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MDA Vario Rom Update

By Dan ⋅ April 7, 2006 ⋅ Post a comment

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T-Mobile haven't actually released a new MDA Vario rom in the UK yet, but internet response to the AKU2 (Adaptation Kit Update) roms that Qtek and I-Mate have released has been excellent. On the strength of this, I upgraded my MDA Vario rom to the latest I-Mate K-Jam release a few days ago.

The upgrade process went smoothly once I'd managed to make all the pieces fall into place, but I had a few hoops to jump through beforehand. Ashleigh helped a lot by pointing out that the cable I was using was entirely inadequate! As a result, I couldn't get the rom update to talk to my phone - it would start off OK, but disconnect when it entered the bootloader - but changing the cable resolved this. So the process was basically: Get LokiWiz app from here, follow the instructions to perform a CID unlock (install cab, run batch file: nothing taxing), then run your chosen rom update - simple. You must have at least 50% battery life on the phone to upgrade, and it will destroy all your data, so make a backup. You also need to make sure you've got a USB2 cable - a older usb sync cable won't work. This is particularly important as once the update is done, you lose the ability for ActiveSync to work over the older cables.

The update didn't take very long, and once it was finished I was very conveniently prompted to select my network provider. This configured MMS settings, but not GPRS. Instructions for setting up GPRS can be found here.

The benefits of upgrading are immediately apparent. The device feels significantly faster in every respect: the phone dials and hangs up without the few second lag that was present before, screen reorientation is immediate, application switching is almost immediate, allowing ActiveSync to run on the device no longer causes it to slow to a crawl,  the camera is of a higher quality and doesn't take as long to launch, all of the irritating T-Mobile customisations are gone (that hideous pink branding), and their folder reorganisation isn't present either (they insist on grouping various PIM functions into their own folders). Even the speakerphone and phone reception are better after the update. Oh, and it looks like battery life had a bit of a boost too.

There are one or two rough edges though: many people have complained about the battery icon in the taskbar. This doesn't bother me, although the lack of the clock when on the today screen did. That is, until Ashleigh pointed out that I could install TodayTime. This is a configurable today plugin that displays the date and time in whichever format your heart desires. You can then make the clock appear when you're not on the today screen, and use TodayTime to display the clock when you are. The only other gripe I have is that the "Text message could not be sent" bug isn't fixed. This means that if you're in a low signal area and attempt to send a text, but turn off the screen before realising that this error has appeared, you won't be notified of any other text messages until you clear it. It's a fairly minor problem assuming you live in an area that's well covered by your network provider, but it would be nice if Microsoft fixed it.

If you're using the MDA Vario, or any other equivalent device (any of the HTC Wizard line) I can't recommend one of the AKU2 updates enough. I can't vouch for the QTek one myself, but I'm incredibly pleased with the I-Mate rom. It's the sort of software upgrade you always hope for - significant improvements with no cost!

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