couple questions on i600

[AOJJ]

hey everyone,

i'm looking to buy an i600 soon and i have a couple of questions i hope you guys can answer.

1. i've never had a smartphone before, but i do have a pocket pc. is everything more or less the same between the 2 interfaces (besides the lack of a touch screen)? is activesync close to the same thing?

2. i'm going to be listening to music a lot. is there a headphone jack on the phone? can i listen to music off an sd card while the phone is closed?

thanks!

[Mike Temporale]

1. i've never had a smartphone before, but i do have a pocket pc. is everything more or less the same between the 2 interfaces (besides the lack of a touch screen)? is activesync close to the same thing?

ActiveSync is the same. You use the same tool for both devices, however you can only sync one at a time. :wink: Also, there is no way to sync files to the Smartphone. When you sync your PPC, there is a folder called "<DEVICENAME> My Documents" - that doesn't exist on the Smartphone sync.

As for other differences, touch screen would be the major one, and becuase of that various interactions are different. You can't tap a button, or point, or scribble on the screen. But it's all good. The Smartphone is meant for one-handed operation.

2. i'm going to be listening to music a lot. is there a headphone jack on the phone? can i listen to music off an sd card while the phone is closed?

Yup, there is a headphone jack. I can't comment on playing music with the phone closed - I don't use a flip phone. Not yet, anyway. :wink:

[AOJJ]

thanks for the info.

does anyone know if i can listen to music while the phone is closed? this is a big deal for me...

thanks

[ARW]

I can listen to music on mine when the phone is closed, though you then have no control over volume etc.

[AOJJ]

sweet, thanks for replying 8)

[MobileRob]

I own a i600 and came from a i700 Pocket PC phone. I find it much simpler to use and not having to keep up with a stylus is a real plus for me. My wife and I both use the i600, and she really did not like the pocket pc device she had prior to the i600, and now she likes the i600.

Smartphones are not for everyone, but if you want a device that is a great phone, easy to use, and comes with most of what you had on the Pocket PC, like email, calendar, and Internet access, you will like the i600.

There are some applications that are just now beginning to catch up, like PIM software, Bible readers, utility programs, etc., much like when PPC's first came out. Go on to www.handango.com and look for Smartphone software. You will see a good selection.

I would certainly recommend the i600. :way to go:

Rob.

[Santa Fe]

And the latest version of eWallet (which is one of my most used applications) syncs automatically with the Smartphone. And another useful application, Smartphone Notes, does as well. Together they make the phone as useful to me as a PPC was.

[AOJJ]

glad you're all happy with it, certainly makes my decision easier. i just wish that verizon carried the Voq Professional Phone because of its keyboard. oh well, the phone will mainly be used for music anyways (along with calling :lol: )

thanks everyone!

[coaldat6]

hey everyone,

2. i'm going to be listening to music a lot. is there a headphone jack on the phone? can i listen to music off an sd card while the phone is closed?

thanks!

I'm also a huge music fan and use my phone to listen to a lot of music... here's been my experience.

When you're using headphones (the i600 comes with a great pair), you can close the phone while listening - there is a volume control on the headphones.

Without headphones attached, the music stops playing when you close the lid. (A little trick I've learned is that if you close the lid and then pull out the headphones, the music will continue playing with the lid closed!)

By the way, I've found that listening to music for hours will barely have an impact on the battery life, so that’s not a concern either.

I've copied tons of mp3s onto my 512 MB SD card, and using the new Windows Media Player 10, I was even able to upload DRM-protected songs I bought on Napster onto the SD card. (Rumor is that Microsoft and Napster are working on providing a $15/month subscription service, which lets you upload any of Napster's million songs onto the i600 and listen to them for as long as you continue to pay the monthly fee – you’ll just need to sync it to your computer every 30 days or so to renew the license).

The music usually sounds very good on the phone - I have one of those cassette tapes that plugs into my Discman (my car only has a cassette tape deck) and I got a small adapter from Radio Shack to plug the wire into the phone (the phone jack is 2.5mm, like most phones, and smaller than the regular Discman headset size, which is like 3.5mm) – so now instead of burning CDs, I can listen to the music in my phone while driving.

I was on the train the other day, listening to music off my phone - and the girl next to me was listening to music off her iPod, and I was laughing at this display of "Microsoft v. Apple." In any event, while her device only played music, mine not only played music, but its great phone and PDA too!

Hope my input helped, let me know if you have any other questions!

[AOJJ]

that's awesome to hear. i have one question, but i doesn't really pertain the i600, more in general:

i've bought several cd's off of iTunes, but they come in AAC format, which wmp can't play or open, meaning i can't copy the songs over to my ppc, or later to the i600. what is a good program to use to convert these songs from AAC to WMV?

thanks

[Mike Temporale]

i've bought several cd's off of iTunes, but they come in AAC format, which wmp can't play or open, meaning i can't copy the songs over to my ppc, or later to the i600. what is a good program to use to convert these songs from AAC to WMV?

thanks

Personally, I burn the songs to CD as a backup. Then I rip them into whatever format I need them in. Then CD gets stored on the shelf with all my other music in case of a HD crash or something.

[coaldat6]

Right - I guess that's the best solution. Apple makes the ACC format very hard to convert. Burning to a CD and then ripping it is probably the best (and maybe even only) way to convert AAC to WMA or mp3 formats.

[scottb]

that's awesome to hear. i have one question, but i doesn't really pertain the i600, more in general:

i've bought several cd's off of iTunes, but they come in AAC format, which wmp can't play or open, meaning i can't copy the songs over to my ppc, or later to the i600. what is a good program to use to convert these songs from AAC to WMV?

thanks

I use Total Recorder to change formats. It's inexpensive and it works. Try http://www.highcriteria.com/. You start Total Reocrder and play the song. When it's finished you can save it to the format you want.