Bryant Likes

Ok, I've decided that I'm a Windows Mobile Junkie. Last Friday I received my latest mobile phone, the SMT5800 from Verizon (made by HTC). I really liked my last phone, the Samsung i760, but it was just a little to big and I'm not a fan of the Windows Mobile Professional SKU. The Standard SKU, in my opinion, is much cleaner and easier to use. Because there is no touch screen everything is geared toward the buttons on the phone, whereas the Professional SKU has multiple input methods which means that for a lot of things you have to pull out the stylus.

Below is a history of the devices I've had to date (except for the imate sp5 which I lost). From left to right: imate sp3i, HTC MTeoR, HTC Vox, Treo 700w, Samsung i760, and the SMT5800.

Same phones, but with the slide-out keyboards shown.

I think the SMT5800 might be the perfect phone for me. It is the Standard SKU, has very fast network speeds thanks to EV-DO, is supposed to work as a modem (haven't tried this yet), and fits nicely in my pocket. The Vox was almost the perfect phone, but the slow network speeds and slow processor bogged it down. In addition to the EV-DO for fast network access, the SMT5800 also has a 400 MHz processor making it faster than the Vox (although it still lags a little).

So I'll probably stick with this phone for awhile, or at least until the Touch comes out on Verizon. :)

So supposedly Verizon is coming out with a bunch of new Windows Mobile phones in the next few months. When I started working for Avanade I switched from Verizon to T-Mobile since at the time the company didn't have a contract with Verizon but also because Verizon has always been pretty lacking when it comes to Windows Mobile phones. So now that my company has a contract with Verizon and Verizon looks to be coming out with a bunch of cool phones, I think I'm ready to switch back. TMO's painfully slow EDGE network just doesn't cut it anymore. So which phone from the Verizon Rumor Roundup should I buy? Here is a nice SizeEasy stackup of the rumored phones and their rumored sizes:

I was really leaning toward the i760 since it has the numbers on the front (which I really like) and looks a lot nicer than the HTC phones (I really dislike motorola phones). However, sizing it up next to the 5800 shows that it is quite a bit bigger. Of course these specs are just rumored specs so they could be off. The other items that has me leaning toward the 5800 is that unlike the rumor roundup, my verizon rep has the 5800 coming out before the i760.

Which phone do you like and are these new phones making you think about switch to VZW?

Yesterday my Vox arrived from MobilePlanet. Here it is along side my SP3i, MTeoR, and my Dash (my SP5 isn't in the picture because I lost it and my Treo 770w now belongs to my wife :)

Here is how they stack up together:

And a comparison of the keyboards on the Dash and the Vox:

So far I really like the Vox. The keypad is very nice and the buttons have very good feedback. The slider is easy to use and the keyboard buttons are raised which makes it easy to type. The buttons are also larger than the ones on my Dash which are almost too small for my fingers. Almost.

For a full unboxing video of the Vox click here.

I agree with Greg, I want this application for PDC 07. :)

Howard Dierking announced that the Mobile Exam has gone live [Via Email]:

The long-awaited mobility developer exam (70-540) was released today! Check out the preparation guide for a list of the topics covered and links to resources to help you prepare. When you feel ready, you can register for the exam at either Pearson VUE or Prometric.

According to Vue I passed the exam which I took back in September during the beta. That gives me another certification MCTS - Windows Mobile 5.0 Applictions. I think it is pretty interesting that even though I'm one of the first people to get the certification it is already out of date since Windows Mobile 6 has already been released.

So lokeuei is also excited about the new HTC Vox:

Finally a smartphone with both a NUMERIC KEYPAD and a QWERTY KEYBOARD. Now I can be a responsible driver and not crash into anything or god forbid, anyone, on the road struggling to type a message on my Excalibur's keyboard with both fat thumbs.

Lokeuei also posts a comparison of HTC phones using Sizeeasy. I went to sizeeasy and did my own comparison of the previous HTC SmartPhones that I've owned.

As you can see, the Vox is shorter than the other three, as wide as the MTeoR, and the same thickness as the SP5. This is pretty amazing if these are the actual specs. I'm definately going to be ordering this phone. Let's hope they boost up the processor speed, add some more memory, and stick crossbow on it. :)

Via Boy Genius:

The HTC Vox concept photo has been floating around the net for a little while so I thought it was my turn to step things up a bit. I present the first live picture of the HTC Vox (S710) smartphone with complete spec sheet. Quad-Band EDGE, Spring-assisted keyboard like the P4350, WiFi and more.

This is what I've been waiting for! A SmartPhone with a slide out keyboard. The specs he posted are OK, but not that great (200Mhz processor?). Let's hope that HTC upgrades the specs before it produces the phone.

The Windows Live Search for Mobile got great reviews by Gizmodo. But if you tried to install it on your MTeoR you will find it doesn't install because the MTeoR is locked. Today I found this post which explains how easy it is to unlock the MTeoR. I ran through the steps and then installed the program and I'm very impressed. It is really easy to use even on a SmartPhone like the MTeoR.

Also, if you're running Vista and you're not getting the Mobile Device Center from Windows Update (even though you've connected to your Windows Mobile Device), check out Jason's troubleshooting guide. The trick of turning the connection back to a serial connection worked for me. Now I have the live search client and the mobile device center running.

A few weeks ago I lost my SP5 SmartPhone and so I was on the market for a new SmartPhone. I had seen the HTC MTeoR but wasn't convinced it was the right phone for me. Especially after reading some of the reviews which said the phone wasn't suitable for North America. I emailed my Expansys sales rep asking about this issue and he told me that he was using the phone on TMO and everything worked great. So I took the plunge and bought the phone.

I've had it for about a week and so far I really like it. I pretty much agree with this review here which says it is the best SmartPhone yet. Yesterday I discovered a new feature: the metal case. As I got out of my car I forgot the phone was in my lap and it went flying out of the car and onto the pavement. Because of the metal case, the phone lived up to its name:

A meteorite is an extraterrestrial body that survives its impact with the Earth's surface without being destroyed.

It hit the cemet very hard but didn't even get a scratch. So I can't say if it works everywhere in North Amercia, but here in SoCal it works great (and it's very durable). :)

Via Jason Langridge:

We've just released preliminary details of the Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 - Application Development certified professional exam.

This exam is currently in development. It is expected to be released in its beta version in August 2006. 

To get a headstart on studying for this you can review the pre-release information at:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-540.mspx

You can head over to the Vue website and register for this exam right now. The beta exam is exam number 71-540. You can schedule to take it anytime after September 5th, 2006.

The promo code for this exam is BTA540 which will allow you to take it for free!

Good luck!

Update: More information on the exam and the promo code here.

Technorati Tags: Windows Mobile - Certifications

My first Windows Mobile device was the i-Mate sp3i. After using this phone for a month I knew I could never go back to having a "dumb" phone. Next I upgraded from the sp3i to the sp5. While the phones look very similar, the sp5 was a big upgrade, especially when the feature pack upgrade came out and it supported push email.

Then a couple of months back, while using my sp5 as my Internet connection, the phone died. At the time I was working on a Windows Mobile project and really needed to have a phone so I walked down the street to the mall and purchased a Treo 700w from the Palm store. After having the 700w for about two weeks I figured out that the reason my sp5 died was because the battery died. So I put my sp3i battery in my sp5 and that phone was back in business. So now I had two phones with two carriers and I needed to get rid of one.

The things that are important to me on a windows mobile phone are (1) portability, (2) internet access, (3) a2dp, (4) phone service, and (5) upgradability. The sp5 is definately more portable, not just in size, but also in weight. The 700w is very large when you stick it in your pocket. The 700w did have better internet access, but I was surprised at how little of a difference this actually made for me. I thought the EV-DO network speeds were going to make it impossible for me to ever go back to EDGE. However, there really wasn't that much of a difference. I also thought that Verizon's "most reliable network" would clearly outshine my T-mobile service, but that was not the case. In fact I actually prefer T-mobile because I got better coverage, better quality, and their voicemail doesn't require a pin and doesn't needlessly repeat things (verizon: you have x unhead messages, first unhead message, the following message has not been heard (okay I get the point already)). The 700w does not support A2DP so I couldn't listen to .Net rocks or my music using my HT820 headsets (technically the sp5 doesn't support A2DP either, but you can make it work).

Finally, one of the most important aspects of a mobile phone for me is upgradability. By this I don't mean I can add stuff to my phone. I mean that I can upgrade my phone whenever I want and I don't have to wait 2 years to qualify. So T-mobile wins again since I can have multiple phones if I want and switch between them. But really this post is about my next phone.

Orginally I was thinking that I was going to get the HTC MTeoR. The MTeoR is the logical upgrade path for me (sp3i (32/64), sp5 (64/64), MTeoR (128/64)). However, there are a couple of potential deal breakers for me. (1) The microSD card slot. The sp5 (and sp3i) took a MiniSD so that is what I already have. If I move to the MTeoR then I have to buy a new card. (2) The connection is not mini-USB. Well it might be. I'm not 100% certain that it is, but right now all of my devices charge via a miniUSB cable (that was another reason the Treo didn't fit in). (3) The name. Do I really want to have to type MTeoR all the time? :)

The device that might steal me away from the MTeoR is the ASUS P525. It meets all my requirements plus it has a stylus which might come in very handy. However, I would like to see how well it works using one hand since the SmartPhone software is made for this while the Pocket PC software is geared more to having a keypad.

I'm not planning on upgrading for a couple of months (since that is when we get our next gadget fund at Avanade) so I still have some time to look into what device I really want. It will be interesting to see where I stand a couple of months from now. :)