The Official T-Mobile MDA/SDA Thread!

[jonazen]

They don't go over the buttons. It covers the screen, most of the sides and the entire back except the camera. It is really tough to even see that it's on there.

Most of the back is textured -- it stays put and looks good on that??? I'd love to see a video demo of that on the order of the videos on their website (very impressive I might add!).

I read a note on a forum that this is a "wet application"...is it safe to do something like that on these devices?

[tbrown801]

Most of the back is textured -- it stays put and looks good on that??? I'd love to see a video demo of that on the order of the videos on their website (very impressive I might add!).

I read a note on a forum that this is a "wet application"...is it safe to do something like that on these devices?

The back looks great. They also gaurantee it for life. So under normal "wear and tear" they will replace it if it starts to "look" scratched. I don't think you can beat it. We are impressed enough that we are also doing our Ipod.

[werk]

tbrown:

I actually ordered an invisibleshield for my MDA. I got it yesterday (but MDA hasn't arrived yet ) All I saw was a screen protector for the QTek 9100 (same device, different name). Do you have a link to the full-body shield? Thanks.

[ilrosewood]

The browser on my MDA pulled down some pages (e.g., one of MS's MSN pages for portable pc's) so fast that I thought it was a local file at first - but it wasn't. But I had some real lags on HoFo yesterday (beyond the normal HoFo periodic logjam due to all us phone-a-holics). I would start to download a page, and the browser and entire WM5 interface would grind to a halt.

If I waited a minute or two, WM5 would display a "Script Warning", letting me know that a script was running that was bogging down the MDA and eventually destabilize it -- offering to cancel the script for me. I cancelled, and the page finished downloading normally. SO... there's something running on HoFo pages that chokes PIE on the MDA. If it's there, then the same performance issue with whatever kind of script this is (some kind of javascript I'm guessing) could be on other pages as well.

Google adwords. Try doing some google searches via edge/gprs and see if it works for you. Since google sites don't work for me, I get that same error on any site that has adsense.

So does anyone besides kdenninger have a final recommendation who has used both devices? I am really on the fence between the 2. I ordered an MDA, but am about ready to call and change it to the SDA. I will be moving shortly to an area that has fringe coverage with T-Mobile so RF performance is extremely important to me. I am very concerned about what I am hearing about the MDA in that department. On the other hand, everyone says the SDA has awesome RF. One reason I initially went with the MDA was because of the stereo speakers - anyone care to comment on the difference between the SDA and MDA in this department? Last question: I really was liking the fact that you can edit Office docs on the MDA. Are there any programs out there that will allow you to edit Office docs on the SDA? I appreciate your feedback in advance.

I had the SDA for 4-5 days and it went back. I couldn't stand the menu buttons and the crazy huge media buttons. I was constantly ending up in WMM. I've had great coverage with both but only decent battery life with the SDA. Editing office docs on the SDA would just be silly man.

Here is the duh solution. Get an MDA. Don't like it? Take it back and get an SDA.

[kdenninger]

I also cranked up the backlight a notch (not all the way) -- much crisper display this way, but I'm sure it eats power more quickly as well.

Turn the backlight DOWN to save battery life. The impact of this is MAJOR.

The battery is an 1100 mah Lithium. With the LED backlight on full you can expect to draw somewhere around 100 milliamps just for the backlight! This means that in 10 hours with it on, the battery is dead.

Cut it down to the minimum you need for your daily use. I run with it on about 1/3rd of the way "on".

This, by the way, is one of the places the SDA loses - it doesn't have modulation of the backlight level......

[kdenninger]

So does anyone besides kdenninger have a final recommendation who has used both devices? I am really on the fence between the 2. I ordered an MDA, but am about ready to call and change it to the SDA. I will be moving shortly to an area that has fringe coverage with T-Mobile so RF performance is extremely important to me. I am very concerned about what I am hearing about the MDA in that department. On the other hand, everyone says the SDA has awesome RF. One reason I initially went with the MDA was because of the stereo speakers - anyone care to comment on the difference between the SDA and MDA in this department? Last question: I really was liking the fact that you can edit Office docs on the MDA. Are there any programs out there that will allow you to edit Office docs on the SDA? I appreciate your feedback in advance.

The SDA simply doesn't have stereo speakers - but the sound isn't bad on the SDA, even in mono.

The RF differences are huge. If you're in a fringe area you will notice.

[ilrosewood]

The SDA simply doesn't have stereo speakers - but the sound isn't bad on the SDA, even in mono.

The RF differences are huge. If you're in a fringe area you will notice.

Im sorry to pee on your parade but my RF has been dandy. Ive taken it to rural ks and it works fine. Switches to 850 roaming w/o a hitch. In town, in offices, in a hospital, all a okay.

[jonazen]

Turn the backlight DOWN to save battery life. The impact of this is MAJOR.

The battery is an 1100 mah Lithium. With the LED backlight on full you can expect to draw somewhere around 100 milliamps just for the backlight! This means that in 10 hours with it on, the battery is dead.

Cut it down to the minimum you need for your daily use. I run with it on about 1/3rd of the way "on".

I don't leave the backlight on -- I've got the options set to turn it off within 30 seconds of the last "operation" (button press or screen tap) when I'm on battery, but have it set to remain on when I've got corded power. Nice to have that level of control.

One thing I HAVEN'T found is a way to set up anything analogous to "profiles" like the ones I've had on my Sony Ericsson and Nokia phones for years, e.g., "outdoors - set to vibrate, play a particularly penetrating ringtone, and crank up the ringtone volume high", "indoors - no vibrate, mellow ringtone, low volume", "silent - vibrate, no ringtone, volume set to silent". Anyone aware of a way to accomplish this with WM5?

[ilrosewood]

I don't leave the backlight on -- I've got the options set to turn it off within 30 seconds of the last "operation" (button press or screen tap) when I'm on battery, but have it set to remain on when I've got corded power. Nice to have that level of control.

One thing I HAVEN'T found is a way to set up anything analogous to "profiles" like the ones I've had on my Sony Ericsson and Nokia phones for years, e.g., "outdoors - set to vibrate, play a particularly penetrating ringtone, and crank up the ringtone volume high", "indoors - no vibrate, mellow ringtone, low volume", "silent - vibrate, no ringtone, volume set to silent". Anyone aware of a way to accomplish this with WM5?

Get me on this band wagon now. I am so desperate to stay connected that I am actually willing to miss out on this. However, I shouldn't have to.

If no such program exists, it would be relatively easy to code up! You would create a series of profiles that simply change the registry settings that affect what you want. IE the registry says your ringer is this, volume is this and sms alert is this.

I want it because I don't need to know when I get a new email at 5am when I am asleep. However, I still want calls to come in. I had a profile on my nokia called sleep that killed sms alerts.

Also, Id love to get it so it works when you press the power button like on nokias and have a scroll down to turn off.

[jonazen]

Just remembered that some were complaining about the screen getting constantly "reativated" if they put the MDA in their pocket, and having the battery get used up in a few hours as a result. Shouldn't be an issue because:

Depending on how you have your MDA configured, the light will go out after 30 secs, and after a little more time, the screen will lock. Between these two events, the screen WILL come on again if you touch it. But after it locks, the default setting (which you can override) is to have all the screen and all buttons except the power button also lock. At that point, you can put the phone in your pocket, holster, whatever, and the only way the light comes back on is when you tap the power button. Works quite well.

[jonazen]

Get me on this band wagon now. I am so desperate to stay connected that I am actually willing to miss out on this. However, I shouldn't have to.

If no such program exists, it would be relatively easy to code up! You would create a series of profiles that simply change the registry settings that affect what you want. IE the registry says your ringer is this, volume is this and sms alert is this.

I want it because I don't need to know when I get a new email at 5am when I am asleep. However, I still want calls to come in. I had a profile on my nokia called sleep that killed sms alerts.

Also, Id love to get it so it works when you press the power button like on nokias and have a scroll down to turn off.

Yes - you're absolutely right - think I'm going to dust off my programming chops and get myself set up to create some utilities as a side project. It will be lots of fun to customize this, and little changes like this could go a long way to really perfecting the user experience. I'm thinking that once the basic code is in place, it would be really easy to add a scheduling facility to change the profile automatically throughout the day based on time, day, date and other conditions (like an enhanced version of the Nokia's time profiles).

[ilrosewood]

Yes - you're absolutely right - think I'm going to dust off my programming chops and get myself set up to create some utilities as a side project. It will be lots of fun to customize this, and little changes like this could go a long way to really perfecting the user experience. I'm thinking that once the basic code is in place, it would be really easy to add a scheduling facility to change the profile automatically throughout the day based on time, day, date and other conditions (like an enhanced version of the Nokia's time profiles).

Programing in .NET in Visual Studio 2005 for the WM platform is pretty simple. And, afaik, the registry works in the exact same way.

I just dont know my way around .NET. ICQ me @ 2284424

[DingoDave]

Got my MDA yesterday. So far, so good. No problems or bad reception here as of yet.

[ilrosewood]

To anyone that is having google issues / sites with google adsense (like this one) issues / edge/gprs / sending mms messages issues...

Originally I had my MDA setup to use wap.voicestream.com as my access point. This worked + proxy for the 2.99 tzones plan. When I upgraded to the $19.99 unlimited plan, the combo still worked. When I dumped the proxy info, nothing worked. I switched to internet2.voicestream.com and everything worked fine ... or so I thought.

Google sites and MMS stopped working. MMS messages will not work over internet2. Period. I am sure this is written down on this forum somewhere else but there it is again. Also, some people in some locations with some devices sometimes can't get to google on internet2. The 3rd level tech lady told me that wap.voicestream.com wasn't working for a lot of people so they had been switching people to internet2.

On a hunch, I switched back over to wap.voicestream.com and now everything works. MMS works (of course) but so do all google sites (for now). Again, this is with an unlimited internet plan. So, if you are using internet2 or were told to use internet2, try switching back over to wap.voicestream.com.

[Global Mobility]

ilrosewood,

I ran into the same issues as you did with internet3.voicestream.com in my case. I set up my phones with wap.voicestream.com as the first GPRS connection, and then internet3.voicestream.com as my second connection. Thus, on the handset it will use the t-zones account for all internet activity unless I need to use a VPN client directly from the handset (never needed this so far).

When I want to tether my computer to my phone, then I will use *99***2# to dial the second GPRS connection and enjoy unlimited internet without proxies and an outside IP address on my computer. Of course I would like to use this connection on my phone for its data needs, but it complicates things when I need MMS support as it cannot use the designated proxy server for WAP/MMS.

As for Google on internet2.voicestream.com, it works on the west coast regions just fine, but I had trouble accessing their sites in the AZ area. Tweaking your MTU values for your network card (802.11g in my case) solved my problems. Drop it down to ~ 1400 and you should be fine.