Difficult to say.....mine is a pre-production model kindly given to me by Imate themselves. The form factor is, for me, great. I very rarely use my phone for voice but do a lot of texting and emailing when out and about. The keyboard is really nice and the joystick seems okay to me. The jog dial on the side....I never use it. It's big, but I like big things....and it does feel very solid and well built.

Software....can't comment too much on as it's very flakey, but I am *sure* that that's because it's such an early version.....it still says WM5 on various screens, though it is very much WM6.

As far as where to get them.....I work for one of the main distributors of Imate stuff and we have no firm date (yet - as far as I know) of when we'll be shifting them.

It seems to be able to sync contacts and email with Live Mail/Hotmail, but not Calendar, which is a shame. Of course - if they made any way of syncing everything (desktop, Hotmail/Live Mail and PDA/Phone) then MS wouldn't be selling Exchange any more ;-)

Got one right here - Imate JAQ4 - was under strict NDA until yesterday. Love the live mobile - instant, push email. As soon as my Hotmail receives the email, it appears on the handheld! Might end up standardising on that email address now, just for that function.

Lovely looking though - why can't we have some decent looking PDA devices? They all look sooooo dated!

[1] The flashing LED.....don't think it can be turned off. I used to have a Tre600 and someone made a nice little freeware app where you could choose the off/solid/flash/long flash and either red/orange/green colour for almost anything - phone on, signal, messages, voicemail, etc. Don't THINK there's anything similar for WM.

[2] Check that there's nothing blocking the signal. I work in the rear of my garage, converted into an office. There's foil ined plaster board on one wall, then insulation, then breeze block. I get a signal in the room next door, but nothing after that.....about 10m is my best working distance and that was with a laptop with a PCMCIA card with an external aerial. My experience is that WiFi isn't as great as is claimed.

[3] Probably about right on the battery life - WiFi and BT will eat into the battery life and it might be worth trying to get used to having the screen one notch dimmer than you think you need.

[4] Yes - MS left out the backup/restore but Sprite are working on the WM5 version of Sprite Backup. MS also left out the ability sync categories of contacts - bloody annoying. And they made sync'ing take longer. And harder to get working if you happen to have a firewall running. But then MS employees probably all use Palms.

[5] BT - don't know as I never use it. Wired handsfree works just fine. All other BT stuff is pretty useless until everything starts to work at 100m.

[6] Don't know about removing the last used....I never use the Start menu now as I have everything I need in tabs under PocketPlus.

Jumping in with my opinion.....I hate it when people trumpet new stuff without making mention of the fact that Smartphones and PDA's have been doing the same thing for ages.

In the UK we have a TV show....The Gadget Show and although it's generally pretty good, but they rave on about things like the RokR music phone ..... "Now you can have your music and your phone on one device"....duh! I've been doing that now for a couple of years!

They review portable Archos units and the like and say how remarkable it is to be able to watch movies on the go.....duh! Been doing that for ages now!

One week they showed how to back up your contacts from your phone....all this malarky about using a sim-reader or Nokia software and NOT ONE MENTION of being able to sync diary and calendar with Outlook on Smartphones.

MS and the like need to get these things out to the press/media more and then people will start to notice them.

Not sure....but I think I like that one better than the Vario/Mini S. But it's still a bit dated looking - we have great looking devices around now like the Magician, the Universal, the SP5(m), etc - but the Wizard (to me) looks a bit cheap and unrefined.

Anyone know if there are any plans to make any other versions of the Wizard? One that's not so ugly and dated looking? The magician ended up with a couple of looks and different bodies, so just wondered if there was any chance of a "thicker" Magician style Wizard?

I went from an MDA Compact to an MDA Compact II and I am now happy with the speed. It IS slower to start up applications, due to them being in ROM and not RAM, but when started, they seem to run about the same speed as the Compact, maybe 10% slower. Certainly not enough to bother me now.

WM5 does have it's advantages - not many, but some. Not sure about the persistant storage as I have never yet got anywhere near low enough on the battery to risk losing anything. However, one handed operation is a lot better - being able to open up messaging, check for emails, mark as read, etc, all with one hand.

The T-Mobile web'n'walk tariffs are great at the moment and you'll get a free MDAcII on the lowest one (100minutes) for £13 per month for twelve months, £28 per month for six months, but including 40MB of data each month. You'll only get that as a new customer though, so maybe port out to a PAYG and then take out a new deal, then port back in if you want to keep your number.

The Atom....I've read about lots of problems with it - lack of memory being one of them. I don't know the details, but I don't think I'd go for one. The Prophet will be coming soon, but who knows what it'll cost....the MDAcII is a bit of a bargain I think, on the cheapo tariff.

Yes - but I forgot to follow up my post (I did on the Papyrus forum, but not here!). I ended up re-installing AS on the desktop and that seems to have sorted it - yet another bit of flakyness from AS!

Boils down to this: the C600 is a PHONE with PDA functions added. M500 is a PDA with PHONE functions added. If you're going to use it more as a phone (and texting) then the C600 may be better suited to you. If you're going to use it more as a PDA then M500 will be better.

Not all software will work on both machines - anything that needs a touchscreen isn't going to be useable, even if it installs, on the C600. Prime examples - the M500 is a much better PDA with Pocket Informant, but this won't work on the C600. The C600 is a much better PDA with Papyrus installed, but although this will work on Windows Mobile 5 devices, the M500 is WM2003SE so it won't work. On WM5 devices it doesn't make any use of the touch screen.

So - they are very different animals and each is suited to a different use. Me - I have the MDAcII (much the same as the M500) for work use, as I use more PDA functions then, and the XDA SP (C500) for personal use as that more phone and texting.

I've never tried it, but apparently the easiest way is to buy a Virgin sim and get your pAC code from T-Mobile to transfer the number to the Virgin one. Then when you get a new contract you just get a PAC code from Virgin to transfer the number to the new contract.

Have you looked into getting the Vario on Web'n'Walk on upgrade? Haggle enough and you may get the same deal as new customers.....

Now we'll ALL feel guilty when you regret the decision next month....if you're like me, you're always regretting decisions, but that's just because I don't like change and getting used to new things and ways of doing things.

I have an MDAcII (WM5) and an O2 XDA SP (WM2003SE) and I run AS4.1

If I make a new diary entry in Outlook - both phones see it on sync and it get's added.

If I make a new diary entry in WM5 - Outlook and WM2003SE sees it and adds it.

If I make a new diary entry in WM2003SE - Outlook sees it but it never gets added into the WM5 phone.

Anyone heard of this? Any likely cause? I am using Pocket Informant on the WM5 device and Papyrus on the WM2003SE device.....

Yes - Papyrus is a replacement for the build-in diary (and to-do) software but uses the same database, so it sync's with your desktop Outlook.

Two phones now:

The MDA Compact II on T-Mobile:
o Email - four email accounts set to poll each one every fifteen minutes.
o Calendar (both work and personal).
o Contacts (work shown, personal filtered out).
o To-Do List.
o Personal "Data" File - I am in the process of recording everything I need should the house burn down - scans of insurance documents, inventory of the house, CD lists, etc - then the only thing I need to grab if the MDAcII on the way out of the house!
o Games - helps to ease the boring times between meetings and waiting for Mrs Brykins to come out of the changing room.
o Calls - but only work related - never any work texts.

The XDA SP on O2:
o Calls (personal)
o Texts (personal)
o Contacts (personal shown, work filtered out)
o Diary (both work and personal)

Day-to-day, both phones are with me. Evening and weekends I can just take the XDA SP as I never get work calls out of hours. I don't *want* to carry two devices but price-wise it makes sense (the O2 contract is only a tenner and includes 500 texts, the T-Mobile one is only £13 and inlcudes the 40MB of data) and the texting is so much easier on the SP than on the MDA when on the move.

Don't really do video, mp3, or anything else much!

There's a whole raft of arguments backwards and forwards, mostly pro real trees, but mostly voiced by growers themselves. The argument that the countryside would otherwise remain unattended (to me) doesn't hold up as we have people starving all over the world, yet we are happy to donate acres and acres of land to produce trees for us to cut down, cover in crap and left to die in our homes once a year?

There's the commonly voiced argument that burning a tree releases all the CO2 that the tree has "consumed" during it's life, thus making the environmental effect of that tree zero.

Also - don't know about your area (and where I live is better) but where I used to live (when we bought the plastic tree, eight years ago) all real trees were picked up by the dustmen on the normal round and thrown into the landfill - at least here they are collected and mulched so better.

All in all, I figure that my plastic tree, which still looks perfect, ought to last fifteen years or so (less if I can convince Mrs Brykins that a tree is a bloody stupid way to celebrate her God!) and probably has fewer environmental effects than those same fifteen real trees, and that space could be better used growing crops to feed people.

Back in the box it came out of and back into the loft.....far less agro and far kinder to the environment......

...which would mean 172x220 screen resolution, right?

http://www.livingroom.org.au/cameraphone/a...bile_sda_ii.php
http://www.mobilefun.co.uk/o2/7864.htm#description
http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/6148.html

These are just three links I found that states it has a QVGA screen.....so is it a bit of a hybrid?

I can't find a definate answer to this one. I have just downgraded last year's O2 contract (£10 per month for 100 minutes and 500 texts - ideal for the current Mrs Brykins) and have wrangled a free O2 XDA SP from them (it's not on their personal pages anymore, only on business HERE but having searched around I can't find a solid answer as to whether it's a C500 or C550 clone.

Doesn't really matter as I'll only be using it as my "spare" phone when I don't want to risk damage to my Charmer.

My Mini S was locked but easily (and freely) unlocked if you find the right posting on (the "Bad Place" that we seem to not be allowed to mention).

Odd - definately works for me with no power/sync cable attached - just tried it right now.

This is one that can be debated for ever....in fact I have an on-going debate in my own head about going back to a Smartphone (SP5) or staying with the Compact II. However - in your case, the keyboard for me wouldn't be a problem as I have found that on my Wizard, the keyboard wasn't that useful and even when I gave up my Treo I never really missed a keyboard.

Hate using my fingers on the screen for fear of dirt and grease, so stylus is fine for me. And the smaller screen of the Compact II means a higher DPI so I find the screen is a lot nicer to look at than larger QVGA screens.

I'd keep the Charmer - I am getting used to mine now - very few lockups now I have thing set up correctly and the processor seems fine when actually running applications.

I think the speed thing is a "perceived" slowness due to applications taking longer to load because they are loading from slower ROM into RAM. It gives the impression of slowness when it's not *that* bad.

Of course, there's the size of the thing to consider - the Charmer is such a pocketable little beauty. And the OS - I think that in six months time or so, most new software may well be WM5 only and a lot of updates to existing software may well go that way too.

That's the "Safe Mode" - if you deactivate that after installing SPB Pocket Plus but before rebooting then everything works fine.