We Are Gathered Here Today...

[Rocco Augusto]

<p>&nbsp;</p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/zt/auto/1221715923.usr8.jpg" /></p><p>Have you ever been sitting down to a nice breakfast at a restaurant only to have your waiter accidentally knock a cup of water over right on top of your Smartphone? This happened to me yesterday while I was eating breakfast right before a meeting with a client. To make matters worse, I was expecting an email, and right as the cup was beginning to fall my screen lit up and the unmistakable sound of me receiving a new message rang through the air... as if my situation wasn't stressful enough, I was now left with that nagging questions of "Who was that message from?" and "What did that message say?" <br /><br />I learned two very important things yesterday. The first above all else is that I have an addiction. I am indeed addicted to my phone and the service that it provides at being my gateway to the Internet and vast amounts of information and when this flow of information is just snatched away by means other than my own, I learned that I can be incredibly tense, anxious, and cranky. Not being able to check my email knowing that I was probably missing something important was just nerve wrecking. Trying to remember all of my important contact information I use on a daily basis was frustrating as well. Not being able to check the Internet on a whim for whatever reason didn't seem to help my situation either, especially when a majority of my day involved waiting for other people.<br /><br />The worst part is that even though I knew my phone was now in Smartphone heaven, I still caught myself reaching for it more than a few times whenever I thought about emailing or messaging someone or even trying to figure out what time it was. At one point throughout the day I was talking to one of my clients about my phone ordeal and while telling them the story of my phone being destroyed, I caught myself reaching into my jacket pocket because <strong><em>his</em></strong> phone went off notifying <strong><em>him</em></strong> of a new message.<br /><br />Now I know more often than not we bust Microsoft's chops because we feel Windows Mobile could be a lot better than it is, and it could be,&nbsp; but not having my handset around I realized something else. Besides my undying love for the handset I will forever now refer to as the Crackjack - I know, original and catchy - I realized that it is incredibly easy to point out the flaws in the things that Microsoft does more often than not and I rarely give praise to Microsoft for the features that do work and happen to work so wonderfully that we never even realize how much of an impact they have on your daily routine until they're gone. In light of this I would like to take a second to point out some of my favorite Windows Mobile features that do not exist on this horribly inefficient pre-paid phone I am forced to use until I get a new handset.<br /><PAGE /><br />The first feature I would like to talk about is one that I never in a million years would have considered a "feature" of Windows Mobile - Smartdial. This is one of those features that you think is really cool when you see it demoed or use it for the first time, but you never really pay any attention to how useful it is until it is gone. I'm just so use to picking up my phone and dialing a few letters of the name or phone number and getting a list of what I wanted that now that this one tiny little basic feature is gone I literally find myself getting annoyed and frustrated every time I have to dial a new number.<br /><br />Next on my list of features I am on the verge of tears for not having is Internet Connection Sharing. If I have my laptop with me, it has just become second nature to plug in my data cable and use my handset as a modem. In most cases I find this to be distinctly faster if I want to do some quick browsing or I'm trying to find directions to a restaurant or want to write an email that is more than one sentence. Even with a QWERTY keypad, inputting more than a casual amount of data on any mobile device I have ever used is just too time consuming. I would rather have the option of using a much larger screen if given the chance and my Windows Mobile device via ICS has always given me the chance. <br /><br />There are more features but out of all of them these features are surprisingly the two features I miss the most not having. Missing out on my contacts and email is annoying but while in town and out and about during work hours, there is a fair chance I will have my laptop with me and you can't spit in Portland without running into an open Wi-Fi network somewhere.<br /><br />The only downside is now I have to get a new device and after spending the past day looking around, I really don&rsquo;t see anything on the market that is available in the US that I want. Sure I can get a Motorola Q9, Samsung Blackjack II or a T-Mobile Dash to cure my need for a QWERTY handset &ndash; but they&rsquo;re all old news and to be quite frank I find them all downright boring. If I am going to have to drop a few hundred dollars on a handset, I would like to feel like I am getting something new besides a new body for the device. Also with the release of the iPhone, it has forced handset makers to stop releasing such horribly ugly touch screen devices and lately I have really had my eye on an HTC Touch Diamond. To get a Touch Diamond however I would have to sign up with Sprint, which I am not in a contract so I could do, but I get horrible Sprint coverage in my neighborhood so that is out of the question. I could import a HTC Touch Diamond, but why in the world would I pay for HSDPA hardware I would never be able to use where I live? And where the heck is our Northern American HTC Touch Diamond?!<br /><br />This actually leads to an interesting side note of my aimless ranting. HTC, if you&rsquo;re reading this, you really should consider selling unlocked HTC branded phones here in the US. Everyone complains that there is not a market for it but that is because I can&rsquo;t think of anyone besides Dell and occasional Best Buy that does it. If there was an HTC store or even a Best Buy where I could have cruised in today and picked up the device I wanted, I wouldn&rsquo;t even be writing this. I would instead have written maybe a one paragraph blurb about the death of the longest surviving Smartphone I have ever owned and then went on to gush over my newly purchased HTC handset &ndash; which in turn would have made someone else want to go out and buy one and so on! <PAGE /><br /><br />Anyways, I digress. To get back on topic I am even kicking around the idea of getting the HTC Dream&nbsp; because it is the only new handset coming out that is even remotely interesting at the moment that is within my grasps to get. Plus since it was designed by HTC it would have a familiar feel to it<br /><br />While I know it sounds incredibly ridiculous, at least once in my life I want to own a Chinese knockoff of a popular electronic device and this might be the perfect time to take the plunge and buy a <a href="http://www.meizume.com/meizu-news/6857-m8-video-demonstration.html" target="_blank">Meizu M8</a> when they finally get released toward the end of the year. <br /><br />Then again these are all ideas I&rsquo;m kicking around in my head. I truly have no idea which direction to turn to get this whole Smartphone mishap under control. That is where you guys come in. No matter what I end up getting one of the first things I am going to do is snap some pictures of it and write up my thoughts on it for our readers. So what do you guys think, should I stick with the Smartphone and keep my fingers crossed that when Microsoft releases Windows Mobile 7 I will actually get to update my device and not waste several hundred dollars? Should I graduate to the Pocket PC world and bite my tongue and import a HTC Touch Diamond or HTC Touch HD? Should I be even more daring and fulfill a lifelong goal of once owning a sleek but obvious knockoff? Or should I take the plunge and dip my toes in the water of Google&rsquo;s pond and see what is going on outside of the Windows Mobile world?<br /><br />I figure no matter what I&rsquo;m doing, if I really hate my new device I can always return it and try a different option. Since I can&rsquo;t make the decision though, I&rsquo;m just going to throw it out there and get some input from everyone.</p>

[Stinger]

Are you sure that's it dead? As long as you took the battery out as soon as possible and then left it a couple of days to dry, there's a good chance that it'll work again.

[Rocco Augusto]

It's still drying at the moment but i don't have high hopes for it. It has been two years this November though, it is time for a new handset anyways. :)

[dkeppler]

Why not try a Nokia E71? It has the two features you miss most, and lots more. Battery life is amazing and the form factor is what you are used to. Or if you need to stick with WM, then the Treo Pro.

David

[plasticbiker]

Why not try a Nokia E71? It has the two features you miss most, and lots more. Battery life is amazing and the form factor is what you are used to. Or if you need to stick with WM, then the Treo Pro.

David

I've been pondering the E71 myself, but I'm worried about how well it will interact with exchange. I haven't seen very many reviews that address its exchange support.

Also the last Nokia I had my hands on, the N95, I wasn't overly impressed with the dialing features. It didn't appear to have the nifty autocomplete/search while dialing, which I love.

I'm currently waiting for the Xpera X1 or Touch Pro.

-Jim

BTW, I hope the restaurant at least comp'd your meal.

[emuelle1]

Last year I had an iPaq 4705. I was using it one night while I was out, and when I got home, it was completely dead. It didn't work at all. I tried everything I could think of, took it apart, and couldn't find any obvious reason why it wouldn't work. I was left with my SonyEricsson z525, which was a good phone, but couldn't pick up the slack of a good Pocket PC device.

Long story short, I ended up getting an unlocked iPaq 6945, which I've been running ever since. I sent the 4705 to PDASmart.com for fixing, but since I've gotten used to a device with a QWERTY keyboard and a data connection, there's just no going back to a non-phone device.

[msjayvee]

My Blackjack is still kicking (knock on wood), but it's been giving me quite a scare as of late. This morning it randomly shutdown then wouldn't start. I removed the battery for a bit then restarted and all was fine. But panic set in while this was all going down that'd I'd be stranded all day with out my smartphone - the mere thought is too much. Sorry to hear for your loss -- but look forward to reading more about what your next purchase is. I can't decide what to get! :(

[The Yaz]

I would suggest the Treo Pro. I recently got my wife the Treo 800W and was pleasantly suprised how well its been working. On the Sprint network she was still getting good bandwith even when she was not in EVDO RevA.

The manual switch for the wifi antenna really works well and saves on the battery life.

Plus the Pro's black & silver looks pretty classy.

Steve

[ucfgrad93]

I hope the waiter was sufficiently apologetic over his mistake. I agree with The Yaz in that the Treo Pro looks very nice. Keep us informed of what you get.

[cookiez]

afaik, neither palmos nor symbian s60 client handles exchange folders, i.e., they can only get mail in inbox folder. This is unacceptable to me due to my exchange email rules and my gtd process. So winmo is my only choice.

why not wait for the htc touch hd, it's so sexy...

[burtcom]

I've lost two devices due to water...

The first was in Seattle. Got caught outside in an unbelievable downpour. My device was inside my shirt pocket, but I stupidly did not stop to close my jacket in my haste to get out of the rain.

The second time my phone dived from my shirt pocket into a toilet :)

(post-flush)

I tried drying both out, but was too impatient, and I kept putting the battery back in and turning them on to see if it worked. In retrospect I should have just left them alone for at least 48 hours.

[MadSci]

I have "lost" one of my SPhones (I found it 2 weeks later) and washed one. These experiences taught me to have a back up plan for my phone addiction.:o

So I now have a pattern that has kept me out of the worst of the trouble I cause myself. I keep a SPhone around that is 2 or even 3 generations behind my primary device. The goal is to meet my BASIC needs: my Contacts (all 2500 of them!), my Calendar (Synced locally with Outlook), access to my email accounts (all 9 of them :o), and the ability to do at least limited, goal-directed use of the Internet (ie I don't have to have a lovely big screen, 'just the Facts Ma'am!').

So when I traded up my CrackJack (as opposed to my MPx220, which I called my Crashberry :D) for a CrackJack II, I sold the old beauty on ebay (got back half of the upgrade price for my CrackJack II :p) and kept my StarTrek as my backup device.

I've used it twice: once when I 'lost' my CrackJack II for 2 weeks, and another time when I was going into a dangerous environment (if I told you, I'd have to kill you :p).

I'm thinking of upgrading in the next 6 months, maybe even jumping ship to the HTC HD or iPhone when the 'HD' becomes available on AT&T (or at least an unlocked version is available that uses the AT&T 3G spectrum, or when the iPhone is updated so it can sync with LOCAL Outlook accounts).

When that happens I will probably sell the CrackJack II on ebay to offset the new purchase, and keep relying on the 'old' StarTrek since it still meets my minimum requirements. With any luck I can offset a chunk of the purchase price again :D

BTW, if I were you, I would have asked the Manager to pay for replacing my phone - his employee broke it after all!

I agree that there is very little on the US market now that's not on Sprint - who are obviously trying to save themselves by becoming a presence in the SPhone market. IMHO the only reason AT&T supported the WM6.1 upgrade for the CrackJack II was to keep us all quiet while they ignored all the excellent new SPhones on the market elsewhere in their desperate attempt to make their loony deal with Apple pay off:eek:!

Best of luck Rocco - it's a dry season out there. You might consider a Re-furb CrackJack II as a transitional device while you wait for either your AT&T contract or run out or for the influx of great new phones to reach our backward shores!

MadSci

[onlydarksets]

It's still drying at the moment but i don't have high hopes for it. It has been two years this November though, it is time for a new handset anyways. :)
Take the battery and SIM card out and put it in a bowl of rice for 24 hours. Seriously - my wife did this with her BB, and it came back to life (although the ALT key stopped working).

[stevew]

I feel your pain. Once I had my smartphone on the bathroom countertop next to the toilet. Got out of the shower and was drying off with a large towel and accidently pushed the smartphone into the toilet. Tried to dry it out but it never worked again. :o

[Rocco Augusto]

Long story short, I ended up getting an unlocked iPaq 6945, which I've been running ever since. I sent the 4705 to PDASmart.com for fixing, but since I've gotten used to a device with a QWERTY keyboard and a data connection, there's just no going back to a non-phone device.

Was PDASmart.com able to fix the old broken device?

I can't decide what to get! :(

You and me both. I'm really eyeing the HTC Touch HD but I have also spent all morning looking into all of the other devices that were suggested as well. I have decided that if I go with a touch screen device, it would be best to have a screen that was completely flush with the body. This was I could clean off any smudges easily without a small sliver of gunk getting caught around the ends. I hate smudges more than I hate not having a Smartphone :D

I would suggest the Treo Pro. I recently got my wife the Treo 800W and was pleasantly suprised how well its been working. On the Sprint network she was still getting good bandwith even when she was not in EVDO RevA...

Plus the Pro's black & silver looks pretty classy.

It does look pretty classy. :)

Unfortunately Sprint is horrid in my area and I do a lot of work from home when I'm in town so I had to pass on them. I am keeping my eye out for a good deal on a GSM/HSDPA version though :)

[Rocco Augusto]

I hope the waiter was sufficiently apologetic over his mistake. I agree with The Yaz in that the Treo Pro looks very nice. Keep us informed of what you get.

Yes, incredibly. I wanted to be angry but he kept saying he was so sorry a million times a minute I was more impressed with how quickly he could talk instead of placing my anger on him for the device. :)

Accidents happen though and I know I've more than once been the cause of breaking some high end electronic for not paying attention so I didn't dig into him too much.

why not wait for the htc touch hd, it's so sexy...

That was one of the original plans I was kicking around in my head. It was either a Touch Diamond or Touch HD or I bite the bullet and plunge into the Android phone and than sell it if I didn't like it and go back to the Crackjack... Fate had other plans for me though :(

I wish HTC would just say "Hey Rocco, Sorry about your loss. Please use this pre-production Touch HD until we finally release one, then we'll hook yuo up on a good price since we love you sooooooo much"

A guy can dream, can't he? :D

The second time my phone dived from my shirt pocket into a toilet :)

Interesting fact. When I worked for Cingular they use to tell us that 86% of phones that suffer from water damage actually fell in the toliet so if a person brought a phone in with suspected water damage, you probably shouldn't play with it too much :)

I feel your pain. Once I had my smartphone on the bathroom countertop next to the toilet. Got out of the shower and was drying off with a large towel and accidently pushed the smartphone into the toilet. Tried to dry it out but it never worked again. :o

SEE! It happens all the time :D ;)

Take the battery and SIM card out and put it in a bowl of rice for 24 hours. Seriously - my wife did this with her BB, and it came back to life (although the ALT key stopped working).

I took the battery out and since I have been home I have had the device sitting on the top of my fridge at the very make. This is one of the dryest spots in the house and it always worked for people I suggested it to in the past so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. If anything I want to get the pictures of my daughter off of it before it gets trashed (if it no longer works).

[Rocco Augusto]

So when I traded up my CrackJack (as opposed to my MPx220, which I called my Crashberry :D)...

Haha, god I love how easy it is to make fun of the MPx220 :D

BTW, if I were you, I would have asked the Manager to pay for replacing my phone - his employee broke it after all!

I thought about it but I've eaten at that resturant a million times and I always see the waiters and waitresses get yelled at just for being in the same room as the manager. I really didn't want to possibly get someone fired over a accident. Plus since I was looking at getting a new phone anyways, I look at this as a kick in the pants to get actually go out and do it :)

[Damion Chaplin]

I really didn't want to possibly get someone fired over a accident. Plus since I was looking at getting a new phone anyways, I look at this as a kick in the pants to get actually go out and do it :)

You're a cool guy, Rocco. :cool: I would have had a serious talk with that manager. I would have insisted that the restaurant pay for it, but that the employee not be disciplined for it. I would have reminded him how often I was in there supporting his shack and how if I wasn't compensated, I'd start visiting the place across the street (and recommend everyone else do the same).

In any case, it sounds like maybe you would have been doing the waiter a favor if you got him fired...

P.S.: I've had a Pantech Duo from AT&T for a while now and it's still the best SP on the market (in my opinion).

[Rocco Augusto]

P.S.: I've had a Pantech Duo from AT&T for a while now and it's still the best SP on the market (in my opinion).

I forgot all about the Duo, I'll have to look into it. Thanks Damion!

[Jason Dunn]

Wow...crazy story! I'd have talked to the manager and asked them what they'd do for me though. :cool:

[Rocco Augusto]

Wow...crazy story! I'd have talked to the manager and asked them what they'd do for me though. :cool:

Yeah everyone is telling me that and I probably should have but I just didn't see the need in causing a bunch of drama over an accident and that manager is nothing but a walking pile of drama.

Plus more often than not the waiter would have been fired and no one should be fired over an accident that was no ones fault. Maybe the waiter should have been more careful but I should have also moved my phone away from the water glasses or not ever have had it on the table to begin with so I'm equally at fault in the situation.

Also being the father of a young child and having as many electronics floating around my life as I do, you quickly learn that you're only renting the device because some accident, most likely caused by the little one, is going to result in that device going to gadget heaven. This is how I lost my first two Nintendo DS' :D

[MadSci]

Haha, god I love how easy it is to make fun of the MPx220 :D



I thought about it but I've eaten at that resturant a million times and I always see the waiters and waitresses get yelled at just for being in the same room as the manager. I really didn't want to possibly get someone fired over a accident. Plus since I was looking at getting a new phone anyways, I look at this as a kick in the pants to get actually go out and do it :)

Very classy Monsieur! :cool:

Of course, I wouldn't have gone off on the guy, just asked the Manager to do the right thing and help mitigate the situation, even a little bit would have helped. Anyway, not to second guess and I applaud you for thinking about the 'little guy' in the equation!

Now really, it's time to take your Sub-conscious out for a drink to thank him for giving you a bullet-proof excuse to buy a new phone :D

Hmmm... my 5 year old is prone to spilling his milk on the table. When the HD Touch is available, all I have to do is sit down next to him and...

nahhh, the wife knows me too well not to see thru it:p

Good luck on your hunt!

MadSci

[Rocco Augusto]

nahhh, the wife knows me too well not to see thru it:p

Actually the first thing the little lady said to me was "You did this on purpose because I said you didn't need a new phone, didn't you?!"

I guess she knows me a little to well too, only this time fate had my back on the new electronics front :D

[Mechanicaldan]

I feel your pain. I moved to Scotland for a new job over a year ago with a Audiovox SMT5600. Loved it, but wouldn't work with my company Vodafone SIM. I struggled with the supplied Nokia 5140i for a couple weeks. It just sucked not having a Windows Smartphone that would sync with Outlook without screwing up appoinments. I finally decided on the Vox as I wanted a Quad band phone. I'm considering updating to the Touch Pro, but I'm not sure I can give up a keypad.

My own personal opinion is that ANY WM is better than none.

So, what WM device would you buy off E-Bay for the interum until you have more time to make up your mind?

[acharn]

Get an iPhone. You'll never regret it. It's 10 times better than any WM Smartphone on the market today.
Signed,
Die-hard WM groupie (5 years) turned iPhone junkie.

[Cybrid]

Did lose one to a toilet myself.
My brother lost my 6700 into a freak boating accident.

[Cybrid]

Get an iPhone. You'll never regret it. It's 10 times better than any WM Smartphone on the market today.
Signed,
Die-hard WM groupie (5 years) turned iPhone junkie.I'm glad it works out for you but as a Win Mo guy, I did buy my wife a iPod Touch. Which aside from the phone and AGPS is nearly identical. I wasn't impressed with it but if you are happy with it...that's what counts. Anyway lets not get into a flame war.

[Rocco Augusto]

So, what WM device would you buy off E-Bay for the interum until you have more time to make up your mind?

I was actually just on eBay looking at the Pantech Duo... are you spying on me? :D

Get an iPhone. You'll never regret it...

I've the iPhone more than a fair bit in my line of work, web development, and the iPhone is just not the device for me. Sure its really pretty but I need more 'umph' in functionality than I need 'pretty to look at'

[burtcom]

Get an iPhone. You'll never regret it. It's 10 times better than any WM Smartphone on the market today.

I would regret it, because it won't work with my carrier :)

[TOCA]

Just read your tragic story, and I do feel sorry for you :(

Man I would hate to have any thing happening to any of my every day gadgets, I don't think I would survive for a full day ;)

To what I can read, you are looking for something just like your late model, just better, hmmmm.... since there have neen no big development on the hardware front since 2004, you might be in for a loooong search :/

But how about some of the other "Full QWERTY under the screen models"?

The new Treo comes in to mind :/

Or if you realy are into those Blackberry clones, then why not the real deal? I know it's not WinMo, but they do the job just the same (even better on E-Mail).

Then there are all those "Slide out" models. Not the same, but you get a bigger screen and (IMO) better keyboard. Trust me, you will get used to the way the new machine does things, in a month or so, just like you got used to how the Blackjack did its thing :)

As you wrote in an other post, you are like me, a "Functions over looks" guy, which rules out the latest models from HTC, but you are looking at the Experia.......Why?

Just like the Touch models it has its own overlay to WinMo, giving you some thing else than the "Every thing at a glance" Today screen when you push the power button. That is one thing I would dislike, as I am quite pleased with the way WinMo is doing its thing on the front page.

Happy hunting.

[Rocco Augusto]

Hey everyone. After days of scouring the Internet and going into carrier stores I think I have decided to bite the bullet and get a Touch Diamond. Best Buy is now selling them for a pretty penny (but they're on backorder) and Expansys has the US 3G version in stock brand spanking new, and in B-Stock option, for about $584-$684.99 (http://www.expansys-usa.com/p.aspx?i=168017?partner=sthoughts - affiliate link!).

Thanks for all the input everyone. It was a tough decision between the Touch Diamond, Pantech Duo and Treo Pro but out of everything I read, the 3G HTC Touch Diamond had everything I wanted, included a new matte finish so it isn't a smudge magnent (we all know how I feel about smudges :))

Also, the Crackjack is dried out but it is having a ton of problems. Keys randomly not working, radio dropping signal completely, phone randomly shutting off and starting back up. Luckily though, I was able to save all the pictures and video of the little one so all is well :)

[cingulartreo]

Man I didn't get my 2 cents in before you decided! I still want to say that putting wm6.1 on the BJII and Q9h make them completely new devices. I was NOT a fan of wm smarthphone, or basic or whatever they call it now, until 6.1. Everything is so much easier to use. And the new features including cut/paste, and doc sync (at least in WMDC) make it so much better that I have retired my WM professional device. To me its that good!

[Torque]

RIP Rocco's Smartphone.

When I'm in a restaurant the only time I take my Blackjack off my belt clip, is to check a message. I NEVER place my Smart phone on the table at a restaurant because a clumsy waiter/waitress can spill a drink on it or while not paying attention to what I'm doing, so could I. That being said, You can go on tigerdirect.com and find yourself an unlocked Smartphone at a reasonable price. As far as "exciting phone choices" go, it depends on what excites you. If the Touch Diamond does it for you, then get it, but make sure the carrier has decent service in your area and stay away from AT&T no matter what cool smartphone they have on sale!!

[Damion Chaplin]

Get an iPhone. You'll never regret it.

I'd regret it because the subscription to an iPhone would run me an extra $30 per month (for two years!) over and above the already-unlimited data plan I have on AT&T with my WM smartphone.

Seriously, $30 x 24months = $720!!! :eek:

That, plus $150 for the iPhone itself and we're talking $870 for a phone with less functionality than my Pantech Duo (which also ran me $150 but could be used with my current unlimited data plan).

Believe me, I thought about it. However, it doesn't seem to me that anyone's actually doing the math...