Registered: Jan 2001
Location:
Posts: 23

I received my Thinmodem Plus today, and as promised, I would note my first impressions.

I was able to successfully connect at V.90 speeds. The modem's default is not set for maximum speed and must be enabled (apparently it's supposed to cause a longer connection time). I did not witness any unusual long connection time when I had V.90 enabled.

I also own the Handspring 33.6 modem and must say that there is only a slight feeling of increased speed. I haven't used the TM+ long enough to really get a dramatic feeling in speed.

Both the Browse-It and One Touch Mail work as described in the literature. I really liked One Touch Mail over MultiMail, which I was using.

Now for the bad news...

I went over to CardAccess' web page and noticed a utility called USB FileMover. Wow, this sounded like what I was looking for with my Handspring 8 MB Flash Springboard. I downloaded the utility and tried it against my Handspring Flash Springboard. You run two applications, one on the PDA while it's on the cradle and another PC application. This causes the PDA to "connect" to your PC while it is in the cradle. I was able to download and copy all my files from my Handspring Flash Springboard to my PC. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to upload the files back to the Handspring Flash Springboard. No problem, I'll try and upload the files to the TM+ flash memory. This is where everything went to hell. I tried to upload 7 MB of data to my TM+ flash and initially it started to write. About 1/4 way through, my Prism had one of those notorious Fatal Errors. I hit the Reset button and my Prism went through its usual reset process. Upon bootup on my PDA I got a screen that said something like "the module's memory is corrupted and is unusable, you will need to reformat it". Well of course I hit the reformat button or the OK button, I can't remember, and everything appeared well and good. Well, without my thinking I had wiped out the TM+ flash contents. That means that I lost both the full versions of Browse-It and One Touch Mail. I had assumed all the software was contained in non-volatile, non-erasable, old fashion ROM.

The good thing is that the modem still seems to work and connects at V.90 speed. I guess I'm back to using MultiMail and Blazer, for now. I've checked and it seems that Browse-It is available for full download from Intellisync.

I'm now in the process of seeing if CardAccess can send me both full versions of Browse-It and One Touch Mail.

A word of WARNING: if you use the USBFileMover application, first back up the contents of your TM+ flash by downloading and copying it to your PC. Then if you feel inclined, try to write to it. At least you will still have the back up available if everything does not go as planned.

For those who want to know more about the modem, I only really got to use all the features the product for ~ 20 minutes before I wiped out. I will post more as I recover.

Wish me luck!

Last edited by Clovis on 02-22-2001 at 05:24 AM

Registered: Jun 2000
Location:
Posts: 24

Clovis-


Great info. Does the Thinmodem+ have fax capability? I'm getting a modem soon, but I'm debating whether I want more memory or fax capability bundled with it - assuming they are exclusive.

Thanks.

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iceman
VDX-aholic