Problems with the magician?

[mike freegan]

Hi guys. I post quite a bit in the Blue Angel section of this forum.

My BA is probably the worst device I have ever used in terms of both software and hardware issues. I'm surprised they're allowed to sell it.

My question is, Are there any common problems with the iMate Jam?

Like anything alot of these devices suffer from? 76% of BAs have the 'no sound in call' problem, and alot seem to have the whictling screen/serious bluetooth issues. Anything like this on the Magician I should know about before buying?

Cheers -Mike

[Speedn]

Hi, ive had my Jam since middle of jan 2005, and my GF got one soon after so i have had two to play around with, and ive been reading forums fairly extensively since then. I have used roms 1.03, 1.06, 1.11 and i am now runnin 1.12 without any major problems. i have seen a few people complain of various sound issues, which I believe are either a hardware fault (such as a loose mic), or are resolved with Roms 1.11 or 1.12, or even just a hard reset (i have experienced low volume from loud speaker which was solved by a hard reset). Alot of people complain of the not reconnecting gprs issue which i have also experienced on roms 1.11 and 1.12 (it was one of the deciding factors for me upgrading to 1.12) it seems to happen where it tries to send two connections at once and times it self out, I find it to be intermittent, and resolved with a soft reset. Bluetooth has been more troublesome I must say and I only use it for handsfree, so I cant comment on AS connections. I use Buzz_Lightyears SwitchIT software (Buzz you RULE) to turn my BT on/off from my today screen. ROM 1.06 had major issues with BT and required a patch, which helped somewhat with the issue. roms 1.11 and 1.12 very occasionly have issues with BT which again are usually sorted with a soft reset, and once working will stay working untill a soft reset causes them to not work, and a another soft reset is required. BT has issues with being out of sync with the GSM radio i find eg. if BT is on while the radio is off and i soft reset i usually get an issue with BT. Photo Caller ID is intermittent i find, which is possibly because of having the photos in storage space, I'm not really sure and to be honest is not a huge problem anyway.

So yeah there is common problems across the Jam/magician range. however I love my Jam and wouldn't swap it for any other device on the market because for a convergence device which runs an MS operating system (blue screen of death!!! MS are far from perfect) I find 98% of the time its stable and does more then I need. is it perfect??...no, should it be?? we all wish...

[mike freegan]

Cheers dude! I think I will get one. So long as we're not into Blue Angel territory of 5 soft resets required a day, no sound during calls, random hard resets and bluetooth when it feels like it.

OOH, whats the battery life like?

[Speedn]

OOH, whats the battery life like?

well Imate manual reckons talk-time of 3-5 hours, 190 hours standby, and once it switchs off with flat battery warning you got 72 hours before it hard resets . anyway heavy use will see you charging it at the end of the day (I usually just sync when i get home). with a few short calls over a weekend it will usually last the weekend. And as your probably aware li-ion batteries like to be charged.

Speedn

[mike freegan]

As expected I suppose. I don't understand why HTC devices have such turd battery life compared to sony ericsson devices and such.

Does anyone know if it takes Blue Angel handsfree or Himilaya handsfree?

[bamse]

As expected I suppose. I don't understand why HTC devices have such turd battery life compared to sony ericsson devices and such.


It's like comparing an Toyota Prius to a Porsche (the Ericsson being the Prius). They both do the job with style, and they are both fine technical achievements. But one of them will drain your gas account a little bit faster than the other.

[duke911]

Hi, ive had my Jam since middle of jan 2005, and my GF got one soon after so i have had two to play around with, and ive been reading forums fairly extensively....................................... ................I find 98% of the time its stable and does more then I need. is it perfect??...no, should it be?? we all wish...

Totally agree...


to mike

If u know how to tweak ur magician and deal with it..it will turn into a killer device...
even with the bad quality of the camera, U can manage to take great photos... and with some phtotoshop editing they will be really awesome..

battery life us very good...especially when listening to MP3s ( basically, it consumes 10% of the battery for every hour with the screen off, and using high quality headset)

I use my JAM mainly as MP3 player and a medical reference


BT is good for sending files only as well as hands-free, other profiles are not available...

memory isn't that small, with the proper tweaking, u can get up to 32 MB of free RAM after a soft reset....of course compared to ur Blue Angel, this is very low, but I believe it is more than enough for me -as a JAM user -

if u need to know any thing else, please ask

cheers :wink:

[PeterW]

I'm very happy with my O2 Xda II mini. It does everything I need it to do. I have not had any sound problems at all. The only issue I had after a ROM upgrade was the GPRS cannot connect problem, which has now been resolved by downgrading just the CallerID program.

Aside from that, I feel it is a killer device. :)

[mike freegan]

Cheers for all the help guys!! I really appreciate it. Think I'll give the magician a go :)

[MocciJ]

For the list of probs, I get two number for incoming calls: the caller and a private number?!? But this is just a very little prob.

In a thread I've described that my magician simply won't start when is cold. COULD SOMEONE TRY THIS MESS IS SERIOUS!!!

And for the prob of the GPRS: ok, but I don't have CallerID and DON'T want to install it. MUST I install I to eliminate this prob?

I love my magician. Is my wonder machine...

[bamse]

If you do not stop the extrom from installing after a hardreset, CallerId will be automatically installed on your device. For some reason HTC have chosen to name the link in the start menu "Photo Contacts" instead of CallerId.

[Dandie]

If you want a more Blue Angel like device (with regards to size and features of the Blue Angel) I would recommend the Alpine. I'm personally not using it because I prefer the smaller size of the Magician but the Alpine is full featured and from what I read from some other users in germany, almost bug free. Especially bluetooth is said to work great, better than (and with more profiles due to the Widcomm stack) the Microsoft Stack of the Magician. It also features the 1,3 MPix camera, a good display, WLan and a faster processor (500 MHz). If you prefer the bigger devices and don't need the keyboard, I think the Alpine rocks.

[TheBrit]

I've had the Orange SPV M500 variant for about a week now and it's been absolutely flawless.

[MocciJ]

No no, I decided to skip the installation of CallerID (in the italian devices is called Identità Visitatore -huh?-) but I'm not sure if it's needed to resolve the GPRS prob -downgrading-

Oh, I've got another prob: u MUST know a good program like MortRing to set the ringtone OR windows keep resetting to the standard one.

There are plenty of little probs: to set up the jam correctly, there is the need of a decent regedit and personal experience...

[RobtotheBo]

I know the great majority of you chaps think it's wonderful, so please don't take this as a trolling, it's just my opinion.

I've had the orange m500 for 5 days now, and I've had enough. As a windows pda it's fine. Quick, small, nice screen, decent battery life.

As a phone it is awful. The whole interface seems like such an afterthought. You would imagine that it would be easy enough to do basic phone things without having to take the stylus out, but you can't. For example, if you go into the contact book, then click on a contact but get the wrong one, there is no way to go back up a level using hardkeys. You have to click the X in the top corner, which is fiddly to say the least.

That's just one small problem I've had out of quite a few, but it's become quickly obvious to me that a quick and easy-to-use phone is more important to me than an all-singing windows pda, so I have arranged to return it. If your priorities are similar to mine, I would urge you to look elsewhere.

[Speedn]

you should try "mamaich's contacts", adds a contact button right to the phone dial pad, and lets you use HW joypad to scroll through your contacts and pages...Its like the missing link I swear. true one handed dialing.
it's found on this board, and is free.

Speedn