Blog entries about Opinion

Listening to or watching podcasts is great fun. If you think they are boring, meaningless or can’t entertain you during, say, a long fight, you’re wrong. For example, watching all the clips of X-Play, played back on my VGA HP iPAQ 214 (thanks to Smartphone & PPCMag / iPhone Life’s Hal Goldstein for the gift!) could entertain me for long-long hours.

Photo from ZDNet

My son likes to IM with me using Google Talk as his chat client of choice for some reason. I prefer Windows Live myself, but I accommodate him. At least I did until today. I hadn’t given it much thought, but I was going to be away from my desktop and thought I’d download Google Talk for my WM Pro device. That should be no big deal. I already have Gmail on it, and it’s pretty slick. To my ever-lasting horror, there was no Google Talk for WM. But, as unbelievable as it may seem, it is available for iPhones!

Handango has long been my software vendor of choice. It’s where I naturally go when I’m looking for the lastest releases to try and to buy. The key word here is to “try”. One of the greatest features about software for handhelds is the time-honored tradition of being able to try before you buy. It’s something you can’t do at too many other establishments such as McDonald’s. In any case, it seems that Handango has chosen to jettison this tradition with the introduction of InHand.

InHand is a great idea. It’s a free application from Handango.

Now that I’ve become a proud owner of a super-mobile HP TC1100 Tablet PC, using mobile devices (smart phones) as external modems have became essential for me. Up until now, I’ve done most of my Web browsing, YouTube watching outdoors with some of my mobile devices.

Hardware

There’s a really interesting article comparing the built-in camera of the four most widely discussed new Windows Mobile phones: HTC Touch Diamond, HTC Touch Pro, Samsung Omnia, Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1. There is also a dedicated PPCT thread HERE, with some of my comments.

Games

I’ve promised in my ThemeGenCE review & tutorial that I would quickly compare & evaluate the current theme editors so that you know which one to pick.

I want my CAB - but not the yellow driving type...   I'm talking about CAB files - also known as Cabinet files.  CAB files are basically compressed archives, similar to ZIP files.  They are also the format for Smartphone and Pocket PC install files.

Yes, it was quite a long ago that I've published my last Misc news. The reason for this is my having been really busy:

I have never really considered myself a hardcore gamer, but I have to admit that I really enjoy the few games that I do have on my Smartphone right now. They are probably not the newest, shiniest or most intense games on the market, but they sure seem to entertain me well. Since we were asked to review our top three picks this month, I decided to share my own personal preferred "oldies but goodies."

Skyforce and Skyforce Reloaded

I had a good laugh at myself the other day, but I think my experience says something important about Windows Mobile.

I am in the enviable position of being able to try out new phones and PDAs. I did have to recently send back my Tilt. But then I started using a test version of Windows Mobile 6.1 on a HTC S620 (Dash). I also now use the 4 inch VGA screen HP 210 PDA.

Motorola just sent the AT&T version of the Motorola Q9 with 6.1. I took out the AT&T SIM card from the S620 and moved it to the Q. I didn't look at the Q getting started manual.

This topic of the month was quite timely given Microsoft's announcement about Windows Mobile 6.1. (I am at the CTIA wireless conference in Las Vegas, so a little late in posting this month's topic. BTW Sprint and AT&T have committed to upgrade all the 6.0 devices to 6.1 and I believe almost all their 5.0 phones.) The new consumer features for 6.1 (specifically getting started app and rotating Today Panel) may not over-wow readers of this blog. However, the signal of the direction is critical for the ongoing success of Windows Mobile -- usability is of fundamental importance.

So the Expert topic for this month is what feature(s) we would like to add to Windows Mobile, and I must say, there are quite a lot in my list but let's narrow it down to what can be done: Finger Friendly I mean, come on Microsoft, why should I be taking out my stylus to navigate my phone when those iPhone users just need to use their fingers? Multi-Touch This will be really useful in making web browsers that much better (think manual zoom ala iPhone).

For years I've advocated Windows Mobile in a very small, yet touch-typable form factor. The NEC MobilePro 900c was one example. The HTC Advantage is almost another.

What a great idea for novices who want out-of-the-box functionality. Instant Internet, email, music, video, word and excel. It is also great for road warriors who need basic computing functionality in a small, light, form factor with long battery life.

Well it seems that Microsoft is committing to do just that.

Choosing a Windows Mobile hack or tweak for me is not easy because I use so many of them on my Glofiish X500 that I actually have a list of tweaks I should apply after every soft reset. Like Dale Daniels’s tweak, mine also goes back to basics. Actually, it’s something that was available in Windows Mobile 2003/SE editions but later removed from Windows Mobile 5 (and 6). Can you guess what it is?

Nate Adcock has taken over our monthly blog topic. The idea is the first of each month one or more of us post on a particular topic that Nate suggests or coordinates. By midyear, when we get our new site up, we will highlight this feature and make it more obvious. If you look back over the past year at first of month (we skipped a few months starting Fall), there was some great stuff posted. This month's topic is on most important "tweak". "Tweak" can mean futzing with the system registry or simply making a settings change. I like the topic, since the "tweaks" can be simple but have a good effect.

Here is my example of a simple but important settings change that makes my phone more usable, followed by another tweak that used to work, but no more -- and I am looking for an alternative. Both concern time. I've been using a Mobile Planet-provided HTC TyTN II (AKA AT&T Tilt) for the past 4 months. My most often used application over the years is to check the time! In that regard, I really like the TyTN II's large digital clock on the home screen -- apparently many other people also don't wear watches. However, on the TyTN II, I missed seeing the time on the top title bar that was on other Pocket PC's I've used. I often would have to Start Menu ! Today just to see the time. The other day I was fooling around with settings between flights on the way home. Under Settings | System | Clock & Alarms there is a "More" tab, that somehow I never noticed. With a simple check in the box, the time is now on all screens with title bar.

Speaking of time, there is another fundamental "tweak" that no longer works with the smartphone. Maybe someone can help.

After my thorough and, for example, PPCT frontpaged elaboration on the current i-mate lineup, let me speak about my experiences with the new, highly anticipated models either announced or showcased at MWC (or just recently released): the Samsung SGH-i780, the HP iPAQ 21x, the new Toshiba models, the E-Ten V900, The Gigabyte MS808 etc. (And, I’ll quickly mention the T-Mobile-only (!), high-end, VGA MDA Compact IV too.)

Samsung SGH-i780

First, I REALLY recommend Mobile-Review’s two-part review of this VERY nice device. In here, I generally don’t repeat what has already been explained there (except for a quick summary); I only elaborate on what I don’t agree with in the review and deem it necessary to add.

This is a pretty promising and high-spec’ed, still, very light (120g – somewhat more than the 112g, original [and, capability-wise, much-much inferior] HTC Touch, the same as the Nokia N95 and the T-Mobile MDA Touch Plus (HTC Nike 200); somewhat less than the HTC Touch Cruise P3650 (HTC Polaris 100) and MUCH less than the Kaiser) Pocket PC with a BlackBerry-alike thumbboard, a square 320*320 (yes, you've read it right: NOT those awful, incompatible-with-most-titles 240*240 screens!) screen, the latest-and-(almost the) greatest Marvel Xscale PXA310 CPU (as opposed to the old Intel Xscale PXA270 series still used in most current and forthcoming, Xscale-based devices – see for example the i-mate 6150 / 8150) and an optical touchpad (as opposed to traditional D-pads).

(From top left to right: the HTC Universal (i-mate JasJar), HTC s310 / Oxygen (SPV C100), the SGH-i780 (from bottom left to right): T-Mobile Shadow (HTC Kii 100), Samsung SGH-i640, BlackBerry 8800 and Nokia N95)

(From left to right: the HTC Universal (i-mate JasJar) with an extended battery, HTC s310 / Oxygen (SPV C100), T-Mobile Shadow, Samsung SGH-i640, BlackBerry 8800, Nokia N95 and the the SGH-i780)

(The same as before at the bottom; on the top, the new Benq, the HP iPAQ 610 (more on it later) and the HTC s730)

I've played a lot with the latter (the touchpad) at Barcelona and, frankly, didn’t quite like it. Of course, I need to admit I’ve already been spoiled by the touchpad of the HP iPAQ hx4700, which I hated. Frankly, I’ve found the “optical touchpad” of the Samsung a bit worse:

1. it’s definitely smaller than that of the iPAQ. It should have been made much bigger, even on the expense of the neighboring, huge buttons.
2. I’ve found it harder to operate. With the hx4700, you can both just touch the touchpad and press it hard: both will work. With the Samsung, only light touching works.

The fact that, unlike with the iPAQ, it can be pressed down (“Action”), is a plus, however, when compared to the hx4700.

All in all, if I REALLY need to use something being able to position quicker, I would still prefer to see something like the trackball in recent BlackBerry models (everything newer than the 8700). It has its own problems (for example, it needs to be cleaned now and then – fortunately, it’s comparatively easy on the BlackBerry), but is a FAR faster, FAR more precise and FAR more gaming / e-book reading-friendly pointing method than such a small touchpad. I know this as I’m also a BlackBerry 8800 user (as has also been mentioned HERE). Windows Mobile manufacturers, are you listening? It’s better to forget this touchpad thing altogether (again, remember the hx4700’s fate!) and use trackballs instead.

The underlying chipset in a handheld device or phone has probably the biggest impact on major properties of the device like battery life, the (in)ability to use 3G and overall performance, particularly when it comes to graphics. Even users that don’t know much of of the hardware of these devices know that, for example, at least in the Windows Mobile world (as opposed to Symbian devices), TI OMAP almost exclusively means very good battery life but reduced performance and lack of hardware acceleration of, for example, 3D or video decoding. In this installment of my MWC series, I explain and evaluate most of the remaining, announced new chipsets.

In Part I of my CPU/chipset-related MWC series, I’ve elaborated on the brand new and really-really cool MWC announcement of Samsung. I’ve also introduced the latest technology from Imagination Technologies and have also touched on Qualcomm. Let’s start with the latter.

Qualcomm

In the previous article, I’ve promised I would fill you in on their latest chipset, the QST1x0x (QST1000, QST1100 and QST1105). I’ve already linked to the official announcement in a later, generic article. Now, let me elaborate on the new chipsets a bit more thoroughly.

The new chipset, as you can check it online too, has three submodels: the cheapest and non-connected QST1000, which promises some additional niceties compared to the current MSM7200(A) chipset many Windows Mobile devices are currently based on; for example,