I-Mate Coming To A Continent Near You!

[Jon Westfall]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.ameinfo.com/news/Detailed/55832.html' target='_blank'>http://www.ameinfo.com/news/Detailed/55832.html</a><br /><br /></div><i>"i-mate - industry innovators of wireless device solutions - announced the opening of their North American headquarters based in San Diego, CA at the opening of CTIA Wireless yesterday. The move comes on the heels of a global expansion underway for the dynamic young company that has strategic alliances with Microsoft, Computer Associates, Pointsec and Skype™. "</i><br /><br />Carrier Devices, and their i-mate brand, are no strangers to most of us on this board. Even if we haven't bought one of their devices, we've seen many posts on the PDA2K, the i-mate pocket pc (a.k.a. XDA II), and the i-mate JAM. About a year ago an i-mate employee privately emailed me (After reading a rant of mine about the difficulty getting my i-mate serviced) saying that a North America office would be opening soon, and now it looks like it might actually happen! Hopefully, this means lower pricing for consumers here, and warranty support that doesn't require our device to travel overseas. If you are unfamiliar with the i-mate brand and want more than this release, check out <a href="http://www.clubimate.com">Club I-Mate</a> for information on the various devices in the i-mate line.

[ignar]

Great news! iMate JAM is getting more and more tempting.

[ricksfiona]

I think iMate can surpass HP as the Pocket PC leader. Their current products may not be as fast as HP's offerings, but as a complete package, iMate has the better products.

[Darius Wey]

I sometimes forget that i-mate aren't as widespread in other countries. Here in Australia, they're pretty common, which is a good thing. :way to go:

[beq]

That's cool, and the article mentioned they signed on some US distributors to start selling the 850MHz JAM en masse in the US (pretty soon I assume)...

What's interesting, the article keeps referring to i-mate the company (as opposed to Carrier Devices the company and i-mate simply being the brand name). Also, I'd often been reminded that they're supposedly a Middle East company, but the founder/CEO's name Jim Morrison that was mentioned in the article sounds like an American name rather than Middle Eastern (if that's the proper terminology, sorry for my ignorance)?

[Darius Wey]

Also, I'd often been reminded that they're supposedly a Middle East company

Their head office is based in Dubai, although over the past couple of years, they seemed to pick Australia as a place to launch their new technologies. I'm sure many of you in the States are looking forward to what they have on offer. :)

[ChristopherTD]

I just placed an order for the i-mate Jam to replace my iPaq 5500 and Motorola V500. I am waiting for the PPC Tech 128MB ram fix to be installed and hope to have it in a day or so.

My only concern is how well I will be able to read e-books on the smaller screen as that makes up a great deal of my PPC work. I am sure I will adjust though, it sure is a sweet little device...

[beq]

I too am waiting for the DWeiniger 850 JAM (with the 128MB + WriteShield AG upgrade). Makes me wish I can return one of the PDA2k's though (I have two laying on my desk right now, oh well)... In fact I've just linked his BofA account with mine (for fund transfers) :)

Just came back from a Maroon 5 concert, and to my dismay I'd forgotten to take my digicam (d'oh)! The only thing I had with me was the PDA2k, but needless to say the still and video snapshot quality left something to be desired (especially in the dark). And I realized I never figured out how to adjust the digital zoom -- I see the 1.0x and a zoom icon on the upper right corner but for the life of me I can't figure out how to actually zoom in. Not that it would've helped any I don't think, digital zooming on a QVGA or VGA resolution image would probably leave the final capture with very little detail?

Meanwhile the guy in the seat next to us had a huge telephoto-lens camera and I can only imagine what great shots he got...

[Darius Wey]

My only concern is how well I will be able to read e-books on the smaller screen as that makes up a great deal of my PPC work. I am sure I will adjust though, it sure is a sweet little device...

Unless you have sensitive eyes, it should be fine, as I have tried it myself and found it to be very impressive. Besides, while it's still using QVGA, the screen size is smaller, so you'll probably find text to be a little crisper and clearer than what you might have experienced on your iPAQ.

I'm still very impressed with the JAM everytime I see it. :)

[beq]

My only concern is how well I will be able to read e-books on the smaller screen as that makes up a great deal of my PPC work. I am sure I will adjust though, it sure is a sweet little device...

Unless you have sensitive eyes, it should be fine, as I have tried it myself and found it to be very impressive. Besides, while it's still using QVGA, the screen size is smaller, so you'll probably find text to be a little crisper and clearer than what you might have experienced on your iPAQ.
I'm ending up preferring to do my PPC ebook reading (while at home) on an older secondary PPC altogether (the iPAQ 2200). Like in bed at night, the lights on the PDA2k are too distracting, and besides the 2200 is just a nicer, lighter PPC to hold for extended reading. I love the rubber handgrip sides on the 2200 for example -- whereas I've already dropped my PDA2k several times when it had slipped from my grasp (where the battery and SD card had come flying out, argh).

But then synchronizing the state of the ebook you're reading is difficult if you read on alternating PPC devices...

[yawanag]

[(After reading a rant of mine about the difficulty getting my i-mate serviced) saying that a North America office would be opening soon, and now it looks like it might actually happen!

News couldn't come soon enough as I have been without mine for two weeks and still waiting.

I'm so limitied with what I can do with this old T-Mobile. I remember when I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread.

[snayar]

...I can't figure out how to actually zoom in. Not that it would've helped any I don't think, digital zooming on a QVGA or VGA resolution image would probably leave the final capture with very little detail?...

When in video mode and not shooting, you can zoom in/out by pressing the DPad up/down. You can't zoom while recording though...

By the way, CD comming to America?!? that's great news for us living in the States or south of the border (like me)... I've been looking all over the Internet for a housing replacement for my MDA2...

Best regards!!!
SNayar

[beq]

...I can't figure out how to actually zoom in. Not that it would've helped any I don't think, digital zooming on a QVGA or VGA resolution image would probably leave the final capture with very little detail?...
When in video mode and not shooting, you can zoom in/out by pressing the DPad up/down. You can't zoom while recording though...
Ahhh! Thanks SNayar, I could've sworn I tried that already in the concert (I'd tried fumbling through pressing all the buttons including the DPad directions), but I must've done something wrong. So it looks like in QVGA 320x240 mode (in video or photo) you can do digital zoom up to 2x, but not in VGA 640x480 photo mode.

Darnit, now I know...


P.S. Also the storage location for the still and video snapshots on my PDA2k keeps reverting back to \My Documents (in RAM) instead of the Storage Card -- I'm guessing whenever I take out the SD card this is what happens, which is annoying...

[beq]

Well, I received both the 850MHz i-mate JAM 128MB and the Sony Playstation Portable just today. The former is considerably smaller than my i-mate PDA2k, while the latter is considerably larger (or longer at least) :)