wicked. But this is what we need.

crachel said:
I think there are a couple problems here
1) the "context switch" (if you will) from Edge to 3G and back devours battery
2) its slow, so you grab your idling phone to figure out the nearest Starbucks and you miss your exit while it jumps from Edge to 3G
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
THIS.
It's the switch between the two that really eats battery. That said, I'm pretty sure you can do that with Tasker already.

Check out Chainfire's app http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=807989

GSM data connection

Hello all,
First off, I just got this kit. Only had it a couple of days and already I am unhappy to pick up my HD2 - unless I wanna play playstation....which I dont cos I got loads of good games from marketplace
It is so all encompassing, its exactly what I expected the i8910 to be which sadly failed a little and didnt really get any development going - well not fast enough for me to keep it...
I am really really happy with it.
BUT.........I am suffering with the battery, lasts about 1/2 a day of use and then gives up as I am hammering it all the time. I have advanced task killer and I worked out that if you set it to medium security it sees most apps that are running and ignores the services. I use this and free it up somwhat.
I also ensure wifi and bluetooth are disabled and I put the phone on standby, on all devices I have used in the past mostly symbian and win mo, connections were visible, you saw when it went online and connected HSDPA and could either stop it or turn it off.
Now how on earth do I go about starting/stopping GSM data connections>? The drop down bar only shows WiFi n blueteeth>?
meh?
Thanks for anticipated assistance

this will help you
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=721111

You might want to consider carrying a spare battery if you're a real heavy user like me. As to switching off the data over 3G, You might want to try out SwitchPro. It's only a dollar.