Pocket PC newbie...MDA advice please

[Sapphire]

Hi, all. I hope this is the right place to ask this...

I've been looking into getting a new phone, and I've become very interested in these pocket pc phones. The downside is, I don't know much about computers in the first place. :oops:

I've been considering the T-mobile MDA (is it the same as the i-mate K-Jam?). I would mainly be using it for a phone, an mp3 player, watching movies/playing videos, a pda (a to-do list, calander and such), email/IMing, and storing songs that I write on the go.

I've been reading reviews on the MDA, and it seems to be a decent pocket pc. However, I've seen some reviews (like on Amazon) where people said the MDA works alot better once you install certain software on it.

So my questions are, will installing these software programs help alot? If they do, is there a store (like a Comp-USA) or anything where people more knowledgable than me can do this, or is that something I have to learn to do on my own?

Any advice for a newbie is appreciated!

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Hi Sapphire, welcome to PPCT.

Most of the things you want to do, the MDA is more than capable of (I'll look up to see if there's any music notation programs available - I know tuners are). Apart from some software differences, it is indeed identical to the K-Jam.

I'm not sure what these reviews mean by certain software - any more details on that? It would help if I know exactly what they're talking about.

[Sapphire]

Here is the review that talked about the software:

After reading some online reviews i was a bit worried about it's performance, but now im glad i went ahead and bought the MDA. This smartphone is simply amazing to work with. I was getting some freeze ups like the reviews said and then i downloaded the latest T-Mobile firmware for the MDA and now it works very well and is very stable i.e no freeze-ups. I am glad i did a bit of research on different websites like howardforums and xda-developers and found tons of useful info about the MDA. There are some great applications for this smartphone that improve it's performance tremendously!

Here is the site with other reviews, if it's helpful:


Amazon reviews on the MDA (http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/customer-reviews/B000EM8REU/ref=cm_cr_dp_pt/102-0113719-3932979?ie=UTF8&n=301185&s=wireless)

I also heard that there is some difference in what the MDA and the K-jam can do (and that Tmobile limited what their MDA could do) but that there was a software to fix that and let it work like the full K-jam...but I can't remember where that was, sorry.

Edit:
would you mind telling me what the differences are between the MDA and the K-jam?

[Nurhisham Hussein]

...latest T-Mobile firmware...

That isn't software per se...that's a complete OS replacement :lol: You'll need a PC to do that, there's no way to do that on the device itself.

As for the other software, there's a lot available out there - pretty much anything you can think of. xda-developers is a good (but messy) place to start for hacks, as they've made a career out of modifying HTC phones (HTC being the manufacturer for about 90% of the Windows Mobile devices out there). A bit difficult tracking stuff down, as it's not terribly well-organised. The biggest single drawback for the MDA is the slow processor, so the overclocking app is definitely advisable, as long as you don't overcook it.


would you mind telling me what the differences are between the MDA and the K-jam?

TBH, I'm not really sure apart from the software and carrier-related differences. Maybe somebody else can chip in.

[Sapphire]

That isn't software per se...that's a complete OS replacement

Oops. :lol: Well then, I can tell I've got alot to learn about these things...is there a website where I can learn any of this stuff, or something like that?

Thanks for the help.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

Apart from this one you mean? If you're thinking in terms of FAQ-type sites, they're few and far between. PPCT is primarily a news site, but the forums here have some very knowledgeable members. xda-developers is more of a hackers site - very, very technical. You might want to visit aximsite (http://aximsite.com) - they've got some great newbie articles.

Best thing to do is to keep asking questions, we don't eat newbies...much ;)

[Sapphire]

OK, I've got a question about videos...I've heard you can watch movies on the MDA...about how many movies will it hold? Do I need a memory card to give it enough memory for movies? And how do I even get the movies from a DVD to my MDA?

[Nurhisham Hussein]

...about how many movies will it hold? Do I need a memory card to give it enough memory for movies?

None at all, if care at all about quality - the internal storage is just not big enough, so yes, you need a memory card to hold movies. 1GB is enough for between 3-8 depending on the quality. I'm a bit particular about this so I generally plop for the best quality I can get relative to size. It helps that my PDA can take a CF card, which means I can get cheap(er) storage than most other PDAs - you can put a lot of movies in 8GB. The MDA uses mini-SD which goes up to 2GB only, I think.

And how do I even get the movies from a DVD to my MDA?

That's a whole 'nother topic on its own - we have a few reviews here that cover most of the commercial (one-touch) programs that can do this. My personal preference is for Fairuse Lite (http://www.fairusewizard.com/) for DVDs and PocketDivxEncoder (http://divx.ppccool.com/) for any other media - you will need TCPMP (http://tcpmp.corecodec.org/about) to playback these files though, as they use Divx rather than WMV. It's a little more involving, but I think the quality improvement is worthwhile.

[Brad Adrian]

Always, always, always give the DVD-conversion applications a test run with their free demos. There is a huge difference between what some call "one-touch" and what some call good quality. I like to always have at least one movie on hand for unexpected down-time and travel, and that only takes about 300MB for QVGA -- which is what the MDA is (and a little more for VGA).

Ask all the questions you want. Everybody here is glad to help.

Good luck!