Phones

512mb MicroSD for £14.00

I posted yesterday about the potential sortage of 512mb MicroSD memory cards and asked people to cantact me if they were interested in purchasing them through me.

I’ve had loads of emails from people saying that they are interested so I’ve decided that I will offer them to my readers for COST PRICE of £14.00 plus £1 p&p! (UK only).

I bought a load of these to get a good price so please drop me a line if you wish to purchase, and we’ll arrange something via PayPal. These cards come with a handy SD Card adapter and plastic case.

Matt

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

MicroSD Card Shortage?

Ever since I got my Orange SPV M3100 I have been trying to buy a MicroSD (Transflash) memory card for it.

I would ideally like a 1 or 2gb MicroSD card but everywhere I have tried has been out of stock. A few other people have contacted me to ask me if I know where they can get one from. There are several sellers on eBay offering MicroSD cards but these are all overseas sellers that puts a lot of people off.

I have spoken with a number of resellers about the lack of MicroSD cards and I have been told there are a shortage of MicroSD cards in the whole of Europe.

I finally found a supplier that has some 512mb MicroSD cards in stock so I decided to purchase one of those to keep me going until I can get something larger.

The card is a Kingston Technology 512mb MicroSD Memory Card and comes with a standard SD Card adapter.

If anyone is interested in purchasing one of these please let me know. If I can generate enough interest I will offer these for sale through the blog. The Price for the 512mb will be £15 plus £1 p&p. Please email or comment below if you are interested. It will be a Pay Pal only sale.

I hope to be able to offer 1gb and 2gb MicroSD Memory Cards for sale shortly. Watch this space!

Matt

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

New Hermes Models?

I got a couple of emails from people that have noticed references to HERM160 and HERM161 in the manual for the Orange SPV M3100 and on the web. These people pose the question: Do these refer to other HTC Hermes variants?

The simple answer is NO. HERM160 and HERM161 refer to the battery packs found in the Hermes devices.

The HERM160 battery pack is 1300mAh and ships with the HERM100 handsets while the HERM161 battery pack is 1350mAh and ships with the HERM200 handsets.

Matt

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

Orange SPV M3100 Headphone adapter hack

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

A couple of days ago I told you that I’d started to look at hacking together a headphone adapter for the SPV M3100. I have just finished my headphones adapter hack and thought I would share the procedure with you.

Important: If you follow my procedure I accept no responsibility for any damage you do to yourself, your phone or your headphones. I have carried out this hack and can confirm that it works perfectly with the Orange SPV M3100. It should work equally well with the HTC TyTN (and other HTC Hermes variants), Orange SPV C100 (HTC Oxygen), and the Orange SPV C700 (HTC Breeze).

You will need a 3.5mm Stereo Jack Socket and a Soldering Iron to carry out this hack.

First thing I did was cut the USB connector off the standard Orange headphones about 75mm from the USB plug itself. I decided that I wanted a short headphone adapter as my headphones have a long cable of their own.

Next strip back about 15mm of the cable sheath. Do this carefully so that you don’t damage any of the wires inside, the wires inside are very thin and only insulated with coloured varnish.

Now we need to carefully separate the wires. We need the following colours:

Twist the Left and Right Ground wires together and tin the ends of the 3 cables that we are going to use. You can cut the other wires short – we don’t need them as they are used for USB data

What needs to be done now is to solder the wires to the 3.5mm Jack Socket that we have. Don’t forget that the socket cover goes over the cable before you solder the wires on! The connectors that your socket has may differ from mine. However, as a rule of thumb, jack sockets (and plugs for that matter) tend to have a silver and a copper solder tag for the positive left and right connectors. The right side is almost always the copper one. Solder the red wire to the right side, the green to the left side and the two striped cables that we twisted together to the outer ground of the socket.

Most jack sockets have a method of securing the cable in place. Mine had two metal clips that you bend down and use the clamp the cable

Now screw on the socket cover (you did put this on the cable before you soldered the connectors didn’t you!?) and then lets check the headphone adapter to make sure it’s working. If you have any problems then review your soldering and try again. All done!

I was surprised how loud the sound from the SPV M3100 was with my decent headphones!

Once again anyone carrying out this headphone adapter hack does so at their own risk but I’m happy to answer questions!

NEW Headset modding service

Matt

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

HTC TyTN deal from Clove

One of the most popular reviews on Toppocket.net is the HTC TyTN Pocket PC review by Chris Oldroyd. Well Clove.co.uk have just offered our readers a great special offer. For the next fourteen days anyone who buys an HTC TyTN from Clove will benefit from a futher £10 discount. Clove already offers one of the cheapest prices in the UK and this additional discount is a real bonus.

All you have to do is type TPTYTN0806F10 into the voucher box on the order form once you have selected to buy the TyTN and £10 will be deducted at the checkout stage. To visit the TyTN on the Clove site click here.

Matt

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

Orange SPV M3100 Headphone adapter

I’ve borrowed another Orange SPV M3100 from a friend. I wanted to have more of a play with it and try some software on it and maybe finish what I started in the first Orange SPV M3100 Review.

It’s been mentioned here and elsewhere a number of times already but one of the most annoying things about the M3100, HTC TyTN and HTC Hermes variants is that the headphone socket has been incorporated within the USB socket. This means that you can’t use your own headphones with this device – very irritating especially as the included headphones are so poor.

I’ve been looking around the web and speaking to a number of people but it would appear that nobody yet makes Hermes headphone adapter that will allow you to use your own headphones.

I decided that the best way forward would be to hack the headphones that are included with the SPV M3100, so I decided to have a look at that this evening!

As you can see from the picture above, the bit on the cable that contains the mic and the volume control is rather more complex than I thought. I’m going to spend a little time taking it apart to see what’s what. I hope to have a ‘how-to’ guide online soon!

EDIT: See the SPV M3100 Headphones adapter hack HERE.

Matt

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

Orange SPV M3100 out of stock?

We are hearing reports from a variety of sources that the Orange SPV M3100 is out of stock already.

I decided to place a call to Orange customer services this morning (at 5am!) to clarify the position and was told that the devices are still in stock but stock levels are running low. According to the operator I spoke to, all of the CS staff have been told to advise customers of the potentially low stock levels and that if the M3100 goes out of stock it will take about 10 days before re-supply.

I certainly hope that this doesn’t delay my SPV M3100!!

See the full SPV M3100 review HERE.

Matt

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

Spyware on Pocket PC?

Think your Pocket PC or Smartphone is safe from Spyware? Apparantly it’s time to think again!

Spybot have just released Search and Destroy for Windows Mobile and Smartphone platforms.

Spybot-S+D for Windows Mobile uses a lightweight version of the detection engine of Spybot-S+D for Windows to detect threats for Windows Mobile and Symbian both, the later because Bluetooth worms could spread over OS borders, and while they would not perform on an incompatible OS, they would still waste precious space on the device.

Spybot S+D for Windows Mobile is a free download from Spybot, but a donation is encouraged. Its available in both a PocketPC and Smartphone version., and can be installed directly to your device from their mobile download page.

While viruses for Symbian and Windows Mobile currently seem more like proof-of-concept studies, the Windows Mobile platform offers malware writers who already know Windows a very similar environment. Some may call it a hype, but that’s what people said about spyware 5 years ago as well, and our opinion is that it’s better to protect yourself before something happens than to do it afterwards.

Personally I think it’s a waste of time, but maybe it’s better to be prepared!

Matt

[Technorati tag(s): smartphone, Pocket PC, MoDaCo, Windows Mobile, spyware, virus]

Orange SPV M3100 post review questions answered

Since posting my M3100 REVIEW a few days ago a number of people have contacted me with questions about the device. Many of the questions were about specific aspects of the device that I didn’t cover in the review. I thought it best to follow up with a post where I can attempt to answer your questions!

The first thing I missed out was to include some photos taken with the built-in camera. Below are some quick shots taken both indoors and outside as well as a shot taken of a wineglass using the macro facility. Click the small images for larger view.

The next question was: Now that the main speaker is on the back of the device, is there any issue with the ringtone volume? The simple answer to this one is NO. The ringtone volume can be set really high, whether it’s in your pocket of face up on a desk you should have no problem hearing it ring.

Someone else asked about call quality and call handling. In the past the call quality on some PDA phones has been somewhat poor. Other devices have had issues with general call handling, displaying the message ‘Unable to answer call’ being displayed far too often. In the short time I had the M3100 I didn’t have any such problems and the call quality was about as good as it gets.

Is pocket MSN included with the M3100? Sadly not. Orange have chosen to remove MSN from their ROM as they are planning to release their own isntant messagin solution. Until Pocket MSN Live is released you’ll have to use a third party app like Agile Messenger.

Matt

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

Orange SPV M3100 Upgrade prices

Since posting my SPV M3100 REVIEW yesterday I’ve noticed that a number of people have arrived here having searched for ‘how to get m3100 on upgrade’ and ‘orange spv m3100 prices’. I’ve also had a lot of email messages asking how much you should pay for the M3100 on upgrade or as a new connection.

It doesn’t look like there is a set price that people are being charged for the upgrade. Certainly it will depend on the tariff that you are on and your average monthly spend, however, talking to other people about their upgrade experiences it would seem that they are being charged whatever Orange think they can get away with!

I thought it would be a good idea to share information in one place. So here is what I have been told so far and if you have any information to share with the rest of us please post a comment!

The conversation I had with my Orange Business account manager was an interesting one. I was told point blank that the M3100 would not be released for at least another few weeks. I then pointed out to the guy that I was actually calling him from a friends M3100 that I had borrowed. He went rather quiet and promised to call me back. About an hour later he called to say that there had been a mistake at that the M3100 was not showing on their regular ‘Merlin(?)’ system as they were trying to keep it a ‘secret’ so that they ‘didn’t sell out too quickly’! – Hmm Interesting!

Please share your experiences with others folks!

Matt

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