11-13-2005, 07:41 PM
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Mystic
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 1,520
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My internal conflict over convergence
My internal conflict over convergence
Like many people in these forums I'd been resisting the siren of convergence. I was well aware that moving over to a Phone Edition PDA would require several feature set sacrifices on my part. The specific features varied depending on which device I chose.
- Large Screen
VGA
Powerful processor
Dual expansion slots
Memory
And perhaps other smaller ones.
Because of this, I went with a vary popular setup. Standalone PDA (Toshiba e830) and bluetooth phone (in my case Smartphone, Audiovox SMT5600). This seemed to suffice... for awhile.
Certain irritations started to close in on me.
Carrying two devices became burdensome. The fact that I like to have my PDA with me most of the time put me in a position of always trying to find a place to put both devices. This one on my belt, that one in my pocket...
Keeping both devices upto date with my PIM data. At home it was just a matter of sync one device. Unplug it. Then sync the other. But at work, I use Intellisync to provide me with 2-way category filtering. Call me paranoid, but I don't like the idea of having my personal data on the corporate Exchange Servers. Technically once its there it belongs to the company. Anyway... this basically created a scenario where my smartphone was outdated as soon as I left home (PDA to PDA sync would be great) so through the day I couldn't just leave one device and carry the other.
Connectivity. It got to the point where I didn't like the idea of having to
wait for my two devices to connected over bluetooth before my Toshiba could surf or check email. Envy over my co-workers XDA with its constant connectivity bore down on me. I even tried a GPRS CF card, but it just became something else to carry around. It went back to the store.
So... with these items in mind, I succumbed to the lure of convergence. For the last several months I put aside my e830 and 5600 and carried around a brand new E-Ten m500.
The m500 is a great device and it definitely alleviated all of my annoyances listed above. With several 3rd party applications I was able to create a pretty decent one-handed experience. My plan was to use it for awhile until the WM5.0 devices came out then upgrade. My girlfriend even aske me if I would let her keep the m500. I told her that I'd let her do a test run for awhile to see if she liked it.
So all was good... for awhile...
The longer I had the m500, the more demands I put on it. More applications... more responsibilities. Finally I got to a point where sometimes it would soft reset when an it got an incoming call. I came to realize that it wasn't the workhorse that I unknowingly was trying to make it out to be. Standing memory (if I was lucky) was about 11mb after a soft reset.
Then there was the screen. As a convergence device its the perfect size. But I began to miss the large bright screen of my e830. I think it had something to do with the great themes, skins, and icons that people like Juni and PocketInformant were putting into their applications. I couldn't really see them. I wanted to see them.
So to make a long story short... 8O
I've decided to use the e830 and smt5600 again for awhile to see it two
devices is really what I want. I tried to use the e830 and m500 but the m500 didn't expose a DUN bluetooth profile so I could use it as a modem.
After about a week...
Its still a hassle sometimes having to carry two devices. But at work I stick my e830 into a portfolio with a pad when I'm going to meetings.
Keeping the devices update is a little easier now because I use 4smartphone.net to host my personal exchange data. I started that while I was using the m500. The only annoyance is that Mobile Activesync wont send my work appointments to the 4smartphone.net server. Not sure why. Maybe it has trouble with the fact that the appointments have attendees that are not in my personal contacts. {shrug}
For the most part, the part that bothers me the most is the fickleness of the bluetooth on my e830. Sometimes I have to do a soft reset to have it start up properly. Its possible that it doesn't like calligrapher. Not sure.
So where does this leave me...
Well, I'm pretty sure that I'm going to still buy another device. I'm just
not sure what. Or how many? Having tried every flavor or Windows Mobile (except PMP), I like them all. And there are new devices for each flavor coming out that peak my interest. I'm pretty sure buying 3 new devices is pretty close to some for of insanity. :worried: Maybe even buying 2 is bad.
{sigh} Dilemnas... dilemnas...
Anyone have similar experiences? Advice? Taunting?
But if nothing else, thanks for listening... :wink:
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Phone: Nexus one Backup Phone: AT&T Samsung Jack; Future Phone: I'm Watching WP7; Media Player: Platinum Zune HD 32GB; Home Server: HP MediaSmart Server LX195 Console: XBox 360, PS3, Wii |
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