It seems everyone in business has a smartphone today to keep connected to the office and enjoy their time away from the office. Matthew Miller provides you with news, commentary and in-depth reviews of the latest in mobile phones sporting iOS, Android, Wi
Matthew Miller started using a Pilot 1000 in 1997 and has been writing news, reviews, and opinion pieces ever since.
James, Kevin, and I have a real tough time sticking to just 15 minutes or so and we had a lot to talk about in MobileTechRoundup show #161 which runs about 27 minutes. We chatted a bit about the launch of my new Nokia Experts site and two devices that I am currently checking out, the T-Mobile BlackBerry Curve 8900 and T-Mobile Shadow. James is running Windows 7 on a new HP 2140 and is pleased with the experience.
I enjoy using my T-Mobile G1, but with my usage scenarios I can only go half a day with the battery. I solved the battery issue by buying the Seidio 2600 mAh battery and am now going almost 2 days with a single full battery. I also see daily low memory alerts because of the number of applications I try out and amount of browsing I do. In the video below I show you my new fat G1 and several of my favorite applications in action.
I was quite the fan of the T-Mobile Shadow and even defended its honor in a post. I bought it the day it was available and think it was a good, solid device. The battery life was the Achilles heel and it never did get an update to Windows Mobile 6.1. T-Mobile announced the second generation Shadow this week and I started playing with it yesterday afternoon. You can check out the video below for some of my thoughts and a walk around the device.
As I pointed out in a recent post regarding the current firmware on the T-Mobile G1 Google Android device there is a major issue with not being able to store applications or content onto the external microSD card. I get low memory errors daily and if I browse a lot with the device my browser cache fills up to 10MB+. Then when I delete the data I lose all my history, bookmarks, etc. and this really limits my usage of the G1. Opera thankfully announced today that its Opera Mini 4.2 product for the Android platform is out of beta already and available as a full release in the Android Market.
Back in the Fall of 2007 (I cannot believe it has been that long ago) I bought a T-Mobile Shadow and thought it was an excellent Windows Mobile Smartphone with lots of functionality and a cool UI to appeal to many people. I actually just sold my Shadow last week on Craigslist to clean out my gadget closet a bit. Today T-Mobile officially announced the new T-Mobile Shadow that has a more rounded design, two new colors (white mint and black burgundy), support for T-Mobile UMA (HotSpot @Home service), and a faster processor.
T-Mobile may not have the latest and greatest Windows Mobile phones, but they were the first to launch a Google Android device with the G1 (see my review) and are one of the first to sell the latest and greatest RIM BlackBerry devices. They were one of the first with the Curve and Pearl and are the only US carrier currently supporting the BlackBerry Pearl Flip. The latest device to hit T-Mobile is the RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 that is currently available in Canada from Rogers. The T-Mobile RIM BlackBerry Curve 8900 should be a super hot seller since it offers almost the same specifications (differences are important and noted below in detail) and functionality as the larger and more expensive BlackBerry Bold in a lighter and sleeker package. I've had the Curve 8900 for the last few days and if I didn't have such a need for an Exchange server solution I would be one of the first in line to buy the Curve 8900.
I enjoy writing about all the mobile operating systems here on this blog, but also have a passion for S60 and Nokia devices. Thus, to be able to post about my experiences, news, and reviews of Nokia and S60 devices that are not really pertinent to the enterprise user I launched the Nokia Experts site that joins several other operating system/device focused sites in the Smartphone Experts family. These sites include Android Central, CrackBerry.com, the iPhone blog, TreoCentral, WMExperts, and PreCentral.
I thought the $800 price of the XPERIA X1 was high, but according to Engadget the Sprint Treo Pro is priced right now at US$699.99 over on Best Buy. I'm not sure if this is the real final price though since online stores like Best Buy and Amazon have been known post high prices before availability. The SIM unlocked Treo Pro sells from Palm for US$549 so this price makes little sense.
I just posted my first impressions of the SE XPERIA X1a, which is the Windows Mobile device with the highest specifications available today. Then I read Zack's post a bit later today slamming Windows Mobile so I thought it would be appropriate to address his issues and post why I think Windows Mobile still has a lot to offer even though today they get no respect, as Rodney would say.
I was present at Mobile World Congress in Spain last year and IMHO the device that generated the most interest and conversation was the Sony Ericsson XPERIA X1. The device marked the first SE Windows Mobile device and also brought a customized user interface layer, called Panels, to Windows Mobile. In addition, the hardware looked fantastic with an 800x480 pixels resolution 3" WVGA display, stainless steel design and QWERTY slider keyboard. The device retails for a whopping US$799.99 and after spending several days with it I am not sure the high end quality alone is worth the premium price of admission.