What Causes You Smartphone Pain?

[Jason Dunn]

With the release of Windows Mobile 2003, we have another updated OS for the Smartphone. This got me thinking about what sorts of things I'd really like to see fixed/improved for the next version of the OS:• Why is there no File sync conduit for ActiveSync? I'll never be able to use my Smartphone for accessing my digital wallet until I can sync the file from the desktop to the Smartphone and back again• It kills me that ActiveSync doesn't do a wireless server sync immediately when you turn on the phone - the "sync every x minutes" should be more intelligent about synching when time has passed and the phone has been off (night time, air plane, etc.)• Lack of speed...even my E200 is still too slow• Bad apps can hang the whole OS - it's far too easy to get into a situation where you're staring at the spinning circle for several minutes• Bluetooth support is kludgey and dysfunctional• What's with the "The page cannot be found" errors I'd keep getting on my MPx200? My E200 seems to be immune to that problem so far, but it was killing me on my MPx200• ActiveSync is just painful all around. I frequently get unresolved items and there's no easy way to fix the problem with resorting to the "move things around until you isolate the problem file/item" trickThat was my list - what's yours? Remember it should be thinks that cause you frustration today, not "pie in the sky" features that would be cool to have, or hardware issues. Let's really focus on the software and what they need to fix.

[cmorris]

A few other things off the top of my head:

- Playlist support in WMP
- Outlook Notes sync: no reason I should have to buy a 3rd party app just to get basic notes sync
- Built-in file explorer and task manager: again why rely on 3rd party? OEM's must be frustrated having to provide these on the phones before they are shipped to consumers.

[dollardr]

I get the "page not found" message a lot on my Samsung but thought it was a problem with a particular website I was trying to access.

Also, Internet access is painfully slow. I have used the Verizon network with a Sierra Wireless card in my notebook and was expecting that type of speed but the phone hardware must be the bottleneck.

[Jason Dunn]

- Outlook Notes sync: no reason I should have to buy a 3rd party app just to get basic notes sync

AUGH! Yeah, I should have remembered this one - this one kills me too. This should be native - the entire Outlook experience should be replicated on the Smartphone, not just "most" of it. :?

[Berylium]

I can't imagine what I have setup differently than you, Jason, on my i600 but every time I turn mine on it immediately does a wireless server sync.

Ironically, I suppose, it's a feature I find really irritating! It means that every time I turn on my phone the already long boot up process is made even longer due to the sync since the phone is virtually unusable while it processes emails, calendar, etc.

-Berylium

[Jason Dunn]

I can't imagine what I have setup differently than you, Jason, on my i600 but every time I turn mine on it immediately does a wireless server sync.

Really? How interesting! On both my MPx200 and the E200, the behaviour is the same: let's say I have it set to sync every sixty minutes, and my phone has been off overnight. I turn on the phone, and my expectation as a user is that since it's been more than sixty minutes since the last sync, and the Smartphone has this thing called a "clock", the wireless sync would kick off immediately. Instead, it will take a full 60 minutes of "running time" until the phone syncs. Utterly lame. :?

[Mike Temporale]

I want my phone to be silent when I put it in silent mode. The OS should disable the speaker thus preventing any other application from making a beep, chirp, whirl, sputtor, or whatever. Silent means silent.

[greenmozart]

Adding to the notes functionality, I want my Tasks to actually be usable! No reason I shouldn't be able to see the entire task or be able to open it and mark it complete or see more details.

[MikeL]

I am so frustrated with the fact that I can't send and receive MSN mail on a microsft based platform. What were they thinking. I hope 2003 will solve this problem...someone please tell me it's so?

[TANKERx]

I'm frustrated by having to try hard to convince my colleagues that my MPx200 isn't such a bad phone despite taking ages to show them anything working on it while they, with their alternative-platform smartphones, zip around their phones like whippets in a sausage factory and laugh as I say "hang on, it'll start in a minute".

And I also want MSN on my Smartphone - which is annoying because it's in beta for 2003 only. Just another example of how I've been sucked into a Microsoft platform only to learn that for it to do what I really want, I either upgrade to Microsoft's latest money spinner (also known as innovation), or upgrade to a different platform (which isn't an option with work at the moment - but I may just run two phones just to get the functionality I want).

[jalm1]

I was frustruated with most all of these same problmems, tasks and notes, why are they not included. horible activesync, etc. i went through an mpx, and hatted it, then got an e220, much better! 2003 is much better then 2002, especialy in speed and wireless activesync (i had mine set to evey 5 min, so i would get everthing synced rather quickly) but that ment horrible battery life, which i found to be a huge downside, 6 hours or so. i cant even make it through a day with the phone, much less travel with it. For the last 2 months my e200 hs been sitting in my desk, and have gone back to my blackberry as a primary phone, althoug i still carry my xdaII almost everywell.

[jscown]

Oh crap! 8O I was considering a Windows Smartphone until I read this thread! I was thinking an MPx220 was in my future, but it sounds like (given all of the very reasonable objections that you have all listed) a working Windows Smartphone is at least a couple of versions away...

Sounds like I am better off getting a Sony Ericsson P900 and forgetting about a tight integration with Windows.

I am open to any thoughts you might have...

Cheers, Jack

[TANKERx]

Oh crap! 8O I was considering a Windows Smartphone until I read this thread! I was thinking an MPx220 was in my future, but it sounds like (given all of the very reasonable objections that you have all listed) a working Windows Smartphone is at least a couple of versions away...

Sounds like I am better off getting a Sony Ericsson P900 and forgetting about a tight integration with Windows.

I am open to any thoughts you might have...

Cheers, Jack

I think you're right about the 'couple versions away'. Windows Mobile just isn't there yet. It's not polished enough and needs a lot of work.

A mate of mine has a P900 and I'll tell you what - if I had the money (and the didn't want a single-handed phone), I'd go for it like a shot.


All the best with your P900
From a jealous fella

[ARW]

How about support for more than one email account, caller id that works, total silence out of the phone when put in the silent profile, OS stability, so that the phone doesn't lose all it's customized configuration every couple of months for no apparent reason. It would also be nice to silence an audible reminder or sms notification without having to open the clam shell phone, just as you can silence a call notification.

Beyond that it'd be nice if they added a page at a time advance for Inbox, notes capability, file synching as with PPC and WMP that has some reasonable ability to play songs in album order instead of some odd order that has nothing to do with names and folders.

I know that 2003 is supposed to cure one or two of the above, but since it isn't available to those of us on CDMA I'll keep mentioning it.

[TANKERx]

I want to add some gripes which really wind me up to screaming!

First of all, I hate the way the Smartphone tells me I have three bars of signal until I want to do something, then suddenly, as if by magic, they go! Once I get a message complaining that there's no signal, lo-and-behold, the bars are back! So I try to connect again and the signal goes!

Second, why isn't the Microsoft Smartphone smart enough to handle text messages when there is no signal!? Why can't Microsoft figure on fixing the Smartphone to hold a sent message in the Outbox until a signal is available instead of shoving it into the Sent items and telling me to start again when there's a signal.

Not even dumb phones have this problem and neither of the above problems have ever plagued me on any Symbian phone I've ever owned.

This particular issue drives me mad, because where I live, I seem to have enough of a signal to receive text messages, but not to send. So I get all these messages to which I can't reply unless I'm standing in the garden.


Nokia 6600, here I come (and thanks to Mobipocket, that won't be such a painful job - just have to come to the end of my contract first).

[Macguy59]

I would settle for truely useful apps. It [seems] that the only thing developers are coding for are games. How about a decent spreadsheet app with edit functionality and an ebook reader? How about an email app that allows for SSL connections? I have been using the PDA functions on my i600 less and less lately. In fact all I really use anymore is the address book which I can get on any regular cell phone. The WM 2003 upgrade will have to wow me to keep this smartphone.

[Mike Temporale]

Homescreens! How could we get this many responses without someone mentioning the ability to customize your home screen. Themes should be much much easier to install and change between.

[issaquahtom]

I want to sync to my Exchange server and get POP3 email too, now it seems either or is the case. I go to MSN Hotmail to try to get my POP3 email there and the menu item as visible on my WinXP machine is gone... and my email provider oz.net can't help me turn off frames to their web email UI.