[8525, TyTN, MDA Vario II, JasJam General] pvs:
Wow! It sounds like you're really having an awful time trying to keep up. It's really too bad the telco providers don't let you know the level of technical expertise you will need to be able to master the various devices out today. My Cingular 8525 does need some constant care and feeding, but being somewhat of a techie, I actually enjoy this kind of activity ... look at it as playtime, and wish I had more of it. I've looked through your previous posts, and I see that you haven't really been having any fun with your device. What a shame!

Sounds to me like you have a bad sync cable ... at least that's the first thing I'd look at.

Hmmm. I've had mine for about two months now. It's my first PDA device since a PALM V about eight years ago. I have never experienced this. Might be due to some conflict between apps you might've installed/uninstalled, or other toying around with things that are not completely understood. Maybe it's time to do a hard reset (hold down left and right softkeys and press the stylus into the hole on the bottom, then open the slideout keyboard and press R and then SPACEBAR) and see if that fixes things. Then read the manual, and be very careful about what changes you make and software you install.

I can't say I actually played with Messenger that much. I must admit that I LIKED when it told me that a friend had logged-in, but I guess this is a subjective thing. There are other options to using the installed MSN Messenger, though. You can use one of the online versions and see if those are more to your liking, or you can DL several other options. You just need to look around the Internet. There are free ones and ones you need to pay for.

Well ... yeah .... it's a 2MP

phone

camera. As you can see in my signature, I typically use a digital SLR for serious photos, so I didn't expect much from the onboard one. Still, using some common photography techniques and a bit of practice, I thought the darned thing did pretty well ... better than an old Oly digital I used to use.

Mine doesn't beep when I send messages, and DOES make sounds when I set my Alarm Clock. It even reminds me to turn up the volume if it happens to be off when I set the alarm. Again, maybe it's time to hard reset, or maybe look through the manual.

Yes, Unlimited Data Plans are great with these phones, especially for when the phone automatically determines that it can give you a high-speed connection and seamlessly turns those connections on for you. If you don't like this feature, there are

FREE

programs you can get from this very site that lock you into GSM mode.

I don't see how this relates to the phone, frankly. This is WM5, and ANY phone sporting that OS is going to be the same story. Maybe you'd prefer something Symbian, or maybe something more RAZR'ish. But the beautiful thing about WM5 is the fact that you can add on other apps to configure it the way you choose, which is more difficult in Symbian, and impossible with RAZR's.

Well, yeah ... hmmm, you might have to pay for some of the nice add-ons. I guess PC's and laptops are also guilty of this, in that, if you don't like the way they come out-of-the-box, you MIGHT need to buy something else.

In my own opinion (not that it matters much), I plunked down $499US on the phone, which represented a significant markdown because I agreed to have it sport Cingular logos. If I could afford such a device, paying $20.00US for a decent piece of software to go with it isn't going to kill my budget. It's one of the things that should have been considered prior to purchasing the phone, I guess.

Seeing your posting history, it seems that this forum is the one you dump on whenever you're having a day like this. Maybe you should email HTC, T-Mobile and M$, instead, since they seem to be the source of your wrath. The folks on this forum attempt to help people (and very often succeed beautifully). They don't make the devices, the plans, nor the OS's that seem to be giving you problems.

Jamie ... no offense, but if you can't figure out how to make your alarm clock make sound, I don't think you should be toying with upgrading the ROM stuff just yet. Maybe, as I said earlier, this just isn't the device for you. RAZR's are really cool looking, and you can probably find some games and ringtones for them, if you're willing to pay some $$$.

Kindest regards,