V-Flyer

Folks

Over the years I've owned (and suffered) a number of PDAs. I started with an HP200LX about ten plus years ago: this is still one of my favourites, so much so I have two. It was fast and you could run all your old DOS programs (remember them?) as well as develop software on the device itself. I wrote loads of notes and kept my life on one for several years. It takes PCMCIA cards and the two AA cells lasted an age.

Then in about 1996/7, I started developing software for Windows CE 1.0 devices - Microsoft's answer to Palm and Psion. It was a struggle - unless you lived in Redmond, obtaining the development kits from Microsoft for these devices was nigh on impossible. So for a few years I developed software for these devices, but I've only ever actually used WinCE PDAs for a few weeks before getting frustrated and going back to the original HP200LX.

Why did I still like the HP200LX? Answer - a real keyboard. Microsoft and the manufacturers seemed to drop the very early clamshell designs in favour of the current common PDA form factor without keyboards. I find these very fiddly and you cannot do anything serious with them on a train with the stylus wondering all over the place. Yes, you can buy external keyboards but they're huge.

But, because I was developing software for these devices I have accumulated rather a large number over the years, most of which I've given away since. I still have a dozen or so WinCE devices taking up house space.

In the meantime, on the smartphone front, I have also had stints with three Nokia Communicators, right back to the original brick. I've also tried a the Sony Ericsson P800 and P900 series smartphones. The only one I've ever really got on with is the Nokia 9300.

So I've used the Nokia 9300 for nearly two years now. It's not too big, has a decent keyboard and battery life, but there's no vibrate and no 3G. There's no camera either, but I don't miss that. It's horrendously slow downloading my emails via GPRS but it works.

But it's not just the handset technology that's failed to deliver. So have the network providers.

After suffering 9.6kbps GSM speeds and subsequently 28.8 HSCSD, I thought GPRS might just be enough. But the latency on these connections renders them barely as fast as a 9.6kbps landline modem. But I've lived with that for the past five years or so.

3G originally did not give full internet access. Only Vodafone had a datacard that would work, and their network was woefully late.

So after a couple of years with my Nokia and being fairly out of touch with the technology I'd been wondering if 3G really does work.

I spent some time checking out handsets and networks and to be honest it's even more confusing than it was a couple of years ago. But finally I have a single unit that has full internet access over 3G.

The T-Mobile MDA Vario II is a rebadged HTC TyTN (pron: Titan). This latest version has the latest smartphone version of Windows CE (Windows Mobile 2005). It supports 3G, GPRS, and 3.5G, as does the provider, T-Mobile. It also supports WiFi and Bluetouth connectivity.

Is it fast? Well I had to check I wasn't running over its WiFi link when I was comparing the 3G connectivity to WiFi. The 'proper' keyboard is OK as it slides from underneath the device. The size is acceptable, about the same size as a packet of king size fags.

The device syncs and charges from your USB port, and you can use it as a 3G modem. And yes it is _easily_ comparable with your home broadband when surfing using it as a laptop modem.

One problem with Wireless links has traditionally been that of latency, or the time it takes for a round trip from your device to the server and back again. This means services like Citrix and Terminal Services can be painful. Not with this device! Response times are comparable to being on a WiFi connection.

There are a couple of things I would like to improve, such as easy switching between using it as a modem and ActiveSync (the Micosoft Outlook sync tool), maybe even allow both simultaneously. Astonishingly, some of the annoyances of ActiveSync are still there from six or seven years ago (eg, time taken for the Connection Settings dialog to come up). It would be nice to be able to use the sync cable at the same time as using the headset. Plus, I still hate it that Microsoft make it so difficult to close an application in Windows CE.

Skype, did someone say Skype? Yes, you can run Skype on it too, so rather than using up your network voice minutes, you get calls taken from your data allocation.

I also purchased a Copilot GPS with it. I haven't had time to set this up yet, but I am sure when I have hours to kill (yeah, right) I will have a go.

The MDA Vario II was £40 with the T-Mobile Flext 35 and Web 'n' Walk Max tariff. This allows for 900 minutes voice plus 10G bytes (yes, 10G bytes) of data. The Copilot was another £140. As well as 3G & GPRS, the Web 'N' Walk also gives you unlimited T-Mobile hotspot and up to 300 minutes/month BT Openzone access.

I am about as dead chuffed as I can be. I've been waiting over ten years for this moment. Yes, this is the holy grail of PDA's.

Cheers, Howard

How's service coverage on T-mob Howard?

For those wanting to see what this device looks like:


As you will see it is remarkably similar to the an imate, as indeed most network badged PDAs tend to be!

Oh, myyyy... [:0](wipes up drool):D

If my main Jornada's gone south for good I know what I'm buying next - or begging for, my b-day's later this month!

Gotta give this thread a double [y][y]

And thanks for the info!

Hi Howard,

They are indeed lovely devices. I have had the Orange version (M3100) for a few months now which is a fabulous device, Sarah has one on her wish list as she loves using it for mail. Not the smallest device but better than the M5000, but then when I look at what it can do it is worth it. Wi-Fi will chew through the battery too, and having the Crossbow feature enable (push-mail) will use battery at a higher rate.

Just one thing, it's the HTC Hermes.

The guy who is repsonsible for Windows Mobile is part of my team, and you should see some of the future devices he has. That is proper drool stuff.

Thanks,
Richard

Originally posted by sailor99
How's service coverage on T-mob Howard?

So far so good, but it's early days. 90% of my life is spent within the North Circular, so coverage so far has not been a problem. I had the streaming video BBC news running on it throughout the Limehouse Link tunnel last night, where your normal FM and AM radio dies.

The streaming video is impressive although maintaining full motion video really demands that you're not moving about. So watching the telly in real time on a train still isn't quite there yet.

Howard

Hello Richard

Just one thing, it's the HTC Hermes.

I think that's the internal OEM name - but it seems to be called all sorts of things once it's rebadged. HTC TyTN seems to be a slightly lesser unit without HSDPA. The HTC site seems to refer to the HSDPA version as the HTC P3600. Man, now I know why I was sooo confused.

The guy who is repsonsible for Windows Mobile is part of my team, and you should see some of the future devices he has. That is proper drool stuff.

I've been quite surprised and gratified how little the WinCE UI has changed over the years: normally Microsoft has a propensity to change things for the sake of it (now where is that CMD/Explorer/Services icon in version xxx of Windows?).

Similarly the ActiveSync software seems to be almost identical to that of a few short years ago except for one thing. It is oh so much more reliable. I remember many frustrating times trying to get ActiveSync devices to sync _reliably_.

I have realised over the past few days that I now have what I call entropy memory leakage. This is something that geeks get when they hit 40. There are so many options and ways to do things, in particular with the connectivity, that I will find myself not being able to remember how I got it working.

It's the same in my workshop where I have entropy chaos. There are so many projects going on in various states of completion that there will never be a time when everything is fixed and working.



Entropy chaos: what happens to your brain when you hit 40


Cheers, Howard

Strange...

You never come across as a "workshop" kinda guy!

Regards

John

Originally posted by JAT74L
Strange...
You never come across as a "workshop" kinda guy!

Oh, you never can tell! I usually wear suit and tie during the day and work in the City. That's the bit that pays the mortgage. The rest of the time there's the bit of my business I find interesting, the part that doesn't make any money. Then I get to wear a very pointy hat, place my forefinger at the centre of my glasses, and say "Hmm, interesting" a lot.

Cheers, Howard

I have to say that i own a T-Mobile 3g card and also am looking at one of these devices.

The card is amazing, top speeds comparable to 1meg broadband and for the price I pay well its a bargin, to me £20 a month inc vat is a steal for 10gigs of mobile data

That is exactly the same look and feel as my o2 XDA mini, which is sadly only 2.5G (oh how I wish i'd held out for a decent 3G PDA, knowing now that GSM doesn't work in Korea, but 3G does).

But from a usability point of view it is brilliant. The slide out keyboard fits perfectly in my hands, and facilitates surprisingly fast and accurate typing, the stylus and touch screen are good for most other things, bluetooth and wifi is great.....
And even on my lower processor spec XDA mini, with a little "clocking" I can run the Skype PDA client perfectly well when connected to a wifi access point, and then there's MSN and Outlook and full webaccess that is reasonably quick over GPRS..... But oh how i long for a 3G version!