windows mobile / outlook integration

It has been maybe two weeks or so since i have been using the 'sleeker' (which seems to mean shinnier, not thinner... but i assume that i can not complain too much, as the battery life is great) blackjack 2. Brett's iphone is truly an engaging device, but i can honestly say i have no buyer's remorse. The syncronization of outlook via the network is cool. i have noticed that i get e-mails on my phone faster than i do on my laptop with a wired connection. when i need to add a number to my phone and i am sitting at my computer... i plug it into my outlook contacts and voila it shows up on my phone. the same can be said with 'tasks.' a feature i did not used to use but use all the time to keep everything i need to do straight. ditto for the calendar. i have even started to use the outlook calendar for my personal things. there is no need to plug in or connect via bluetooth to do a seperate 'sync.' the only feature that seems to be missing, is i wish that i could sync my corporate outlook with my wife's hotmail, i mean windows live. bottom line... windows mobile's integration with the corporate outlook server rules.

iPhone reflections

So as Chris mentioned, I totally got an iPhone. I have to say... I had been anticipating it for 5 years ever since the first rumors hit the net in 2002. I kept my T610 for 2 years over contract on T-mobile just so I would be free to switch to Cingular the day it came out. And I did. I got my iPhone at the 24 hour apple store in NYC. Turns out that by 2:00 am, the line that had been waiting all week long line, had all got their iPhones and gone home. But unlike other product debuts (Wii, PS3) their were plenty of iPhones left, and NO lines at ALL! So having purchased my iPhone I was on my way. (not sure if this says more about Apples ability to purposely exceed demand and not have people fighting in parking lots or.. just them being over ambitious about sales figures)

I have to say.. the iPhone is truly the most satisfying piece of consumer electronics I have ever owned. and on a number of levels...
1) Physical design. looking at the iPhone, you see a shinny piece of black glass, a stainless steel bezel, and beautiful chunk of natural aluminum, and a simple section of black plastic. And thats it. It looks more like a piece of jewelry then a gadget. And for this reason alone.. all other cell phones are dead to me. There is something very honest about the approach to materials here. No paint, no plating, no pad printing. Even the logo on the aluminum is laser etched.
2) All in one device... Just as i had held onto my T610 for an extra 3 years, I also held on to my old ipod, my old camera, and avoided getting a GPS unit for my car, and... bought a iMac, rather then a laptop when it came time to replace my aging ibook. Convergence devices arguabley attempt to do all, but fail at doing each. But this is not the case with this device. It is not the best device out there for each of these functions, but it does perform all of them with completely satisfaction.
ipod.. best ever indeed.
camera.. good enough for flickr (which is how I share photos).
GPS unit ... not really, but The Google maps application allows me to get a good map, get directions, find stores, and have traffic updates (I don't need live turn by turn directions).
Laptop... honestly, this iPhone is more powerful then the ibook that put me through grad school a few years ago (620GHz vrs 500GHz 8GBs vrs 6GBs). And with the web browser and email, I have 90% of the applications I would ever use on the go with a laptop.
3)MAGIC.. I still (6 months later) take this thing out of my pocket and 'slide to unlock' and just stare at how magical it is, I might not even have a reason to use it. (I feel kind silly for this one, but its all emotion). I love that there are no buttons. I think of the iPhone as one giant blank canvas. The entire face is both display and input at the same time. on a call? the entire face is one giant phone key pad (all input). Watching a movie? the entire face is all movie (all display). The entire device is perfectly arranged for whatever application it is running. And because there is no hardware excess (no surrounding buttons), the device essentially becomes that application. The way it almost transcends its physical form is beautiful. I've seen other devices that are going touch screen, but that alone is not the magic. It as Chris would say, "you are only done when there is nothing left to take away."

4) Limitless future.. This potentially is the most interesting. The ability to craft and upload entirely new applications, and entirely change the user experience is amazing. Being a seasoned apple owner.. I can't tell you how exited I get when my Apple tells me there is a software update. Over the course of owning an apple the software continues to remain fresh and current. My Blue and White G3 that sits under my desk originally loaded on OS9, but today loads up in Tiger and looks nearly identical to my new iMac that sits beside it! (Have you seen OS9 lately? wow) In this same way, the iPhone too will continue to update and remain current. My T610 was a relic locked in 2003 when I retired it earlier this year.

product idea

there are plenty of bluetooh enabled car for voice... i don't know of any that support music.... i should be able to stream music from my phone to my car... i know that there are stereo bt headphones, so it seems that technically it should not be hard at all.

WM media player

i was sitting in the car trying to feed the baby and decided to listen to some music on my blackjack 2. i have been frustrated that there was no way to scan through a song or movie... turns out there is... you have to push and hold. i am not sure what made me think of that... i guess as a designer i have designed enough press and hold double functions to reduce the visual clutter of too many keys. so i am glad that i scan through media. not so impotant on a 3 minute song.... very important on a 2 hour movie.
i am however bumed out that i can not listen to music in the background. on my itunes enable slvr i can listen and do other things. note to the wm team, i may want to surf the web or post to my mobile blog while listening to music.

new contributor

I have asked a friend of mine to post things as he sees fit to my mobile blog. Professionally he started life as a mechanical engineer at Ericsson. He went back to school to get master's degree in industrial design. His thesis was definitely ahead of its time. I have some links below...

He bought an iphone the day it came out, the resemblance to his thesis is startling. It doesn't hurt that he was addicted to this t610 either.

here is his thesis link

so if you see brett's rants and wave, it comes with lots of experience...

more outlook

Although not in a desperate way, I have been searching for a way to add the 'cc' or 'bcc' to an e-mail, thinking it was like desktop outlook, I assumed that it was some buried setting. I discovered yesterday that all I need to do is scroll up. Although I found it by accident, I think it is a great implementation. Most of the time you don't need it, so it is out of sight, but when you do, just a couple of taps up & voila! Outlook on WM works really well IMO.

mobile e-mail

It may seem like this blog is more of a rant than any thing else. So I will try to keep this a little bit more positive. One thing that WM is good at is e-mail. Super easy to set up, and no surprises it looks and feels just like desktop outlook. The connectivity is great.

test post

not sure if it is an att problem or otherwise, but i am having problems posting via mobile... this is only a test

black jack the sequel

background:
About a month ago, my Motorola SLVR keypad stopped working. Not all the keys,but some of them, like the menu key. With all the work that I do for Motorola's Enterprise BG, I have had a desire to have a much deeper understanding of Windows Mobile.
So the SLVR is dying and I had heard good things about the blackjack. While at the local ATT store, I asked before purchasing the blackjack, if the blackjack 2 would be release the next day / week. I was assured that it was a long ways out. That turned out not to be the case. It was a major hassle to return the original, wait a week to get the blackjack 2. I used the blackjack for about maybe 10 days... the blackjack 2 for less than 24 hours.
first impressions:
According to all the marketing info, the 2 is thinner than the 1. It seems to be the opposite. I have not measured the two with calipers, but as an industrial designer, I notice fractions of millimeters.
The new one is too 'blingy' for my taste. I like the black matte version of the old one. I realize that they are competing with blackberry pearls and the like and they are all polished, shinny and lots of chrome accents. I don't think I could down grade (besides the hassle) faster processor, twice as much memory, bigger screen, newer OS. But if the two were equal, I would definitely pick the previous design. As an industrial designer, I have spec'd chrome finishes on many products, but I have since repented. I know how nasty it is environmentally, so these days I try to avoid it. At least it is black chrome, which if you need to have chrome is aesthetically the least offensive to me. (to be fair to the new ID, the old one had rubberized paint on the rear housing / battery door which makes recycling a big challenge I assume.)
The new scroll wheel is cool, but I sort of miss the jog dial that was on the side. I only used it for a week or so, and was just getting used to it. One thing that would be nice would be if the scroll wheel accelerated (a la ipod) the faster you scrolled. I assume that this is a software issues, so maybe it was out of Samsung's control.
I am pissed that they changed the connector. I did not open the packages, but I bought a car charger and a corded headset. I now need to return them so that I can replace them with the new ones. I realize that a mini-usb jack is big for a device of this size, but I do miss the ubiquity of the mini-usb on the SLVR. Standards are a good thing, at least if you are not going to include accessories in the box.

cool quote

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality.
To change something, build a new model
that makes the existing model obsolete.”
Buckminster Fuller