Readers Show & Tell - With spmwinkel

Posted by: PatrickJ on Oct 10 2007

 

Remember Show & Tell in your early school days? Those were great days - when you’d get to bring in a lizard from home and he’d escape in the classroom and mayhem would ensue - good stuff, and much better than buckling down to learning anything I seem to recall.

Well … we thought it might be fun to get a little ‘My Main Device’ type show and tell going with JAMM readers and contributors. Tell us all about your primary mobile device, how much you love it, how you use it, and why it’s even cooler than a lizard escaping in a classroom.

I am very  happy to say that one of our all-time favorite readers has agreed to start this series off for us - spmwinkel. I think you’ll enjoy his sharing quite a lot - so here we go:

Hi everyone!

Everyone who ever reads the comments on JAMM posts will probably know me, and everyone who participates in contests might even dislike me a bit since "JAMM prizes" and "spmwinkel" seem to have some unbreakable link. (If you don’t see me in the current Ilium Software contests etc., it’s probably because I already won in the past and won’t stand in your way in your battle to win great products any longer). Anyway, Patrick just e-mailed me asking if I would participate in the new "Show and tell" series, so here I am telling you something about my use of the PPC.

My Main Device Is a …

In February 2006 my Orange contract ended so I could look for a new device, and thanks to some student discounts I got my HTC Wizard for free with an Orange monthly contract (€20 I believe, but I’ve been paying €15 for the last months), which was a great deal for me. The device I got was in fact a SPV M3000, which is the Wizard but branded with Orange logo and Today screen thingies. I didn’t mind about the logo, but everything on the device that had "Orange" looks was quickly removed, and after a couple of months I finally had the guts to flash a different ROM to the device. The SPV M3000 used to be in Dutch, which just didn’t make sense since all but one of the forums that I was (and am) visiting, are in English. I don’t like losing my warranty though, so my next device will be straight from HTC with a World Wide English ROM.

My Device’s Name Is …

When I’m talking about my device online, I’m mostly calling it my "Wizard", since that’s what will be most familiar to people on forums. In "real life" I even have to explain everything if I’m talking about "my Pocket PC"  – so this shows that the majority of the world is still missing so many beautiful stuff!

My Previous Device Was A …

It’s my first Pocket PC device, I used to have regular mobile phones like the Nokia 3310, 6610, and 6230. So the Pocket PC madness opened up a whole new world for me which ended up being a world I really enjoy. The community of PPC enthusiasts is great, and I really like that the users are much more close to the developers in the PPC development world. Also the sharing of skins, tweaks and tips shows that humans from all over the world CAN interact and share in a friendly way. Excellent examples for this are the SBSH and Astraware forums where the developers/support team really tries to get user problems solved, all that’s needed is a basic understanding of the English language.

Some of My Favorite Apps Are …

Speaking of SBSH and Astraware, these are two of my favorite software developers. While I don’t really use my calendar as extensively as some business people do (law students just don’t have many appointments), PocketBreeze, together with iLauncher and PhoneWeaver, does make my favorite Today Screen trio. Add Newsbreak, Resco File Explorer and SK Tools to that and you have a list of my most frequently used applications. When it comes to games I find myself replaying Tilelander over and over again (both Doug Goldring and I reviewed this game and really recommend it). Astraware games are also highly ranked, as well as games from PocketMoreGames and PDAMill.

The Best & Worst Things About My Device Are …

Anyway, we should be talking about my device. The Wizard has it’s weaknesses and it’s strengths. For me the most important strength is the slide-out qwerty keyboard, which has become a must-have for me when I’m looking for a new device. There are also plenty of weaknesses though, such as the stylus which should be at the top (it constantly falls out now), and there are no hardware buttons for Start and Ok/Close on the "outside" of the device (only on the qwerty keyboard). I now installed SmartSKey which helps fixing that, but I’m glad that for example the HTC Kaiser does have these hardware buttons available. Finally, seeing the newer devices, the ROM/RAM and CPU speed could be a bit better.

My Next One Will Be A …

And that’s exactly the reason why I’m glad that I’m now owning my device for a year and eight months! This means that I can choose to add another two years to my contract in 4 weeks from now, which means I get to pick a new device as well. Since I don’t want the Orange branded devices with Dutch language, I’m going to get my HTC Kaiser (TyTn II) from an online store, and enjoy the better specs. I don’t normally purchase expensive stuff online, certainly not if it involves a contract, but this will be an exception: I want that Kaiser! I do have to upgrade to a €25 contract but since you can take the not-spent money with you to next months, I will just lower my plan after some months and use my "savings" in the last months.

The tilt screen of the Kaiser doesn’t really impress me, but it might turn out to be useful during text messaging. What really interests me though, are the better speed and RAM/ROM compared to the Wizard, and of course having WM6 doesn’t hurt either. The GPS is something I won’t be using just yet since I don’t drive yet, but I’m pretty sure that that will have to change in the next year or two. In general, I’m just looking at the HTC Kaiser as a good upgrade to my HTC Wizard.

The First Thing I Do With It When I Roll Out of Bed Is …

I’m seeing that this post is already more than one full page in Microsoft Word, but there is just one more question from Doug that I wanted to address: "The first thing I do with it when I roll out of bed is:". This illustrates the way that the PocketPC really had an impact on my life, since I feel much more "mobile" and "connected" now. My alarm rings at 5:30 AM (I deliver the morning newspapers), and while I’m standing outside at 5:35 already, I make sure that I’ve already caught up on the most important e-mail at that time. Replying can wait until later in the morning, but I do want to know if there is something that can brighten my day at 5:30 already. Checking e-mail continues through the day, pretty cool to see how different it is compared with two years ago. Now I find myself checking e-mail in the train and during classes, so when I get home I already have a reply to the important e-mails prepared in my mind.

Patrick said it was okay to include screenshots of my device to this post, but since I have an online place where I try to keep my current Today screen displayed, I’d also like to provide the URL for that: http://spmwinkel.wordpress.com/my-current-today-screen/

And also on the same blog you can find a list of my installed software: http://spmwinkel.wordpress.com/my-currently-installed-software/
Here you can also find links to the applications I mentioned before!

Finally I’d like to thank JAMM for starting this "Show and tell" series (and for all the free software and accessories I got from their contests), and I look forward to reading the next installment of Show and Tell!

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