Author Archive: Matt

HTC Hermes USB connector pin config

Have you tried the latest online casino games? If not, today is the best day to play and make real money! I’ve been asked over and over again “what is the pin configuration of the USB connector on the SPV M3100” and what are the “TyTN connector pinout specs”.

Rather than saying “I don’t know” I decided to work it out!

The above diagram is of the EMU plug viewed end-on.

Enhanced Mini USB (EMU) connectors are double sided. One side carry’s the USB signal data while the other carries audio signals. The pin config is as follows.

Data

• A = GND
• B = NC
• C = +DATA
• D = -DATA
• E = +5v

Audio

• 1 = +Mic
• 2 = +Right
• 3 = Switch
• 4 = Gnd
• 5 = Gnd
• 6 = +Left

You can find Enhanced Mini USB connectors on a variety of devices. The above config covers the USB configuration of the Orange SPV M3100, HTC TyTN, Vodafone v1605, HTC Oxygen devices and HTC Meteor devices and probably many more.

Use at your own risk though, play safe!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, spv headphone socket, m3100 spv usb cable, M3100, HTC Hermes, HTC TyTN, SPV, Orange SPV M3100, Hermes Headphones]

HTC branded accessories

HTC have just released two rather funky looking bluetooth headsets. The first, HTC BH M100 Bluetooth® headset, is a traditional mono bluetooth headset whereas the BH S100 is a stereo bluetooth headset aimed directly at music-lovers with it’s 3.5mm jack socket allowing the use of regular headphones.

From the HTC site:

The HTC BH M100 has everything you need in a Bluetooth® headset.

It looks smart, it’s light-weight, comfortable, practical, and delivers crystal clear sound.

The intuitive design of the BH M100 enables you to answer and finish calls at the touch of a button.

A perfect companion for your HTC mobile device.

In the box: Headset, Ear hook, User manual, Travel charger and Charger adapter

The HTC BH S100 Bluetooth® Stereo headset

With the HTC BH S100 you can enjoy your music in wireless stereo, and switch effortlessly between music and your phone so you never miss a call.

Control your phone calls and music at the touch of a button with the clip on control panel. The ultimate in wireless freedom.

Not only is the BH S100 feature packed, but it delivers excellent high quality stereo sound.

A perfect companion for your HTC mobile device.

Specifications

In the box: Headset, 4 x foam earpiece covers, User manual, Travel Charger, Charger adapter and Lanyard

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, HTC, Bluetooth, headset, headphones, SPV]

New HTC Models Announced

HTC have just announced 4 new models due for launch in Q4 of this year. The announcement is hardly a surprise but HTC have chosen a strange naming convention. They are as follows:

HTC S620 (HTC Excalibur)

The HTC S620 smartphone is a break-through form factor for HTC. Super sleek –
just 12.8mm thin and weighing 130g with battery – this device makes light work
of email and document management on the go. It is the first device to feature
HTC’s JOGGR™ touch sensitive navigation bar, ensuring easy access to a
wealth of applications including: Outlook Mobile® via direct Push functionality
available with Windows Mobile 5.0), Word Mobile, Excel® Mobile, PowerPoint®
Mobile and PDF viewer, literally at your fingertips. Combined with a 2.4 inch,
colour, landscape screen and fully integrated QWERY
keyboard this is truly a smart messaging device.

The HTC S620 offers a comprehensive range of
connectivity options: Quad band GPRS/EDGE, WiFiTM and
BluetoothTM. It will be available across Europe from
October 2006.

HTC P3300 (HTC Artemis)

When it comes to personal navigation, devices don’t come
smarter than the HTC P3300. This is HTC’s first dedicated
navigation PDA with built-in GPS and features the latest TomTom
software, NAVIGATOR 6. The HTC P3300, with NAVIGATOR 6 is the
ideal solution for customers who need their PDA and navigation
device integrated into one personal device. 2D and 3D maps
are easy to install and view using HTC’s RollRTM (Trackball and
Track Wheel) and optimised 2.8 inch sharp colour screen.

Retailing from October 2006, the HTC P3300 will be available with a “taster
pack” of regional maps or as a full version pre-loaded with a complete set of
maps for Western Europe.

HTC P3600 (HTC Trinity)

The HTC P3600 (aka HTC Trinity) is HTC’s next generation PDA, building on its
successful predecessors the Prophet and Magician. Packed
with technology, the HTC P3600 is the perfect companion for
work and play. Windows Mobile® 5.0 keeps you up to date
with emails, calendar and documents; it features 3G
connectivity and is HSDPA-ready, delivering Worldwide high speed internet connectivity wherever and whenever it’s needed.

With serious multi media capabilities and a 2.0 megapixel camera built in, this
feature rich PDA is ideal for messaging, video, pictures and music on the go.

HTC S310 (HTC Oxygen)

Ideal for business and consumer users the HTC S310 is a
small yet powerful candy bar-style messaging device. It
offers affordable access to Windows Mobile 5.0 and high
specification multimedia functionality. This Quad band
device will be on the shelves from September 2006 in a
range of colours – black, white and grey.

Cant wait to see these in the wild!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, HTC, M3100, HTC Atremis, HTC Oxygen, HTC Trinity, HTC Excalibur]

What is HSDPA?

You people aren’t shy in asking questions are you!? For those of you that want to know about HSDPA (Not HSPDA as I have seen it called) here is a run down.

High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) is a new mobile telephony protocol and is sometimes referred to as a 3.5G (or “3½G”) technology. HSDPA provides a smooth evolutionary path for Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) networks allowing for higher data capacity (up to 14.4 Mbit/s per cell in the downlink and 2 Mbit/s in the uplink per cell). It is an evolution of the W-CDMA standard, designed to increase the available data rate by a factor of 5 or more. HSDPA defines a new W-CDMA channel, the high-speed downlink shared channel (HS-DSCH) that operates in a different way from existing W-CDMA channels, but is only used for downlink communication to the mobile. HSDPA can give throughput up to 10.8 Mbit/s.

United Kingdom deployment:

Vodafone has launched HSDPA services during the summer of 2006. Vodafone released their HSDPA laptop data card on 22 June 2006. The card comes in two versions; tri-band and quad band and will work with Vodafone’s 3G/HSDPA network in several other countries including Austria, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain and Hong Kong.

T-Mobile UK has announced that their HSDPA network will go live across the UK on 1 August 2006. Initial download speeds were announced to be 1.8Mbps, rising to 3.6Mbps in 2007, 7.2Mbps in 2008, 10Mbps in 2009 and 20Mbps by 2011.

O2 will launch their HSDPA services across the UK in the third quarter of 2006. O2 expects initial download speeds to be 3.6 Mbit/s (peak) at launch, increasing to 7.3 Mbit/s by early 2008, and reaching 10.2 Mbit/s by late 2009.

Orange UK has announced they will be rolling out their HSDPA service in the second half of 2006.

3 UK has announced they will begin HSDPA services in the second half of 2006.

So now you know!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, Tracy & Matt, HSDPA, 3G, mobile telephony]

Samsung ‘Blackjack’ Specification

A while ago we showed you pictures that we took at the MoDaCo summer event, of the Orange branded version of the Samsung SGH-i600 (Blackjack) which is a 3G version of the Samsung i320. Today at IFA 2006 the device finally got a name, and also a lost of great specs. The Samsung SGH-i600 is a Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone, and features not only UMTS, but also HSDPA and WIFI. All this in an extremely thin, pocketable form-factor. Featuring Exchange push e-mail and a scroll wheel, the device will be a great alternative to the Blackberry or Q.

Specification

It also features some nice touches, such as the ability to use the device in mass storage mode, and includes a podcasts down-loader, so you have something to do with all that bandwidth.

More info HERE.

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, MoDaCo, Blackjack, M3100, Samsung]

HTC Excalibur on T-Mobile

Our friends at MoDaCo have let us know that the HTC Excalibur will be comming to T-Mobile USA under the name “Dash”. We have also been informed that the firmware for this device will include the ability to scroll down through the program menu instead of having to press the more button!

The HTC Excalibur looks a lot like the Samsung i320 but it’s a couple millimeters thicker than the i320 and 2 millimeters shorter. It’s a Smartphone so no touchscreen though! 🙁 However it does have an innovative touch ‘jog strip’ which is HTC’s latest answer to the Blackberry scroll wheel. The only problem I can see with the Jog Strip is that it’s located just around the right hand edge of the screen. It’ll be a real pain for us left handers. I wonder if HTC realise that 1 in 8 people are left handed?

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, MoDaCo, T Mobile, HTC, HTC Excalibur]

HTC TyTN screen alignment

We discussed touchscreen alignment in an earlier post. However, I just saw this thread over at XDA-Developers.com which has a post containing an email from HTC, confirming that there is a known issue with screen alignment on HTC TyTn devices, and setting out the return / repair procedure:

There have been very few, if any, reports of screen alignment issues on the Orange SPV M3100 and the Vodafone v1605 so the problem may be limited to HTC’s own version of the Hermes. If you have one of these devices and are unlucky enough to be affected by this problem you will have to contact Orange or Vodafone direct to arrange replacement. It will prabably take you half an hour to explain to customer services what screen aligment is and why it’s a problem though!

Matt

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

Hermes headphone modding service

Since posting details on how to modify the headset the ships with the Orange SPV M3100 to make it in to a headphone adapter so that you can use your own standard headphones I have had a fair amount of feedback.

It would seem that a lot of people want an adapter for their headphones but are either unwilling or unable to do this for themselves.

SO, for anyone wanting their headset turned into a headphone adapter like the one above I have decided to offer this as a service.

All you have to do is make contact with me through my contact form and send me your headset. I will then modify it for you and turn it in to an adapter that will allow you to use any standard headphones.

The adapter will be compatible with the Dopod CHT9000, Qtek 9600, i-Mate JasJam, O2 XDA Trion, HTC TyTN, HTC Hermes, htc Z, Orange SPV M3100 and T-Mobile MDA vario II devices. In fact it will be compatible with all HTC Hermes variants as well as STRTRK and Breeze variants.

I’m only offering this service to my readers, all I ask is that you send me your headset and cover the cost of the return postage and the 3.5mm jack socket.

EDIT: Now that Expansys are offering adapters for sale I’m no longer offering the service. Check out this post for details of the commercially available adapter.

Matt

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