Guest themitch Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 I am coming over from the Palm OS world, where I was quite happy for about a year and a half, but got bored with my Treo 650 and it's basic camera and no WiFi support (and no wifi future, by the sounds of it). So I bought an SPV M3100 from Orange (on a free upgrade). I really love the spec of this machine - Wifi, 3G, 2MP camera, slide-out keyboard, A2DP support (I believe?), it has it all ... the only thing I have found that lets it down is the software. WM5 still seems quite basic, considering it's on version 5! Pocket Word, Excel and IE are rubbish, considering they're microsoft products, and even thought the M3100 has a 400Mhz processor, the system still feels slow and unresponsive, even with no apps open. And I think they were cheapskates on the screen-front too! On the Treo 650 the resolution was a crisp and sharp 320x320 ... I'm sure they could have squeezed 320x480 out of the screen on the Hermes, I mean there are smartphones coming out with the same resolution as us! Having said all that, my 7 day grace period (in which I can return to Orange if I'm not happy with it) finishes today, and I have decided to keep it. I am getting used to the way it works, and as I said, the hardware spec (apart from the screen) is excellent. One thing I do miss about my Treo was a piece of software called Chattermail. Chattermail was great as it gave me push e-mail without having to sign up to any sort of service. I already recieve my e-mail on an IMAP server and so just pointed chattermail at it ... and away it went. It was always on, and yet the data transferred was very low ... IMAP, I believe, is very efficient when syncing, unlike POP3, which downloads the headers each time, and can therefore start to mount up if you're not on an unlimited data package. So is there any sort of equivelent to Chattermail for WM5? I have tried outlook, Flexmail and WebIs Mail, but none of them seem to work for me ... What are other people using to send/receive/monitor email? Tia M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest gingerprince Posted September 5, 2006 Report Share Posted September 5, 2006 Haven't tried it yet (though I will) but I've read good reviews about this: - http://webis.net/products_info.php?p_id=ma...id=introduction Which supports the IMAP IDLE protocol you wish for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest danktuft Posted September 7, 2006 Report Share Posted September 7, 2006 (edited) Haven't tried it yet (though I will) but I've read good reviews about this: - http://webis.net/products_info.php?p_id=ma...id=introduction Which supports the IMAP IDLE protocol you wish for. FlexMail seems quite good at first but it isn't, they have some way to go on it and I've found it flakier than a Head and Shoulders ad. It's a shame as their other software Pocket Informant is superb. I'm desperate for a decent email client and think I am going to have to beg SnapperMail to make a WM5 one (I come from Palm too). I haven't had time to test if it's true or not but I read that the built in email client will only regularly check the last account that you were using, incredibly bad if you have more than one account. Edited September 7, 2006 by danktuft Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest danktuft Posted September 7, 2006 Report Share Posted September 7, 2006 Just a thought and I can't try it because I'm not at home, could the Blackberry software that is supplied with the Vario II work as a normal email client? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest themitch Posted September 7, 2006 Report Share Posted September 7, 2006 FlexMail seems quite good at first but it isn't, they have some way to go on it and I've found it flakier than a Head and Shoulders ad. It's a shame as their other software Pocket Informant is superb. I'm desperate for a decent email client and think I am going to have to beg SnapperMail to make a WM5 one (I come from Palm too). I haven't had time to test if it's true or not but I read that the built in email client will only regularly check the last account that you were using, incredibly bad if you have more than one account. I'm coming round to that way of thinking too about FlexMail. I have to say, I am surprised and disappointed about the software available for Windows Mobile. I guess I haven't used a Windows platform mobile/PDA for several years now (last unit was Palm, one before that was Symbian), but there seems to be a real lack of quality, stable, feature-rich software out there. I assumed (wrongly) that everything you could do/get on a Palm you could do on Windows, albeit in a different way, with a different look. But that just doesn't seem to be the case ... now I have to decide whether to eBay my M3100 (I could probably get Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest danktuft Posted September 7, 2006 Report Share Posted September 7, 2006 I have to say, I am surprised and disappointed about the software available for Windows Mobile. I guess I haven't used a Windows platform mobile/PDA for several years now (last unit was Palm, one before that was Symbian), but there seems to be a real lack of quality, stable, feature-rich software out there. I broadly agree with this, I'm amazed by the lack of a decent email client. I'm going to persevere though, there are too many good things about this phone, I upgraded from a Treo 600 and there's no way I'm going back to that! I went on the Chattermail site earlier today and there was (still is) a thread on their forum where quite a few people in the same boat are begging the developer to port it to WM5. He's not interested, he reckons it'll cost him around 100k just for the programmers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest danktuft Posted September 7, 2006 Report Share Posted September 7, 2006 (edited) I may have a result. I emailed the people at Snappermail and begged them to port their product. They reckon they have one developer and the prospect is impossible. The woman I was talking to did mention this though, software that runs Palm apps on WM5: http://www.styletap.com/product.php She reckons she knows people who are using it now, problems with fonts apparently but that's it. Edited September 7, 2006 by danktuft Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest themitch Posted September 7, 2006 Report Share Posted September 7, 2006 I'm going to persevere though, there are too many good things about this phone, I upgraded from a Treo 600 and there's no way I'm going back to that! I keep powering up my Treo 650 and thinking should I? SHOULD I??. I don't know. I'm so tempted to. I love the hardware of the M3100 ... but just not sure I can live with the software deficiences. What I miss and took for granted with my Treo/Palm was the how mature, I guess, all the software was. It felt like when someone released a piece of software, a) it worked and :D it had everything you needed, like someone had developed it with the end-user in mind. I hate using software where I'm constanly wishing it had certain features or was more user-friendly. I figure if I can think of these things, why can't the developers?!? It's not like PDAs and Windows Mobile only came out last week, so we should cut them some slack. But I do love the spec of the M3100 ... Can I put upto the basic software? CAN I?? I wish HTC would do what Palm did - create hardware that ran either platforms - Windows or Palm - and then the free market can decide which is better, or which OS they prefer. I'm sure most Windows people will stick with Windows and most Palm people will stay loyal to Palm. But at least you can choose your hardware independent of the platform ... much like desktops! Sorry ... went into a bit of a rant for a moment there :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest danktuft Posted September 7, 2006 Report Share Posted September 7, 2006 What I miss and took for granted with my Treo/Palm was the how mature, I guess, all the software was. The very same word I have been using for the last couple of weeks when asked about the difference between the two platforms. Palm is mature and that is reflected in the software available for it. But it's dying as an OS, I got fed up waiting for something as simple as WiFi on a Treo and even the latest models announced are well under spec'd. I never used Chattermail but I have got Snappermail to work on my Vario II a couple of minutes ago, set up an IMAP account, downloaded email and viewed a picture of my daughter which my girlfriend sent as an MMS to my mail account earlier in the day. Just checking whether it will launch itself to auto check the account, if it does I'm in business! And maybe you are too.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest mwright Posted September 8, 2006 Report Share Posted September 8, 2006 I never used Chattermail but I have got Snappermail to work on my Vario II a couple of minutes ago, set up an IMAP account, downloaded email and viewed a picture of my daughter which my girlfriend sent as an MMS to my mail account earlier in the day. Just checking whether it will launch itself to auto check the account, if it does I'm in business! And maybe you are too.... The spec for snappermail looks OK. Could not see a ppc version - or are you using a palm emulator? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest danktuft Posted September 8, 2006 Report Share Posted September 8, 2006 Could not see a ppc version - or are you using a palm emulator? Yep, Styletap. It's OK, the software works but doesn't seem to automatically start Style Tap so it can retrieve mail. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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