i-mate JAM Now Available

[Darius Wey]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.expansys-usa.com/product.asp?code=I-MATE_JAM' target='_blank'>http://www.expansys-usa.com/product...code=I-MATE_JAM</a><br /><br /></div><i>"The i-mate™ JAM is the smallest Windows Pocket PC available. It includes GPRS for Internet or remote office access, and features Bluetooth, Windows Pocket PC Second Edition, 64MB RAM, an SDIO/MMC slot, a 64k colour transreflective LCD and a built-in 1.3 Mega-Pixel camera. Use for playing MP3s, making voice calls, collecting emails, taking pictures and much more."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20041108-imateJAM.jpg" /><br /><br />We waited and now it's here! The i-mate JAM has been released in a Worldwide English edition and you can purchase it from eXpansys-USA for US$629.95. Packed with a 1.3MP camera and a stylish form factor, this device should definitely be on anyone's Christmas wish-list! If you don't live in the USA, you're still in luck! The device is available for worldwide delivery and should be available at your local eXpansys dealer.

[dunos]

Great but where is the WiFi? GPRS is all well and good but it is amazingly expensive, at least in the UK, and slow. Looks quite nice case wise, very ipod like.

[marlof]

For WiFi you'd need additional hardware that fits in the SDIO slot. Too bad it's excluded, but the people I know who have had this one in their hands are all very excited about it. Can't wait to see one in real life myself.

[dunos]

I always find that manufacturers leave something out that would have made an otherwise good device fantastic.

[Darius Wey]

I always find that manufacturers leave something out that would have made an otherwise good device fantastic.

Such a concept allows for competition. ;)

Otherwise, the market would be monopolised. :D

[adamz]

I find it hard to believe that expansys actually has any of these yet. Remember when they were selling the iPAQ H5600 pre-orders even though it was never released? Their estimated availability are usually very inaccurate as well.

[Darius Wey]

Regional links:

USA: Link in initial post
UK: http://www.expansys.com/product.asp?code=I-MATE_JAM
Australia: http://www.expansys.com.au/product.asp?code=I-MATE_JAM
France: http://www.expansys.fr/product.asp?code=I-MATE_JAM
Germany: http://www.expansys.de/product.asp?code=I-MATE_JAM
China: http://www.expansys.cn/product.asp?code=I-MATE_JAM
Italy: http://www.expansys.it/product.asp?code=I-MATE_JAM
Spain: http://www.expansys.es/product.asp?code=I-MATE_JAM
The Netherlands: http://www.expansys.nl/product.asp?code=I-MATE_JAM

Other Countries not Listed: http://www.expansys.com/group.asp

[Darius Wey]

I find it hard to believe that expansys actually has any of these yet. Remember when they were selling the iPAQ H5600 pre-orders even though it was never released? Their estimated availability are usually very inaccurate as well.

Hmmm... not 100% sure on that one. I guess we'll just have to wait for someone to order one and see how long it takes.

[UCCOFFEE]

For australia local : www.ow.com.au
only 999 , about $15 cheaper than expansys

I ordered one, and they said hopefully will ship before dec (finger crossed)

PC

[Darius Wey]

I remember seeing the >A$1000 price earlier today. However, if you visit the link I just posted for Australia, you'll see that it's now at A$989.95; due November 21. ;)

[ventivent]

I've got one on pre-order, and was informed that the tentative ship date is somewhere around November 13th. $629 seems expensive, but this will essentially replace my h4155 + BT phone combo, which is worth probably around $600.

Re: WiFi - in a device this small, there are going to have to be some sacrifices, IMHO. I'm willing to live without wifi, (will get an SDIO card) and a built-in thumb board at the expense of size. If you need these features, i-mate also has a larger PDA2K model.

[powder2000]

After watching coverage on this device, I thought for sure we would see it released at a breakthrough pricepoint. Somehow, it seems way to expensive to me. :roll:

[R K]

I always find that manufacturers leave something out that would have made an otherwise good device fantastic.

Manufacturers always have the tricky job of balancing their hardware.
The question is, do more people want to pay $629 for a device with just Bluetooth and GPRS, or do people want to pay $679 for a device with Bluetooth+GPRS+WiFi?

Maybe they could keep the cost at $629 if they added WiFi at the cost of a 0.25" thickness increase, but would people buy that model over a skinnier model without WiFi?
It's all a matter of balance.

If the manufacturers wanted to, I'm sure they could come out with a device that's the size of an iPAQ H4155 with WiFi, Bluetooth, GPRS, Camera, VGA, and a 1950mAh battery, but at a price of $1,499, how many people would buy such a device?

[dorelse]

Does anyone know of any comparison picts with a Treo600?

[Janak Parekh]

After watching coverage on this device, I thought for sure we would see it released at a breakthrough pricepoint. Somehow, it seems way to expensive to me. :roll:
That's Expansys and other "early" sites for you. In fact, Expansys tends to be overagressive with their preordering setups. But if you're desperate... ;)

I think you'll find subsidized prices by vendors to be quite a bit cheaper.

--janak

[ventivent]

Agreed that $629 is too expensive for this device, but give that only one US vendor is offering it, that's the price I'm gonna have to pay for being the first one on the block with one. :wink:

[f1rick]

Following this thread on the expansys forum shows it will be at least another week.

http://www.expansys.com/forumthread.asp?code=I-MATE_JAM&thread=2

f1rick

[neomotion]

Glad to be living in the Netherlands when it comes to cellphones. Coverage and rates are at its best here.

MDA Compact: Free with a 2 year contract (T-mobile 150, € 23,50 each month, 150 minutes to call). Gprs: 5 mb each month, € 11,25. Since the dollar is doing 0.79, that means it tranlates to roughly $30 for calling and $ 14,50 for 5 mb of gprs. Now those are prices i can live with.

And we will have it within 2 weeks. Can't wait for my new phone to arrive.

Oh, and i don't really care about Wifi. If so, it has sdio, so there is always a way to get it.

Ps: I had the great fortune of actually playing around with a working Mda compact last week and man, is it small and beautiful. Think Ipod. The screen is absolutly amazing (250k color), even if it is a little smaller then your average ppc. You will not believe how small it is untill you hold it in the palm of your hand. I absolutly fell in love with it the moment i saw it. Must....have.........it.... :werenotworthy:

[Kai920]

Does anyone have any information on the camera's quality? I'm interested in seeing whether 1.3MP really equals better photos. :?:

BTW, I don't think the price is too outrageous, when you consider that this is basically a more advanced XDA2 in a smaller form factor.

[Kai920]

neomotion, are you sure the screen is 250K colors? even on Club i-mate's website, the specs lists it as 64K.

http://www.clubimate.com/index.asp?PageAction=DETAILS_JAM

[neomotion]

@kai: No, but that is what the salesperson told me, and the screen is bright as hell and sure looked like it was 250k. But i didn't count them all, so i can''t be sure. It is one of the best screens you will see though.

[Darius Wey]

@kai: No, but that is what the salesperson told me, and the screen is bright as h-ll and sure looked like it was 250k. But i didn't count them all, so i can''t be sure. It is one of the best screens you will see though.

Nah....it's a 64K screen. I'm not sure where the salesperson got his/her facts from.

* System: GSM & GPRS, triband 850/1800/1900 or 900/1800/1900 MHz
* Operating System: Windows Mobile™ 2003 software for Pocket PCs (2nd Edition)
* Colour: Stylish black & silver
* Dimensions: 108mm(L) x 58mm(W) x 18.1mm(T)
* Screen: 2.8 inch, 240x320 pixels TFT transflective LCD, 64k colours
* Camera: 1.3 mega-pixels
* Inbuilt Bluetooth™ v1.2 and Infrared
* MMS compliant
* Processor: Intel Bulverde 416 MHz
* Memory: 64MB ROM, 64MB RAM
* Battery: Removeable and rechargeable Lithium-ion Polymer battery, 1,200 mAh
* Audio: Crisp audio playback via WMA/AMR/MP3 full stereo player, hands-free

[Fishie]

Win Mobile still doesnt support over 16bit colour so even if the screen wouldve been 18bit colour its useless as the OS simply doesnt support it.

Lets hope Next years super duper edition finally does(it uld with more machines having 3D acceleration and VGA screens)

[billa_gordon]

I am wanting a i-mate JAM(on a contract), however expansys doesn't do a very good deal. Does anybody know if any UK networks are going to sell them in their stores?

Any help would be appreciated.

Gordon

[Kai920]

@kai: No, but that is what the salesperson told me, and the screen is bright as h-ll and sure looked like it was 250k. But i didn't count them all, so i can''t be sure. It is one of the best screens you will see though.

Agreed, even though I have not seen it myself in person, the Magician's screen seems to be very bright in this picture. It could be the angle of the shot, but I've never seen a PDA2K's screen to be as bright...

http://www.mobinaute.com/photos/albums/QtekS100/PICT0610.sized.jpg

[bnycastro]

i doubt that the local telcos here in the philippines will be getting and subsidizing these anytime soon... maybe when the product is a 6 to 9 months old they'll get it here...

GPRS is also expensive and very very very slow here; very slow! But WiFi is no problem as it has SDIO and there is a Sandisk WiFi + 256mb SDIO card out already :D

Really would like too see and touch of course (all right... play around!!!) with this device before getting one though...

i've been looking at the i-mate JAM at the expansys hk website and it says 11/12/2004 is the shipping date now it's been pushed back to the 23rd.

HK$4,824.95 or 620.357 USD or 34,954.01 PHP (no shipping yet) anyway it is expensive huh but i saw this pic of it besides a pack of smokes and wow it was just a little bit bigger i love the size. hopefully i get to see one in person soon so i can finally decide if i should get this or wait for the BenQ p50.

[bnycastro]

The comment about the lack of WiFi on this device made me think... will the Sandisk SDIO WiFi Card and the 256MB + WiFi SDIO Card work with the i-mate JAM? I was checking the Sandisk website and it has drivers up for PPC 2002 and 2003 but not 2003SE would these accessories work with the i-mate JAM or other PPC 2003SE devices for that matter? Anybody test this yet (PPC 2003SE and WiFi SDIO or 256mb+WiFi SDIO)?

[bnycastro]

Houston we have a problem:

- Microsoft Bluetooth stack rather than Widcomm.

wonder why htc or imate decided to use ms bt stack again i'm sure i read somewhere that a lot of users already complained about this bt stack in the XDA2.

Has the ms bt stack been improved when windows mobile 2003 se was made/released?

Is the ms bt stack really that bad? I mean I use an iPAQ 2210 (it has widcomm right) and I love the way the BT works (with the wizards and stuff) does the ms bt stack have this?

I mainly use BT to do wireless activesync, file transfer, and vcards. would the ms bt stack significantly make it harder for me to do these tasks compared to the widcomm stack?

I was really looking forward for to the JAM but this is going to make me have second or third thoughts :cry: [/url]

[adamz]

Houston we have a problem:

- Microsoft Bluetooth stack rather than Widcomm.

wonder why htc or imate decided to use ms bt stack again i'm sure i read somewhere that a lot of users already complained about this bt stack in the XDA2.


I think there's alot of bugs in the Widcomm Phone Edition stack on Windows Mobile 2003SE. That's why the iPAQ is running plain WM2003. The PDA2K has a few issues with the Widcomm bluetooth there.

I don't think the MS Bluetooth stack is really THAT bad... it does work. I think the initial problems were with the first release which didn't allow you to assign COM ports. Although even after they fixed that, it still didn't support personal area networking. Maybe the SE version will add more features.

EDIT: Also, it looks like the JAM will have Bluetooth 1.2! Isn't the Widcomm stack still at 1.1?

[The PocketTV Team]

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[bnycastro]

Adamz

sorry to disappoint but the JAM will be Bluetooth 1.1 according to the FAQ on club i-mate. http://www.clubimate.com/index.asp?PageAction=DEVICEFAQ_JAM

so ok the widcomm stack caused some trouble for the PDA2K so they put the ms stack on the JAM... I think I can live with that.

[adamz]

Adamz
sorry to disappoint but the JAM will be Bluetooth 1.1 according to the FAQ on club i-mate. http://www.clubimate.com/index.asp?PageAction=DEVICEFAQ_JAM


That's weird 'cause here it says Bluetooth 1.2 compliant...
http://www.clubimate.com/index.asp?PageAction=DETAILS_JAM

Maybe that part on the FAQ just means that it's also compatible with Bluetooth 1.1 devices.

Anyway, it sounds like Expansys still doesn't have it.

[bnycastro]

i think we better wait for an in-depth review to really find out more about this device. so if the JAM is 1.2 it can use 1.1 devices but not vice versa.
yes they have moved the delivery date form nov 12 to nov 30 now 8O ... ok yesterday i was sure this was still 26 or 28. looks like i-mate (or maybe HTC) is having difficulty supplying.

[Darius Wey]

i think we better wait for an in-depth review to really find out more about this device. so if the JAM is 1.2 it can use 1.1 devices but not vice versa.
yes they have moved the delivery date form nov 12 to nov 30 now 8O ... ok yesterday i was sure this was still 26 or 28. looks like i-mate (or maybe HTC) is having difficulty supplying.

http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=302094#302094

There's a second part of a review of the Dopod 818 at Mobile01 - so you may want to check that out seeing as though they're both pretty much the same device. The only downside is that it's in Chinese again (unless you can read Chinese :) ). I was going to do a translation of it - but this will have to wait until the weekend as I'm a little busy at the moment.

[bnycastro]

i tried reading the wordlingo translation and now have an headache... i'll wait for your version darius :wink:

[Darius Wey]

i tried reading the wordlingo translation and now have an headache... i'll wait for your version darius :wink:

Haha... I decided to see how good WorldLingo was at translating it. It's not a pretty sight. :P

[bnycastro]

now i know why my folks kept on insisting that i take my mandarin seriously... o well regrets are in the end, when you can't read other websites that happen to get the hardware you crave for first... hehehe