Phones

Will the SPV M3100 have alignment issues?

If you are looking for the M3100 review it’s HERE

We are seeing lots of reports from people that have purchased the HTC TyTN (HTC Hermes) having all sorts of problems with touchscreen alignment.

We know this isn’t a new issue as such, several other models of HTC devices have suffered from this issue. My own HTC Wizard device suffers from this and Tracy’s Prophet has had it a few times.

It has been suggested that only early batches of the TyTN are affected by the problem. We now know that the problem is caused, not by software but by a hardware problem. It would seem that the “rubber gasket” on the right side between the frame and touch screen is a little bit thicker and creates extra pressure on the screen which makes the touch screen read incorrectly.

We are all hoping that the SPV M3100, once released by Orange, will not be affected by this problem. The case design of the Orange M3100 is slightly different to that of the HTC TyTN so its possible that the gasket will not be the same anyway.

There have been rumours circulating the web and various chat rooms that the reason that SPV M3100 has not yet been released by Orange is that they wish to carry out additional product testing where the screen is concerned and this is what led to the delay in the launch of the Dutch M3100. I don’t think we’ll ever find out if this is true though!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, MoDaCo, Orange, M3100, HTC Hermes, HTC TyTN, HTC Oxygen, C100, SPV, Orange SPV M3100]

Orange M3100 price wrong?

If you are looking for the Orange SPV M3100 review it’s HERE

The price that Orange have listed the M3100 on their site at could be wrong.

Having seen the SPV M3100 appear on the Orange site last night I thought I would try and find out from Orange when the official release would be.

I made a couple of calls to Orange business customer services this morning and was told initially that the M3100 did not exist and was the SPV a Samsung phone?

Finally I got to talk to someone that knew all about the SPV M3100. They were able to look at for it on their new price list but told me that the price they had listed internally was differnt to the one on the website by nearly £100! This would put the actual price of the M3100 at £250 which to be honest does sound more realistic.

I will attempt to get confimation on this over the next day or so!

EDIT: I’ve had a number of people contact me to say that they too paid £250 for their new M3100 on pre-order!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, MoDaCo, Orange, M3100, HTC Hermes, HTC TyTN, HTC Oxygen, C100, SPV, Orange SPV M3100]

Orange now have Prices for the M3100

Pleased as ever to bring you the latest news, we thought you might like to know that Orange have now updated their Pay Monthly offering on the SPV M3100 and have priced the device at £150.

Orange are not taking any upgrade orders for the phone, they say you have to wait a couple of days. The phone is currently only available to new customers. Grr!

For those of you that are interested , the manual for the phone is available here.

Many thanks to Ross for the heads up!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, MoDaCo, Orange, M3100, HTC Hermes, HTC TyTN, HTC Oxygen, C100, SPV, Orange SPV M3100]

M3100 Mini USB Compatible

In an earlier post we reported that the Orange M3100 (HTC Hermes) and the Orange C100 (HTC Oxygen) had proprietary USB connectors

Having had the chance to play with an HTC TyTN, which is a Hermes variant, over the weekend I can confirm that although the USB connector is proprietary and looks rather bizarre, a standard mini USB cable/connector will work with these devices. In fact the usb sync/charge cables provided in the box is a standard mini USB one.

So why the unusual USB socket on these devices? Well what escaped my attention the first time I played with the SPV M3100 was the lack of headphone socket. As it turns out HTC have integrated the headphone connection onto their new USB socket. The result is that you have no choice but to use the headphones that come with the devices. Needless to say the bundled headphones are terrible!

Hopefully it wont be too long before someone starts manufacturing adapters so that we can use standard headphones with these devices.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Orange, M3100, HTC Hermes, HTC TyTN, HTC Oxygen, C100, SPV, Orange SPV M3100]

Where is the Dutch M3100?

Many of you will recall that I reported the release of the Orange M3100 in the Netherlands was due on the 4th August. Well, either someone is having a laugh with me or else really screwed up becasue it’s nowhere to be seen! :S

Could this be down to a delay with the launch? Certainly there have been a large number of people reporting issues with the HTC TyTn (HTC Hermes) screen alignment which has plagued a number of other HTC devices in the past (See Post on Wizard Screen Problem). Anything to do with the lack of SPV M3100 in NL?

Other sources have suggested that the M3100 will be officially announced in the UK within the coming week. Lets hope so, as I really want one of these toys!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, MoDaCo, Orange, M3100, HTC Hermes, HTC TyTn]

M3100 ‘Coming Soon’ on Orange site

Progress! Had a look at Orange’s UK website this morning and found the SPV M3100 has appeared in their ‘coming soon’ section.

No official release date or prices yet but it is a step in the right direction. Lets hope that the actual release date is ‘soon’!

QUOTE:[color=#f1670b] The ORANGE SPV M3100 is more than a state of the art 3G phone. It is really an indispensable pocket computer. Once you have lived with it for a while, you will wonder how you ever did without it.[/color]

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Orange, M3100, HTC Hermes]

Orange M3100 Netherlands Release

If you are looking for the M3100 review it’s HERE

Everyone wants to know when they will be able to get their hands on the Orange M3100. Orange UK are being pretty tight lipped about it. Even those of us with friends within Orange are struggling to get the low-down. However, I have just heard from a reliable source that Orange NL will begin shipping the SPV M3100 (HTC Hermes) from Friday (4th August).

Keep an eye one the Orange NL website SPV section for updates.

If the release date is correct then hopefully we won’t have to wait very much longer for them here in the UK!

There are a few websites (Direct Mobile Phones, Scancom) offering pre-order on the M3100. Interestingly though, none of the sites I have seen have got images of the actual device but are showing other HTC Hermes variants!

EDIT: See the follow up HERE

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Orange, M3100, HTC Hermes]

IE7 a ‘High Priority’ update?

Microsoft has decided to push Internet Explorer 7 out to your PC as ‘high priority’ via Windows Update.

Although IE 7 will be pushed out over Automatic Updates, people will be able to choose whether they want to install it or not, Schare said. Automatic Updates will first notify people when IE 7 is ready to install and then show a welcome screen that presents key features and the choices to install, not install or postpone installation.

Personally I will be saying ‘No thanks’ to the update. I’ve had a look at IE7 Beta and really didn’t like it. To me it was a really dumbed down version of IE. The only thing I did like about it was the ‘Tabbed Browser’ approach. However, a better alternative for tabbed browsing is Avant Browser

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): IE7, Windows, Microsoft, Internet Explorer, technology, Automatic Updates]

HTC Wiki Site

Smartphone and Windows Mobile device manufacturer HTC have launched their own Wiki.

For those of you that don’t know, a wiki is a type of website that allows users to easily add, remove, or otherwise edit and change most available content, sometimes without the need for registration. Thus enabling anyone to contribute to the knowledge base.

In their own words: “We’ve started the wiki by seeding some basic information about the current devices available in the American market, but we’re leaving it up to you, the user community, to take it to the next level by filling out the content.”

It’s about time that HTC did something like this!

Check out the HTC Wiki.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Windows Mobile, Tracy & Matt, Orange, wiki, HTC]

Orange M3100 shipping to shops?

If you are looking for the M3100 review it’s HERE

Just a quick bit of information for you this morning. Sources at Orange have suggested that the Orange SPV M3100 is currently being shipped to Orange stores ready for it’s release.

Based on previous product launches and if this is true it should mean that the M3100 will be launched within the next few weeks!

Watch this space!!!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, Orange, M3100, HTC Hermes]