jazee
06-24-2009, 07:45 PM
I've been a Windows Mobile user for many years now, back when it was called Windows CE. I remember browsing the web on my Samsung, whatever it was many years ago at less than 56K speeds! This write up is for fellow Win Mobile users lurking here or iPhone users that wondered about WinMo but never tried it. I have no loyalty to Gates or Jobs' products, this is just my personal, factual experience.
I know the iPhone is a great user friendly device, but I never caved and got one, until now. I've been using what is widely accepted as one of if not the best WinMobile device out right now the HTC Fuze (I think it is also called the Touch Pro?) There's probably something better now, but that's not what this thread is about.
I've always been a power user which is what has kept me on Windows Mobile. I really liked the selection of apps and custom ROMS. I have been running WinMobile 6.5 on my Fuze via a custom ROM. Microsoft and HTC are both making progress. However, with pretty much all my WinMobile devices I've owned, there is considerable care and feeding required to setup the phone the way you want it and maintain it. Just like Windows desktop, an occasional reboot (soft reset) is sometimes necessary. Time is precious and I've grown increasingly aware of where all my time goes managing all the gadgets (PC's, Media Centers, phones, iPods) in my life and around my house with family of 4.
I didn't get an iPhone mainly because it lacked tethering support. I also really fell in love with the PhoneAlarm app on Windows that allowed me control over notification and ring tones including different profiles for different times of day, or locations. The iPhone lacked this level of control naitively or via an app.
When the more powerful 3GS was announced including tethering I decided to take the plunge. I'll try not to get too specific and write a novel. Bottom line, I'm MUCH HAPPIER with a few exceptions.
As expected, the iPhone touch screen is SO much easier to use than the Fuze's. If you've used both devices for a significant amount of time, you will know what I'm talking about. (I had the Tilt previously) I can actually get things done on the phone fairly quickly as oppose to this feeling of wrestling with it to do what I want when I want. I am SO much more efficient and productive on the iPhone. And I found the procedure to enable tethering even though AT&T doesn't offer it yet and it works excellent!
Downloading and installing apps is so quick and seemless with iTunes and the synching is also seems to be quicker and more seamless than ActiveSync. I will NOT miss Activesync and its idiosyncrasies. And this 3GS phone is FAST. No significant delays doing virtually ANYTHING on this phone. All the WinMobile phones I've had were SLOW comparatively.
So the benefits of the iPhone, for me, have far outweighed any drawbacks. So what are the drawbacks?
The first one is that the phone will not sync your Outlook email folders (via the .PST file). It will sync contacts, and calendar events but for some odd reason it won't sync your POP e-mail account folders. There's a fairly easy way around this though, just re-setup your email accounts as IMAP instead of POP3. Yes, this means copies of all your e-mail remain on the server, but that actually gives you more universal access to your e-mail from a variety of places. There's a couple drawbacks in my mind though about using IMAP: 1) now instead of several e-mail accounts all going into one inbox, they all go into separate inboxes for each account in Outlook - a minor annoyance due to my personal preference. 2) When you delete a message, it doesn't move it to the Deleted items folder in Outlook, you have to select Edit, Purge Deleted Items to get rid of the e-mails and they still don't go into the deleted items folder. The only way to do this is to move each email to the Deleted Items folder.
The other annoyance, probably the biggest one for me, is the lack of control over the ring and notification on the phone. There may be an app that once I can jailbreak my 3GS will do this but I'm still waiting for a 3GS jailbreak. With PhoneAlarm on Windows Mobile I could tell it not only what type of tone and/or vibrate to use for notifications and rings, but I could tell it how many times to repeat and how often to repeat. Not on the iPhone. As a result, I've been missing some voicemails, missed calls, e-mails etc when I fail to use the phone for several hours. It doesn't seem to have a reminder notification tone or vibrate option that can be configured to repeat say every 15 minutes for 4 hours. This is the biggest drawback of the iPhone for me. It seems it is really setup with the assumption you are going to use the phone frequently so you see the notification messages when you go to unlock the phone.
The last dissapointment on the phone is the lack of what is called the Today Screen on Windows Mobile. If I want to check the weather, I have to launch the weather app instead of just glancing at the phone. The phone at least shows indication of number of missed calls, voicemails, emails. It also doesn't show upcoming calendar events and other useful info without launching the app. I think the phone would be much better showing summary info for phone calls, messages, e-mail, weather, and calendar like on Windows Mobile and then you click an App button to bring up the App Menu. Instead, the iPhone just shows you an app menu with just a few tiny counters for voicemail, email, missed calls, etc. There IS an app that give you a Today Screen but once again you need to jailbreak the phone.
Bottom line, I like this phone, but once I get it jailbroken, I'll LOVE this phone. It is so much faster/easier/smoother than any Windows Mobile phone I've used. And the seamless tethering is icing on the cake. I doubt I will be going back to Windows Mobile. I think the only thing that might give Apple a run for their money in the future is Google with a future version of Android. Microsoft has really lost the battle for Phone O/S in my opinion.
I know the iPhone is a great user friendly device, but I never caved and got one, until now. I've been using what is widely accepted as one of if not the best WinMobile device out right now the HTC Fuze (I think it is also called the Touch Pro?) There's probably something better now, but that's not what this thread is about.
I've always been a power user which is what has kept me on Windows Mobile. I really liked the selection of apps and custom ROMS. I have been running WinMobile 6.5 on my Fuze via a custom ROM. Microsoft and HTC are both making progress. However, with pretty much all my WinMobile devices I've owned, there is considerable care and feeding required to setup the phone the way you want it and maintain it. Just like Windows desktop, an occasional reboot (soft reset) is sometimes necessary. Time is precious and I've grown increasingly aware of where all my time goes managing all the gadgets (PC's, Media Centers, phones, iPods) in my life and around my house with family of 4.
I didn't get an iPhone mainly because it lacked tethering support. I also really fell in love with the PhoneAlarm app on Windows that allowed me control over notification and ring tones including different profiles for different times of day, or locations. The iPhone lacked this level of control naitively or via an app.
When the more powerful 3GS was announced including tethering I decided to take the plunge. I'll try not to get too specific and write a novel. Bottom line, I'm MUCH HAPPIER with a few exceptions.
As expected, the iPhone touch screen is SO much easier to use than the Fuze's. If you've used both devices for a significant amount of time, you will know what I'm talking about. (I had the Tilt previously) I can actually get things done on the phone fairly quickly as oppose to this feeling of wrestling with it to do what I want when I want. I am SO much more efficient and productive on the iPhone. And I found the procedure to enable tethering even though AT&T doesn't offer it yet and it works excellent!
Downloading and installing apps is so quick and seemless with iTunes and the synching is also seems to be quicker and more seamless than ActiveSync. I will NOT miss Activesync and its idiosyncrasies. And this 3GS phone is FAST. No significant delays doing virtually ANYTHING on this phone. All the WinMobile phones I've had were SLOW comparatively.
So the benefits of the iPhone, for me, have far outweighed any drawbacks. So what are the drawbacks?
The first one is that the phone will not sync your Outlook email folders (via the .PST file). It will sync contacts, and calendar events but for some odd reason it won't sync your POP e-mail account folders. There's a fairly easy way around this though, just re-setup your email accounts as IMAP instead of POP3. Yes, this means copies of all your e-mail remain on the server, but that actually gives you more universal access to your e-mail from a variety of places. There's a couple drawbacks in my mind though about using IMAP: 1) now instead of several e-mail accounts all going into one inbox, they all go into separate inboxes for each account in Outlook - a minor annoyance due to my personal preference. 2) When you delete a message, it doesn't move it to the Deleted items folder in Outlook, you have to select Edit, Purge Deleted Items to get rid of the e-mails and they still don't go into the deleted items folder. The only way to do this is to move each email to the Deleted Items folder.
The other annoyance, probably the biggest one for me, is the lack of control over the ring and notification on the phone. There may be an app that once I can jailbreak my 3GS will do this but I'm still waiting for a 3GS jailbreak. With PhoneAlarm on Windows Mobile I could tell it not only what type of tone and/or vibrate to use for notifications and rings, but I could tell it how many times to repeat and how often to repeat. Not on the iPhone. As a result, I've been missing some voicemails, missed calls, e-mails etc when I fail to use the phone for several hours. It doesn't seem to have a reminder notification tone or vibrate option that can be configured to repeat say every 15 minutes for 4 hours. This is the biggest drawback of the iPhone for me. It seems it is really setup with the assumption you are going to use the phone frequently so you see the notification messages when you go to unlock the phone.
The last dissapointment on the phone is the lack of what is called the Today Screen on Windows Mobile. If I want to check the weather, I have to launch the weather app instead of just glancing at the phone. The phone at least shows indication of number of missed calls, voicemails, emails. It also doesn't show upcoming calendar events and other useful info without launching the app. I think the phone would be much better showing summary info for phone calls, messages, e-mail, weather, and calendar like on Windows Mobile and then you click an App button to bring up the App Menu. Instead, the iPhone just shows you an app menu with just a few tiny counters for voicemail, email, missed calls, etc. There IS an app that give you a Today Screen but once again you need to jailbreak the phone.
Bottom line, I like this phone, but once I get it jailbroken, I'll LOVE this phone. It is so much faster/easier/smoother than any Windows Mobile phone I've used. And the seamless tethering is icing on the cake. I doubt I will be going back to Windows Mobile. I think the only thing that might give Apple a run for their money in the future is Google with a future version of Android. Microsoft has really lost the battle for Phone O/S in my opinion.