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Okay guys, this is serious. I'm impressed by my JasJar but i'm not sure it does anything more that i actually need it for than my Imate Jam. As far as I can see there are some good points and some bad points about it and i wouldn't mind some opinons about whether its worth keeping or selling.
Okay my first view on the plus sides:
Screen is excellent quality
Wifi is very fast and much faster than the wifi sd card i have at the moment.
Keyboard is useful combined (but not as big as the fold out one i have for my imate)
Negative Sides:
3g doesn't seem to work in my area so i can't seem to benefit from that
Size is big (i would need a second phone to go out with etc)
Can't see much difference in speed with my level of usage
Pain in the ass to anwser it (imate jam is not a big phone at all)
Software is still a bugger to install etc.
Okay, my mine uses for the jasjar were to be for work. I would be booking appts and keeping track of those appointments and information regarding them on the pda for my work. Although harder to type in, i could in theroy do that on the imate jam. I don't use the wifi alot outside of the home (although it would be useful to use mirc, the web etc while girlfriend is on the pc).
At the moment i'm umming and ahhing because i have to take the phone with me everywhere (actually considering using the jasjar sim free while i'm off work and putting the imate jam back on the road as it were)
REALLY appreciate anyones help to this, its good but i'm not sure if its enough of a step for me to merit not selling it and getting ALOT of money for it (brought as upgrade through o2)
Look forward to the replys
Ian
I'm gonna tell you what I tell other people:
If you don't know what to do with a jasjar then buy the wizard.
The wizard size is as good as big as the jam, has wifi, keyboard and is in those ways much better then the jam.
The reason I need the pro is because I love the vga screen, keyboard and WM5, and I can give support to my customers through logmein.com using 3G.
So sell your jasjar and jam and go buy a wizard.
thanks for the quick response. I'm not sure that I would want a wizard really. I do think that I need to use the exec in a work situation before really considering getting rid of it.
That logmein.com looks rather cool, would like to be able to control my home pc while at work to setup downloads etc. the screen on this is rather special and i'm not against getting a second handset to use for going out etc.
would like to hear anyone elses views if possible.
just to point out to you and myself really i'm lying in bed writing this on the forum with real ease via wifi. hmmmmm another pro to the exec I think!
Ian
thanks for the quick response. I'm not sure that I would want a wizard really. I do think that I need to use the exec in a work situation before really considering getting rid of it.
That logmein.com looks rather cool, would like to be able to control my home pc while at work to setup downloads etc. the screen on this is rather special and i'm not against getting a second handset to use for going out etc.
would like to hear anyone elses views if possible.
just to point out to you and myself really i'm lying in bed writing this on the forum with real ease via wifi. hmmmmm another pro to the exec I think!
Ian
I've tried both, and apologies for readers of this forum, but the Wizard wins hands down. The Universal reminds me of why I ditched the first Ipaqs and went back to Palm years ago. Sure the Pocket PCs had better displays and you could show off playing movie clips, but that novelty soon waned when it was too big to carry and it took ages to lookup a phone number or check your diary.
You've got to weigh up what you _really_ need when you're away from your PC. The whole point to me of having a PDA is that I can access or update my information quickly at all times. The Ipaq seemd to be always at home or in my desk drawer just when I needed it, because it was a pain to carry. Even when I had it, it was sluggish finding the information I needed. The Palms won over because they went with me everywhere, and information retrieval was almost instant.
So, the Universal is a step back to the bad old days - except it's bigger and heavier. Good to show off with but impractical in most situations outside of the work environment because of its bulk.
Don't be fooled by the CPU either. Whatever advantage the Universal has on paper over the Wizard is sapped in real life by the need to update the VGA display. True, the Wizard is no speed merchant (even when compared to a Treo). But I found responsiveness to critical tasks (e.g. starting up Messaging to read/send a text, screen rotation, answering calls) significantly slower on the Universal - and that _really_ starts to annoy when you're in a rush.
So, everything I did with the Universal I can pretty much do on the Wizard, with the big difference that I can take it anywhere. Anyhing else can wait until I'm back at my PC. What's more, I can actually see who's calling and answer a phone call before it drops or diverts to voicemail
And don't forget the resale value. Given the trend of HTC Wizard / Prophet / Atom devices, the longer you hold onto the huge Universal the less saleable it's going to be. Sure, it fills a niche at the moment, but in 12 month's time, is a 1st generation device that big going to have anything but collectors' appeal?
So, unless you only use the Universal in the home and office, the larger keyboard and VGA display are"must haves", and you don't mind missing the odd phone call, then I would say the Wizard was the better bet.
If you really need a VGA display, a keyboard, and top performance, go for a proper PDA like the Dell X51v, a bluetooth keyboard and a seperate cellphone - it'll probably be cheaper, more flexible and easier to carry. And each element will work much better at what it is designed to do.
@Ineedtoys, what a refreshing and objective view on the subject. Having owned a Treo 650 and Clie TH55 I know what you're talking about. In the real world stability, size of device and battery life are still the key requirements and showing your latest toy to friends/work colleagues etc is nice but for most people is not a sufficient reason for buying a device. You either buy a device to meet a personal requirement or buy a device so that you can play with it "like a toy". Decide if you want a real tool or a "toy" first and then you'll be happy with your decision.
My view is that the Universal is not really a cell phone, it is an advanced PDA/mini tablet and you need to use it with another cell phone. The story for the Wizard may be different.
At first I always open the screen and rotated it to see who is calling me, and pick up the phone. Just like my old xda has it's screen outside.
But this take way to long, and most of the time the caller hung up before it was ready to rotate the screen and is able to pick up the call..
Now I just open the lid to see who it is. then close it again and pick up with the side green phone button leaving the pro closed.
If you use it this way i'ts perfect.
At first I had to get used of the size but now I am used to it.
People sometimes think: what the hell is that big thing?
But when I op the "laptop" and rotate it's screen and show the phone it's the coolest thing they've seen .
very interesting reading
Ihave a Universal (o2) for a week now, and am SERIOUSLY thinking of returning it for something else,
I like the Mini s (Wizard) too, but one subject that I believe is left aside is the battery life : with the Universal that I have tested for over a week if I did use the Wifi like 2 hours and a bit of BT and phone, then its battery would be gone by 5pm (starting at 9am !) quite a shame.
My point is : do these devices need to be pluged to the AC anytime we want to use to use the connexions, in that case I can stick with my laptop if need to be wired.
Or is it ony the Universal that is amazingly sucking the battery like no other ?
I appreciate your help as I have to decide if I send it back before friday ! ;-)
Re: very interesting reading
I presume you tried turning the screen brightness and WiFi power right down, and IR beaming off? The Wizard will definately give you longer as it doesn't have the battery sucking screen and has the low power OMAP processor.
The battery life in the Universal seems to get conditioned after a couple of weeks and does improve, but you don't have enough time to wait for that!
already better after 8 days
in fact I have noticed that it is getting better after a week (the battery),
but it's only because I now used the wifi only when I know I have a power nearby and I disable all connexion when I have it in my pocket, same for the brightness etc...
still.. the second point to change it is definately the size : I already have a tablet-pc to play with, so that will do it for now.
Back soon on this forum with the Wizard. :lol:
ill take your universal for my wizard
Just let you know my comparison of the two units after 5 days with the Xda Cosmo after having the Trion for the last 4 months. My Girlfriend brought me the Excalibur as a pre Christmas gift 8)
After 4 months my Trion main speaker stopped working and I have currently sent it back to get it replaced. All in all I was quite happy with the Trion except for a few quirks.
1. Media Player was buggy with the storage card
2. Never got WM5orage working properly (either had to stopo all my programs running on the storage card which included removing items from the Today screen).
3. Screen alignment problem.
I got the Hermes originally as it looked like a device which I didn't have to use the stylus much to access most of the functionality and in 90% of cases I got by with just using the jog wheel and a couple of presses with my thumb (I had the very first xda device and was turned off by the need to use the stylus to do simple things such as dialing and looking up contacts )
I had noticed due to the operating system PPC vs smartphone the PPC needed much more processing power and hence battery life was preety much limited due to the power from the CPU 400mhz vs 200mhz ( maybe of the extra functionality needed for the touchscreen ).
Differences in the devices
1. Xda Excalibur is more responsive even with the slower CPU. Contacts work instantly on typing on the keyboard. On the hermes there is always a delay in searching for contacts.
2. Excalibur supports multiple languages in its rom and therefore there no need to reflash the rom with the rom with your appropriate language.
3. A2DP works flawlessly on Excalibur being aku 3.2. No need to install cab files to get it working and no sound quality issues and no need to get somone to write a bt stack driver to get around the microsoft one.
4. Programs in general for smartphone seem to be running better than on Pocket PC. Tomtom 6 Navigator doesn't run on the Cosmo but Tomtom 5 work just fine and performance actually seems better on the smartphone even with the lower CPU. Same is notice with other PPC vs Smartphone progams I have eg Skype and Fizz Traveller
5. Cosmo has 128 MB flash ram which is really useful as I was always trying to install everything on the SD card with the Trion to get as much memory possible for standard stuff such as emails, ringtones etc. Yes I know you can tweak the Hermes to get ringtones from the SD card but it just a hassle changing the registry settings.
6. For some reason Windows Live Beta works on the Cosmo. It stopped working on the Hermes about a month ago and never worked since. The smartphone version looks really nice as well and functions much better as I have noticed with all smartphone vs ppc programs.
7. WLAN works much better on the Cosmo compared to the Hermes eg handling of connection settings when WLAN is turned on. On the Hermes I always had to go through the process of changing my connection settings every time I switched by WLAN on an off.
8. Battery life on cosmo is much better. 3.5-4 days use compared to 1.5-2 days use on Trion. Probably because of CPU (I also changed the Hermes to GPRS only to try and save battery life due to UMTS draining the battery)
9. Not to sing all praises for the Excalibur. The only drawback I have found so far for my purposes is the Microsoft Office editing functionality is not possible on the smartphone.
10. 2MP camera vs 1.3 MP camera but I really cannot see much advantage in the quality as the 2MP wasnt that great to start with. Yes the Hermes has a led light but I doesn't really help with indoor photos. The 1.3 MP camera seems to be better quality than other 1.3 MP cameras before and for emails, web photos and MMS quality seems fine for my purposes as I wont ever print out photos from a camera handy.
11. Lack to UMTS/HSDPA on Excalibur. Loose the speed but you'll gain heaps on battery life.
12. Microsoft Media Player works with the SD card. No disappearing songs 8)
13. Price. The excalibur is less than 1/6 the price of the Trion on contract. My Girlfriend brought the Cosmo on contact for 60 Euro. I got the Trion for 320 Euro on the same contact.
14. and I think this is the killer. The excalibur have looks to die for. The Hermes is thick and although many people would say it is solidly built after using the Excalibur it makes the Hermes look like a oversized flimsy machine. The Excalibur is thin and compact with a large screen. Fits in your shirt pocket or even slide it into your jeans!!! HTC have outdone themselves with the build quality I haven't seen any phone build as solid including the razr. I fells like the device is made out of titanium or magnesium with a soft feel rubber all along the back of the device and for the keys as well, ( I cat't stop touching the device it feels sooo.. good ). My Girlfriend who is really fashion concious absolutely loves the look of the device. Photos on the net do not do it justice you have to see it in real to appreciate it's looks for me one look and it was love at first sight. (I first got a look at it from a female collegue who got the phone)
It took me a day to get used to the smaller keyboard and maybe bigger thumbs might have some problems but with rubber keys feel beautiful and make each key feel distinct during typing. The excalibur really is a one hand device even with the d pad and keys only. The touch slider is just a added bonus with flexibility.
After writing this I have noticed that this is more of a sales pitch for the excalibur than a comparison of the two devices but I have found my perfect device which does everything I need without any problems ( performance, bugs and quirks ). If you dont need the UMTS speed I must say Excalibur is the way to go. If you really need UMTS and 2MP camera then wait for the Calivier ( the UMTS /2 MP / 300Mhz version of the excalibur, rumoured to release in Spring next year ).
For me the excalibur seems to have a quite launch compared to the expectations of the Hermes maybe because on paper the Hermes looks better in terms of specifications but for usability it's excalibur all the way.
Now what to do with my Trion when it gets back?
excalibur is a smartphone right ?
Yes it is a smartphone but I think that is why it is much more responsive. Microsoft has done something right with wm5 for smartphone. Theres not much a smartphone cant do now compared to the pocket pc now. except for the microsoft office editing capabilities. I tried skype today and for some reason it was much more clearer than the pocket pc version.
it depends what you use it for..
if youre like me who has to do Office work, watch movies and play tradewinds then the touch screen is VITAL.. personally i dont have any issues with my hermes as the ones youve mentioned above..
and ofcourse there is the touch screen
I just got myself a smartphone (samsung i607) after having the wizard for a year. I was thinkign the same thing you are about smartphone functionality. i was wrong though. There is an extreme lack of third party programs for smartphone. In particular, there aren't any good web browsers whatsoever for wm5smartphone. not a single one. You also cannot customize the homescreen without downloading predefined ones online. I never found one i liked. I like to use data instant messaging programs. and there is a flaw in all of them for smartphone. They don't have homescreen plugins and there is absolutely no onscreen display that you have received a message when the program is in the forgroud. In fact, i hated the lack of flexibility on the smartphone so much that 24 hours after buying the i607, i bought the hermes. I'm still waiting for it to come, and cant wait to start doing everything i used to do with the wizard only faster.
k2snowboards88 said:
I just got myself a smartphone (samsung i607) after having the wizard for a year. I was thinkign the same thing you are about smartphone functionality. i was wrong though. There is an extreme lack of third party programs for smartphone. In particular, there aren't any good web browsers whatsoever for wm5smartphone. not a single one. You also cannot customize the homescreen without downloading predefined ones online. I never found one i liked. I like to use data instant messaging programs. and there is a flaw in all of them for smartphone. They don't have homescreen plugins and there is absolutely no onscreen display that you have received a message when the program is in the forgroud. In fact, i hated the lack of flexibility on the smartphone so much that 24 hours after buying the i607, i bought the hermes. I'm still waiting for it to come, and cant wait to start doing everything i used to do with the wizard only faster.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I Have both, S620 to work and TyTn for play, and I had Wizard.
Try opera mini... better than IE and I use it also on HERMES
I've found a LOT of home screens (motorola Q has many of it) but also I like to play with XML, using just notepad and I have now my PERFECT , tre pages (scrolling), Home screen!
Office problems? try the new DATAWIZ suite, much better than office embedded in TyTN
Great as navigator and fits in my jeans pocket (the BACK pocket) and in my shirt pocket!
I 've sold the wizard believing the HERMES was the empowered Wizard. It Is the STUPID WIZARD'S BIG BROTHER believe me!
I've tried opera mini, and i dont particularly like it. I consider it to be a step down from the standard PIE with the reg edit to make PIE identify itself as a desktop computer. I guess i just miss the adaptability of my wizard. My hermes will be here soon though. I'll never make the mistake of selling my old phone before getting a new one again. If i dont like the hermes, i'll still have my blackjack. After a week, i'll decide which one to keep.
Shall we compare Athena with HTC Universal? The hardware features, quality, built in software, speed, everything?
Let's try:
- Athena is absolutely uncomfortable as a phone
- Athena is a little bit larger and heavier
- Athena is more expensive
+ Athena's screen is much bigger
+ Athena nave embedded GPS
+ Athena have HDD
+ Athena have VGA-out
+ Athena have VueFLO (but is't really useless feature)
+ Athena have 3 mpix AF camera
more?
When people have the Advantage/Ameo etc, it will be more appropriate to make comparisons that one can agree or disagree with.
Just FYI - some live photos of Athena
http://foto.ixbt.com/?id=album:4006
Great photos Bader, Cheers!
Bader said:
Just FYI - some live photos of Athena
http://foto.ixbt.com/?id=album:4006
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a million for those brilliant high res photos Bader!
It's nice to get a real world perspective of size on the X7500 against other devices and equipment. If you don't mind, I'm going to post a link to the site you listed here, everyone who doesn't have one yet and is interested will appreciate these pics. Thanks again.
BTW I will be posting here:
http://www.4winmobile.com/next-vt4467.html?postdays=0&postorder=asc&&start=80
and here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=286884&page=13
Here you are!
Gallery updated
PS You've put mistake in my nick on 4winmobile
Nice photos..Thanks
Bader said:
Here you are!
Gallery updated
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Bader.
Any chance of a first impressions review? Or feedback on performance with 3rd party apps compared to other devices...like Universal? I know, I know...you were probably going to do that before I opened my big mouth last week.
Anyway thanks again for your contributions, they are appreciated.
Actually Bader...there is one very important question I would love to be answered...if your willing of course.
Can/have you tested the USB host capabilities of the X7500? I mean can you hook up a full sized keyboard and or mouse, or even a external hard-drive?
This would be huge plus for me personally, but I think others would like to know too. Cheers.
Unfortunately, I don't have Universal now, but in any case I'll put here are some feedbacks:
Performance is good enougt, f.e. "windows" folder is to be opened in one second
700 Mb movie is loaded in 3 minutes via USB (2.0?)
Original DivX movies can be watching wo recoding with at least 80% efficiency (parhabs depends on embedded ATI Imageon chip, now I'm tryin' to tune it )
GPS works worse than in Artemis - probably cause of metall body
Battery is really good - about two days while books reading, movies watching, push-mail recieving etc.
Camera - ghm... SonyEricsson's one is better
No vibracall!
What else? Please ask
About USB-host - unfortunately, I don't have the the cable to try this function (I've got the device in test package). VGA-out works well.
Bader said:
About USB-host - unfortunately, I don't have the the cable to try this function (I've got the device in test package). VGA-out works well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The normal htc USB cable should do. Connect the mini to your Athena, and the regular usb end to your drive eg. pocket drive, card reader etc.
gps athena
gps worse than the one of p3300? 1º slower to take satellite? 2º fixes less satellite?
Great stuff Bader!
Bader said:
Unfortunately, I don't have Universal now, but in any case I'll put here are some feedbacks:
Performance is good enougt, f.e. "windows" folder is to be opened in one second
700 Mb movie is loaded in 3 minutes via USB (2.0?)
Original DivX movies can be watching wo recoding with at least 80% efficiency (parhabs depends on embedded ATI Imageon chip, now I'm tryin' to tune it )
GPS works worse than in Artemis - probably cause of metall body
Battery is really good - about two days while books reading, movies watching, push-mail recieving etc.
Camera - ghm... SonyEricsson's one is better
No vibracall!
What else? Please ask
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great stuff Bader, thanks for the feedback. So GPS is worse than Artemis? Is it acceptable though? Or do you experience weak signal and drop outs, in comparison?
You say Divx plays at about 80% without the need for recoding? That's not bad depending on bitrate. (I'll PM you about this). Are we talking like torrent movie encoding quality here? DVD rips? I hope so, because then there is a lot of room for improvement.
Didn't expect much from the camera anyway.
No Vibra call? Glad I ordered me a vibrating Bluetooth Plantronics 640 now.
"700 Mb movie is loaded in 3 minutes via USB (2.0?)". Is this via active sync straight to the device? If so, that's not bad.
I like the windows folder opening time. But is that on a fresh machine or with loads of 3rd party apps?
How about surfing in high res mode? Is this supported in the ROM version you have? And if so, how is the speed of page rendering compared to your experience of other PPC devices?
Thanks again for taking the time and effort to answer these questions Bader. Pls check your PM.
What is your model? Advantage, ameo or U1000?
How is the building quality?
2 victoradjei
I're wrong - USBhost is based on another slot than sync/charge USB. It is good seen on this picture - http://foto.ixbt.com/?id=photo:57887
Left one is VGAout/USBhost with proprietary connector.
2 hx4700spain
I'ts only my opinion, based on expirience - it seem to me, that Artemis finds sattelites faster, and sesitivity is a little bit better. Unfortunately, i cannot compare and measure, cause Artemis was sold 4 month ago
I any case - Athena's GPS wokrs much better than any 12channel device.
mackaby007
About movies - yes, sure, i mean DVD-rips on maximum quality settings. If set low details - so performance comes to 200%
About loading speed - yes, 3 minutes via AS or WM5torage - no any difference
"Windows" opening time - it on real used device with about 20 thirdparty apps installed.
RealVGA is not supported in current ROM :-(
But there are Opera installed (in ExtROM), and it's posible to scale up and down - looks like real VGA. Rendering speed is about 2 times faster than on my Herald.
PS I'll answer PM in few minutes.
2 Arya
HTC X-7500
Looks very durable, can be used as selfdefence weapon
Seriosly - building quality is perfect.
please photos made by the athena
how long in minutes to take satellite?
http://foto.ixbt.com/?id=camera:703
Warm start - about 2 minutes
I just got the T-Mobile Ameo today, the branded version of the HTC X7500.
With the exception of the silver casing (instead of black as on the X7500), the Ameo is the same.
Here are the first impressions:
1. build quality excellent, display quality very good (but not at par with the Sony Vaio UX "micro"-laptop for example), speed is very good too, the programs just "fly".
2. GSM/GPRS reception is pretty good, I didn't have the chance to try out UMTS/HSDPA yet since I'm living outside the city and we get only Vodafone UMTS over here
3. you can't use the unit like a normal cell phone, you need to use a headset or the built-in speaker phone. This is pretty annoying, making the Ameo actually more a kind of a internet working machine, not a cell phone. If you're planning to use this baby for everything, including "classic" cell phone operation, forget about it
4. if you think that the new magnetic keypad is interesting, wait until you actually see the WHOLE "system" working incl. the leather protection casing.
You can't actually use the magnetic keypad without the leather casing since the Ameo itself may "fall down" sooner or later, causing a lot of damage to the unit if it falls down from a higher height. Use the leather casing, it provides the necessary "grip", so the Ameo doesn't move at all to the back.
It is a pretty interesting and well thought through combo, you have to see it for yourself to understand how it works. The pictures you may have seen on the internet, showing a woman holding the Ameo in her hand, attached to the magnetic keypad are actually CRAP. The Ameo has no support in the back and if this woman would move her hand a bit, the Ameo would fall down. I don't understand why T-Mobile doesn't advertise in pictures the whole "system" with the leather casing, so people understand how it is working and how WELL it is working.
5. inserting the SIM card was kind of a pain in the a.., it wasn't too easy and you can't swap SIM cards on a regular basis, this would be too annoying.
6. the new Opera browser is a treat, it works great compared to the also supplied Internet Explorer. The Opera 8.6x browser was a good choice for the Ameo.
7. the built-in 3 MP camera is easy too use, it uses an autofokus which works pretty well and it even has a flash. Picture quality is pretty good when there is enough light but the object has to stay steady if you want to get a good picture. Video quality pretty much sucks, if the object moves, you just get a blurr, nothing else. That said, the specs of the camera are more impressive on paper than in reality but it is pretty "usable".
8. since the keypad system uses a strong magnet, you have to be careful where you transport/keep your unit in the leather casing. If your credits cards, etc. are close to it, you may have them corrupted.
9. after installing my "usual" programs (Worldmate, AgendaOne, WiFi Companion, Subsembly Wallet and GPS Meter), the Ameo started to be kept in an incontinouus booting cycle (like a soft reset). I had to hard reset the unit and start all over again installing my programs, pretty annoying. So the firmware DEFINETELY isn't bug-free yet.
more photo by athena please
Brilliant!
Bader said:
mackaby007
About movies - yes, sure, i mean DVD-rips on maximum quality settings. If set low details - so performance comes to 200%
About loading speed - yes, 3 minutes via AS or WM5torage - no any difference
"Windows" opening time - it on real used device with about 20 thirdparty apps installed.
RealVGA is not supported in current ROM :-(
But there are Opera installed (in ExtROM), and it's posible to scale up and down - looks like real VGA. Rendering speed is about 2 times faster than on my Herald.
PS I'll answer PM in few minutes.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Bader!! That's really good news, just what I was hoping to hear so far. C PM.
Hi, Great forum people, at least you get the chance to write up your thoughts.
My first Post on this site, and my initail thoughts.
I got an Ameo as an upgrade to my "MDA PRO" from T-Mobile. It looks like a UMPC but not quite there. I second all your thoughts on the device. One thing that is "interesting is the motion sensor" i.e. you can move around the web browsers via tilting the machine, but a bit like my PS3 Motion Sensor Games it gets a bit of getting use to so I tend not to use it.
Another useful thing above the MDA was the little 5 way joypad which is useful if you don't feel pulling out the pen. But this is definitely a Two Hands Device.
I always try and get the most techie gadget from my Tmobile as possible, the odd view I know but I dont actually believe this is a useable phone, so I still use my trusty SONYp900 with rubbish battery.
Although I must admit the MDA pro battery is pretty bad, that I upgraded to a larger and thus more bulkier model.
So Far I have been impressed with the Ameo's battery - life and as others have commented that the usb charging takes longer from Laptop/PC than the official adapter included. But alas I think after using it it will only really last a day at most … so I have to carry a charger with me if at work etc.
One thing I am confused about is that T-Mobile - I never had any Composite out / S-VHS output cable - just a VGA cable, not sure if this is standard or misinformation I did however had VGA out - it would have been nice to show family pics when travelling etc on family TV's at times.
For me this is exactly as you said a Filofax that BT headset would be useful for making calls. I use it to do exactly "work" related diarycalendar and massive contact list, and keep documents hat I am working on within for reference, must get a Blue Tooth keyboard that sounds useful.
Use the MDA PRO keypad was actually quite tactile and useable, this Ameo however is a very ZX80 "showing my age". but that being said I did edit my CV quite easily.
I would like to say when I saw the screen size I was impressed but the resolution is a let down, I think its more to do with WM5 rather than the device I presume but not sure of the Technical on this.
This machine is just screaming to be a LINUX machine with Phone and GPS built in, open office and more etc, utilising the screen size to a better effect. Dunno just a thought.
WM5 is not really eye candy in pink, so this is a let down, if not embarrassing, some peopel out there would slap you if you answered the Ameo in public so BT is useful and Hands free a necessity.
It "could" make a useful recorder for meetings. Also useful that it has a 3MP Camera, I took some shots and all were useful, but the device is slow and tedious and simple camera's are better Although it has stretched the boundaries i.e PDA/Phone etc. (noting the Nokia N95)
One thing is that it requires you to have a very steady hand or need to be leaning against something to take a top quality shot that again needs to be Still, I got tried of asking my 3 year old lad to hold still ;-) and did not even try with my fast crawling 9 month baby boy.
My wife thinks its yet another waste of money, but I explained to her that I never actually bought it, and it allowed me not to have to carry a laptop and the Work PC and this would be sufficient. So If you are after saving your back then great.
I am now actually on the look out for a really simple phone which can sync with outlook and preferably pay as you go.
So - now I don’t have to carry my ipod - music, Sony PSP for MP4, Laptop - general work. If I look at it that way all well and good. It does feel a bit odd that one I do pull it out it feels like the daddy of PDAs or an ARCHOS Media Player. Pity that the Linux thought that the USB sync cable could connect it to a further Hard drive? making it a TV recorder? Dreaming now sorry.
I hear HTC have a 7inch Vista Compatible. I think that Microsoft/HTC need to release WM6 on the AMEO with T-Mobile quickly.
Anyone know how to get rid of the T-Mobile customisation I remember that there use to be hack for the MDA PRO.
Also NO Anti Virus - or is it that I have not even opened or read Manual the CD-ROM may contain it? can someone confirm as I have to hide everything from the kids otherwise it becomes pulp in there mouths.
So far my littles ones have some great hand me downs, whilst I try and justify the Apple TV thing that just came through a month or so late ;-) belated Valentines Gift for my wife ;-), Pity I could not get this thing engraved with my wifes name on it, usually helps with the unwrapping.
Oh boy before I forget, I thought it was just me, but the screen is useless outside. it reflects so much that you cannot see anything outside. this is really annoying try to use the GPS. so the Voice and sound need to be loud. Notably I did have the screen protector supplied stuck on the Ameo. One thing it makes it more UNsensitive i.e. need to prod it firmly when utilising one finger and not the pointer, which surprisingly does stay in it hole, and does not fall out when there is a breeze in the air.
Another good thing is that streaming books is great for the Kids. The Speakers (stereo work well) althought they are very spoilt with Beolabs 8000 and 6000's around the house, amazingly they don't touch those.
With all the usb charges cables about the place and prying childrens hands I am a bit wary of the thing being pulled of table.
The leather case is really good quality leather, and I think although I like to keep everything quite new looking it may look even better with age.
BUT the protection it offers is minimal, i.e. its no ipod rubber skin etc, and the Ameo is no Light Bunny. If it was picked up I in a food fight accidentally then this would hurt ;-). Where am I going with this is that Hard Drive, and I have worked within IBM Engineering Manufacturing “Files/DASD or Hard Drives”. Can it take a bump is going to be found out by my toddlers sooner than later and this scares me a tad, Solid State could not arrive quick enough albeit for in flight parking technologies. Come on Samsung bring those prices down for that 64GB device.
That Magnetic Keyboard is definitely a Trick and credit to HTC nice idea and shows the shielding has been well thought out it reminds me of the shielding in Larger drives and Actuator Arms. One thing I would have like was another case which just allowed the Ameo to be used Palm Like.and a carrying strap should had least been an option, as long as it was not as girly as the PSP one.
Thinking Back PSION and HP and Ericson Pocket PC etc, this is that Nokia Communicator type machine. It nearly all there but not just quite.
Yes I will get an I-Phone engraved for my wife of course,. As I got this on a twelve month Contract. It does allow me to surf the web adequately but jave based websites still struggle with WM5. this is annoying if you use BT Yahoo, and even there non java based site there is issues with some very important icons.
Skype –usage with T-Mobile costs extra on top of web-n-walk so bear that in mind. This is a bit of a farce. But it would be ideal for Skype etc. If any hackers out there sort this out I will be impressed, I suppose T-Mobile monitor the Skpe services PORT?
One other thing I maybe correct about is there is no infra red port, as this would have made the best ever remote control. Although I do have an amazing B&O 7000 and beolink 5000 and standard beolink which all have immensely powerful beams. It would have been nice to add to my collection one that I could programme the non B&O kit with.
Hmmmm could add it to the Kitchen that I am thinking of doing up, drop down timer, internet cookbook, bollywood film streamer ;-) I think my wife may allow for it.
Anyways hope this adds to some of the thoughts others have written.
Speed of use and generally moving about I not totally impressed about although I am use to trading floor compute back bones, you can live with it. Thing that annoys me is the start up time to making a phone call quickly if you had to. One of the reasons for not using it as phone apart from looking like a person ready to be mugged.NFL.
More updates later.
Woah, that's one very helpful impression.
Thank you, please keep more coming.
I'm still with my Dopod 900/Universal, and thinking of upgrading to U1000 due to the speed, battery life, and bigger screen.
I find that my dopod 900 memory often drops below 10mb and this slows down the speed significantly. I do hope with U1000, the speed would improve tremendously. The Dopod 900 Battery life was not enough to keep me up for a whole day either. I do a lot of readings and typings with my PDA on the road, so bigger screen would be a bonus.
Although, U1000 seems heavier and bigger on spec paper, but I find that in my pant's pocket(Hugo Boss Dress pants) I find U1000 to be more comfortable, perhaps due to its thinner design?
The Dopod 900 is a bit thick and pressing against my thigh. So for some reason dopod 900 is less comfortable for me.
akhanaix said:
This machine is just screaming to be a LINUX machine with Phone and GPS built in, open office and more etc, utilising the screen size to a better effect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you help me by running haret on Athena and doing some tests ?
There is already some information gathered here
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=AthenaResearch
and many subsystems are already supported.
It is realistic to run Linux off the ramdisk very soon.
jlingo said:
Woah, that's one very helpful impression.
Thank you, please keep more coming.
I'm still with my Dopod 900/Universal, and thinking of upgrading to U1000 due to the speed, battery life, and bigger screen.
I find that my dopod 900 memory often drops below 10mb and this slows down the speed significantly. I do hope with U1000, the speed would improve tremendously. The Dopod 900 Battery life was not enough to keep me up for a whole day either. I do a lot of readings and typings with my PDA on the road, so bigger screen would be a bonus.
Although, U1000 seems heavier and bigger on spec paper, but I find that in my pant's pocket(Hugo Boss Dress pants) I find U1000 to be more comfortable, perhaps due to its thinner design?
The Dopod 900 is a bit thick and pressing against my thigh. So for some reason dopod 900 is less comfortable for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I use 900 before and now with u1000..
Honestly, dont sell ur 900 for the u1000..
I have it both now..
900 have something really good as an alternative..
lighter, an all in one keyboard, a backlight keyboard, a 4 rows keyboard.
For me, both of them have similar battery life.... Both good. u1000 a bit longer if the light set lower (but 20% light is higher than the 900 already)
I use 900 for 1.5 yrs, it is great and still the best in any PDA phone.
Get u1000 for a new fresh good, wider screen, more bright screen, faster speed, GPS, HSDPA. It for sure worth!!!
wonder said:
Well, I use 900 before and now with u1000..
Honestly, dont sell ur 900 for the u1000..
I have it both now..
900 have something really good as an alternative..
lighter, an all in one keyboard, a backlight keyboard, a 4 rows keyboard.
For me, both of them have similar battery life.... Both good. u1000 a bit longer if the light set lower (but 20% light is higher than the 900 already)
I use 900 for 1.5 yrs, it is great and still the best in any PDA phone.
Get u1000 for a new fresh good, wider screen, more bright screen, faster speed, GPS, HSDPA. It for sure worth!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yes i also agree the keyboard isn't that good in Athena, but hey don't forget, there is a possibility that we can buy extra keyboard that is better then Universal to attach to out Athena in the future.
My Ameo - unlock cost me £15 on T-Mobile
OK ... still playing with My Ameo.
Updates ... I have a Tom Tom 6 installed. - Will report back GPS capabilities soon.
WMStorage - worked 2nd time around but cannot get it working anymore. cant connect to usb driver error etc. Tried the threads but to no avail. - it maybe a TT6 thing.
Noted that after TT6 install the abilitiy to open media player files have become messed up on the web, it like it does not recognise them and I have to "save as" only - anyone know how to solve or experince this?
Not sure if some file associations have gone AWOL.
Definately still too big to Talk into, screen useless still in the SUN, waiting for the right type of sunshine ;-), Probably a good thing that you cannot use it outside when people can see you! ;-). Actualy I have started to use my mda pro a bit more and it actually feels usuable and small and a breath of fresh air scarily I might even use it as a phone now.
Installed ozVGA, amkes its a supperb document viewer - although cannot use the phone pad, but hey I am not making any calls ;-)
Biggest update - I thought I would like to use it as an emergency phone. without having to pull out my SIM card from other phone all the time. Noting I use Wifi most of the time. I thus phoned T-Mobile - got into chatting how I wold like to use the newly bought device abroad for a Month and if I could have it unlocked, the representative said £15 on the next bill, I said darn oh well, plaease put it on my next bill, and proceeded to give the IMEI number over the phone, she said that it would take 28 Days, to deliver to my home address. I said could it be meailed - she said yes, but it still takes 28 days ... checkig and procedures I guess... but I went for the email option hoping it maybe quicker, plus I can chase them without getting into postal issues.
But this now gives me a unlocked phone, pending them saying I should not have been given the ability to have it etc.... I am on flext25 webnwalk (12 month Contaract) but have been with them since the begining. Hopefuly giving me enough time to see iphone in the UK for next purchase.
Next stage, understand what Haret is? and how to get the info requested - earlier in the thread.
About to go down to phones4u and pick up a Motofone for £15, thin and simple.
Noted one really annoying thing, by the vue flow, there is a scratch apperaing from closing the case i.e. the plastic form teh keyboard contacts rubs direct against teh edge of the screen metal, and this is casuing me concern, it could easily dent it. I like to keep everythign like new, plastic, I dont even throw ties away ;-) so this is going to be annoying. its like gettinga dent on the Ferrari after just buying it, touching the screen of the of Bang and Olufsen Beovision 5 or worse a hole within the fret ;-).
regards Aamir.
akhanaix said:
Next stage, understand what Haret is? and how to get the info requested - earlier in the thread.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haret is "HArdware Reverse Engineering Tool". It's a wince program
with the source code available under GPL,
and you can get the latest precompiled version here
http://jornada820.sf.net/files/haret
The program allows a very detailed research in an interactive mode,
but first i'm interested in the most simple things.
Please put this program in some directory, and create a file named
"default.txt" containing a line
Code:
dump gpio athenagpio
in the same directory.
Start the program and press the "Run" button.
Exit.
You should see the file "athenagpio" in the same directory.
Please upload it here.
Haret dump file
CR2, Please see attached file.
It seems to be looking for a connection on port 9999, but I exited and the resulting file uploaded, let me know if this is incorrect or if I can assist further.
knid regards Aamir.
akhanaix said:
It seems to be looking for a connection on port 9999, but I exited and the resulting file uploaded, let me know if this is incorrect or if I can assist further.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Cool Dumping settings from a working machine is often
much more helpful than any static analysis.
I'm already editing the wiki based on your data.
Can you connect to the machine with telnet to port 9999,
and do you know how to log the session ?
We need to find out your board ID (if you don't know it already from the bootloader) and it is possible to dump a lot of other useful info.
Please give me the details and I wil try, I am currently away from my pc, but in essence is this correct :
[1] get the bootloader details (quick link please)
[2] Connect to the "home" wifi network.
[3] Work out the ip address on the Ameo
[4] telnet form PC on Wifi network to the Ameo ip Address
e.g.
[4.1] open command window or cmd on Home PC
[4.2] telnet 192.168.0.xxx [space] 9999
After which i suspect I am connected to something running on that 9999 port?
please let me know if that is roughly what you are after and then I can assist.
kind regards Aamir.
akhanaix said:
Please give me the details and I wil try, I am currently away from my pc, but in essence is this correct :
[1] get the bootloader details (quick link please)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not necessary, we can find it out ourselves.
[2] Connect to the "home" wifi network.
[3] Work out the ip address on the Ameo
[4] telnet form PC on Wifi network to the Ameo ip Address
e.g.
[4.1] open command window or cmd on Home PC
[4.2] telnet 192.168.0.xxx [space] 9999
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly.
After which i suspect I am connected to something running on that 9999 port?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are connected to haret (remote debugger, if you like) and can run debugging commands.
BTW, it can be deduced from your dump that the phone and wifi are
switched off. Can you switch them on (maybe the GPS too) and
do the gpiodump again ?
Thanks!
wu5262 said:
yes i also agree the keyboard isn't that good in Athena, but hey don't forget, there is a possibility that we can buy extra keyboard that is better then Universal to attach to out Athena in the future.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Wu,
What is this extra keyboard you are talking about?
jlingo said:
Hi Wu,
What is this extra keyboard you are talking about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This one
http://www.expansys.com/p.aspx?i=140983
jlingo said:
Hi Wu,
What is this extra keyboard you are talking about?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
there isn't one yet, all i am saying is there is a possibility that we will see third party keyboard that we can attach and replace the original one, it might have some more features such as extra row. Personally, i think it isn't that hard to achieve.
Why doesn't HTC make a Blue Angel II?
It seems that many of us have other devices like Wizards, TyTNs, etc. but we keep hanging on to our Blue Angels. Why is this?
Is it the Big Screen (for me this is the biggest item)?
Is it the fast speed?
Easily accessible Battery?
Is it the Rugged Build?
It seems to me that HTC is long overdue for a Blue Angel II with the Following Specs:
1) HSDPA & HSU (whatever it's called)
2) High Res 3.5" to 4" screen
3) Keyboard (and maybe a mouse of some kind)
Size like I-Phone (maybe a little thicker with keyboard)
4) FM and AM Radio (AM for the older folks like me who listen to talk radio)
5) Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
6) Charges with mini usb
7) TV receiver also????
8) Can still play music when turned off.
The Omni has similar specs but there's not much data on it. It looks like a mini laptop which folds open.
What do you all think?
Because they are working on this!
HTC Shift and that is not all!
But you are right, BA is the top model!
Blue Angel rulesss
It really is amazing how I'm still sticking with my BA since it was released.
Every year I look around to find a PDAphone to replace the old fellow, but I have to realize, that there isn't a better one.
I would accept the same device with 640*480 and 3G/HSDPA
Been thinking about the Kaiser, but since WM6 is running on my BA now... =)
Why throw the good cash out the window?
Same thought here. Best money I've spent in BA!!
rambo6 said:
Why doesn't HTC make a Blue Angel II?
It seems that many of us have other devices like Wizards, TyTNs, etc. but we keep hanging on to our Blue Angels. Why is this?
Is it the Big Screen (for me this is the biggest item)?
Is it the fast speed?
Easily accessible Battery?
Is it the Rugged Build?
It seems to me that HTC is long overdue for a Blue Angel II with the Following Specs:
1) HSDPA & HSU (whatever it's called)
2) High Res 3.5" to 4" screen
3) Keyboard (and maybe a mouse of some kind)
Size like I-Phone (maybe a little thicker with keyboard)
4) FM and AM Radio (AM for the older folks like me who listen to talk radio)
5) Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
6) Charges with mini usb
7) TV receiver also????
8) Can still play music when turned off.
The Omni has similar specs but there's not much data on it. It looks like a mini laptop which folds open.
What do you all think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That will be a beauty, i would surely go for it. BlueAngle rules.
noob @ xda....but a loooong time BA user (Dec2004)
I love the BA...the only things it lacks are a good built in GPS & HSDPA/UMTS/EDGE (can never have enough fast options for net access). Even without these two things I still am able to use it to impress people (even iphone fanatics...no custom apps).
TyTN II looks good but the only thing that keeps me away is the sideways keyboard, I wish they would put out a TyTN II with a slider KB like the BA. Single handed KB is great when you really need to multitask...multitasking is the reason I got a HTC.
Rugged Build story: I dropped it from 5ft+ (I had it chest level & I am 6' 3"), on a SF sidewalk...it died..or so I thought took it back home and all that happened was the backup battery reset and once I synced it with my pc everything was back to normal. This wasn't the first time its been dropped so I figured it was time to get a new device, but the build is awesome in this. But since it was a hard reset I finally decided to put WM6 on it (thank you all the great xda developers here), now its faster and more useful.
rambo6 said:
Why doesn't HTC make a Blue Angel II?
It seems that many of us have other devices like Wizards, TyTNs, etc. but we keep hanging on to our Blue Angels. Why is this?
Is it the Big Screen (for me this is the biggest item)?
Is it the fast speed?
Easily accessible Battery?
Is it the Rugged Build?
It seems to me that HTC is long overdue for a Blue Angel II with the Following Specs:
1) HSDPA & HSU (whatever it's called)
2) High Res 3.5" to 4" screen
3) Keyboard (and maybe a mouse of some kind)
Size like I-Phone (maybe a little thicker with keyboard)
4) FM and AM Radio (AM for the older folks like me who listen to talk radio)
5) Bluetooth 2.0 EDR
6) Charges with mini usb
7) TV receiver also????
8) Can still play music when turned off.
The Omni has similar specs but there's not much data on it. It looks like a mini laptop which folds open.
What do you all think?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and a 3.2 MP camera ...
I would sell my house to get some thing similar !!!
I love my Blue Angel ! 3 Years with me, never let me down.
I Love it! Blue Angel is the top for me.. Every time a look around for new PDA, look at new release from HTC, never found all i have in BA. Best thing - Size is exactly what a device like this must be! 3.7 display - not too big, not too small. I broke my lcd+touchscreen, replaced from e-bay, and I am still using it.
Don't like the idea of GPS in the unit. Better on Bluetooth - in your car mount BA don't have clear view to the sky.
Blue Angel II (if any) should not have key board.
I love my Blue Angel, after upgrading to WM6, I dont like to buy any other available in market.
I like Blueangel the way it is, but wanted it to have a better processor (520mhz would be nice), VGA Screen, Accelerated video, 3G and landscape keyboard.
EmZvr said:
I like Blueangel the way it is, but wanted it to have a better processor (520mhz would be nice), VGA Screen, Accelerated video, 3G and landscape keyboard.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm...
Wouldn't that be *exactly* a Universal?
I have both of them! They do rock, indeed!
Cheers,
vma
vma said:
Hmmm...
Wouldn't that be *exactly* a Universal?
I have both of them! They do rock, indeed!
Cheers,
vma
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
exactly... i wanted to upgrade to a universal, but since wm6 came out i stayed on with it. its nice to have a dinosaur that can rock along the newer models.
vma said:
Hmmm...
Wouldn't that be *exactly* a Universal?
I have both of them! They do rock, indeed!
Cheers,
vma
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's right but I don't like it's design, only if there were buttons in the front.. And I think it's not video accelerated which is very important to me. Or is it ?
Hi,
I am not sure if it is videoaccelerated or not, but I can tell you that all applications I like work as good or better on my Universal as on my BA:
- Emulators
- TomTom
- TCPMP
The Universal is slightly bigger than the BA and one has to get used to the tilting screen.
On the other hand, it is much nicer to have the Universal in the back-pocket of your trousers than having then BA attached to the belt, where it get's hit by doors or other things, when you move to close to walls...
And believe me: the VGA screen is suberb!!!
Cheers,
vma
Same Here
BA is the best. Love it very much although i was given a gift of HTC TyTn.
E-TEN X800 or M800 seems to be my current candidate for BA replacement.
BA is a really good dinosaur. Hard to let it go.
However, remember that there are some awfully crappy things about it. It's not perfect.
- somewhat power hungry
- awful cradle connector
- audio out funtion in cradle connector newer worked for me (for any carkit)
- has confirmed hardware issue with buttons (loss of response - makes gaming hard)
- has crappy WM2003SE (because, face it... no WM5 WM6 ROM is stable and bug free enough)
I agree, that it's hard to find a decent replacement for it.
All model have too small screens...
Won't go back......
I checked out all the other models, older and current, before I bought the BA. I have a Wizard, which now resides in a drawer, only as a back-up, in case something happens to my BA. The only criticism I have of the BA is that they no longer manufacture it, so I too hope HTC comes out with something to replace it. From what I've seen of the newer models and what I read on this forum everyday, I'll stick with the BA.
BTW, robal, take a look at the rom I,m running. Since upgrading from 2003se to this rom, I have had 0 issues. It's fast, stable and battery life is acceptable.
i've since moved on from my BA to a hermes and now a kaiser......i miss my BA.
well BA has its design faults
1.the cable which connects lcd to motherboard is weak and after some sliding it cracks - this effect can be solved (extend the durability) with Polyethylene Foam Tape on the cable
2.after sliding there there are sme scratches below the hardware keyboard - repainting
3.the stylus pin (inside the device) which hold the stylus from falling off also cracks after too many usage - i fixed it with silicone (as i lost the pin) and it works fine over a year now
other than that the device is pretty solid and had no problems with it
most are the new WM problems but without proper drivers it is almost inpossible to be solved
in comparission with kaiser the BA has better video acceleration for the moment (this will change when the proper kaiser drivers are released)
What BA miss (the things i miss in it):
internal GPS
54 mbit wireless
better camera (2 mpix)
OpenGL ES hardware acceleration
larger rom space (32 mb right now if it was larger we can create more complete rom images for BA)
larger storage space 60 mb (everyone needs more space)
What BA miss (the things i do not miss in it):
3G/3.5G/HSDPA etc - high speed data connections - due to high proces of this types of connections i do not really need them
Video Call - the same as above
the CPU speed and the amount of ram in BA are enough for WM 6 and 6.1 even if it was released in 2004...
but maybe proper replacement is the Universal or the Kaiser (for now)
we will see what will happen in near future