"Room For Improvement" Category Launched

[Jason Dunn]

It's always exciting to me when we add new core functionality to our site, and in the case of Smartphone Thoughts, this is a good one. We here at Smartphone Thoughts love our Windows Mobile Smartphones, but that doesn't mean we're blind to the flaws, bugs, and glitches. But rather than just complaining about the things we don't like, we want to be purposeful and systematic about how we do this. We want to list the problem, provide a realistic user scenario where that problem pops up, and brainstorm ideas about how it can be solved.

My hope is that we can use this category to provide Microsoft with a list of things we'd like to see improved, and give them constructive feedback on how they can improve their product. If you have a "Room for Improvement" you'd like to see us post, please contact us or post it here in this thread.

[Eciton]

-ability to resend failed texts
-true silent mode, system-wide
-ability to sync or backup text messages
-a proper tasks program
-gprs data counter
-improved ability for WMP to handle variable bitrates
-more than one email account


that'll do me for now ;)

[Kris Kumar]

Better Text Input...

1. Hardware ofcourse is the best : Like the Handspring Treo 600 form factor.

2. Software based improvements. I will focus more on the software method.

All of us who have used Sony Ericsson T68i, must have noticed that when you tap on a key, say 2 on key pad, the top right corner of the screen showed all the letters on that key "abc2"...and with each press of the 2 on the key pad, it would highlight the next character in the "abc2" list in the top right corner.

This feature comes in extremely handy, because it visually alerts your brain (sounds dumb but it helps) that to get to C, you need to press 2 on Key pad twice after 'a' is displayed :-)

That did sound dumb...let me put a better justification...

When using 1 on the key pad, which has special characters like .,-?'

If the top right corner or some corner of the screen had a small overlap or popup, that showed all the characters on that key, and shows u visually how many times to tap...and highlights the character with each tap.

I cant tell u how many times I have jumped the character I have wanted and have hit back/clear and multi-press again to get to that character.

I feel it helps, because Smartphone is a data device, and there are times u want to enter text for email, contacts. And this small overlay in the corner of the screen will help u to get familiar with the key pad quicker.

Kris