HTC TyTn / Hermes on 3 / Three Mobile (UK)
I recently bought myself a HTC TyTn, confusingly, also known as the HTC Hermes, Orange M3100, O2 XDA Trion, Vodafone v1605, iMate JasJam and a whole plethora of other names. The eBay auction specifically stated “unlocked, but doesn’t work on Three mobile.”
This was interesting, as the first thing I did when I got the item was stick my 3 Mobile Sim card in it to find that it worked fine. I also did a bit of net searching to find conflicting reports on fairly serious questions: Will my phone get blocked by 3? Will I be able to access Planet 3? Will I ever be able to make video calls?Well, to date, I’ve had no problems what-so-ever. No angry text messages from 3 telling me this isn’t my regular phone, no problems accessing Planet 3 to see how many minutes I’ve got left, and I must confess, I’ve not tried to make a video call yet. So, in order to aid any other people that are having these worries, this is what I’ve done;I flashed the ROM and installed the ‘Black Satin’ version of Windows Mobile 6.0. I then downloaded the 3.cab from XDA Developers, put this on my device using Active Sync and then ran the .cab file. Now, this certainly isn’t necessary, and all of the settings worked without doing this, but I like upgrading this and having more buttons. Now, some tips for the 3 Mobile UK Owner.3 Internet Connection Settings (Settings / Connections)
| Modem: | Cellular Line (GPRS, 3G) |
| Access Point Name (APN): | three.co.uk |
| Username / Password / Domain: | Blank |
MMS Settings (Messaging / SMS/MMS / New Message / Message Options / Servers)
| Gateway: | mms.three.co.uk |
| Port: | 8799 |
| Server Address: | http://mms.um.three.co.uk:10021/mmsc |
| Send Limit: | 300k |
| WAP Version: | 2.0 |
Last but not least, if you want to access Planet 3 you can simply fire up Internet Explorer and visit mobile.three.co.uk. One final warning – if you want to check if you’re on 3G or not, look at the icon at the top of the screen. I believe, if you try to use GPRS when you’re not in a 3G area (your network will be displayed as “3″ for GPRS, or “UTMS 3″ for the full ‘3G access’) then you’ll be considered to be roaming, which means you’ll be charged money, where as, if you’re in a UTMS 3 area, you’ll not be charged. However, if your network just comes up as ‘3′, then you can still make calls / send SMS messages on your free credit.
Would you recommend that as a PDA phone then? I’ve finally changed my mind and am looking to get one, but have a reasonably stringent set of stuff I want:
Reasonably sized keyboard (which is why I’m interested in the ones that clamshell open lengthways like that one.
Wi-fi. Internettery, both email and some light browsing is stuff I’m after. I’d quite like something where I can use the wi-fi to make VOIP calls on it, but that’s not essential.
Datebook/Calendar thing that’ll beep at me when I need to be someplace – this is the core thing that I used my PDA for.
I will admit that while the phone part of it is handy, that sort of stuff, and contract stuff is rather secondary – I find it very useful to have a phone, but make very light use of my phone, compared to most. Thus, depending on the costs, I may well go pay as you go on it, or else contract for the minimum length.
Anyways, if you could tell me whether that phone’s got what I’m after, it’d be dashed handy.
John, to approach each of youir points in turn;
Keyboard: The Keyboard slides out and is big enough to use your thumbs quite hap-hazardly. I wouldn’t recommend using it like a full-sized qwerty keyboard, but then, that follows for practically all PDAs with keyboards.
Wi-Fi: It has built in Wi-Fi, which is invaluable. When at home, in the airport etc, you generally get free internet access / email access etc. It even has built in VOIP functionality I believe, but I use Skype, which runs very well.
Calendar: The calendar synchronises with Outlook automatically (email, notes and to-do lists also sync when plugged in / blue-tooth linked). The calendar is pretty and works well – and of course, beeps when you ask it to.
Office: It also comes with very cut down version of Word / Excel, as well as Adobe Acrobat. You can also download a whole bunch of software for it too – Mame, SNES / Megadrive Emulators etc.
Phone: Contacts are nicely ordered for email / phone use, and you can get some great contact manager plug-ins that make it a dream to scroll through contacts without using a stylus (made for mashing with your fingers).
Without a doubt, it’s a 5/5 phone.
I have the same phone, which I have on pay as you go with T-Mobile, I thought it would be great to have it on Three as I get better 3G coverage and the internet would work out a lot cheaper than what I’m paying now.
All went well I toped up the new sim card and paid £5 for internet add-on, boy was I wrong what a total waste of money. The only thing I can do is view websites, MSN, Skype and anything else I try to run simply does not work. I rang Three but I’m just told that my phone is not supported which I can understand but I already have the applications installed so should be able to use them. (I didn’t bother arguing on the phone poor English Indian operators reading from scripts, waste of time)
Am I right in thinking that to use Skype and MSN you have to download Three’s special version which I’m assuming runs on port 80 as all ports seem to be blocked.
Seems they are trying to control what you do and stopping people from using there own phone unless its one that they support so you can download there own version of MSN etc.
Any info ?
Hi there,
I have a tytn and i can’t get it to access the internet on three, I have used the settings you suggested.
Do you have a link to the 3.cab as i have tried searching for it on xda site but i can’t find it.
cheers.
Thanks for the info John. Works a treat (push email etc) and much faster than my T-Mobile monthly account (supposedly HSDPA but noticeably slower!)
Gilbert: Glad that it’s all working nicely for you Gilbert, I find it very efficient myself too, apart from when I’m not getting a 3G connection if I’m out of the city!
Steven: I have uploaded a copy of hte file here; http://www.johnwordsworth.com/files/tytn/3UK.CAB
I hope this helps!
Craig: I would try downloading the above CAB file to ensure that all of the settings are correct and working. I can use Skype and the Mail application fine, as well as surf the internet. I don’t know if all of these are going through an HTTP proxy by default, but to be honest, Skype, MSN, Outlook and the internet are all that I want net-wise from my phone!
Hi there.
I have an unlocked T-mobile UK MDA vario II. I have followed your instructions (thanks!), but can’t access the net. I have copied the .CAB file onto the phone, but the setup icon has become the opera icon, and clicking it just opens Opera.
Sorry, I bet it’s really obvious, but could you help me?
Thanks a lot!
Chris.
Sorry,found the answer;didn’t raelise you shouldn’t unzip the file. Knew it would be obvious.
Hey Chris,
Glad to hear that you got it working fine! Glad that you found the problem – I don’t think that I would’ve guessed that you’d unzipped it. Lol.
Hi John,
Many thanks for your time on this! I have one question regarding skype. Did you download the skype application from Skype? I could not see that there was the 3 modified skype application in the 3.cab file. Some light on this would be fantastic.
Thanks
Also, do I do not seem to be able to access mobile.three.co.uk any suggestions?
Thanks for the info for network3 mms settings. i couldnt find the .cab installer on xda anywhere? this worked perfectly
Thank you for your help!