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Impressions from HTC - Windows (Long post)

Impressions from HTC Cruise - Windows Mobile
Hello All,
I have been relatively new here, but I thought I could contribute in the forums by posting my (unbiased) views about HTC Cruise here, hoping other people may find them useful. I am a software developer, so although I do not have an experience with hi-tech PDAs and smartphones, (never owned such a device before), I am fine with the technicalities of such devices.
My everyday phone was a simple sony ericson K510i . What had always annoyed me was that in most "simple" phones, it was quite hard to control the phone via my PC, do backups, backup contacts, SMSes, etc. My sony was good, I had found "MYPhoneExplorer" which pretty much did all those things for my phone. The screen was little bit outdated in terms of resolution, but I did not mind much.
And then came iPhone (which I never owned). I was impressed by its design, usability and user friendliness. I also liked the idea of having WiFi on it. I was close to buying that phone and using one of the available tools to unlock it, (noway I would pay for a contract - I am UK based). My brother who is into mobiles and gadgets more than I am, commented on the fact that iPhone is an "old" generation phone in terms of phone technologies and overpriced. I soon realised it was quite overpriced and started looking at alternatives. I was happy to see HTC would release a really cool phone, which I could get as my Christmas gift (yes, dream on, I had my eyes on it since November and managed to get it this February)...
So, what are my impressions so far?
I dare to say, quite mixed...
On the one hand this device is really wicked and cool! It has all the things I had always liked and needed in a single device. Packing a GPS, a radio, 3G, WiFi in a nice package is just amazing. I can now listen to music, watch videos, find my way around using GPS and have a nice PDA. These are really cool things! No need to have my pockets filled with separate devices...
On the other hand, this phone costed me little bit less than 400 pounds. One can argue you can get a laptop for that price, but then again, a laptop is not a phone. The video issues has not been much of an issue for me, I encode my videos at QVGA and all is well. However, I do get *very* upset when I realise that there is hidden potential in the hardware platform which has not been utilised. What I found bad straight from the moment i used it, is that when i press the "phone-call" hard button, there really is a lag when drawing the blue rectangle above the dialpad, (I am talking about the area which shows the names of your contacts as you type the numbers below.) I mean, come on, so much CPU power, and I can see the blue area being drawn? The other things is that if a couple of applications are running, then the phone does not seem to be operating so smoothly. Again, in order to be fair, it is still very usable. However, as things stand now in the market, in terms of specifications this phone is easily on the upper part, so in my opinion it should be fast, not just "very usable".
My other bit of criticism is probably related to Windows rather than HTC cruise. I find this OS quite interesting on the device, there is a huge applications' base and the things that are missing can be coded by talented people. However, I find the platform a little bit of a pain to use in a pure phone context. Why do i have to check an option everytime I want to get back a delivery report for my SMS? Why do I have to hack the registry to make this permanent? I set a wallpaper in my phone, then I set its transparency, then I realise it is hidden by the today plugin, which I can of course disable. If I disable it I loose certain features which are accessible straight away. I can of course get a new plugin that matchs my needs. Why is it so hard to have tabs with incoming/outgoing/missed calls? This is a feature that phones that cost 10 times less have. Of course Windows 6.1 has this, but then I would have to "install" a new ROM. Simple question: Why do I have to do these things? Why dont' they get it right from the beginning? Don't get me wrong, I am a technology enthusiast and I am sure I will manage to set up the phone the way I want. A number of users out there will do the same thing. However, is this platform one that non-enthusiasts would find user-friendly?
Look at all those skins and modding. Really cool. And the moment you press a button on your really cool new Today plugin, an ungly Windows application will pop up.
I hope that my criticism will be received well here! I like the phone, Windows is cool on it, but I think Microsoft has quite some way to go in order to make their platform really simple to use and user-friendly (think iPhone for example, my parents could use that, but I am quite sure if I show them my phone, they will not know how to make a a phonecall with it!)
In many ways some requirements are contradictory: Being user-friendly means you may have to hide settings, having your platform run on a variety of hardware means you cut corners here and there. Hopefully Microsoft will get it right with version 7 and 8, screenshots look quite good.
As for HTC... They lost a little bit of their credibility with a couple of issues for me. First the sound issue with the french rom which was initially denied and then fixed by people in this forum, then of course the drivers issue. I intend to make good use of this cool phone and customise it to my needs, it just takes time.
For your information, I find these applications useful:
Coreplayer (obviously!)
TouchPal keyboard works good for me
WKTask (and get rid off that default task switcher)
MyMobiler installs on your PC and a little "daemon-service" on your phone, (which you can disable). Then it allows you to control your phone from your desktop.
PocketCM did not particularly appeal to me, so I removed it
FunContact was cool, and loved it. Unfortunately, two things were not so good:
a) Splash screen and loading time
b) sometimes it made my phone freeze
Thanks for reading this (long) post,
Michael

Good post...Here are my impressions as well.
I used to carry a Palm Tx and a Motorala SLVR. I have been looking for the most ideal device to "do it all", PDA, phone (quad band gsm, tri band umts), wifi, and gps. There was nothing realy that appealing on the market until I read about the HTC Touch Cruise.
I read about people's complaints about the "driver" issues and hardware acceleration, and decided to take the risk and bought the phone from a gsm seller online. The phone was unbranded and did not have any stupid carrier proprietary software.
For the most part, I am very happy with the Touch Cruise. I have dumped the palm pda and the slvr, and have not looked back.
I just spent the last 2 weeks traveling to UK (London), Germany (Frankfurt), and Italy (Padova). As a mobile phone, the Touch Cruise functioned flawlessly and had 3G connections where they were available. Couldn't have asked for better features out of a "world" phone.
The TomTom GPS also ran quite well (Western Europe maps). Had to drive alot in Frankfurt and never got lost. Even traffic reports were right on the money.
As for a PDA, it blows the Palm syncing and calendar features out of the water. I used to be a Palm pilot only person, but Palm has become a dinasaur in their attutude to features and interface. The pocket pc has in my opinion surpassed them.
As a portable media device, it does kind of ok . Core Media Player is a must install, microsoft's media players still suck and are not usable and dont support all codecs. This device is not really ideal for video in my opinion. You have to re-encode videos to QVGA for ppc level quality, then video will play fine. You cant simply take a wmv file and dump it on the device to view, it wont work. As for music/mp3's, it works great. I got on a 10 hour flight from UK to US, and used it play music and games, and still had 40% battery charge left over and used an hour of GPS on the way home, with 20% left over.
In all fairness, the HTC could run a little faster, but I blame Microsoft and HTC for hogging up the cpu and not using hardware acceleration.
Since media (video) is not high on my list of required features, I am quite happy with the HTC Touch Cruise.

darkazally, I tend to agree with you really...
I guess if one did not have such a device before or had a really old one, then HTC Cruise is really super. On the other hand I can see certain people's frustration with Cruise. It is mostly people who owned 3 or 4 PDAs before and were probably expecting to be blown away by its specs; I kind of sypathise with them....
I read in an article written by someone at Microsoft, that companies tend to overload Windows with their own propriatory software and then the whole experience goes downwards. He mentioned that for the next versions of windows mobile, they intend to post stricter requirements just because of this situation.
As I also read in these forums, people who got their devices from O2 (just to mention a single company), seem to have more issues with HTC's performance...
I enjoy using the phone everyday and I am in the process of customising it to my needs, though it takes some time!

Uhhh mymobiler is amazing thanks for posting that! That is frickin sweet!

Great review, I tend to agree.
As far as PIM Management, I came from using two devices, a slim panasonic phone and a Xircom Rex 6000 PDA in the early part of this decade (circa 2001), like you I converged them into a Sony Ericsson phone (T610>T616) which had limited capabilities and lacked a lot of features my Rex had. In 2006, I got my first Windows Mobile smartphone, a Qtek 8310 (HTC Tornado), and now I have the HTC Touch Cruise.
Ever since getting into Windows Mobile, I thought that HTC/Microsoft had delivered great functionality, but poor usability and way too much lag for such high powered devices. Take for instance the settings panel. There are probably over 8 programs (4+networking icons, 3+ button config icons, ect) in there that only have one check box, when I'm sure HTC/Microsoft could very easily put them into one or two easy to use program with a Help feature.
But at the end of the day, I don't care if no one can use my device as long as I understand it. Additional consolation is provided in the fact that this phone looks so damned sexy

My Own impression
First of all, I'm new here & let me introduce my self...
I'm Richard & i'm from Indonesia.
I've waited for +3 months, before I decided to buy HTC Touch Cruise.
My other candidate are Atom Life & Nokia N82.
Soon (2 days) after my pal (who own a PDA shop) introduce me to Touch Cruise, I bought it
First impression is luxury.
Second impression........Windows Mobile sucks......
I have done hard reset for 4 times now....due to mis configure the registry....
I've done quite intensive test on my Touch Cruise, including Video,Audio,GPS,3G & Internet,Battery life & Applications.
This is my score (0-10):
1. Stability : 3 -> Typical Windows product
2. Looks : 9
3. Dimension : 8
4. Features : 8
5. Usability : 8
6. User Friendliness : 6
7. Battery Life : 7
Average score : 7
The Driver issue doesn't bothered me yet, so I'm very pleased with my new Touch Cruise
NOTE:
FYI,try not to uninstall anything from your TC.
Microsoft Windows product tends to leave "garbage" into the Registry & it will slow down your TC.
Choose wisely before installing & if you have to uninstall,search & delete any leftover inside the registry.

d4rkkn16ht said:
1. Stability : 3 -> Typical Windows product
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's wrong with stability? I'd have to agree that it is probably not the best device overall, but I didn't have a single stability issue with it. Maybe, you've got a defective one?

You know, there are certain lag things that I don't think are due to video drivers. I mentioned this in another thread "Why the lag" but I used to have a Cingular 8525 and supposedly that device had video drivers. It still lagged with a phone skin when you hit the phone button. Rotating the screen was still slow. I hate little things that lag like that. it should be smooth navigation / interface.
The device doesn't have a cohesive feel to it when we have to customize the **** out of it to get it to work the way we want to. You're right when we make a today screen look good then all the underlying apps are ugly windows apps. Your transparency issue, that can only be done from within the Windows picture viewer not the HTC photo viewer. You need to install your own video player. The HTC video browser app only shows videos with certain extensions. It's like you have to have a specific app for every little thing and then it feels like there isn't a streamlined feel to the device.
I gotta give credit to HTC for trying to improve the interface with their apps, the Windows interface is archaic. It's just the combo of the 2 doesn't allow for a polished interface.

hambola said:
The device doesn't have a cohesive feel to it when we have to customize the **** out of it to get it to work the way we want to.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the other hand, thanks to HTC for a platform that allows us to do so and even greater kudos to all the xda-developer wizards who make it possible (and relatively easy for the most part).

Not enough can be said for xda. Although I'm a new poster I've been reading these forums for about a year now. Helped me out greatly with the 8525 and is proving to be helpful with the Cruise.

>You're right when we make a today screen look good then all the underlying apps are ugly windows apps.
I am happy we agree on this, I just wish it had a little bit of the Apple touch on it, that's all....
>Your transparency issue, that can only be done from within the Windows picture viewer not the HTC photo viewer.
All I wanted is a kind of minimal interface, so I can set my own wallpaper and not have it hidden by the huge HTC today plug-in. I have installed spb shell for a couple of weeks now and it looks great. I also discovered the HTC Home Customiser which looks cool, so, that's nice too.
>You need to install your own video player...
I think HTC should actually write a very generous paycheck for the people that developed CorePlayer. Without that one, Cruise would be a *little* bit of a disaster.
Overall I guess Windows is a versatile OS with lots and lots of space of customisation and at the end you do get it right, it just takes a lot of patience and resets to get there...

rev3nant said:
What's wrong with stability? I'd have to agree that it is probably not the best device overall, but I didn't have a single stability issue with it. Maybe, you've got a defective one?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After some intensive test, I found some irritating bug that caused stability issues.
Quick Menu sometimes disappeared after running several applications.
System Hang at random cause.
Some system settings cannot be changed even if you've already change it.
Redundancy in Registry Entry that can cause stability issues if you change the entry. (not considered a bug if you don't change it)
and some other (not quite sure yet...)

Have you tried a different ROM?

[13-03-2009] Meet the Developer - Ep 2 : Alfonso Presa - dev behind ThrottleLauncher

We started a new section on our site called " Meet the Developer " and thought it would be a good idea to post it out here as well.
In the 1st Episode we chat with Jörg Michel , most of you guys would have come across some of the fantastic apps he was released for Windows Mobile like G-Alarm, G-Profile, G-Invaders, etc
In the 2nd Episode we chat with Alfonso Presa , who is the developer of Throttle Apps ( ThrottleLauncher, ThrottleLock , etc )
We had to split the interview in to 2 parts coz of the word limit.
Meet the Developer - Ep 1 : Jörg Michel [part-1] [part-2]
Meet the Developer - Ep 2 : Alfonso Presa [part-1] [part-2]

Meet the Developer - Ep 1 : Jörg Michel - Part 1
We had to chance to chat with Jörg Michel the developer of apps like G-Alarm, G-Profile, G-Invaders and more. Jörg has created some great apps with beautiful UI that is finger friendly too. You can find all his apps at his website http://ageye.de. I want to thank you for taking the time to chat with us here at 1800PocketPC.com. Well lets get in to it…
Tell us a bit about yourself
First of all: Hello to everyone who takes the time to read about my thoughts… It may not be worth it so please don’t blame me
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My name is Jörg Michel, I’m currently living in Ulm/Germany but have grown up in the near of Oettingen/Bavaria where the good beer comes from (I really like it). I’m 24 years old and I’m currently studying medicine in my 10th of 12 terms.
Tell us a bit about your apps ?
My first apps were the games Caver and G-Invaders… Nothing much to say about them. These are very basic and poorly designed games with an online high score feature which is probably the best of it
G-Alarm is an alarm clock which has probably more features than any other alarm tool and is also one of the most reliable clocks. It still has some problems on old devices which quickly run out of memory but I’m currently developing a new graphic engine which hopefully improves the memory usage.
G-Watch should combine three different aims: a stopwatch, a countdown timer and a GPS tracking function. Of course you don’t need a GPS device or have to use the stopwatch if you just want to have a countdown timer in the kitchen.
G-Light can help you to decrease battery consumption by dimming the backlight according to the ambient light. Of course you need a supported device which owns a light sensor (HTC Diamond, Touch Pro, etc.)
G-Profile is my newest tool which can manage your device (e.g. set the volume and ring tones, turn on/off phone radio, wifi, or bluetooth, and so on) according to your needs. It can activate the profiles by time, when an appointment occurs, when you connect something to your device (e.g. headset, ac power), when your phone is in a specified cell and so on…
How did everything start?
Well, everything started by getting my new HTC Diamond some months ago (I think it was June 2008) and looking for some tweaks and new software for it on xda-developers.com because I was disappointed by the performance and look&feel of the ROM (1.34?). I stumbled upon the sensor API of Koushik Dutta who is by the way one of the most important guys for Windows Mobile programming - he brought the access to the sensors which opened the doors for so many tools.
I remembered playing the game “Cave Run” lots of years ago on my Palm and I thought about extending the great accelerometer example of Koush to a “Cave Run” clone without even knowing how to program in C# or .NET Compact Framework…
As you may know I succeeded and Caver got soon playable. Afterwards I had lots of ideas for new games and G-Invaders was born.
After some weeks I thought of doing some serious stuff and started to develop G-Alarm because I was so disappointed by the Windows alarm clock and also a heavy sleeper…
It started really bad, lots of bugs (I just think of the severe bug where G-Alarm didn’t stop at the time change because of daylight saving) but it soon grew and now I’m pretty proud of it .
Whats WM device do you own and use?
I own an old HTC Prophet which I don’t use anymore and my HTC Diamond.
What sites do you usually hangout on?
My first site for PocketPC related topics was xda-dev and I still think it is a very good source for every owner of a PocketPC. But I really like other sites as PPC-Geeks as well and also write on the German forum www.handy-faq.de. And of course there is 1800PocketPC.com
How can we contact you ? ( twitter, facebook, etc )
I don’t twitter, facebook, myspace or whatever. I still don’t think that everything which is in the internet and gets widely used is a good invention - but that’s my own opinion…
You can contact me on my page (www.ageye.de), my forum or blog.
Are you going to list your apps on the WM MarketPlace ?
To be honest, I haven’t heard much about the new WM MarketPlace yet… Is it already available? If so, where can I access it?
If the conditions are good I will list my apps on it - for free, of course…
What are your thoughts on WM MarketPlace ?
As I said, I’m not an expert for MarketPlace related things but I’m not sure what to think about it, yet…
First of all: I don’t like Apple and its products. I think they have a bigger monopoly in many sections than Microsoft ever had but will never get accused. I think it is a cheek to sell music player at a really high charge without shipping the software or even an AC adapter. If Microsoft would only allow to play .wma files on Windows they would have to pay - Apple may force you without consequences to not use .wma files on their iPods…
As you can see I’m not a big fan of Apple, but the iPhone has brought some good and fresh ideas to the mobile world and I also like the idea to access the latest software on a marketplace.
I’m just curious if some big Windows Mobile software development companies can buy better search positions when you try to find e.g. an alarm clock. Microsoft would be stupid to list e.g. G-Alarm on the first place which is free when it could earn a commission for helping to sell commercial software.
So I’m looking forward on how it’s going to work. Hopefully my tools have a chance…
Any plans to expand to other platform like Android , iPhone ?
As you can read and see in my blog I’m currently working on a graphical interface which is completely independent of Windows Mobile’s controls and I have it nearly finished.
I don’t know how the mobile world will look like in a few years but I’m prepared to port my software to other platforms.

Meet the Developer - Ep 1 : Jörg Michel - Part 2
We know this is an ongoing project but how long did it take from the drawing board to your initial release of G-alarm ? What was your motivation to develop it ?
The main benefit for me (which may be a curse for the users) is the fact that I share my new tools and features immediately with the users. Of course there have occurred a lots of bugs but because of the great community helping me to find them and proposing new ideas especially G-Alarm could grow like hell.
So it takes only a few days from the idea to the first public release.
My motivation:
1. The built-in alarm clock didn’t satisfy me
2. I had a lot of time
3. I got really angry when trying to find a good alarm clock. There are so many software companies which just publish crap for a lots of dollars. There are only a few which create high quality, good looking and finger friendly tools (the number increases, thanks to the competitors). Besides the fact that I needed the help of the community, teasing other commercial software developers was a big argument for me to keep the software free
What are the future plan for your apps ?
I’ll release G-Watch 0.6 in the next few days which already uses my new graphical “engine”. Afterward I’ll create a new tool called G-Center (I’m not really happy with the name) which covers all installed ageye-tools (incl. export/import settings function) and maybe also be a customizable start center other apps as well.
After that I’ll probably come back to G-Profile or to G-Alarm. G-Profile definitely needs some new options (the so called “advanced profiles”) and G-Alarm needs the new engine…
What are some of your favorite apps ?
I’m using S2U2 and HomeScreen++ which also demonstrate that freeware may be better than any commercial tool. The Opera browser receives my biggest respect. It brought a quantum jump to Windows Mobile.
New WM devices have some amazing hardware like accelerometer which you have used very well in G-Alarm, its said Touch Pro 2 has a proximity sensor are you cooking up some ideas to exploit these ?
I think it’s a very good idea to have a proximity sensor. HTC’s approach with the light sensor to recognize when you have your phone put at your ear to turn off the backlight is somehow ridiculous…
I don’t have any ideas yet what to do with the proximity sensor - first of all I would need such a phone and users with ideas
When you consider the number of lines of code, which of your app is rated the highest and which one is the lowest?
Of course, I’m proud of G-Alarm. My download counter reached 450.000 downloads within about 6 months which is soooo awesome (of course you have to substract partial downloads, etc.).
The development of G-Alarm has driven me crazy a lot of times - Windows Mobile is such a ungrateful operating system (thanks to all the different vendors with their different opinions on how to customize Windows Mobile).
But now I’ll hope that especially G-Watch and G-Profile catch up… G-Light is somehow my stepchild. The idea has a great potential but I somehow lost the interest in it…
Did you create all the graphics yourself or did someone help you with the look-and-feel of your application?
I’m a poor designer… a very poor designer… Daniel Bergmann (aka expo7) does all the graphics for me! He is a really great designer who creates so professional graphics that I could take a bow in front of him every single day…
A tip for everyone who is interested in programming for Windows Mobile:
I develop my tools with C# using .NET Compact Framework and some native C++ - I haven’t bought a book to learn it. All you need is an idea for a project, a good sample on how your desired language works (for me it was the sensor API of Koush) and time to try a lot of code until it works as it should. It is really easy! If you have an idea, try it!
It was great chatting with you Jörg, good luck with your studies and the WM development. Looking fwd for the new G-Watch and G-Center. May be some of our readers can suggest an alternate name for G-Center.. G-Pack ???? G-Alarm is definitely one of the best WM software out there and I am sure I am not the only one who thinks so.

blocked for future use

nice website!

Meet the Developer - Ep 2 : Alfonso Presa - Part 1
Today we chat to Alfonso Presa who has given us some great apps like ThrottleLauncher, ThrottleLock, etc. People who are in to customizing the look and feel of Windows Mobile would have definitely come across ThrottleLauncher. You can find all his apps on his website : throttlelauncher.com. Thanks for chatting with us mate.
Tell us a bit about yourself ?
I’m Alfonso Presa (aka. APBilbo) from Madrid, Spain. I’m 27 years old and I work on IT. Currently I’m on a project in a multinational bank working on web development over Fatwire.
Tell us a bit about Throttle Apps?
To be honest I never intended to start a “big” project like ThrottleApps… It most of happened on the run . It all started one day when I was trying to customize my Herald (around December 2007)… I was searching for the perfect freeware UI and I realized that there where lot’s of great apps out there but none of them was complete. rltoday was customizable but very hardly and themes where fixed to the point that you have to change the files to suit it to your needs, MortButtons was a perfect launcher but it was fixed to some buttons in a grid layout, the cube was very cool but very limited in space (only 9 contacts, only 9 apps, etc), HTC Home was good but functionality was fixed. I thought, hey I just want a simple kinetic scrolling row of icons… what a good chance to learn C#! Then I released a proof of concept app on XDA and people started asking for clocks, registry info, etc… An that’s how ThrottleLauncher was born .
About ThrottleLock, I seen someone’s post at XDA asking if it was possible to make something like the Android lock for Windows Mobile… I though… “Hey! that can be funny!!”… and there it is!
What mobile devices do you own and use?
All ThrottleApps where developed for my “little” Herald but I got an Omnia i900 recently. I always test my apps on both of them.
How can we contact you ? ( twitter, facebook, etc )
I’m not a fan of IM applications or social networks… I prefer forums and email
(I feel I’m starting to get old… I’m sticked in the old technology). I’ve a facebook account though , but I just check it from time to time. You can always find me at my web’s forum…
Are you going to list your Apps on the WM MarketPlace ?
I will have to see which conditions does Microsoft offer in order to get your app listed. I don’t like how microsoft handle homebrew developments… if you want your software to be distributed without the user to get a warning about unknown software provided you have to send your app and pass through “Microsoft’s controls”… If that’s a precondition to get my apps published there I will definitely not do it…
What are your thoughts on WM MarketPlace ?
From the user’s point of view I think it’s a great idea to have a software catalog where you can access and download with just one click (just like linux systems has the apt catalog). Though I think this can kill the new developers creativity and will give Microsoft the complete control over WM software… If they don’t like it or if it’s against their policy they can remove it and no one will ever known of it’s existence… May be I’m a little bit paranoid here :-D.
Any plans to expand to other platform like Android , iPhone ?
Some time ago I started porting ThrottleLauncher to Android platform but I didn’t have too much time for it and that project is currently abandoned… Any way I like developing mobile apps and I don’t discard developing for those platforms someday if ever I get a device to test on . May be when 1.0 arrives… who knows .
How many hrs a week do you spend on WM development ?
Depends on the week… but it may be arround 20/30 hours… I also have to provide support and documentation for the apps ;-).
How many hours have you put into ThrottleLauncher ?
Many many more than my girlfriend would have liked . It has been about a year and a half of work so I guess it may be arround 1200 hours.

Meet the Developer - Ep 2 : Alfonso Presa - Part 2
You have made customization and skinning of your apps a high priority, how has the user response been ?
To be honest I expected more interest on my app from theme designers as ThrottleLauncher currently is capable of almost anything… though the lack of themes may also be my fault as there’s not too much documentation for ThrottleLauncher’s theme development. I’m working hard this days to write some tutorials that are available from my web. My target is to make ThrottleLauncher the first choice for theme designers when they have an idea… Then users will hopefully understand how powerfull ThrottleLauncher is ;-). At this point I have to say that there are many great designers (like Rumball, Paul de Groot, Zoltair Wright, m.schmidler, blazingwolf and much more) that have helped me to turn ThrottleLauncher in what it is and are working to make it the best UI ever .
ThrottleStorage is a unique application , how was the user response to that ?
I think ThrottleStorage is a great tool that provides a functionality that Windows Mobile definitely lacks, specially with the small internal memory that devices currently have. As an app it’s not so appealing as ThrottleLauncher or ThrottleLock and users will use it when they need it. I think it’s a great tool for ROM cookers to include on their ROM’s.
What are some of your favorite apps ?
If I’ve to choose one, it will be TaskMgr without any doubt. None of my apps would have been possible without this little handy tool. Definitely a must have for every developer. Other apps I really like are MostScripts, S2U2 (but I use ThrottleLock… sorry a_C
), S2P and TouchCal.
What are your favorite development tools and Language?
For WM I use C# and C++ over VS2005 and I really like how flexible and simple things can become by using that app and that languages, though…. I think the most powerful and flexible language is Java (I use to develop using Eclipse platform). Also CVS/SVN is a must have in order to develop applications.
New WM devices come with better hardware like accelerometer , proximity sensor, etc are you cooking up some ideas to exploit these ?
ThrottleLauncher currently has support for accelerometer . I plan to release some updates of the themes that will allow users to choose this as an option so they can scroll rows just by changing the orientation of their devices. Note that this support is still experimental…
Have you worked on any commercial apps ?
No I’ve not .
The new version of ThrottleLauncher has a skin to mimic the iPhone, Android, Palm Pre and WM7 did you develop these yourself ?
I’m not a good designer so most of the graphics used on the themes are provided by other people. WM7 theme was almost 100% developed by Paul de Groot and I only made some tweaks over it. For the Palm Pre I’ve only made the layout as the icons where provided by Cpeacha. Android was enterily designed by me… but it doesn’t have too much built in graphics . iPhone icons where taken for several places arround XDA, the base of that theme was initially dones by Gullum and continued by Blazingwolf.
Throttle Launcher has grown to a fantastic UI for Windows Mobile users and is close to version 1.0 , what can we expect in the future?
I’m starting to work on a PC .NET application that will allow users to visually create themes for ThrottleLauncher. This way designers will find a lot more easy to implement their creation in ThrottleLauncher. Also I have to make some experiments on 3d effects by using the gsensor. Probably ThrottleLock will be the first to use this feature.
Fantastic, the PC application is sure to be a hit and with the documentation on skinning on the way I am sure more people will be creating new and exciting skins for your apps. ThrottleLauncher has definitely come a long way from when it was first released, congrats on that and good luck with the apps in the future. Once again thanks for chatting to us @ 1800PocketPC.com

Hands On Review: Acer Tempo X960

(Mods, if this is seen as advertising or spam, please accept my apologies and remove the thread. It's not really though, promise! I just thought people might be interested in my review of a new PPC not made by HTC )
**************************************************************
Hi all, welcome to this, my hands on review of the new Acer Tempo X960 Smart Device! I've been fortunate enough to be given a review sample of this latest device from Acer, one of their first since their purchase of ETEN corp, and I can tell you, the Acer styling is getting right in there.
First off all, lets take a look as some pics of this gorgeous device.
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As you can see, a sexy looking device that's slim, light and extremely comfortable in the hand and has no irritating bevel around the edge of the screen to get in the way of using it.
Device Specification
Right, Let's get the technical stuff over with.
Operating System:
Windows Mobile® 6.1 Professional (Crossbow)
Processor:
Samsung S3C 6410 533 MHz Processor with one DRAM
Memory:
256 MB Flash ROM, 128 MB SDRAM
Display:
2.8", 640 x 480 (VGA), 65,536 colors, TFT-LCD
Dimensions(L x W x H):
106.4(L) x 59 (W) x 13.7(14.8 ) (H) mm
Weight:
131.5g
Communications:
HSDPA 7.2 / HSUPA 2.0 / UMTS (2100 / 1900 / 850 MHz)
Quad-Band GSM：850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 MHz
GPRS class 11 / EDGE class 11
Bluetooth® v2.0 class 2 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate),
WiFi IEEE802.11b/g Certificated
GPS:
Embedded SiRF Star III chipset, TMC function supported*,
(*Subjected to changes by region)
Camera:
Built-in 3.2 mega pixels Auto-Focus CMOS camera, up to 2048 x 1536 resolution
0.3 mega pixels Fixed-Focus CMOS camera for Video Telephony usage
Light sensor (L-Sensor):
Sensing the brightness of environment to adjust panel luminance
Expansibility:
MicroSD card slot
Interface/Audio:
Built-in microphone and speaker, hands-free mode supported
Interface/Data:
USB Sync
Ergonomic Design:
Touch screen for stylus or fingertip, power button, 2 quick application buttons (GPS/Home), send/end button, record button, volume control,
Battery:
Lithium Polymer rechargeable with 1,530 mAh capacity
Talk time: 3G: 4h depend on usage / 2G: 5h depend on usage
Standby: 150h depends on usage
Pocket PC usage: 10~15 hour
GPS usage: 2.5~5 hour
* Highly dependent on usage rate/behaviour
Software (pre-loaded*):
Windows [email protected] 6.1 Professional
1. Microsoft® Office Outlook Mobile (Calendar, Contacts, Tasks and Inbox)
2. Microsoft® Office Word Mobile / Microsoft® Office Excel Mobile / Microsoft® Office PowerPoint Mobile.
3. MSN® Messenger / Microsoft® Transcriber / Windows Media® Player 10.
4. Picture / Notes / Internet Explorer Mobile / ActiveSync / Calculator / Game (Solitaire, Bubble Breaker).
5. Microsoft Reader* (* region/territories dependent)
Acer Exclusive Applications:
User interface: Acer Shell v2.0
Phone Tools: Phone settings, SIM toolkit, Speed dial, Communication manager, CSD type, Connection wizard, SMS sender, SIM manager, MMS composer
Multimedia Tools: Pictures & Videos, Camera /Camcorder, Album, Streaming player, Media player
Utilities: Backup utility, Default Settings, Application recovery, Memory Optimization
(*Subjected to changes by region)
A very well specified device that places it squarely in the upper bracket of modern Pocket PC devices, the Tempo X960 sports a highly capable processor with integral 3D capabilities and a custom shell application from Acer to simplify your daily use. Let's take a closer look at it, shall we?

Ergonomic Design
The Tempo X960 sports Acers new styling of a slick black casing with a glossy transflective touch screen flush with the casing. It's constructed of a sturdy plastic with a chromium plated rim and a rubberised back to prevent slipping on things like car dashboards and feels extremely comfortable and light in the hand.
The screen is far enough placed up in the device that swiping with your thumb is very comfortable and reaching the 4 hardware bottons and D-pad on the front is also extremely easy on the hand.
The buttons here are your typical Call and Hang up on either side, the D-Pad in the centre, and also a GPS and Home key. More on those later.
Also located on the front is the VGA front camera, primarily intended for 3G video calls, a light sensor for automatic brightness adjustment, and a raised slit for the ear piece. Hiding either side of this slit are the standard status LED's you expect on all Pocket PC's. Power, WiFi, Bluetooth and GPS.
Connectors
Starting with the left side, from top to bottom we have a place to fit a lanyard, a +/- volume rocker, a reset hole and the Record button.
On the bottom there is a single mini-USB connector which is the standard these days for Pocket PC charging and synching. This port also doubles as a headphone connector.
On the right side, from top to bottom, we have the power button, Micro-SD card slot, camera button and the bay for the included telescoping stylus.
All of these buttons and slots are flush with the chromed trim which is nice, though I found the SD card slot a little tricky to remove with my fingernail, Mind you, I have chunky fingers so that's probably at least partly the cause. It's not like we'll be opening this regularly anyway, you'll see why a little later.
On the top edge we have the letters GPS.
Behind these hides the antenna for the highly capable SiRF III GPS chipset built in to this device.
On the back we have the main 3.2 megapixel camera with an LED flash and a micro mirror for those self portraits.
Also here are two small speaker grilles, though there is only one speaker actually in the device. Finally, we battery cover which is easy to remove, yet feels of good sturdy construction. This hides the 1530mAh battery and the SIM slot.
Right, that's the hardware covered, so let's switch this puppy on, shall we?
Software
Right, first of all, let's get one thing straight, Acer like black. If there's one thing you're going to see a lot of in Acer's phones, it's black. From the slick outer casing, to the software on the device. Lots and lots of black. I happen to like black, so this suits me right down to the ground.
So... After that admittedly dull boot logo, you are then presented with the regular green Windows Mobile 6.1 startup screen. This hangs around for a short while, before you're presented with this:
This is Acer's all new singing and dancing Acer Shell 2.0. Don't ask me where 1.0 went, I've never seen it and I have no idea if it exists. Who cares anyway? We now have Acer Shell 2.0, and I happen to quite like it.
Anyway, it basically simulates an actual desktop, complete with window showing you the weather outside (by the way, this bit is animated! If it's raining, you'll get rain on your window ), and from what I can tell, appears to be flash based. You can move objects around on the desk, you have three "panes" to help you do this, and on pane 3 there's even a shelf to put stuff too. You can also take objects off the desk if you should wish.
Here's a closer look showing all 3 "panes" of the desk. accessed with a left/right swipe of the finger.
BTW, if you're wondering why these pics are different to the bigger one above, it's because some shots are promo shots from Acer, and some are from the device in my hand. These ones are from my device.
Tapping on any of these objects will open them up to custom applets such as contacts, email, weather forecasts, quick launch, bookmarks, and a rather nifty music player.
As well as the Acer Shell, there are also some other programs preinstalled, these include Google Maps, the new Internet Explorer 6 Mobile (which I have to say, is a massive improvement over PIE and even handles YouTube straight out of the box).
There is also the standard ETEN suit of applications, now rebadged to Acer, that many are used to on the previous Glofiish range of phones such as the GPS Viewer, Application Recovery, Backup, Memory Optimization, Task Manager, Profiles and so on, as well as the usual Windows Mobile stuff such as Office Mobile, MSN Messenger, Live Search.
Two new things of note. We now have a Notification Manager, which can notify you of new updates, and even download for Over The Air updating. Very useful, though I'd be careful of your data charges there. Also, we have what is quite possibly THE most important addition to Windows Mobile ever, and I thank Acer from the bottom of my heart for adding it; card reader mode.
Yes, that's right! When you connect to your PC, you will now be asked if you want to go in to one of three modes:
* Activesync
* Card Reader
* Internet Sharing
The middle one is the important one. Card Reader. When in this mode, the SD card in your device will appear as a normal drive on your PC, and you can transfer files at FULL USB 2 transfer speeds! No more being limited by the horrible speed restrictions of ActiveSync! Finally, you can stop carrying that little card reader with you... Thank you SO MUCH, Acer!

In Use
Right, so... I've had this device in my hands for a couple of weeks now, and I've been using it as my daily phone since it arrived and I have to say, this is by far my most favourite Pocket PC to date.
It's comfy in my hand, it's light, it hardly makes an impression in my shirt pocket. It has a clear VGA screen and thanks to the 533mhz Samsung processor, it's pretty snappy to respond, lagging a little only when some memory pig of an application decided it was going to bully the rest of the device, and THAT only happened when I was randomly installing all sorts of stuff on it.
Typing on it suffers from the same problem ALL touch screen devices suffer from; that of having to use a software keyboard. The standard Microsoft one is the usual fair, needing the stylus to type, but Acer have given us a much easier to use "Easy Keyboard", not too dissimilar to Apple's one on the iPhone, and this one is easy enough to use with the finger.
The audio quality is excellent, both in normal and speakerphone modes, as well as video calls, and whilst it uses a USB connector for audio headsets, the ones it comes with are of good quality and are comfortable to wear.
TomTom 6 & 7 both work a charm on it with GPS fix being picked up in 15-20 seconds from cold in an open area.
Battery life I found to be pretty impressive too, with me going 3 days on average between charges. Not bad considering all the hardware packed into this neat little device, all demanding their share of the 1530mAh battery.
Overall Impression
I've used a lot of Pocket PC devices in my time, so I think I can honestly say that I'm not that easily impressed, but Acer have managed to impress me with the Tempo X960. Sure, it's not perfect, show me a device which IS, but it's very very GOOD at what it does.
For me, I think it's biggest plus points are its size and speed, coupled with comfort of use and quality of the audio. All the rest of the stuff is just bling on the core of what is a very well constructed phone.
I think I can sum up my overall feelings about the Tempo X960 thusly... If Acer want this review unit back, they're going to have to fight me for it! Or... they could just send me an invoice.

Thanks a lot
Exellent review!
Now I have it completly discarded

Looks like a nice phone.
unfortunately a 2.8 touchscreen and no HW keyboard doesn't quite work for me.
If you have small hands, or don't need to use it for email it seems like a good option.

Looks like a cool phone, ill do some more research, and maybe check ebay. -Thanks

orb3000 said:
Now I have it completly discarded
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mind if I ask why that is?

Great review. Could you be kind enough to dump the rom so we could ectract the acer software. That shell sounds like a joy to use.

addicus said:
Great review. Could you be kind enough to dump the rom so we could ectract the acer software. That shell sounds like a joy to use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, but I can't. If I do, I can kiss goodbye to ever getting review units from Acer again, and I'm not willing to take that chance.

FloatingFatMan said:
Mind if I ask why that is?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2 reasons:
1.- No physical keyboard!! (Is a must for me)
2.- No HTC build (That means no great support from this forum)
Cheers,

FloatingFatMan said:
Sorry, but I can't. If I do, I can kiss goodbye to ever getting review units from Acer again, and I'm not willing to take that chance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My apologies. It was rude of me to ask.

No worries. There's nothing wrong with trying, right?

Hi,
Thanks for the review. I am more taken with the M900. If you can get one from Acer can you review that for us? I know it is much bigger but I like its feature set better.
I saw a Russian preview of the M900 which seems to claim the the Qualcomm procs are faster than the Samsung one...I always thought it was the other way round!! Do you have any feelings about that from your review x960, and maybe you can run some benchmarks, even though the stats are often different from real life usage. Finally, do videos run smoothly on it?
Thanks,
Antony

Nicely written review. I do hope ACER will make a clamshell device.
Would you be able to give ACER suggestions that WE NEED A CLAMSHELL DEVICE with a fast processor please?
All devices that are coming out are all either lacking a keyboard, or if they have one, it's just a reshelve version of the first one like the HTC Touch PRO 2.

This 2.8" screen is just too small now a days...an Acer with a bigger 3.5 or more screen could be nice for you!

GPS:
Embedded SiRF Star III chipset, TMC function supported*,
(*Subjected to changes by region)
damn i wish my Touch HD had this type of GPS reciever!
However in the end, it's Acer, and Acer quality control is the worse i have ever seen.

AntonyL said:
Hi,
Thanks for the review. I am more taken with the M900. If you can get one from Acer can you review that for us? I know it is much bigger but I like its feature set better.
I saw a Russian preview of the M900 which seems to claim the the Qualcomm procs are faster than the Samsung one...I always thought it was the other way round!! Do you have any feelings about that from your review x960, and maybe you can run some benchmarks, even though the stats are often different from real life usage. Finally, do videos run smoothly on it?
Thanks,
Antony
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funny you should mention that. I have an M900 in my hands too and am writing a review of it. Will take a little while tho.
As for speed, I've never used a HTC Diamond so can't compare them, but these devices are WAY faster than my Kaiser. I'll be happy to benchmark them for you though.. Which benchmark program would you suggest?
Video run flawlessly, without having to recode them to lower resolutions, but like with all devices, it depends very much on the bitrate they're encoded at. For example, I've tried watching Cars and High School Musical 1 on both phones in CorePlayer. Cars played perfectly, HSM was a tiny bit jerky. Both were DiVX files at 720x480 resolution, but HSM was encoded at a much higher bitrate than cars. Don't have the files on the phone atm to say exactly what the bitrate was though.

Psygnosis84 said:
GPS:
However in the end, it's Acer, and Acer quality control is the worse i have ever seen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Never experienced any build quality issues on any of my Acer stuff...

galaxys said:
This 2.8" screen is just too small now a days...an Acer with a bigger 3.5 or more screen could be nice for you!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The M900 has a 3.8" screen and a hardware keyboard. Review "soon".

FloatingFatMan said:
Never experienced any build quality issues on any of my Acer stuff...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm more referring to their PC ventures, worse stuff ever made.
Hopefully they have a better team for their mobile division.

Is there any online task system that will sync with windows mobile? At all?

Is there any free online task (to-do) list that can sync with the tasks in pocket outlook?
I have a few criteria:
1) It can't be through Outlook - I don't have it and don't want to pay for it
2) I don't want to use MyPhone - It would be fine if most of the fields weren't missing with the online interface
3) It has to be free Otherwise I'd just use RTM or Toodledo/Nuevasync
4) It has to sync with pocket outlook - I don't want to use a 3rd party task app
Please? Anybody? There are so many ways to sync either calendar or contacts but none for tasks! I've been looking for so long!
I used to use mail2web but they became not-free...
Thank you in advance...

Have you heart about "EssentialPIM"? Please google for this
http://www.essentialpim.com/de/index.php

borisku said:
Have you heart about "EssentialPIM"? Please google for this
http://www.essentialpim.com/de/index.php
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply, but I can't get the free version of essentialPIM to sync. I believe only the full version supports this (and that costs money).

Bump
Is there no program or site which will allow me to sync my tasks for free?
Any free desktop PIM app or site will do... (MyPhone's task support is too anemic for my tastes.)
Anyone? Please...

Have you tried funambol? I've lost track with the current status, but it's the open source tool for synchronising calendars and address books of various flavours, as well as providing push email - over the air to all supported phones. I've never used it for tasks, but it may also sync them (there is certainly an option to sync tasks in the funambol client on my phone). You would need to look into it for yourself.

trentend said:
Have you tried funambol? I've lost track with the current status, but it's the open source tool for synchronising calendars and address books of various flavours, as well as providing push email - over the air to all supported phones. I've never used it for tasks, but it may also sync them (there is certainly an option to sync tasks in the funambol client on my phone). You would need to look into it for yourself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Their system is weird. It lets you sync for free for 60 days and from then on you can get more time if you 'help funambol' (post about it, help bugfix it etc...)
Thanks for reminding me about funambol in any case - Will look into it.
Any other ideas? Anyone? I can't possibly be the only person in this position!

Here's one that seems to be permanently free and not only gives you OTA live synch of Tasks it does Calendar and push mail as well. Oh, it can also be used with an existing OTA Exchange account.
Lotus Greenhouse Traveler, you will need to register and then download their Traveler client, but after that its a case of let it get on with it.

deedee said:
Here's one that seems to be permanently free and not only gives you OTA live synch of Tasks it does Calendar and push mail as well. Oh, it can also be used with an existing OTA Exchange account.
Lotus Greenhouse Traveler, you will need to register and then download their Traveler client, but after that its a case of let it get on with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. I never thought of free hosted lotuslive solutions - though I was actively looking for free exchange ones. Will look into this... thanks

Think most people tend to only think of Exchange based solutions as MS are the predominant provider of office based email. As we are a Domino shop at work i tend to keep an eye on what they are doing and thought it might fit your requirements.

Any other ideas? Anyone? I can't possibly be the only person in this position!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
"Thank you for calling Microsoft Innovation Center Support Line, all of our agents are busy helping other customers. For faster service please see Android OS..."
Just a joke to start the day.
I am not certain your exact needs, but I want to put two things in front of you, in case you are not familiar with:
(1) OGGsync -- which i don't think is exactly what you want but take a look. It enables you to sync from Windows desktop Outlook to Gmail to windows mobile. It may sound like a weird system, but it has eliminated all that active sync crap. Still, it may not do what you want. And it's a small purchase of $30, i think annually... But it cuts through all the myriad of problems of Active sync cables etc.
SEE SIMPLE OVERVIEW HERE: http://oggsync.com/
SEE REVIEW from WMexperts here: http://www.wmexperts.com/articles/ogg_sync_for_windows_mobile.html
(2) ZOHO: This is just around the corner, but I think it's going to be one of the best solutions; I;m not sure of parts of it are there now or not.
Everyone knows of the "Google Cloud" suite of web apps: Gmail, Calendar, Documents, Spreadsheets, and so on. But surprisingly few people know about ZOHO -- a web-based business suite of apps competitor who many reviewers over the past few years have said is superior to Google, product after product. And Zoho has so many more apps it's hard to believe how "unknown" they are, like great project management software, one of the best wiki software designs EVER, made for non-techie people... etc. If I recall, I think individual usage of all of Zoho's web apps is free.
HERE, from the ZOHO Business Suit forums, is the status of their sync system for Windows Mobile: http://forums.zoho.com/topic/mobile-sync
And a brief review, but tons of them if you want to explore further.
http://www.reviewsaurus.com/web-applications-reviews/zoho-works-on-your-windows-mobile-too/

quicksite said:
"Thank you for calling Microsoft Innovation Center Support Line, all of our agents are busy helping other customers. For faster service please see Android OS..."
Just a joke to start the day.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol... I love WM. But its so annoying to see so many companies and web services making great iphone and android apps while completely ignoring windows mobile.
I am not certain your exact needs, but I want to put two things in front of you, in case you are not familiar with:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks!
I've all ready looked at goosync. If I had to pay I'd much rather go for toodledo + nuevasync or RTM. They're both around $25 a month.
I'm fairly familiar with zoho, actually. I've had an account almost since they opened shop and they actually sponsored a competition at my old college (I did my undergrad in india, which is where I am from).
They haven't implemented their sync system yet.. so I am still holding out... but I will probably shift when they get it all working.
For now I am looking at the lotuslive solution posted above - It looks promising.
I only wish myphone had a better interface - more ajax and a greater emphasis on content management rather than just backup (integration with windows live wouldn't hurt either...)
Thanks anyways.
I'm sure someone will find all this very useful...

LOOK AT ME! COMPLETELY off-topic post!
charge1313 said:
Lol... I love WM. But its so annoying to see so many companies and web services making great iphone and android apps while completely ignoring windows mobile.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know, but in all fairness, where's the incentive? WM 7 already a year behind competition, pretty much even acknowledged by Ballmer, was due, finally, Feb 2010. Months after Android hit warp speed in October and then became the CHristmas, New Year's and now January story with Nexus One, even February is BEHIND significantly... but nobody needs to be reminded of that here.
I only recently switched to Android when i bought the HTC hero in early December-- after 5 years with WM on my old T-mobile Wing (Herald) and prior to that my T-Mobile MDA. Both were unusable til I discovered, then hung out in, XDA community 3+ years ago. With the great ROM chefs and app developers here, they single-handedly kept WM alive by making the whole OS and app suites finger friendly and fast -- providing great options instead of iphone for those who got wowed by the instant success (and obviousness once Apple made it happen) of finger-navigable touchscreens.
Point being, now WM 7 slipped to June 2010, and from twitter feeds I subscribe to, possibly now not even til September 2010!
Prob in that same time frame, Google will have released not just the Nexus Two phone (possibly the Motorola Shadow - a phone with slide down keyboard, kind of like the Pre), but maybe even a Nexus Three phone, and god only knows what kind of updates to Android.
I don't really much care what Apple does in this realm because I hate AT&T so badly that even if Apple does indeed revamp the iphone form factor and architecture and get it up to speed with real multi-tasking, Apple shall remain punished by me for making their exclusive deal with the devil. (Believe it or not, some consumers still vote against really bad corporate decisions with pocket book). I am an Apple user in the desktop/laptop realm, but could care less about the iphone... but even THEY are moving forward in this Jan-September timeframe. Everyone knows Apple refreshes their lines every 3 years or so, and they make big leaps, not small ones.
I have no doubt WM 7 will be a good OS, I really believe it WILL be -- and it better be -- or for sure it would, by September, be game over for Windows Mobile if they launch an already late OS rethink that, upon finally launching, doesn't wow the pants off the competition and consumers. I suspect it will follow the UI experience of the Zune HD, which I think has been very good, with a very interesting UI concept of Zooming-in deeply into a subject matter area, like Music, and zooming out with a kind of 3D effect of moving in space behind the screen surface. (Hmm, looks like I am not the only one who thinks so -- but this article at MobileTechWorld also trashes the Russian blogger who claims to have seen it in action)
Add this additional news to the mix and there are slimmer and slimmer reasons why someone would want to stick with WM and take that risk. (HTC has now shipped to stores its capacitive screen stylus -- puncturing yet another hole in the "must have windows mobile to work with mobile phone spreadsheets" desperation about why the world still NEEDS windows mobile.)
The final argument of course is "anyone serious about running business apps" and "anyone whose corporate IT dept requires Microsoft Exchange server compatibility will NEED to run windows mobile"... I have to say to anyone raising those arguments: PROVE IT. Which apps exactly can only run on WM... maybe yes, there is a valid case to be made. But the generalization, to me, is no longer valid -- in the same way 15 years ago people said apple could never be taken seriously in a business environment because it doesn;t run MS Office -- then of course it did, and that argument became moot.
I'm not acting all smug about my own shift to Android -- becasue there are for SURE some significant things I miss from my WM phone which I had 5 years ago -- jotting down notes using a stylus, or drawing a quick sketch to show someone an idea, or graphical illustration... I also miss the damn up-down-left-right D-pad, which is way way WAY better than the trackball on most android devices other than Sane Samsung who preserved the D-pad... wait come to think of it, so did Motorola on both their Oct-Nov-Dec new phones.
I'm just saying that in addition to my actually loving that Hero phone, and the HTC senseUI (which, yes, can & does run on WM as well), that I just don't feel like I have anything to lose by jettisoning WM for good... sorry to say.
BUT -- if they have good reason to be so late with WM 7, because it;s filled with game-changing surprises*, then I will stuff all these words into my mouth and eat them. (*And that means more than cute fun facebook-headed people poking at Excel-headed people)
Now wait, what were we talking about? oh yes.
I've all ready looked at OGGsync. If I had to pay I'd much rather go for toodledo + nuevasync or RTM. They're both around $25 a month.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two things: I regret even bringing it up, because I hadn't read your post carefully -- but only read the headline... So I missed the boat by miles because once i read the post you said clearly: NO OUTLOOK! and NO FEES!
Still, just to clarify, OGGsync is $30/year, not month. And I guess my question is, what about Google Sync? If I recall, once I synced all my WM pocket Outlook contacts to big bro Outlook on my PC, then synced all those to Gmail, then I was able to, i am pretty sure, sync my WM pocket outlook with Google Sync, using Google Calendar -- which I'd already been using for past 3 years, abandoning Outlook (like you) all together.
I'm fairly familiar with zoho, actually. I've had an account almost since they opened shop... I'm sure someone will find all this very useful...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have never switched to Zoho, but I prob would if I didn't work for self, and someone else just took care of moving all my stuff there and just making it happen for me!
good luck with lotus, hope it works. sorry for my off-topic editorial ....

^^ Lol. I can't help but laugh. I empathise with you so much!
quicksite said:
I only recently switched to Android when i bought the HTC hero in early December-- after 5 years with WM on my old T-mobile Wing (Herald) and prior to that my T-Mobile MDA. Both were unusable til I discovered, then hung out in, XDA community 3+ years ago. With the great ROM chefs and app developers here, they single-handedly kept WM alive by making the whole OS and app suites finger friendly and fast -- providing great options instead of iphone for those who got wowed by the instant success (and obviousness once Apple made it happen) of finger-navigable touchscreens.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You know what? Personally, I don't like the whole finger-friendly thing. I want speed and capability and information density. I don't care how easy it is to get from A to Z - I want to get there fast and effectively even if the learning curve is steep. Which is why I thought that the pinacle of windows mobile was the Axim X51 - It was fast and powerful and had features that outclass many of today's handsets.
6.5 was a let down - it actually killed functionality while giving me nothing. Titanium is the best example of this - Its nice to look at but it the end, it has less info per screen than the old home, takes longer to work with and is MUCH less configurable.
My current windows phone is a samsung jack. Its windows mobile standard. And IMO its the best mobile OS out there now. Except for one single thing - the lack of damn apps.
You'd think there would be thousands of apps considering the number of blackjacks out there but nooooo...
Windows mobile is the (Or should have been) the no-nonsense OS. It should be crazy configurable if you want it to be but just extremly usable if you're not into all that - a system that syncs with anything, works with every service and is in general the best PDA man has yet conceived. Sadly it isn't there any more..
Now wait, what were we talking about? oh yes.
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lol.. its ok. I've gone on my own WM rants all too often. I know exactly where you are coming from.
[/I][/B] If I recall, once I synced all my WM pocket Outlook contacts to big bro Outlook on my PC, then synced all those to Gmail, then I was able to, i am pretty sure, sync my WM pocket outlook with Google Sync, using Google Calendar -- which I'd already been using for past 3 years, abandoning Outlook (like you) all together.
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Google sync doesn't support tasks. Otherwise I'd use it. I use soocial for my contacts, gcal (through nuevasync) for my calendar and now I guess lotus for my tasks - remarkably inelegant but I guess I have little choice.
I have never switched to Zoho, but I prob would if I didn't work for self, and someone else just took care of moving all my stuff there and just making it happen for me!
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I am uncomfortable with having all my stuff in the cloud -I firmly believe that cloud services can only complement local services.. something like the office live solution. Tasks and calendar are something else - mostly because my choices are so limited
good luck with lotus, hope it works. sorry for my off-topic editorial ....
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Lol. Thanks. And absolutely zero hard feelings...

I learned a lot from you on this thread, though i didn't help you at all
I hear you re information per screen, information density
Okay, i admit that mny T-mobile wing running WM 6.1 with custom rom from Ivan here at XDA just kicked ass, and still does. Funny but it has better version of google maps than google maps on my hero android phone.. i surely don't get that.
For me, having that stylus tucked in, avail at moment's need, AND using finger nav is best of all worlds. in the car, with my t-mobile wing mounted, i could actually safely make a call... but without finger nav, i'd crash and kill self with just a stylus and tiny target. so we'll agree that it all boils down to: what are your purposes for the device... all of them. in all conditions...
only then are comparisons valid. if any phone meets all a user's needs, then it's the best phone period for that person.
thanks again,
so i guess you won't be getting the Nexus Two any time soon, huh?
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quicksite said:
For me, having that stylus tucked in, avail at moment's need, AND using finger nav is best of all worlds. in the car, with my t-mobile wing mounted, i could actually safely make a call... but without finger nav, i'd crash and kill self with just a stylus and tiny target. so we'll agree that it all boils down to: what are your purposes for the device... all of them. in all conditions...
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My old gene had a D-Pad. And WM 6.1 was VERY D-Pad friendly. If I ever needed to use the phone one-handed I just used to use the D-Pad and the softkeys.
The modern WM phones lack this too (hence my statement of only WM standard rocking now)
only then are comparisons valid. if any phone meets all a user's needs, then it's the best phone period for that person.
thanks again
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,
Very true. In the end, I want my phone to help me get things done, not as an entertainment device or anything else. Hence my statement about WM standard rocking. Copilot live, for example, has a great interface - its actually faster than using a touchscreen and needs less involvement.
so i guess you won't be getting the Nexus Two any time soon, huh?
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I'm a student in the US without and aid. Hence no. Not a chance in hell unless I get a ton of cash.
I suspect my next phone will be WM7 (my Jack's contract is only a few months old).. leaves plenty of time for WM 7 to release and for a decent app market to develop.
I hope.
Or else I'll go for whichever android device I can find (I need multitasking - this basically kills the Iphone)

I feel i am compelled to respond to a nit with a nit , hah ha. re:
charge1313 said:
My old gene had a D-Pad. And WM 6.1 was VERY D-Pad friendly. If I ever needed to use the phone one-handed I just used to use the D-Pad and the softkeys. The modern WM phones lack this too (hence my statement of only WM standard rocking now)
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Here again i agree. My T-Mobile Wing's hard key layout and D-pad has been the most ergonomically useful and hence fastest phone to use of any i have ever used in stores, trying out friends' stuff, etc.
I had its predecessor, the MDA, and the Wing completely became an ergonomic pleasure to use. whether I used my left hand or my right hand, the additional hard keys on sides of the phone, plus the bottom of the phone, hit exactly in the right spots re hands, finger, thumbs. And though it was mostly a remake of the MDA (both HTC phones), the Wing nailed it for me where the MDA was, pardon the expression, a piece of crap for me, though also my first touchscreen phone.
So, once again i hear ya re the relative efficiences of using dpad and dedicated hard keys that can be reassignable. My "OK" button map mapped to the top right of the phone where the defauilt Comm Manager button was -- and when holding in my left hand, my middle finger was right there on it. Same finger could slide down just a bit to hit the other dedicated button, which i mapped to voice recorder, since I recorded audio notes frequenty.
My thumb was on the camera button which i remapped to Start menu. Sliding my thumb down to the D-pad was smooth, no bumps at all, and instant recognitoon even in the dark what the functions were and so easy to press in quad direction, then click enter/center. Similarly the ergonomic design of the Call button and end button, and the 2 additional keys around each, was just the height of ergonomic perfection. No way of mistaking which key was which, yet a slight shift in any direction and the desired key was hit perpectly, and not requiring a lot ofpressure.. just the right amount, plus tactile feedback with hardware clicks for certainty of entry. The okay button doen there by the end call i remapped to "Today", which always made home screen 1-click away for times when an app didn't have an easy-access close-button.
Im used WKtask -- which not enough people use in my view.. one of thebest UI utilities besides QuickMenu... my thumb could easily arc to top of the taskbar to tap an icon to switch tasks, or press-hold to end any app, or minimize any app, thus guiving me extra manual control over memory management, and closing apps, or quickly switching to them.
Sliding out the keyboard was so simple because the left fingers wrapped around the device were already positiioned to push the top screen to reveal the keyboard. Everyuthing fit in the hand perfectly...
Which leads to my last comment... I love my new HTC Hero for its size and ergonomics.. I have not used yet some of these new larger screen devices but if the WING and the HERO fit perfectly into my hand in its natural resting position of fingers, then it seems logical to guess that larger device require a wider grasp -- even if miniscule, which activates all sort of other micro-muscles in fingers, thumb, and palm of hand --
I am guessing there will be not one person who will ever fess up that a larger device results in some slight or more-than-slight greater muscular fatigue of the hand and repetitive stress.
So even though you're focus is on WM6 - THE KING! -- my focus is on how HTC learned to optimize the controls of WM6, making the WING, for example, a phenomenal exmaple of product design.
Now since lots of HTC devices held similar footprimnts, maybe lots of HTC devices had the same kind of ergonomic optimization as the WING, prob so.
I can just speak to the wing.... So, there is no way I would credit WM alone for the usability "sweet spot" you have liked. Without great product design, you'd have tossed your phone in the trash long ago. We'll never know that for sure, so I can't bet you on it. But i would if i could.
thanks again for a truly rare discussion about human usability vs whiz-bang. Way too little of the former occupies this site, way more the latter dominates the site.

Try the my Funambol service - http://my.funambol.com , free

I wish the mods could SPLIT this thread - to preserve the "future of WM"
The off-topic discussion here was prob of more use than the initial intent by charge1313. And even though there have been many many MANY threads on WM's survivability as a player platform, this discussion moved to hardware as well, and to the trend of more and more elimination of hardware buttons placed strategically around the device's to enable your fingers to control many things besides the screen.
just my opinion ... but I have many of them .. so i am sure the world is fine without a split thread

Here again i agree. My T-Mobile Wing's hard key layout and D-pad has been the most ergonomically useful and hence fastest phone to use of any i have ever used in stores, trying out friends' stuff, etc.
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The same can be said of my gene. With a custom 6.1 rom (for here, of course) it was the fastest smartphone anyone I knew had. Despite having a lousey 200mghz processor and next to no ram. Of course, thats also because I ran it overclocked to 247 Mghz.
It had a ton of configurable keys - most of them configured to do a whole series of context based events via mortscript.
So, once again i hear ya re the relative efficiences of using dpad and dedicated hard keys that can be reassignable. My "OK" button map mapped to the top right of the phone where the defauilt Comm Manager button was -- and when holding in my left hand, my middle finger was right there on it. Same finger could slide down just a bit to hit the other dedicated button, which i mapped to voice recorder, since I recorded audio notes frequenty.
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Neat. Did you use mortscript?
My thumb was on the camera button which i remapped to Start menu.
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Exactly like my gene. Except there I had it mapped to a task manager.
Boy, did they know how to build phones back in the day.
Im used WKtask -- which not enough people use in my view.. one of thebest UI utilities besides QuickMenu... my thumb could easily arc to top of the taskbar to tap an icon to switch tasks, or press-hold to end any app, or minimize any app, thus guiving me extra manual control over memory management, and closing apps, or quickly switching to them.
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I've used both - several of my favorite roms actually came with WKtask by default. But in the end I found that simply using the default 6.1 task manager was the lightest and the best.
Still, I've jumped back and forth between using WKtask, Quickmenu etc enough times to know how awesome they were.
And this, again, brings me back to why my jack rocks. I can open up a site or an app from the home screen and actually do something useful (like, say, check my tasks on agenda one) faster than an android device (htc dream) or an ipod touch/iphone.
Without great product design, you'd have tossed your phone in the trash long ago. We'll never know that for sure, so I can't bet you on it. But i would if i could.
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I second that. HTC's design was brilliant. And so was Samsung's with the blackjacks and the jack. IMO the current crop of WM devices are a result of misguided logic. Microsoft and HTC have looked at the success of the iphone and created a hybrid system which lacks the strengths of either. Thats their failing - trying to do something they were never good while ignoring their awesome lead in actual productivity and flexibility.
Seriously, take a dell axim and see how well you can do stuff with it. I bet if microsoft had put their efforts into making WM 7 the natural progression of the WM series (exclude 6.5 please) it would be out by now and a device like the touch pro would completely kick the iphone in terms of general usage.
The off-topic discussion here was prob of more use than the initial intent by charge1313. And even though there have been many many MANY threads on WM's survivability as a player platform, this discussion moved to hardware as well, and to the trend of more and more elimination of hardware buttons placed strategically around the device's to enable your fingers to control many things besides the screen.
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I won't argue against this. The original intent of this thread has largely been satisfied.
I've found an exchange class solution for my needs
If the mods think its sensible to split this thread then please do so..

[Q] Interested in WP7

I'm sure this isn't the first time this thread has been made but as time goes on, things change, new updates come out, etc.
I'm an Android user, and something really interests me about WP7, not sure what it is, I really kinda want to try it, but would hate myself if I blew my upgrade on it and it sucked.
Can someone just give me the rundown on what it's like, pros, cons, etc.

From what I see as an ANDROID/WP7 (back 2 future - Yuki&XBMOD) - pro- email account integrations, notifications are seamless and reliable. Camera is ok, better than stock hd2. The Zune account is a cool feature, the temptation to explore all apps really isn't present like in ANDROID. you have to go into the Xbox live app for fun 'n games. My summation, WP7 for work, ANDROID for play and work. (my opinion)
Or you could just get an HD2 and check it out, and save yourself some headaches....(eBay, amazon, Craigslist, etc...)
Sent from my HD7 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App

Quick question
I'm a android user for the past 1 year and I'm a heavy gamer.Will the WP7 fit for me?Where can i get the list of games available for WP7.And what are all the major advantages will i get after the mango update?

I Am Marino said:
I'm sure this isn't the first time this thread has been made but as time goes on, things change, new updates come out, etc.
I'm an Android user, and something really interests me about WP7, not sure what it is, I really kinda want to try it, but would hate myself if I blew my upgrade on it and it sucked.
Can someone just give me the rundown on what it's like, pros, cons, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As a complete laiman and just a consumer, these are my thoughts:
With wp you get:
1) stability and fluidity
No matter how many cores the cram in android devices, they always lag and stutter. there is no such thing in windows phone. 6 months and going, i am yet to restart my phone.
2) aesthetics
Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder, but i believe no one with any sense of style and beauty can say that android UI is in any way equal or better than that of the wp.
metro on wp is elegant, clean looking, simple and beautifull. most of the apps that have android equivalents are nicer looking on wp.
3) older hardware
This is a point that matters nothing to me, since all i care is how it works. if wp works fast and fluid on a single core, that's good for me. If someone else really needs dual core chip for the bragging rights, let them have it.
4) no memory expansion
This is the biggest gripe i have with wp. If memory cards were there, i could just transfer my whole music/pictures library to the phone. As it is, i have to be selective.
5) decent selection of apps
There are no hundreds of thousands of apps, but i am lacking nothing. If there are some really important apps for you, you should check if they are present in the marketplace (windowsphoneapplist.com)
6) customization almost non-existent
You can change lockscreen wallpaper, pictures hub background, ringtones and notifications sounds, accent color and choose between white or black background. that's it.
7) im and social networks integration
While i still do not have mango, from what i have seen, this will be huge. Pretty much everyone i know has facebook and/or skype, msn. Having my conversations aggregated in such a way, and not having to remember what i talked to that person on which protocol, is huge for me. And once skype if fully integrated there will be a possibility of having just the data plan.
8) misc
Skydrive is moving in the right direction and i expect them (ms) to soon make it fully integrated.
Finding support and answers to some questions when you walk into a problem is a but pain in the ass.

I will say that after living on Windows Mobile for years and the massive amount of tweaking and fixing you did either for fun or for sanity sake, then giving Android a try (as well as having a Android Tablet (Nook Color) at home to tinker with), WP7 is just fantastic to have to Live With every day. The device does more than enough to satisfy my nerd side, while allowing me to actually get things done on it without the problem of reboots, crashes, slowdowns, etc. It is still missing Tethering for the moment (we all know it's coming but when/where/who bah) but besides that, everything else I do on it works great. Web browsing is a joy, E-mail on it has almost completely kept me off Outlook at home, Office and Xbox integration is great, the selection of apps is large enough to keep me interested and enjoying the quality ones I have, and overall the speed of the phone often times has me turning it on to check and just flick through a few times just for the damn hell of it.
It is a hard device to explain over an Android or iOS device, like you said you just want to try it for some reason, id say Go for it! you get a 30 day trial with almost any carrier I believe, so give it a shot now that Mango is out and see if you like it. You could wait till the HTC Radar and Titan are out and give one of those beast devices a shot with the new front facing cameras, improved rear shooters, and Tethering hopefully.