The G1 is due to launch on T-Mobile UK on 30 October, from free on Flext 40.

I was really rather disappointed not to see this on my Voda Touch Pro as well. No YouTube app to be found, and when I connect it to my TV, the YouTube button on the TV-Out options is missing too.

Grrr.

The Touch Pro has been available on the Vodafone business site for the last few days. I actually placed my order on Thursday, but having checked this afternoon with Voda, they told me that they're still waiting on stock, and it's likely going to be another week before my phone is sent out.

Grrr!

Regarding this discussion over 8GB vs 16GB on T-Mobile, I just did a search for samsung i900 omnia on Google, and the top sponsored link in the results reads:

Orange Samsung Omnia
16GB exclusive until 25th September
with Orange PAYM. Buy online today

Orange.co.uk/Samsung

This would seem to support what many are saying about T-Mo only having the 8GB version.

Interesting to read about the various issues that others have experienced with M:Panel.

After a year or so with no issues (and having received a cheque from them), everything was initially going smoothly. But then things suddenly changed, despite no changes to my account, my phone, its software and settings... everything was as it was before, but the rate at which data was being sent suddenly changed.

My phones were sending data in tiny packets (sometimes barely even a kilobyte) up to 30 times a day, on a T-Mobile account without Web'n'Walk. I don't use that particular connection for anything other than voice calls and the occasional text, so I was initially very confused when I saw £24 of data charges on my bill.

T-Mobile could obviously offer no explanation, but kindly refunded the charges after I pointed out that there was no earthly way I could have accrued those charges myself, as the downloads were simply too small to be of any use.

The next month, there were even more unexplained data charges, this time totalling £38.

I again called T-Mobile, but this time they weren't so generous, and explained that they couldn't keep crediting the account.

I begrudgingly paid up, but also asked T-Mobile to disable internet/data connections on that account.

Unfortunately, T-Mobile didn't do that, and so when I received another bill with £30 of data charges on it, I called to complain - but there was apparently no record of my request, so they refused to credit the charges back, and I again had no choice but to pay that bill. I again requested that they block data/internet connections, took names, phone numbers etc, but I then turned my attention to the phone itself

I quickly discounted most of the programs on the handset (it was basically a vanilla Q-tek installation with virtually all of the same settings from the initial auto set-up). I checked everything that I could find, including the connection settings, PIE, WMP etc, but nothing gave any indication that it might be using the data connection and incurring charges without being instructed to do so.

Indeed, it was only when I removed all traces of M:Panel that the charges suddenly stopped, and indeed my bill shows that the charges mysteriously stopped shortly after I'd done so.

£5 a month was a nice incentive when it cost me very little, but it went nowhere towards compensating for the huge charges it incurred. I should also mention that it was installed for at least 15 months, yet I only got one cheque, when I should surely have received at least one more.

I'm glad to see the back of it.

CoolSmartPhone is reporting here that Vodafone is set to launch the Diamond on PAYG (yes, that's right - without a contract) for just £230.00.

Extracted from Vodafone brochure (courtesy of CoolSmartPhone):



A Vodafone manager has apparently confirmed that this is the intended price - for the handset on PAYG but locked to the Vodafone network - and that it will be available from July 22.

It's not been designed as a phone - it's been designed as a UMPC. Given that it's been designed as a UMPC, how can you say it's big?

Paul, or other members, will correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that the cellular capabilities of this device are data-based rather than voice-based.

There are a great many phones out there to satisfy all kinds of requirements, but this really isn't a phone - and the fact that it runs Windows Vista (and a very cut-down version of Windows Mobile that isn't even marketed under that brand in this device (they call it SnapVUE rather than Windows Mobile) makes it pretty clear that it's not a phone.

I looked very carefully at this device a couple of months back, as I needed a small laptop/UMPC device. In the end, the Shift really failed to tick anywhere near enough boxes for me in the end.

I could get a laptop with a larger and better screen, significantly larger HDD (up to 400% larger in fact!), a larger and more useable keyboard with touchpad, an optical drive and - crucially - far better battery life, for hundreds of pounds less than this device costs.

In the end, I went for a HP Tablet, which only set me back £650, has a three year warranty, 12in screen, DVD-RW with Lightscribe and all the other bells and whistles - and it won't leave me running for a power-point after two hours.

How HTC think they can justify putting this thing on the market with that spec list for that price point is a genuine mystery to me, especially considering the truly terrible battery life that has been well documented among numerous reviews for this product.

My contract is coming up for renewal imminently, and so the fevered excitement of 'upgrade time' has of course gripped me.

However, I'm feeling a little deflated by the Windows Mobile range at T-Mobile at the moment. I've already got the Vario III on a second connection, and at the moment the tastiest handset they're offering is the Touch Plus, and the more I look at the specs sheet, the more I realise this is actually a pretty average handset wearing some pretty clothes. The ageing MDA Compact III does not appeal, the MDA Mail was outdated when it first went on sale, and the Ameo is just silly (are they still selling these with Windows Mobile 5 on board?!).

Does anyone if when we might see something new and juicy from T-Mobile on the Windows Mobile front? It would be nice to see some more smartphone action...

I guess what I'm really asking is: should I be holding off for a month or two for something new and exciting that's definitely coming to T-Mobile, or should I just accept that the next few months will be barren for T-Mo WinMo devices and just go for the Touch Plus?

Many thanks in advance for any replies.

Each to their own, I guess!

Personally, I found the Ameo to be far too big and unweildy as a mobile 'phone'; it always struck me as very odd that T-Mobile sold it (and are obviously committed to it with this forthcoming update) given that it's phone features are very much secondary to the rest of the feature set, mostly due to the inability to use it without a Bluetooth headset as you pointed out.

The Ameo seemed most useful as a mobile internet device, whether on the move or in front of the telly. The TV out was a nice feature for me too. However, the TV out was not enough to justify keeping the handset, and it seemed wasteful to keep the device for its internet duties, given that web access is available on any number of other handset (albeit on smaller screens). In the end, I got rid of it, and got a Vario III instead. I've been very happy with that since, and I really don't miss the TV out feature, although it would be nice to see this on a wider variety of handsets.

As for the Universal, it certainly had its fair share of issues. I don't think reliability was ever an issue for me (I owned both the SPV M5000 and T-Mobile MDA Pro), but it was hopelessly slow at times, and had a few irritating bugs that were never addressed. That said, it was certainly one of the finest handsets I've owned, and I'm still very impressed that HTC launched such an unusual form factor for a device of that size.

But as I say, each to their own!

I agree - although to correct one of your one points, I think that only the T-Mobile version of the Advantage is still released with Windows Mobile 5, although an upgrade to Windows Mobile 6 is available officially.

What I don't understand is why they've simply doubled the size of the hard drive rather than replace it with Flash memory. If Nokia and Apple can do it, I dont' see why HTC can't do it as well on their 'flagship' device.

However, I've never really seen the point of the Advantage/Ameo - it's always struck me as far to big and limited to be genuinely useful in any situation. It's practically a UMPC in its form-factor, yet it doesn't carry a full OS, and Windows Mobile really doesn't make good use of that lovely big screen. I like the features like VueFlo (or whatever it's called) and TV-out, but I've seen these and better features included on smaller and more attractive handsets.

I had always expected this device to be quietly killed off, but I had thought if there was a slim chance of an update, the priority would be to improve the looks of the thing, and perhaps overhaul it with more features to make use of its screen size, and Flash memory.

The wretched keyboard always seemed to be the weakest link of the whole package in my view; I can't possibly see how even a heavy overhaul of it would improve things in any way.

I've always wondered how such a big and ugly device could come from the same company that released the Universal - which was a much more successful implementation of the idea, in my opinion. Of course, the Universal had its own issues, but I think in terms of having a VGA screen combined with a 'hideable' keyboard, the Universal form factor was much better than the Ameo was or - I imagine - ever will be, unless it's redesigned from the ground up.

I was just looking at the design of the Oak, and really admiring its form factor, when I focused upon the keypad arrangement in particular. I looked at the types of physical buttons that they had chosen to accommodate in addition to the number digits, and compared them to the frontage of my MDA Vario III.

I was particularly interested by the location of the call begin/end buttons, and it was as I focused on these that I noticed that there was no directional nav pad. I thought this a little strange - true, some touchscreen devices don't have a navpad or stick, but these are usually omitted on aesthetic consideration, which indicates a general lack of buttons. It seemed odd that they would choose to admit such a useful feature when there are already so many other buttons on the front of the device.

Now, am I the only one seeing a circular groove in the middle of the numeric keypad? Could this possibly be a touch sensitive control pad, as already seen on the HP iPAQ 614c Business Navigator?



Or am I just going slightly mad and imagining things?

Perhaps it's a long shot, but given that we've seen the feature before on another HP device, I think it's a possibility, and if true it would certainly make this device a fantastic choice, particularly when you consider that HP are excellent value products already, offering some good OS additions that are missing in other manufacturers of Windows Mobile phones, as well as decent pricing.

I appreciate that there have been issues with data on T-Mobile over the last couple of days, but this has been going on for a week now, for me at least.

I've had exactly the same problem. The QuickGPS app worked fine for the first few days when I got my Vario III. Now, it just won't work.

When I try to download satellite data through the app, the download progress meter pops up, and occasionally even gets to 100%(!), before telling me "Connection failed. Please try again later."

Additionally, I'm now getting pop-up notifications telling me:

QuickGPS Autodownload Failed

Quick GPS has failed to autodownload satellite data. Check your connection and choose what you want to do:

- Try again

- Download again 5 minutes later

- Disable autodownload


It's terribly frustrating, because I've not changed any connection settings since QuickGPS originally worked.

Grrr!

I just spoke to T-Mobile upgrades to bag myself one of these puppies. The chap I spoke to pointed out that on their systems today, there is currently no price difference for purchasing the handset as an upgrade between Flext 20, 25, 30 and 35 - the charge is £99.99 for all of these, and is free on Flext 50. He suggested that this was a little odd, and that I should try to call back tomorrow to see if the prices have updated on their system to reflect different handset charges on different packages.

Well, I've waited this long for it - one more day ain't gonna kill me!

Still waiting for the Vario III to be released as we all are - seems that the 24 September date was a bit optimistic.

However, I did notice today that on the T-Mobile site - in the "Coming Soon" section - the image has changed from the one in WoD's post to this:



...a design that's rather better looking than the original Vario III images that we've seen, and closer in appearance to the TyTN II.

When the Vario III was first mentioned on the Coming Soon page, T-Mobile erroneously included a picture of the MDA Compact III in the feature; this was later amended with a picture showing the design seen in WoD's post. I'm finding it hard to understand why they would now change the corrected image with a different picture, unless this latest picture represented the final (or at least most recent) design - but I'm further confused by the lack of T-Mobile branding on this latest image.

Can anyone shine some light on this? Is the Vario III going to feature a design that's closer to the TyTN II? And are there any more specific details on when it might actually be released, in whatever form that may be?

The marketing of this phone was the real disaster though. I haven't personally seen one advert for the Lobster in national press or magazines, let alone on television, and the only two or three ads I've seen for it have been very dull and uninspiring banner ads.

This phone was doomed to failure less because of its own merits - and although it's hardly the best equipped phone in the world, it does have mobile television! - and more because of Virgin Mobile's own failure to properly promote it.

I thought I did mention that when I said I tried to follow the advice given in the error message. I've tried removing the partnerships from both the ActiveSync control on the computer, and through the handset itself, but to no avail.

Thanks for your suggestion though.

Greetings one and all.

I've had an issue that's developed over the last few weeks with my Qtek 8500. Every time I try to sync it with my computer, I get little more than a partial success before it fails and both the Windows ActiveSync program and that on the 8500 give me at "Attention required" message, which when I click on it tells me:

"Synchronisation could not be completed. If this condition persists, try deleting and then re-creating the device's sync relationships.

Support code: 80004005"


I have tried following this advice, but to no avail. I have also tried uninstalling ActiveSync from the computer and reinstalling the newest version from scratch. I am using the USB cable supplied with the handset. I have tried to Google the error code, and searched Microsoft's own support database, but all of the information I've been able to pull up has been very antiquated, dating from 2004/5, or even earlier. Much of that information has also not even been directly related to Windows Mobile or ActiveSync.


Can anybody offer me any assistance? I really need to sync my contacts at the moment, as I've only got contacts from A-F successfully stored on my phone!

Many thanks in advance.

Hmm. Does the Ameo have built-in GPS? We know that this is a feature available on the Athena reference design, and the HTC Advantage X7500 includes GPS, but I can't find any confirmed details of it being included on the Ameo.

Anyone got any info?

I'm in exactly the same position - so I'd certainly be interested to hear about any progress on this too! Many thanks in advance.

Am I the only person to have noticed the "Windows Update" icon in there?

I'm confused. I've read the Shutdown dialogue from the screenshot over and over again, but I can't find any spelling mistakes, nor grammatical errors.

Judging by the "correction" that you have created, my only conclusion can be that you have identified the apparent conflict between "data" and "them". However, this is in fact grammatically correct. "Data" is a plural, and should be referred to as a plural; it is the plural of "datum". In practice, the flimsy use of the English language in society now means that using the singular "datum" is generally confined only to scientific references, and "data" is used interchangeably as a singular and a plural.

In reality, however, it is in fact grammatically correct to refer to "data" as "them", so while it may sound or appear awkward to refer to data as a plural "them", rather than a singular "it", it is wrong to suggest that that correct use is a mistake or an oversight.

One might have expected the message to say that "you may lose data if you have not saved it", but that is technically more incorrect than the original message, despite sounding more vernacularly pleasing.

Of course, I'm wary of the great possibility that having explained all of this, I've actually glossed over a far more obvious and genuine error, in which case I'm going to look rather foolish.

I would, but Kleinweder was given some kind of "cease and desist" order by Microsoft a couple of weeks ago which has meant that a lot of his homescreens - particularly those carrying a Windows Mobile, Microsoft or MSN logos - have been removed, which is why I was wondering if there was anywhere else that I could download the WM5 QVGA version of the above homescreen.

Thanks for your help though w411y.

[ double post ]