The new T-Mobile MDA that’s now available from T-Mobile USA has been getting alot of press lately. You may have noticed that it’s very similar to the i-mate K-JAM we reviewed here last year. That’s because it’s the same hardware. But what’s the MDA got that the K-JAM or other flavors of the HTC Wizard don’t?
Right off the bat you’ll notice the pink and grey Today screen theme and phone dialer skin, but let’s look at the more interesting T-Mobile Instant Messaging application that’s included with the MDA. This program is a welcome addition that integrates AOL Instant Messenger, ICQ, and Yahoo Messenger into one nice little interface. You can leave each module logged on all the time. Each service also shows it’s own little icon nin the title bar giving you quick access to it’s buddy lists or instant messages. The software offers many useful features, including pre-fabricated quick text messages and the ability to save a conversation.
One thing that’s not going to be clear to the average user is that each sign-in/off command and each message on each service uses up an SMS text message from your account. So if you’re going to use this, you better have a hefty bucket of SMS messages in your service plan or else you’ll regret it on your bill. The advantage to using SMS messages for this is that instead of getting logged out of all your IM services and missing out on messages when going through a dead zone, all the messages will arrive as soon as your phone has service again.
Originally published on Pocketnow on February 28, 2006. More Software articles from the Pocketnow archive.