New Toy !

[miffed]

Ah well , to celebrate my return to WM , I gave in and bought myself a new toy :D

Got a T-mobile Ameo - not everyones cup of tea , but I absolutely love it!

Bloody great thing ! but it is mostly (the huge) screen , so its all good

The experince in the T-mobile (canterbury) store was a bit painful ,there was one decent guy ( nice bloke !) - but unfortunately T-mobile's sales support systems were more than useless , so he had to keep referring to his superior , who was a bit of a prat !
This guy (surprise surpise) started trying to talk me out of the Ameo and onto the Compact III again ! (Just as the retentions Guy did on the phone !) he even adopt the same patronising "But why an Ameo ? " when it was 100% clear that I KNEW what I wanted - We finally got rid of him though , and then the decent guy tried his hardest to get the sale completed as quick as possible , but the whole process took an hour and a half !! - can't see them making a lot of money if they are selling phones at that "speed"

.....unfortunately the "superior returned to try and sell me the insurance , tried his hardest , then I asked him what would and be wouldn't be covered by the "reasonable care" clause - and we established that mobile insurance wasn't for me :)

Anyway ,I got the Ameo for £219 on Flext 25 with W&W (£32.50 pm ) - I could have got this a little cheaper online (£235 ) but I was happy to pay a little extra to get in NOW ... and not have to negotiate the postal strikes etc

Best device I have bought since in ages - and brings home to me exactly how overpriced / hyped the N95 is !

[Ben]

Well done! That's a much more blokey handset, if you don't mind me saying so!

Oh dear WRT T-Mobile's sales experience. My first contract handset from CPW took about 45 minutes, and my Three contract took over an hour if I remember correctly. I think that's why, when it came to Vodafone, I ordered online! I mean really, that's horribly slow.

You've got to wonder why T-Mobile are reluctant to sell the Ameo. Oh well, perhaps that will become apparent in time.

Anyway, keep us up to date on your progress with your almost-UMPC!

[miffed]

The browsing experience is amazing ! the combination of the big screen, Opera browser and the VueFLO function make it a really nice experience

most of the time , text is large enough to read when pages are viewed in "full size" mode , but , if there is any scrolling to be done , you simply tilt the device in the direction you want to scroll ! it is amazing ! you can even have the screen "docked" on the keyboard , and the phone can tilt just enough to scroll up and down without moving the base from being flat on the desk

I am loving this so far !

[Hands0n]

It's got to be your aura or summat miffed. I've rarely seen such bad luck. Well, outside of a good mate of mine - he seems to be in a permanent streak of bad experience. I have a truly great experience, tell him about it, and he comes out of it covered in the stinky stuff :D :D I tell ya, you two got a serious Karma issue on the go :)

Do tell us more about the Ameo - it sounds fascinating. £219 isn't a bad price by any mark. I wonder, too, why noone wants you to have one (Karma?). Truly fascinating.

So whats all this about tilting n stuff? Has it got one of those accelerometer things like wot the iPhone has, so that it know where in space it is? I guess we'll be seeing more of this kind of stuff. I don't mind so long as they get the MMI right. But there's nothing worse than devices like thing being nothing more than gimmicky!


Edit: Whats with that keyboard? I've been playing with the virtual 3G image (http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/phones/pay-monthly/t-mobile/ameo/overview/) on T-Mobiles website and its entirely mad!

[miffed]

LOL - I just like moaning mate :)

I am still very "pro" T-mobile , It is just this upgrade that seemed to cause the problems - all I can imagine , is that (as Ben hints at) there must be an underlying reason as to WHY they don't seem keen to sell me the most expensive handset in their range ! -maybe it is to do with comissions ? or perhaps people have been returning them and they don't want the hassle ? I know the device is not very practical for voice calls , but I knew that anyway , I am thinking maybe they are getting a lot back for this reason ?

Yes , it seems to be accelerometer driven , and it works very well , especially with the Opera browser - it is a shame that you can only use it with web browsers , and not all of the apps and features

[miffed]

Edit: Whats with that keyboard? I've been playing with the virtual 3G image (http://www.t-mobile.co.uk/shop/mobile-phones/phones/pay-monthly/t-mobile/ameo/overview/) on T-Mobiles website and its entirely mad!

much as I love this device , I am baffled as to why they would put anything less than a full keyboard on a device of this size and spec - very strange IMO and takes a little getting used to
wonder if someone will develop an aftermarket "better" keyboard ? it is certainly a possibility !

[miffed]

Here's an demo of the vueflo thing - ( the sensitivity is adjustable )

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fuQLEWbDoM

[paulbds]

I was offerd an Ameo in the T-mobile store in llandudno for £65 (plus monthly wnwalkfor about £37pm)
Only problem is that the coverage here in North wales is , well lets just say crap

[paulbds]

ps, i am going for the Sim free Toshiba Protge next week and will put a 3 sim card in it
Paul

[miffed]

I understand why you (and probably most people) would turn it down in favour of a smaller phone , but i quite like em big

ooo , look what it can do (with the help of logmein.com )

[Hands0n]

LOL thats pretty neat - and you can tell a lot about a person by their Dock :D

Thanks for the tip to UnRarX :)

[miffed]

LOL , TBH that's the iMac Desktop (set to ridiculously low resoloution) and I very rarely use it these days , Limewire is there for the kids ( ;) ) ... other t and Mediacentral is there as I had a freecom USB freeview stick I wanted to use on the mac !
Other than that it is pretty much a "Virgin" dock :D

Logmein's Mac beta seems good , would like to get rid of those buttons along the top , but you can't have everything I suppose !

[miffed]

Wow !
Just installed Tomtom navigator 6 on the Ameo , and it is brilliant !

I had been led to beleive that the GPS module in the Ameo was a bit on the poor side , but it performs much better than the Copilot BT GPS that it is replacing
I set it up this afternoon, on a stormy afternoon with LOADS of cloud cover .... and the Ameo picked up two satelittes within seconds ....INDOORS !!
I am not an expert on Satnav , but I have never got any kind of kind of signal indoors with either my aforementioned device , or the N95 , (which was frankly , crap ! and took ages to get a signal period )
the audio is nice and clear , the screen is amazing , and the form factor means the Ameo will stand in the "coin well" of my car , and is at the ideal angle for glancing at !
This device impresses my more and more every day

The only things that I am not impressed about are ....
8 GB Hard Drive - Why ? ... whats the point ? why not just chuck 8GB or flash memory in there ?
and
Windows Mobile 5 ... why not WM6 ?

I still love it though :D

[miffed]

Todays developments :D

Upgraded to WM6 - excellent ! after using an XDA exec for a week running WM6 , I must admit I did feel I had taken a step backwards with the Ameo in terms of OS, the speed is noticably slower , and WM5 is clunkier IMO - not an official ROM release ( well , I understand it is an unofficial leak of the official ROM ) - so I was a little worried , but I thought it would be best to do it while the device is a week old , so I can take it back to the shop and plead ignorance if it all went pear shaped !
No need for that though , the upgrade was quick and painless

A nice feature of the WM6 rom , is that it has a settings wizard that works as well as any Nokia device I have used , it offers you this service on Boot up , and a few seconds later you are good to go !

Next up , I installed an app to give my true VGA - (what with the big screen and all that ) ... Lovely ! makes the Ameo feel like a little PC

It is a bit quirky , there are a few things that look a bit funny , but on the whole it is good , the worst "quirk" is that you cannot see any text in the phone dialler screen , but the good thing about these devices is , If I have this problem , then some other, far more knowledgeable guy will also have it , and will be working on the soloution as we speak :D

[miffed]

Blimey Charlie !

Setting up the Ameo as a BT HSDPA modem for the Macbook was the simplest such procedure I have ever done !

Here is a step by step guide - first , pair the two as per normal

1) open "internet sharing" app on Ameo and press "connect"

2) on the Macbook , from the Bluetooth drop down menu , select "Join network Ameo" (or whatever your device name is )

Job done !! Absolutely no configuration , settings , modem scripts !!

Now , I wonder how this applies to W & W Fair usage ? after all , I am not using the Ameo as a modem per se , I am simply sharing the phones connection ?

I love this device (did I mention that ? ;) )

[maxspank]

Gees, get a room! j/k =D Looks like it's an awesome piece of gadget.