New o2 "i-mode" handsets

GrumPy · 25-10-2005 6:48pm #1

got one today, nothing to fancy, only cost €89, the i-mode feature is deadly, free emails, to and from the phone, u get a "yourname@o2imail.ie" address, send emails, attachments, etc... decent internet broweser too, only get charged for downloading, so u can read the news etc.. for free, emails as i mentioned as free, till march 2006, the handset i got is a NEC 343i, small sleek, not much memory, and camera isnt great, but if your a email head, and want a cheap, small little phone, i'd say this will do the trick

Borderfox · 25-10-2005 8:13pm

Is that a bill phone? I had a look at the NEC in an O2 shop and it looked pretty good... whats the reception like for the I-Mode do you have to be near an enabled mast or is it different?

GrumPy · 25-10-2005 9:05pm

Borderfox wrote:

Is that a bill phone? I had a look at the NEC in an O2 shop and it looked pretty good... whats the reception like for the I-Mode do you have to be near an enabled mast or is it different?

its speakeasy, €89, deadly handy little phone, i-mode always seems to work for me, live in meath, all good

Random · 25-10-2005 9:45pm

imode runs over the GPRS network at the moment, so you'll get it pretty much everywhere.

Slydice · 26-10-2005 8:10am

When I hook mine up to my PC, it gets recognised but XP can't find any drivers/software for it.

anyone know where I might be able to download some?

Slydice · 26-10-2005 8:13am

Found this Russian site:
http://www.nec.ru/mobile.html

anyone know anything about it?

I'm gonna download the stuff and test it tonite

Slydice · 26-10-2005 8:42am

It looks good anyway:
Click here for the AltaVista BabelFish Translation of the Site which seems to say that the stuff is what I'm lookin for.

jonny2005 · 26-10-2005 11:51am

I got the NEC phone last week. It took a few days to get used to the handset as i usually go for Nokia phones but the i-mail is really cool. Not too sure about the camera but it makes up for it with i-mode, i have been able to check the tides and waves over the last few days for surfing. Anyone else found any cool sites on i-mode?

GrumPy · 26-10-2005 9:26pm

i love the phone, and imode, but its bugging me it didnt come with any usb drivers for windows, and that russian one stops at 53%

quintron · 26-10-2005 11:19pm

Hey Slydice, Do you manage to get those drivers to work? I don't have the NEC yet but I have it ordered from o2 (€79 w/ €80 cred is a no brainer :-)).
It would be great if they did.
Cheers,
Q.

Slydice · 27-10-2005 7:17am

I installed all the 343i files from that website. Then I plugged in the usb cable to connect the phone to the PC. It didn't get recognised.

Time to go searching again I'm afraid :mad:

quintron · 27-10-2005 11:45am

Thats a pity. In fairness, it's a bit stupid to ship a phone with a USB port and not include drivers. Its crazier still to find out that given the number of 343i handsets already sold worldwide there isn't a driver readily avalable. It makes you wonder if there is a driver at all or plans for one.
I understand that the USB port is also the charger. Will it charge off the desktop? Maybe thats as far as it goes for this usb port?
It looks like a great cheap phone with some (at last) useful features from o2, but when I went in to an o2 shop yesterday all the advertising on their posters and even next to the phone mock up stated that it has infrared. Its even in the brochure.
It doesn't have infrared! If your job is to simply to cross check and write phone detail / research phones for the company ... how can you screw up like that? Fairly typical though in my experiences with them. I asked the guy about the USB port and needless to say he hadn't a clue.
I'm not attacking them, its just lazy in my opinion.
I need a coffee...

Slydice · 28-10-2005 7:15am

I downloaded more drivers for their other models. Still no success

quintron · 28-10-2005 11:30pm

Got the 343i today and its pretty cool! The i-mode service is quite fast.
There is a great portal here: http://www.pdaportal.com/
Sites are optimised for Palm Pilots but work fine on the 343i especially if you turn off images on the imode settings.
Worth a look for some nice phone friendly links.
If anyone else has any other good links please post them here!

Q.

abc123 · 10-11-2005 2:04pm

Slydice wrote:

I installed all the 343i files from that website. Then I plugged in the usb cable to connect the phone to the PC. It didn't get recognised.

Time to go searching again I'm afraid :mad:

Slydice - were did you get the USB cable from? I do not believe this is fully USB compliant as USB cables & drivers are not shipped with the phones as standard. Using a normal USB cable will not work.

There is a specific NEC343i USB cable and software, which has to be ordered on requst through the O2 stores. This will not be a common occurence for the stores for this particular device so they may not know too much about this when you request it but the accessory is available from a company called 'Cube'.

Cube supply accessories for O2 and have this particular one in stock but again will need to be ordered on request. The price for this is in and around the €10-€15 mark.

opinionated · 11-12-2005 5:57pm

Slydice wrote:

When I hook mine up to my PC, it gets recognised but XP can't find any drivers/software for it.

anyone know where I might be able to download some?

How can you connect it?

Slydice · 15-12-2005 11:55am

opinionated wrote:

How can you connect it?

I connect it using a regular USB cable. Like the ones you use to connect a camera to a computer. If you're looking for one in dublin, I'd say you could get one in Peats or Maplins (around Parnell Street/UGC Cinema).

Also, as a quick update, I've found what look to be the drivers on this site here:
http://www.nec.fr/necmobile/next/accueil.php

It's a real pain in the ass as it's in french. Using http://babelfish.altavista.com I managed to register and get the drivers. (Click on the "Logiciels" picture on the right menu, it's down a bit).

I'll be trying them out tonight to see if they work.

Slydice · 16-12-2005 9:27am

It works. You can do stuff with your phone book, text messages, photos, sounds. It also has a file manager which is kinda the same as windows explorer.

16-12-2005 9:37am

ciaranfo wrote:

imode runs over the GPRS network at the moment, so you'll get it pretty much everywhere.

When I do a search on my 6680 in Arklow, O2 3g shows up but not when I'm outside the town, yet theres obviously available ordinary O2 coverage outside the town.
Whats the difference?
I mean what can your imode phone do when its in that 3G service area compared to when its outside it?

wolfman · 16-12-2005 10:03am

Slydice wrote:

It works. You can do stuff with your phone book, text messages, photos, sounds. It also has a file manager which is kinda the same as windows explorer.

Did you get the handset manager AND the drivers on the French site?

Slydice · 19-12-2005 9:25am

wolfman wrote:

Did you get the handset manager AND the drivers on the French site?

yep

Random · 20-12-2005 12:26am

@Earthman
imode doesn't work over 3G at the moment. It only works on 2 O2 handsets which wouldn't be 3G enabled. When O2 launch their consumer 3G service imode will simply run faster over it, and have much more content available I'd imagine.

The 3G you are picking up is O2s ever expanding 3G network - available to those with O2 Data cards at the moment.

New o2 "i-mode" handsets

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