You wait until you see iGo 2008. ;-)

Paul - I think it's been showing "In Stores" for a while now, but I can't be 100% sure. I did ask this a few days ago, but sometimes it takes a week or two to get a reply.

The reason they tried to slap a 250 pound charge on you for leaving is because you'd basically just taken out a new contract. However, since you've got 14 days to cancel "no questions asked" when you take out a contract, they were completely in the wrong. I would CC your letter to trading standards.

If you've had it less than a year they have no right to charge you the admin fee, as it should be covered by warranty. Ring them and ask for it back.

Orange have started charging for 0800 calls from the 1st December. They said I'd been informed but checking my recent bills shows nothing.

A bit miffed at this because one of the reasons I chose Orange was because of the free 0800 calls. So, as they've changed the terms of the contract, can I leave without paying penalties. I don't mind giving back the phone (C550). I'm about 3 months into the contract. (£25 / month)

Woo! I get a free copy from Leeds Uni. :-)

I've noticed that Windows Media Player is having issues with my tracks - they're WMA and 192kbps. After about a minute and a half, play stops and the title and bitrate information cycle through very quickly, after which the phone skips to the next track.

Any suggestions, other than "use Betaplayer"? ;-)

Updated to include Astraware's updated games and a few others. In addition, I believe PDAmill are working on making their games QVGA compatible.

Well, it was still doing it's red LED glowing thing, which slowly dimmed as you removed power. There's obviously a short somewhere on the board, and I'm not going capacitor hunting. ;-)

Well, after a week or two it still isn't working, so I peeled the back off and took a look inside. The ribbon cable to the display has torn so I've binned it. I did save the front (no idea whether the buttons work or not) so that's free to anyone that wants it.

Assuming you bought it from CoolSmartPhone, the store you used was actually Clickgamer.com. If I was you I'd drop them an email, as their customer support is excellent.

Cheers,

When I bought my MiniSD card it came with a neat little adaptor which transformed it into an SD card. Works great in cameras, and I used it in fact when I was abroad earlier this year.

Ta - I've updated the list. I can't find the Mastermind game though, but it might just be my lazy searching! ;-)

I'm working on a list of games that I know work on the C550 - at the moment it's located at http://www.smartgamer.org/games

It's fairly limited at the moment, but I'm adding to it all the time and I'd really appreciate it if people could let me know what I've missed.

Cheers!

The reason so few developers are working on making their games compatible is mainly Orange's fault. They have (so far) refused to supply the necessary information... the Orange Partner website sucks and they won't even provide the largest developers (eg PDAmill) with a phone to test on.

PDAmill, however, are working on making their Smartphone games using my phone as a guinea pig. ;-)

http://www.pocketmatrix.com/multimedia/downloads/rotk.ogm

It's quite old, but optimised for Pocket PC and I believe that TCPMP will play it.

Good news! No, the C500 hasn't come back from the dead, but I'm now the proud owner of a C550. Bloody good it is too.

OK, will do what you guys suggested. I tried to whip the back off to see if there was any corrosion, but there seems to be some type of threadlock on the screw under the warranty void sticker. Will leave the phone another few days then drill the screw out and take a look.

I'm going to cancel the contract tonight and renew on another number. I get the C550 free, and the Student Package (120 minutes, 1000 free texts and half price landline calls) for 25 quid a month. Well, thirty if you include Orange care. :-)

Many thanks for all your advice!

David.

Well, it had to happen - I put my C500 through the washing machine. Even worse, unprotected by a pocket as I just scooped all the clothes off the bed, and it must have been underneath.

The only sign of life when I took it out was the LED glowing solid red. Nothing since, but I haven't tried as there still seems to be water under the screen. It's sitting on the AGA right now, and will let it rest on the air vent for the car later today when I go out.

Should I rinse through it with purified water? It did get through the whole cycle, including the rinse, so I guess it might be OK. Unfortunately, it was a 1000rpm cycle.

On to the next complaint - Orange cancelled my Orange Care a year ago and didn't tell me. I didn't pay close attention to the bills (I pay by direct debit, so only check the total) and so I have no insurance.

Two months of the contract to go, so get put through to the retentions department. Turns out I can buy my way out for 38 quid, then get a new C550 and the Student Package for free at an Orange shop. Disadvantage - I lose my current number. Can they sort something out at Orange? No. I'm sure the guy did the best he could, and he sounded as frustrated as me.

Turns out they can't transfer a number between contracts.

So... has anyone else ever had a C500 survive the washing machine?

You can run Windows 95 and 98 on a Pocket PC. (Not well, mind you, but it can be done...)

A bit off-topic, but did anyone manage to get Dom (Orange guy)'s email address?

PDAmill are doing their best to get hold of a C550 to work on compatibility issues, but being a Hungarian company, progress with Orange is slow.

Are they limiting download speeds? I'm only getting 24KB/s on my 2mbit ADSL connection.

Not that I want to go off-topic from this thread, but Paul, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEEEAASSE block the Crazy Frog ads. I'm really tolerant, and don't usually mind any ads other than pop-ups, but I had my speakers turned up loud to listen to something recorded at a really low level, and everyone in the office heard it. They're looking at me like I'm a complete pillock.

Cheers!

I imagine the reason the French ROM was released and then progress on the English ROM stalled is because Orange is now owned by French Telecom.