I so feel your pain on this one. It's amazing how many points matched my own impressions/irritations.
For me email is the single most important reason for having a WM phone, but I can't turn notifications on because it'd be waking me up at all hours. I get 100-300 emails a day between work and personal accounts, and am on west coast time as opposed to most of my company which is on EST (meaning an influx of 4am emails.) It's not just turning on or off email notifications tho, it's about not being able to differentiate between accounts for notifications. Why can't I turn on notifications for my personal imap account but turn them off for my exchange account?
I love the multimedia capability of my HTC Kaiser, but can't use most of them because it sucks the life out of my battery. I also have to carry around an iPod for my multimedia stuff so that I don't have to worry.
I understand that Microsoft can't control what 3rd party programmers do, but some things are within their control.
I love having a converged device, but do sometimes wish for the days of my Moto v505 & HP 2215.
YOU decide when to read e-mail. If they needed an answer right away, they should have used the phone or IM, and it is THEIR problem that they have chosen the wrong medium for their communication......
I couldn't agree more and I wish more folks would figure this out. I'm upgrading from Exchange 2000 to Exchange 2007 on my network at the beginning of this upcoming year, but there is no way I'm keeping one eye on my inbox 24/7. As it is now I have to force myself to open that pig we call Outlook first thing in the morning, when I get back from lunch, and finally at the end of the day. I can pretty easily predict those people in my agency who are going to have that stupid thing with them on vacations, etc.
To address what I found to be the larger picture about the article - what drew me to the PocketPC platform years ago was the desire to have an all-in-one device. To some extent I've managed this with my aging but still functioning iPAQ 3975. I use MySportTraining to manage my workouts, the old free version of TCMP for playing M4A and Ogg audio (the device is too slow for decent video playback), and Mapopolis for geocaching.
I'm really holding out for the "perfect" device which I suppose would be a Tilt with a VGA screen. But even then I wouldn't be so confident that today's mobile CPU/GPU could properly decode a VGA h.264 stream. I don't want a Zune/iPod. I don't want a Garmin or Tom Tom dedicate GPS device. I don't want a PSP or Nintendo DS. Is it really too much to ask for a device that can be a really decent PMP / gaming device along with the other PDA functionalities we've grown accustom to? Especially when the asking price is around $700 USD for an unlocked model.
Microsoft has spent entirely too much time developing and promoting features that tie their devices into Office and the backend server products. Anyone who is being honest with themselves (and their employer) will realize that for business purposes these things will never be of much use for anything beyond the PIM functionality of the Palm devices from way back when. Word and Excel? Please. What's the point. PowerPoint? Anybody who places a modicum of importance on professionalism wouldn't use a WM device to give a presentation except under the most dire of circumstances. Email? Fine, but it's not rocket science.
In the end I think that Microsoft should take a look at the iPod. It's a device that attempts to make the user's life a little more enjoyable (not too mention Apple a little more profitable). Even a good portion of suits care about media playback and a slick, intuitive interface. At least Apple makes a commendable effort to disguise their profit motives behind functionality and a certain "gee wiz" factor.
• I shouldn't have to install third party software to enable profiles. I have tried that before and never found a good solution. When an app has to get that that level of how the product functions, it isn't too difficult to run into conflicts and other issues. And worse, when uninstalling them, tney never put your device back the way it was. It is worse than configuring a new device because whatever the app set was at the whim of the developer.
• Could I disable the notifications? Sure, but why should I have to? That is a number of clicks to do so to enable and disable each and every time, and at least two times a day in my scenario. Besides, I want the toast when not reading or viewing video. If there were a simple Toast Enable/Disable command on the start menu, maybe but then I might forget to use that. A simple "Disable toast when reading books in this application" would do the trick. Heck, every app could have that if it wanted. I suppose there are some that don't want to be bothered when working in ListPro. I'm not one of them though.
• I could schedule the email sync, but this is just as bad as turning off the radio in my opinion. And what happens if I wake up at 5 and am done reading by 5:30 one day, and sleep in the next day and am not done reading until 6:15, or not done until 9am on a Saturday?
My point is, these devices are incredibly powerful and they should take additional steps to allow these functions to work together in a more seamless fashion, from popup toast to profiles to ringer levels when there is a darn good chance someone has headphones on. Inbox does toast management already in Wm6. It does in Wm5 to some degree, but they didn't get it quite right in that build. Notice you never get popups in the inbox account you are in while reading it? So it isn't like MS hasn't thought of this... it just needs to go to the next level.
Great thoughts everyone. As always one idea doesn't fit all.
I have enjoyed much reading this post. And I happen to agree with most of it. The only part I sort of disagree (not completely) is all the part that regards the popup toast.
I happen to work with Push Mail as well. Can't live without it. However, my Activesync schedule peak-hours are set to push Sundays (it is a working day here) to Fridays, from 8:30 to 19:00 and "manually" for off-peak hours. So, no chance to be interrupted at night or in my morning "rituals".
Additionally, if you want to get rid of the messages completely, Sounds and notifications will do that for you. Just unckeck the popup messages and the sounds, and you are free of it. Or alternatively, when you are seeing a movie, disable push. On HTC devices it is a 2-click action, using the Wireless Manager.
In all the rest, I agree. I have gone throgh the phone ringing on the car speakers experience, and couldn't help having a good laugh on the way you described it. It is exactly like that.
Anyway, I still couldn't get used to using an MP3 player, an eBook reader or anything else. The only device I use besides the Pocket PC is a camera (unfortunately Pocket PC cameras still stink). I hope things will only get better from here.
Helio
__________________
Helio Diamant
Editor www.mobilityfreak.co.il - The Hebrew Mobile and Wireless Website
I pretty much agree with others - "toast" can be disabled or avoided with little effort in the OS if you want it, but you obviously don't. I for one really don't want to get email notifications all the time, I don't even have "true" push enabled and rather have scheduled syncronization with Exchange.
But I also agree with you - phone profiles should be included in the core OS and they should be aware of appointments and time.
I have tried several profile applications, and all of them caused conflicts and instability on my device.
Also, If you use Universal for video, why don't you use it for audio and reading too. Especially reading on 3.5" VGA is much nicer than doing it on 2.8" qVGA, true you'll have 2 device setup again, but nothing is perfect...
Could I disable the notifications? Sure, but why should I have to? That is a number of clicks to do so to enable and disable each and every time, and at least two times a day in my scenario.
Why not disable it permanantly? All productivity gurus agree that it kills your effectiveness by having those numerous interruptions caused by e-mail. Don't be afraid to reduce the service level on a badly performing medium with a lot of noise. If people require a higher servicelevel, the really should call, since that is the media that do offer confirmation that you have picked up the assignment with the right priority.
I have enjoyed much reading this post. And I happen to agree with most of it. The only part I sort of disagree (not completely) is all the part that regards the popup toast.
I happen to work with Push Mail as well. Can't live without it. However, my Activesync schedule peak-hours are set to push Sundays (it is a working day here) to Fridays, from 8:30 to 19:00 and "manually" for off-peak hours. So, no chance to be interrupted at night or in my morning "rituals".
Additionally, if you want to get rid of the messages completely, Sounds and notifications will do that for you. Just unckeck the popup messages and the sounds, and you are free of it. Or alternatively, when you are seeing a movie, disable push. On HTC devices it is a 2-click action, using the Wireless Manager.
Again, the device should not control my behavior. Schedules don't work for me as I don't work on a fixed schedule and the last thing I need is for emails not to come in during a special project week or for them to come in when my hours are out of sync and I am doing my reading some other time.
And none of the push suggestions or schedule suggestions does anything for my 3 POP3 accounts that sync every 30-60 minutes.
Again, MS knows popup toast is an issue because they fixed it in Inbox when reading emails. Just take it to the next level MS, open up and "suggest" that some app developers give users the option to suppress the toast when their app is in use.
Could I disable the notifications? Sure, but why should I have to? That is a number of clicks to do so to enable and disable each and every time, and at least two times a day in my scenario.
Why not disable it permanantly? All productivity gurus agree that it kills your effectiveness by having those numerous interruptions caused by e-mail. Don't be afraid to reduce the service level on a badly performing medium with a lot of noise. If people require a higher servicelevel, the really should call, since that is the media that do offer confirmation that you have picked up the assignment with the right priority.
Why should I change my behavior? My method of preferred communication is email. The phone is only efficient for bigger issues, never for small notices or quick bits of info.
But again, you are suggesting I let the devices functionality change my behavior and that somehow, your preferred work method will somehow work for me. Wrong on both counts.
Hmmm... so it sounds like you want the Pocket PC to read your mind, and only do things like "popup toast" when you want them too, during your very flexible schedule, without you actually telling it whats on your mind.
Yes profiles should be built-in and there is more that could be done to control popups. So you have valid points there...
And maybe you have had problems with the 3rd Party Profile Applications you have tried, but then most developer's will work with you to get the product working correctly and/or if they are certified, do leave the device cleaned up on an uninstall. I have a feeling you tried some of these 3 or 4 years ago, and base your opinions on older products. And you probably didnt work with the developer to resolve any issues(or dealt with one bad developer). There are some big names with good tech support doing the profile applications now, so your complaints seems a little stretched....
So this is a solution that would solve your problem if you would pursue it.... you have to be willing to pay for them and if need be work with the developers....
Having Microsoft add requirements or even suggestions to have to handle options for very obscure things like whether or not if the person does have Popups on, to hide them when in their application is overboard and does not make a lot of sense for the 3rd party developer's. There are already enough requirements to consider for WM. And most of us dont even consider this an issue! If you want a feature like that for a product talk to the developer yourself.. But about 98% of the programs should do exactly what yours is doing, if you have Popups on it better show the popups when running the application.
It sounds like you want this ultimate flexibility, but are unwilling to have any flexibility to achieve it....I figured you had been around the WM game long enough that you would have gotten that game down...
It sounds like you want this ultimate flexibility, but are unwilling to have any flexibility to achieve it....I figured you had been around the WM game long enough that you would have gotten that game down...
I completely agree with your analysis of your delusion. :way to go:
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