BrightFuture
06-11-2006, 05:06 AM
I have just bought a new O2 Atom and TorQ P120 pda phone to compare.
For a few years I have had a nokia 8210 phone and a separate Palm PDA. The most recent Palm was a Tungsten T3 which I have had virtually since they were released. I have been hanging out for a single device that does everything these two did and a little more.
What has amazed me about the new devices is how badly the software that comes standard with the PDA is integrsted with ther hardware and function buttons.
I am amazed that even though this type of device has been our for a few years now, the software integration is so pitiful.
I decided to get a Windows mobile device because of how bad the Tungsten T3 was, and also because of the hardware problems I had with my previous Palm device, the M105. The T3 has a great set of design features but was totally spoiled by how quickly the battery went flat and by how bad the build quality was. In the period I have had the device I have in fact owned four devices because something would fail and need to be returned for service, but that is another story.
I switched to Windows because no one was building any Palm OS devices with the right mix of featutres, I refused to buy any more Palm hardware.
Unfortiunately what I am now missing is the simplicity and much better integration of the Palm OS compared to Windows Mobile 5.
I'll post more grievances on this thread later but dor now what I find realyy really frustrating is how poorly the hardware/navigation keys integrate with the phone software.
It is shocking that I can't make a phone call from to someone on my speed dial list without having to use both hands and being forced to tap the screen.
This is what I should be able to do.
1) press the phone hardware key
2) use the navigation key to select and press the Speed Dial button on the screen
3)use the navigation key to select and press the speed dial.
That is ist. I am not even talking about reducing the number of presses of the nav button. At this stage I don't care if I have to tress down 10 times to get to the speed dial button.
Does anything allow this to be done in such a simple (and to me logica/intuitive manner?
What windows forces me to do however tis this.
1) press the phone hardware key
2) Use my stylus (or small finger) to press the Speed dial soft button
This is where it gets really frustrating and stupid.
My intuition would suggest that I select the speed dial I wand by selecting it with the stylus, hence step 3
3) Use the stylus to click the speed dial item.
However instead of dialing the number it puts me in edit mode from which I need to 3a) click OK
3b) click call
This is really stupid.
To continue in the most efficient manner I have to change from using use the stylus and use the navigation key to scroll (Now I really object to have to press scroll several times in order to select the item I want).
3.1) Use nav key to scroll to item
3.2) use scroll key to select item and dial.
Whilst this seems to be the same number of steps but it forces you to change methods which chsanges how you expect to make selections. It seems natural to me that if I have a list of speed dials in front of me, and having been forced to use the stylus to get to the list, the intuitive way to get to the next step is to continue using that method. ie click the damn item to call it!
Why on earth would i want to edit the details at that point?. Surel this should be the default action from clicking on it, I will want to call the number more times than I would want to edit it!
T.
PS more frustrations to come.
For a few years I have had a nokia 8210 phone and a separate Palm PDA. The most recent Palm was a Tungsten T3 which I have had virtually since they were released. I have been hanging out for a single device that does everything these two did and a little more.
What has amazed me about the new devices is how badly the software that comes standard with the PDA is integrsted with ther hardware and function buttons.
I am amazed that even though this type of device has been our for a few years now, the software integration is so pitiful.
I decided to get a Windows mobile device because of how bad the Tungsten T3 was, and also because of the hardware problems I had with my previous Palm device, the M105. The T3 has a great set of design features but was totally spoiled by how quickly the battery went flat and by how bad the build quality was. In the period I have had the device I have in fact owned four devices because something would fail and need to be returned for service, but that is another story.
I switched to Windows because no one was building any Palm OS devices with the right mix of featutres, I refused to buy any more Palm hardware.
Unfortiunately what I am now missing is the simplicity and much better integration of the Palm OS compared to Windows Mobile 5.
I'll post more grievances on this thread later but dor now what I find realyy really frustrating is how poorly the hardware/navigation keys integrate with the phone software.
It is shocking that I can't make a phone call from to someone on my speed dial list without having to use both hands and being forced to tap the screen.
This is what I should be able to do.
1) press the phone hardware key
2) use the navigation key to select and press the Speed Dial button on the screen
3)use the navigation key to select and press the speed dial.
That is ist. I am not even talking about reducing the number of presses of the nav button. At this stage I don't care if I have to tress down 10 times to get to the speed dial button.
Does anything allow this to be done in such a simple (and to me logica/intuitive manner?
What windows forces me to do however tis this.
1) press the phone hardware key
2) Use my stylus (or small finger) to press the Speed dial soft button
This is where it gets really frustrating and stupid.
My intuition would suggest that I select the speed dial I wand by selecting it with the stylus, hence step 3
3) Use the stylus to click the speed dial item.
However instead of dialing the number it puts me in edit mode from which I need to 3a) click OK
3b) click call
This is really stupid.
To continue in the most efficient manner I have to change from using use the stylus and use the navigation key to scroll (Now I really object to have to press scroll several times in order to select the item I want).
3.1) Use nav key to scroll to item
3.2) use scroll key to select item and dial.
Whilst this seems to be the same number of steps but it forces you to change methods which chsanges how you expect to make selections. It seems natural to me that if I have a list of speed dials in front of me, and having been forced to use the stylus to get to the list, the intuitive way to get to the next step is to continue using that method. ie click the damn item to call it!
Why on earth would i want to edit the details at that point?. Surel this should be the default action from clicking on it, I will want to call the number more times than I would want to edit it!
T.
PS more frustrations to come.