Sell Phone
Windows Mobile 6.1 is the worst piece of crap cell phone operating system ever. Period.
I’ve been a Palm user (palm’s operating system) since the early 00’s. I started with a PDA (no phone) for calendar, voice memo, and notes, mostly. Then merged the two devices in my pocket into one with the Treo 680
The Treo 680 - an unlocked “World Phone” that I can use in any country in the world; just need a sim card. I’ve installed Tom Tom maps and the phone connects to an external GPS device via Bluetooth. Unlike most GPS phones today, it does NOT need an active data connection for GPS to work. This is still a HUGE advantage as I can travel off the cell phone grid, with no data or cell service and still use the GPS software. This is TRUE GPS, not “assisted GPS (aGPS)”, like most every other phone (including the iPhone). Imagine if you went on a hike with your “assisted GPS” phone and were out of cell phone range and got a bit lost. You take out your trusty aGPS phone and open your favorite map/locator program to guide you back to civilization… But to no avail, there is no cell phone service, meaning the aGPS phone cannot download your location (also called a “fix”) – So you’re still lost, but at least you can play solitaire before you’re eaten by mountain lions.
Anyways, besides the true GPS functionality of the Treo 680, it had everything else a tech nerd needed. Voice memo was a must (and surprisingly vacant from most other phones), Exchange server compatibility, Remote Desktop support (via third party software), Bluetooth headset support, physical keyboard, hardkeys, sd card support, and plenty of available third party downloadable software to boot.
After switching to Sprint’s network, I had to shelve the 680 since Sprint doesn’t utilize SimCards and got the Palm Centro as an interim step to me getting a Windows Mobile phone.
So why was I moving away from Palm and moving to a Windows Mobile Phone? Well frankly Palm, has been notoriously slow in adopting new technologies. Bluetooth 2.0 support = nope, GPS integration = nope, standard peripherals = nope, stereo Bluetooth (AD2P for you tech nerds) = nope. Plus the Palm’s CPU’s have been infamously slow, their operating system was simple and unimagined, their screens were itty bitty, and they all weighed a ton. I also wanted a phone that was “more” compatible for windows machines. Since I’m a tech support specialist, I manage a couple Windows Servers and about 30 desktops and needed to control and utilize much of these systems remotely. I also use Windows as my home machine and have two windows laptops. And the Palm was far from perfect in compatibility with those systems (although still better than many other mobile phones)
So, I waited nearly a 6 years for the right windows mobile device, the HTC Touch Pro. Its windows, so it should be compatible with all other windows devices and pretty much have everything you’d expect a windows device to have…. Right?
Well to my surprise, it barely has more than the Palm had. NO remote desktop support, voice memo support is awkward and basically unusable, no java support, notes were difficult, most everything required two hands and the stylus, … and the most important is… the user interface of a windows mobile phone perhaps is the most un-intuitive, unimaginable, hard-to-use with one hand piece of crap that I’ve ever seen. I thought Blackberry devices were difficult to use, but this takes the cake. Why would the “close” button be the tiniest “x” in the far TOP right hand corner? I cannot close one single damn program without taking out my stylus and carefully pressing the exact 1 millimeter “x” to close it.
And why close a program? Windows Mobile device are multi-threaded so you can use a bunch of programs at once, right? Well, basically all the programs I open STAY open and drain the battery and I don’t wanna carry around 30 extra batteries. And since other users have complained about this, Microsoft has responded with the excuse: “Users don’t wanna be bothered with managing their own applications/memory” – Completely missing the point once again.
So, I spent hours searching for a software workaround that would allow me to close a program differently. I found something that allows me to map a hard key to the close function. Let’s just say, it ain’t perfect, and still sucks.
Other crappy windows mobile things: the start menu is useless, the built in calendar is the most worthless, horrible design ever, the keylock is absolutely pointless, you have to “turn-off” the device to protect from “pocket calls” unless you purchase worthless keylocking software. If the device is off, it doesn’t show the time on the screen, you need to turn on your device for that. (could be hardware limitations) Plus ActiveSync is absolutely ridiculously the worst syncing software ever imagined and works 50% of the time. Never have I spent more time customizing and finding workarounds for a device to work with other systems by the same designer. And, of course, windows mobile doesn’t work with any Apple machine. (not a big deal, plus still a minus)
So what’s the good? The keyboard for one, the screen for two, the built in GPS, and the mobile Outlook. And only one of those things can be attributed to the windows mobile operating system.
Obviously I’m moving back to Palm… But will the “Pre” do it for me or will Palm once again omit much needed features?
-
I’ve been a Palm user (palm’s operating system) since the early 00’s. I started with a PDA (no phone) for calendar, voice memo, and notes, mostly. Then merged the two devices in my pocket into one with the Treo 680
The Treo 680 - an unlocked “World Phone” that I can use in any country in the world; just need a sim card. I’ve installed Tom Tom maps and the phone connects to an external GPS device via Bluetooth. Unlike most GPS phones today, it does NOT need an active data connection for GPS to work. This is still a HUGE advantage as I can travel off the cell phone grid, with no data or cell service and still use the GPS software. This is TRUE GPS, not “assisted GPS (aGPS)”, like most every other phone (including the iPhone). Imagine if you went on a hike with your “assisted GPS” phone and were out of cell phone range and got a bit lost. You take out your trusty aGPS phone and open your favorite map/locator program to guide you back to civilization… But to no avail, there is no cell phone service, meaning the aGPS phone cannot download your location (also called a “fix”) – So you’re still lost, but at least you can play solitaire before you’re eaten by mountain lions.
Anyways, besides the true GPS functionality of the Treo 680, it had everything else a tech nerd needed. Voice memo was a must (and surprisingly vacant from most other phones), Exchange server compatibility, Remote Desktop support (via third party software), Bluetooth headset support, physical keyboard, hardkeys, sd card support, and plenty of available third party downloadable software to boot.
After switching to Sprint’s network, I had to shelve the 680 since Sprint doesn’t utilize SimCards and got the Palm Centro as an interim step to me getting a Windows Mobile phone.
So why was I moving away from Palm and moving to a Windows Mobile Phone? Well frankly Palm, has been notoriously slow in adopting new technologies. Bluetooth 2.0 support = nope, GPS integration = nope, standard peripherals = nope, stereo Bluetooth (AD2P for you tech nerds) = nope. Plus the Palm’s CPU’s have been infamously slow, their operating system was simple and unimagined, their screens were itty bitty, and they all weighed a ton. I also wanted a phone that was “more” compatible for windows machines. Since I’m a tech support specialist, I manage a couple Windows Servers and about 30 desktops and needed to control and utilize much of these systems remotely. I also use Windows as my home machine and have two windows laptops. And the Palm was far from perfect in compatibility with those systems (although still better than many other mobile phones)
So, I waited nearly a 6 years for the right windows mobile device, the HTC Touch Pro. Its windows, so it should be compatible with all other windows devices and pretty much have everything you’d expect a windows device to have…. Right?
Well to my surprise, it barely has more than the Palm had. NO remote desktop support, voice memo support is awkward and basically unusable, no java support, notes were difficult, most everything required two hands and the stylus, … and the most important is… the user interface of a windows mobile phone perhaps is the most un-intuitive, unimaginable, hard-to-use with one hand piece of crap that I’ve ever seen. I thought Blackberry devices were difficult to use, but this takes the cake. Why would the “close” button be the tiniest “x” in the far TOP right hand corner? I cannot close one single damn program without taking out my stylus and carefully pressing the exact 1 millimeter “x” to close it.
And why close a program? Windows Mobile device are multi-threaded so you can use a bunch of programs at once, right? Well, basically all the programs I open STAY open and drain the battery and I don’t wanna carry around 30 extra batteries. And since other users have complained about this, Microsoft has responded with the excuse: “Users don’t wanna be bothered with managing their own applications/memory” – Completely missing the point once again.
So, I spent hours searching for a software workaround that would allow me to close a program differently. I found something that allows me to map a hard key to the close function. Let’s just say, it ain’t perfect, and still sucks.
Other crappy windows mobile things: the start menu is useless, the built in calendar is the most worthless, horrible design ever, the keylock is absolutely pointless, you have to “turn-off” the device to protect from “pocket calls” unless you purchase worthless keylocking software. If the device is off, it doesn’t show the time on the screen, you need to turn on your device for that. (could be hardware limitations) Plus ActiveSync is absolutely ridiculously the worst syncing software ever imagined and works 50% of the time. Never have I spent more time customizing and finding workarounds for a device to work with other systems by the same designer. And, of course, windows mobile doesn’t work with any Apple machine. (not a big deal, plus still a minus)
So what’s the good? The keyboard for one, the screen for two, the built in GPS, and the mobile Outlook. And only one of those things can be attributed to the windows mobile operating system.
Obviously I’m moving back to Palm… But will the “Pre” do it for me or will Palm once again omit much needed features?
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