Smartphone Thoughts Launched

[Jason Dunn]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.smartphonethoughts.com' target='_blank'>http://www.smartphonethoughts.com</a><br /><br /></div><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/spt.gif" /> <br /><br />I'd like to officially announce the second member of the Thoughts Media family, Smartphone Thoughts! We quietly opened our doors on the 30th of June, and have been in "build" mode since then. There's a lot of work left to do (heck, the ad server isn't even working yet!), largely because the combination of Pocket PC 2003 launch, subscriber services, and Smartphone Thoughts template design was just too much work in too short a time period for my team. The forums are up though, and we expect to start posting the style of news & views you all know and love sometime in the next couple of days.<br /><br /><i>Smartphone Thoughts is dedicated to covering the Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone platform.</i> No Symbian phones, no Palm OS phones - just Smartphones. There are already some great sites out there for alternative platforms, and I'm a big believer in what Microsoft is doing with their Smartphone platform. I want to foster those efforts and grow up a community around them. Those looking to start platform flame wars should look elsewhere - there are excellent platform neutral sites like <a href="http://www.howardchui.com/">howardchui.com</a> that you can get your fix from if you want an unbiased view of the phone market. That's not our focus - we'll leave it to others.<br /><br />Smartphone Thoughts (SPT) will be every bit as gloriously biased and platform-preferred as Pocket PC Thought (PPCT) is. :mrgreen: That said, you can expect the same candid tough love for the platform that you've come to expect here are Pocket PC Thoughts. We've made our platform choice, but that doesn't mean we love everything about it (damn that one email account limit! :evil:). I'll be leading the team at SPT, along with a mostly-new team of passionate Smartphone users. They're all creative, experienced, and thoughtful people who will do every bit as well as the PPCT team you enjoy.<br /><br />I welcome you to all visit and register at Smartphone Thoughts! Yes, that's right, you'll have to re-register in the forums, so come grab your preferred username while you can. We technically had the abiility to port over our entire user database, but we felt it would be a violation of privacy to move personal information (name, email address, etc.) to a new site without permission to do so.<br /><br />Lastly, for those who were hoping it was <a href="http://www.digitalmediathoughts.com">Digital Media Thoughts</a> we were launching, sorry to have disappointed you - the timing for Smartphone Thoughts was important (and we had some financial help from Microsoft to get things started), but DMT is next on my list. :wink:

[Excalliber]

I'll be looking forward to every site, especially Digital Media Thoughts. :D

I'm looking forward to the same quality content as we get from PPC Thoughts.

[entropy1980]

She's up..... she's down.... no wait she's up again!!!:lol:

[suhit]

Yay!!! The site finally works :). However, it doesn't look like the usernames transfer over.

Suhit

[ctmagnus]

Red!

[suhit]

Are you sure, because I haven't had any problem, and most of the other people seem to have their avatars correctly. What's the error you are getting?

Suhit

[fletch]

Great site Jason!

Hi hope it becomes THE authority on smartphones as PPCT has on PPCs.

Good luck, keep up the good work.

[sponge]

Ahh! My eyes! I think the colours need to be toned down a bit, but otherwise, good luck!

[dh]

Jason, I'm somewhat sorry to see that you did not include forums for all the various Smartphones on the market, Kyocera (the real Smartphone - how come MS hijacked the name?), Handspring, Samsung, SE, Nokia and the rest.

You mention in your intro that MS has a 0% market share. The main reason for this is that compared to it's competition it is el crapo! My son had an Orange SVP for a couple of weeks, before sending it back, and had nothing but trouble with it. So far, MS can't even pay the carriers to sell it.

Seems to me that anyone wanting a full featured "smartphone" is going to buy a PPCPE or one of the Palm offerings. Anyone wanting an intelligent cellphone has a bunch of potential offerings such as the Nokia 3650 and the various Japanese products. The MS product seems to sit in the middle with no real market focus. Heck, you can't even use an MS phone to get your laptop or PPC online because there is no Bluetooth. That would have been a useful application although others do it with a nicer form factor.

I fully understand that you make your living as a (kind of) MS marketing guy, so you are hardly going to agree with me that MS Smartphone sucks but I believe that if you had forums for the competing products this is where most of the activity would be. Maybe Andy is right when he thinks that the mobile market will be a battle between Symbian and Linux, although POS is doing ok in that market at the moment.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti Microsoft at all, heck I am typing this on my Win 2000 laptop and I love my Axim. But, if I was going to buy a Smartphone today it would be a Treo 600 (if it was available today). There is no way I'd buy one of those Orange things or it's clones.

[mv]

You mention in your intro that MS has a 0% market share. The main reason for this is that compared to it's competition it is el crapo! My son had an Orange SVP for a couple of weeks, before sending it back, and had nothing but trouble with it. So far, MS can't even pay the carriers to sell it.

Seems to me that anyone wanting a full featured "smartphone" is going to buy a PPCPE or one of the Palm offerings. Anyone wanting an intelligent cellphone has a bunch of potential offerings such as the Nokia 3650 and the various Japanese products. The MS product seems to sit in the middle with no real market focus. Heck, you can't even use an MS phone to get your laptop or PPC online because there is no Bluetooth.


That´s why MS smartphones don´t make any sence: BT should be in every phone, laptop, and PDA. I have a sonyericcson, and i love it. It goes well with my iPAQ, too. I also like pocket pc, but one microsoft product in my pocket is enougt. If i want a smartphone i´ll go for a SE P800, or a Treo 600.

[beq]

Just curious, will any beloved admins/editors switch full time?

[Robert Levy]

Jason, I'm somewhat sorry to see that you did not include forums for all the various Smartphones on the market, Kyocera (the real Smartphone - how come MS hijacked the name?), Handspring, Samsung, SE, Nokia and the rest.

They aren't using Windows Powered Software for Smartphone (yeah, that's the right branding :roll:) which the site is all about. So it's really n different from how Pocket PC Thoughts doesn't have forums for Palm.

[Janak Parekh]

Just curious, will any beloved admins/editors switch full time?
Not that I know of -- and Jason's assembling an awesome new team for the SPT site. I certainly don't carry a Smartphone. I'm just an ordinary n00bie there. :lol:

--janak

[fletch]

Yeah, I must admit MS Smartphone blows quite badly - and I am MS's biggest fan!

But remember that this is version 1.0, I suspect that the numerous problems with smartphone will be sorted quite promptly along with more innovations. Remember the original WindowsCE? It doesnt even resemble today's PPC (or MW or WM or whatever).

What will be interesting though is the emerging climate where OS choice is no longer as big an issue as it once was (thanks to WIFI, BT and the supreme court). This is truely a different environment that MS is operating in these days, its its competitors (in the device OS market) actually offer decent products.

Very interesting times, especially for a developer like me :)

[beq]

Just curious, will any beloved admins/editors switch full time?
Not that I know of -- and Jason's assembling an awesome new team for the SPT site. I certainly don't carry a Smartphone. I'm just an ordinary n00bie there. :lol:

--janak

Whew, I was gonna say I wouldn't want anyone (eh, anyone but Ed that is) to be transferred :mrgreen:

[GoldKey]

Best of luck in your new venture.

[kfluet]

Congrats on the new site.

Unlike a poster above, I love the colour scheme. Nice and cheery.

[Jason Dunn]

Yay!!! The site finally works :). However, it doesn't look like the usernames transfer over.

...does anybody read the words on their screen? 8O Maybe if I bold it and make it a pretty colour. :lol:

"Yes, that's right, you'll have to re-register in the forums, so come grab your preferred username while you can. We technically had the abiility to port over our entire user database, but we felt it would be a violation of privacy to move personal information (name, email address, etc.) to a new site without permission to do so."

[PJE]

But remember that this is version 1.0, I suspect that the numerous problems with smartphone will be sorted quite promptly along with more innovations. Remember the original WindowsCE? It doesnt even resemble today's PPC (or MW or WM or whatever).

The phone market is totally different from the PDA market. It is much more a commodity item. MS will not have as much time to get things right as they did with the PDA OS. If they get a bad name over reliability of the phone for any reason it will be very difficult to get carriers to take their newer phones. I hope MS get it right - BT etc - as the US is still short of good Smartphones.

A also think it is short sighted to focus on the MS Smartphone alone and not Smartphones in general - at least in the forums. If the MS Smartphone site is to be of any use it is essential that all smartphone news is covered on the site, and not just that related to MS Smartphone.

My 2c

[Robert Levy]

A also think it is short sighted to focus on the MS Smartphone alone and not Smartphones in general - at least in the forums. If the MS Smartphone site is to be of any use it is essential that all smartphone news is covered on the site, and not just that related to MS Smartphone.

My 2c

We'll cover the competition in our articles just like PPCT does

[ctmagnus]

Are you sure, because I haven't had any problem, and most of the other people seem to have their avatars correctly. What's the error you are getting?

Suhit

Sorry, I was looking for the Preferences button that PPCT has. I didn't realize it was on the front page until I actually went back there. :oops:

[Ed Hansberry]

Whew, I was gonna say I wouldn't want anyone (eh, anyone but Ed that is) to be transferred :mrgreen:

:twak:

[madbart]

That´s why MS smartphones don´t make any sence: BT should be in every phone, laptop, and PDA. I have a sonyericcson, and i love it. It goes well with my iPAQ, too. I also like pocket pc, but one microsoft product in my pocket is enougt. If i want a smartphone i´ll go for a SE P800, or a Treo 600.

I agree.....until they can build one of these with Bluetooth i won't be buying one. I have used a BT headset for 6 months + now and there is no way i am going back to a corded one.

[Newsboy]

Congrats Jason! Another smashing success to be certain.

[Jason Dunn]

Ahh! My eyes! I think the colours need to be toned down a bit, but otherwise, good luck!

Nah, there are two many blue/silver/black sites on the Internet already - I wanted something with STYLE baby, STYLE! :fro:

[Jason Dunn]

Jason, I'm somewhat sorry to see...

I have no illusions about being able to make everyone happy, so I would encourage you to seek out a phone Web site more appropriate to your interests versus trying to make SPT something it's not. I don't expect every PPCT reader to follow over to SPT. :wink:

[Jason Dunn]

Just curious, will any beloved admins/editors switch full time?

You'll have to wait and see! :wink:

[Jason Dunn]

A also think it is short sighted to focus on the MS Smartphone alone and not Smartphones in general - at least in the forums. If the MS Smartphone site is to be of any use it is essential that all smartphone news is covered on the site, and not just that related to MS Smartphone.

:roll: Gee, thanks for the comments - you can have your 2 cents back. I don't know why the heck I should need to defend what I want to write about on MY OWN SITE, but for the record, I don't KNOW very much about those other phone platforms. I don't own a P800, or any Nokia phone running Symbian, and the phone I was using before my SPV was my T68i. I was more productive with my SPV in an hour than I was with my T68i in a day - the SPV really fits with the way I think and work.

Please, I'm begging you PJE: don't feel obligated to visit SPT and contribute your opinion. It's a site for people who are interested in the Microsoft Smartphone platform, not for people who want to trash it. I can only take you on one site at a time. :wink:

[Jason Dunn]

Sorry, I was looking for the Preferences button that PPCT has. I didn't realize it was on the front page until I actually went back there. :oops:

We shuffled the UI around a little bit - believe it or not, it's more intuitive for first-time users. :wink:

[Gremmie]

Just curious, will any beloved admins/editors switch full time?
Not that I know of -- and Jason's assembling an awesome new team for the SPT site. I certainly don't carry a Smartphone. I'm just an ordinary n00bie there. :lol:

--janak

Speaking of which, when will you all be hiring new editors here? :D

[Ed Hansberry]

Speaking of which, when will you all be hiring new editors here? :D

Heh heh. I hope he "hires" the existing editors first. ;) :lol:

[Foo Fighter]

Awesome! Excellent work, Jason. :)

[jnunn]

Congratulations, Jason, on bringing the first PPCT sister site up. Like all your readers I have no idea of how much pain, effort, sacrifice, and maybe even fear this has caused you and, again like all your readers, it will benefit me while requiring nothing from me. I hope that all this 'giving' from you adds at least equally to your life so that these sites can remain a resource and voice for the MS mobile community.

Breaking new ground may prove to be easier than keeping it together: good luck and know that your readers are behind you.

[Jason Dunn]

Speaking of which, when will you all be hiring new editors here? :D

Nope. All editors are volunteer anyway, but we've got a good team for now. :D

[Jason Dunn]

Heh heh. I hope he "hires" the existing editors first. ;) :lol:

Hey, I told you your cheque was in the mail...I think it's on a boat... :lol:

[dh]

Jason, please don't get all PMS like just because some of us have ideas a bit different to yours.
of course its your site and you can do what you want, like you say we don't have to go there.
However, some of us are interested in Smartphmes in general not just MS and I have not found a site that offers news and good reviews of the whole market sector.
There are a lot of one product sites and the discussions seem to consist of trying to fathom out why new releases are months late and why the phones don't work when they do arrive.
A general site (the Brighthand of smartphones) would at least be able to have something new every few months.
Anyway, good luck with it. I really like PPCT and I'm looking forward to Digital Media. I beg of you not to make it a Windows Media only site.

[Pony99CA]

There are a lot of one product sites and the discussions seem to consist of trying to fathom out why new releases are months late and why the phones don't work when they do arrive.
You mean like Pocket PC Thoughts? Would you want this site to be PDA Thoughts and cover all platforms equally?

For those wanting more balanced coverage, Jason even gave you a link.

Steve

[Pony99CA]

Smartphone Thoughts is dedicated to covering the Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone platform. No Symbian phones, no Palm OS phones - just Smartphones.
I hope you'll at least cover Pocket PC Phone Edition platforms. They are based on Windows Mobile and are "smart phones" (if not Smartphones).

Steve

[Jeff Rutledge]

Smartphone Thoughts is dedicated to covering the Microsoft Windows Mobile Smartphone platform.[/i] No Symbian phones, no Palm OS phones - just Smartphones.
I hope you'll at least cover Pocket PC Phone Edition platforms. They are based on Windows Mobile and are "smart phones" (if not Smartphones).

Steve

I see PPCPE devices as extensions of Windows Mobile. So I think it would make more sense that those discussions should stay put. I imagine we'll end up seeing them at both sites though.

[Jason Dunn]

I hope you'll at least cover Pocket PC Phone Edition platforms. They are based on Windows Mobile and are "smart phones" (if not Smartphones).

Nope, PPCPE will continued to be covered here - it's still a Pocket PC, and part of the Pocket PC family. Who knows, in a a year or two the lines might blur even further and make disctinction impossible, but for now we're drawing a line between the two product families. If you've ever used a Smartphone, you'll realize what different beasts they really are - I'm having to re-learn this whole "lots of buttons" concept. :lol:

[Pony99CA]

Nope, PPCPE will continued to be covered here - it's still a Pocket PC, and part of the Pocket PC family.

OK, I just thought they might be covered in both places. I think that would make sense, and give more to talk about, too, but it's not a big deal.

If you've ever used a Smartphone, you'll realize what different beasts they really are - I'm having to re-learn this whole "lots of buttons" concept. :lol:
Nope, I've never even seen one in real life. I'd like to, though.

Steve

[ianmarsdenn]

Jason, please don't get all PMS like just because some of us have ideas a bit different to yours.
of course its your site and you can do what you want, like you say we don't have to go there.
However, some of us are interested in Smartphmes in general not just MS and I have not found a site that offers news and good reviews of the whole market sector.
There are a lot of one product sites and the discussions seem to consist of trying to fathom out why new releases are months late and why the phones don't work when they do arrive.

I agree with what dh wrote.

I am sorry my first ever post here (I am a long time lurker) is "contrary" to the opinions of the site owner, but I wanted to speak up, and present another argument I have not read yet.

Jason says "there's plenty of other sites about all smartphones..."

That is true. But all of the popular ones, except for HowardForums, are not N. American based. And there is no smartphone only community website that I know of in N. America. Chui's site covers cells phones as well as smart phones.

I think the siteadmin is making a mistake by not including all smart phones in the mix. I own a P800 phone, and while a bord like my-symbian is fine, it is Eurobased and has mostly Eurotalk. The P800 is IMO everything the MS Smartphone would like to be and then some, and when I read about "SmartPhone Thoughts" today, I was thrilled... until I read "MS only!".

Ian in Vancouver.

[Tooie]

Smart Phones are so closely related to Pocket PCs that I doubt I'll launch a whole new site. What I may do is broaden the focus of my site to include Smartphone 2002 devices...
That was in response to me pointing out the domain was available back at the end of February 2002.

So, Jason, you just couldn't resist, could you? :lol:

[dh]

For those wanting more balanced coverage, Jason even gave you a link.Steve

Howards is not a Smartphone site.

[Jason Dunn]

That is true. But all of the popular ones, except for HowardForums, are not N. American based. And there is no smartphone only community website that I know of in N. America. Chui's site covers cells phones as well as smart phones.

It looks like this is a great opportunity for you and DH to team up and launch your own smartphone site then! :D Go for it!

[Jason Dunn]

For those wanting more balanced coverage, Jason even gave you a link.Steve

Howards is not a Smartphone site.

I think you're splitting hairs now - Howard reviewed the SPV, the P800, and other "real" smartphones. What about All About Symbian (http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/)? Rafe runs a good site.

I can only do what I know I'm good at, and covering the whole smartphone market is not one of those things. It sounds like you have a desire to do this yourself, so why not start up a site? You obviously have the interest, you say there's a void, so why not do something about it?

Criticising is easy, creating is the hard part. :wink:

[Jason Dunn]

Smart Phones are so closely related to Pocket PCs that I doubt I'll launch a whole new site. What I may do is broaden the focus of my site to include Smartphone 2002 devices...
That was in response to me pointing out the domain was available back at the end of February 2002.

So, Jason, you just couldn't resist, could you? :lol:

A lot has changed between Feb 2002 and now. 8) Launcing SPT was motivated by three things:

1) When we did a survey here, about 40% of people did not want to see Smartphone news here - that's a big number. Dilluting my focus means risking losing people.

2) Once I received my SPV and started using it, I really enjoyed it, and running a site just about MS Smartphones got me excited :-)

3) Since the Smartphone market is very, very tiny, there's not much in the way of advertising money floating around yet. In light of that, some folks at Microsoft who really wanted to see Smartphone Thoughts happen were kind enough to give me some "start up" money to get things going, which means I could pay Fabrizio for his development work, cover some "lack of advertising costs", etc. All in all it was a very good deal for everyone involved, and SPT was made possible because of it.

[dh]

Man, you're making me feel like poor old Tony now. I was only making a suggestion that I think would make your new site more interesting, get more readers and (hopefully) sell more ads.

Here are some numbers from Howards site that show what I mean about the level of interest in the various products:

Symbian series 60 (Nokia 3650 etc) = 13,283 posts (I would personally call these Cellphones rather than Smartphones, but I guess they are a bit 'smart').
P800 and others of that type = 17,729 posts
Microsoft Smartphone = 135 posts.

I know this is somewhat unfair since not many have had the opportunity to even see an MS phone, but I think they are reasonably representative.

I'm personally very interested in Smartphones in general because I travel a lot and I have yet to find the idea mobile solution. I leave my laptop behind when I can and currently use the T-Mobile WiFi deal. I really don't know if I want to go the BT cellphone route, stick with WiFi or get a combined device like the PPC Phone Edition or Treo 600.

As I mentioned earlier, MS does not do it for me with the current version. The fact they want to help you promote them right now suggests new things might be coming before long? Hmm..... more to be indecisive about.

Anyway, sorry if I pissed you off, it was not my intention to do so. No, I'm not going to do it myself, I just hoped you might just do it for me. :D

Added: Palm OS = 230 posts. Not much happening there either. Looks like Howards readers are all Nockia or SE fans.

[Janak Parekh]

Symbian series 60 (Nokia 3650 etc) = 13,283 posts (I would personally call these Cellphones rather than Smartphones, but I guess they are a bit 'smart').
P800 and others of that type = 17,729 posts
Microsoft Smartphone = 135 posts.
If you saw the activity on Pocket PC Thoughts waaay back in the old days, it was very similar. It would be rare to have more than 5-6 comments on any thread -- and those were the controversial ones. ;)

One of the advantages, IMHO, of a site like this one (and SPT) is that there is a bias. We don't have to deal with accusations of being biased this way. :D

What you really need to do is to gift Jason a P800. Maybe he'll get addicted to it and will start a Symbian UIQ site. :lol:

--janak

[dh]

What you really need to do is to gift Jason a P800. Maybe he'll get addicted to it and will start a Symbian UIQ site. :lol:--janak

You want one as well while I'm at it?

Seriously I did get the opportunity to use a P800 for a week or so. It has some nice features, indeed if it had PPCPE to drive it, it might be the best device of all. I guess that having used Palm and now PPC it's hard to get into Symbian.

One of the major P800 problems is that the phone performance isn't very good. My trusty Siemens would always have a much better signal on the ATTWS network than the P800.

The screen is nothing to right home about either. Strange that Sony have great displays in their Clies but a dodgy one in the P800.

The P800 was one of the most anticipated smartphone releases but turned out to be a bit of a let down. I guess they all have really.

[Janak Parekh]

One of the major P800 problems is that the phone performance isn't very good. My trusty Siemens would always have a much better signal on the ATTWS network than the P800.
Do you mean a Siemens GSM phone? I've heard the P800 has above-average reception. But we're getting seriously offtopic. ;)

The screen is nothing to right home about either. Strange that Sony have great displays in their Clies but a dodgy one in the P800.
It's more of an Ericsson product than a Sony product, I think. It's a reflective display, so it's not so brilliant as the new Sony screens. But it isn't that bad.

The P800 was one of the most anticipated smartphone releases but turned out to be a bit of a let down. I guess they all have really.
The real problem with it is the damned Memory Stick Duo, which is maxed out at 128MB. That seems like it was Sony's contribution. :evil:

--janak

[dh]

Do you mean a Siemens GSM phone? I've heard the P800 has above-average reception. But we're getting seriously offtopic. ;)
Yes, I have the dual band GSM/TDMA phone. Works pretty well, especially since ATT GSM coverage isn't great everywhere
The real problem with it is the damned Memory Stick Duo, which is maxed out at 128MB. That seems like it was Sony's contribution. :evil:

I agree with you on the MS. The phone I used was my son's and he didn't have a MS, but the point is valid. It would be a better product with an SD card, as would the Clies.

Yes, slightly off topic, sorry Steve, I'll shut up now.

[Scott R]

Sorry for the advertisement, but since Jason probably would just as soon end all non-MS Smartphone discussion anyway, I figured I'd just jump in to mention that my site which launched about a month ago covers a variety of technology news but focuses primarily on PDAs and smartphones of all kinds. I live in the US, so I focus on products that are available here (or coming). Once Microsoft's Smartphone meets that criteria, I'll probably cover it as well. ;)

Scott

[rbrome]

Jason, I'm somewhat sorry to see that you did not include forums for all the various Smartphones on the market, Kyocera (the real Smartphone - how come MS hijacked the name?), Handspring, Samsung, SE, Nokia and the rest.

You mention in your intro that MS has a 0% market share. The main reason for this is that compared to it's competition it is el crapo! My son had an Orange SVP for a couple of weeks, before sending it back, and had nothing but trouble with it. So far, MS can't even pay the carriers to sell it.

Seems to me that anyone wanting a full featured "smartphone" is going to buy a PPCPE or one of the Palm offerings. Anyone wanting an intelligent cellphone has a bunch of potential offerings such as the Nokia 3650 and the various Japanese products. The MS product seems to sit in the middle with no real market focus. Heck, you can't even use an MS phone to get your laptop or PPC online because there is no Bluetooth. That would have been a useful application although others do it with a nicer form factor.

I fully understand that you make your living as a (kind of) MS marketing guy, so you are hardly going to agree with me that MS Smartphone sucks but I believe that if you had forums for the competing products this is where most of the activity would be. Maybe Andy is right when he thinks that the mobile market will be a battle between Symbian and Linux, although POS is doing ok in that market at the moment.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti Microsoft at all, heck I am typing this on my Win 2000 laptop and I love my Axim. But, if I was going to buy a Smartphone today it would be a Treo 600 (if it was available today). There is no way I'd buy one of those Orange things or it's clones.

First, I would say that it depends on how you define "smartphone". Having used many types of devices personally, I see a clear difference between "PDA Phones" (or "connected handhelds") and "smartphones". If it runs Pocket PC or Palm OS, then that is not what I would call a "smartphone". To me, a "smartphone" is a new category of device that is just emerging. Microsoft's Smartphone OS and Nokia's Series 60 are the two main platforms at the moment.

If you've used an SPV or a Nokia 3650, you probably realize how very different they are from any kind of PDA.

I know this probably borders on blasphemy on a site like this, but I'll say it anyway: I personally am not a "PDA person". But I love smartphones - I'm totally dependent on them (I have two).

To round out the whole platform thing, I'll just add that I think devices like the P800 (Symbian / UIQ) and Motorola's A760 (Linux) fall somewhere in between "PDA phones" and "smartphones" - they're somewhat hard to categorize.

Now as for Jason's decision - I totally support it. It's his choice what kind of site to create, and he's chosen to create a site dedicated to Microsoft Smartphones. If you don't like the platform, that's fine, but that's no reason to criticize Jason. It just doesn't make any sense. Would criticise the creator of www.1957ford.com for not including info on Chevys? It just doesn't make any sense...

[rbrome]

Sorry, I was looking for the Preferences button that PPCT has. I didn't realize it was on the front page until I actually went back there. :oops:

We shuffled the UI around a little bit - believe it or not, it's more intuitive for first-time users. :wink:

I had some trouble with it. It would be nice if there were a "regsiter" link somewhere. I was completely stumped on how to register, and even gave up the first time I tried it last week. Only the next day did I come back and stumble across the "subscribe" link, which unexpectedly brought up the regsiter page. It would also be handy if there were a "register" link on the login page.

[Jason Dunn]

Sorry, I was looking for the Preferences button that PPCT has. I didn't realize it was on the front page until I actually went back there. :oops:

We shuffled the UI around a little bit - believe it or not, it's more intuitive for first-time users. :wink:

I had some trouble with it. It would be nice if there were a "regsiter" link somewhere. I was completely stumped on how to register, and even gave up the first time I tried it last week. Only the next day did I come back and stumble across the "subscribe" link, which unexpectedly brought up the regsiter page. It would also be handy if there were a "register" link on the login page.

Yeah we need to improve that process - I made a little easier today by adding a link that takes you to the registration page from the subscriber page.

[Zensbikeshop]

I was over at Brighthand just now an dnoticed they have added a Smartphone forum to come soon.

Coincidence? :wink:

Sahme their server can't cope with the load it has now!!!

[ctmagnus]

We shuffled the UI around a little bit - believe it or not, it's more intuitive for first-time users. :wink:

I concur. Unless that user happens to be seven layers deep in the site already. :wink:

[Duncan]

I was over at Brighthand just now an dnoticed they have added a Smartphone forum to come soon.

Coincidence?

Yes. There have been requests for a smartphone forum for a while and the 'coming soon' link pre-dates 'Smartphone' thoughts going live (I doubt Jason gave Steve advance notice!). Pocket PC Passion and some other PPC forums have had smartphone sections for a bit so I suspect this is a simple forums catch-up exercise.

[Pony99CA]

Now as for Jason's decision - I totally support it. It's his choice what kind of site to create, and he's chosen to create a site dedicated to Microsoft Smartphones. If you don't like the platform, that's fine, but that's no reason to criticize Jason.
I agree that it's Jason's decision (maybe -- more about that later), but I don't believe anybody criticized Jason.

I personally don't want to see Symbian, Palm and other smart phone coverage on Smartphone Thoughts, but would like to see Pocket PC Phone Edition devices covered there. There is general phone news there already, so adding another Microsoft phone platform makes sense to me. However, I can see why Jason might not want double coverage (as Pocket PC Phones would also be covered here).

Now, back to whether it's truly Jason's decision to cover only Smartphones. Jason said Microsoft gave him some money, so it's possible that Microsoft is requiring the site to cover only Smartphones. I don't know, but, knowing Microsoft, it wouldn't surprise me. :-)

Regardless, Jason has stated his reasons for the single focus, they seem reasonable, so let's move on. If you want to see smart phone coverage, there's Howard's site (no, it's not just smart phones, but nobody forces you to read the dumb phone news :-)).

Steve

[Jason Dunn]

Now, back to whether it's truly Jason's decision to cover only Smartphones. Jason said Microsoft gave him some money, so it's possible that Microsoft is requiring the site to cover only Smartphones. I don't know, but, knowing Microsoft, it wouldn't surprise me. :-)

To be 100% clear, even before the issue of a start-up grant from MS came up, I had no intention of doing anything other than MS Smartphones. When I registered that domain, it was only for MS Smartphones. This really was completely my decision. :wink:

[Pony99CA]

To be 100% clear, even before the issue of a start-up grant from MS came up, I had no intention of doing anything other than MS Smartphones. When I registered that domain, it was only for MS Smartphones. This really was completely my decision. :wink:
OK, cool. I'm glad there's no evil conspiracy. Now if only those black helicopters would stop buzzing my house.... 0X

Steve