Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

I realized something when I woke up this morning. My Samsung Blackjack, as well as every single Windows Mobile Smartphone I have owned before it, happens to make some of the most god-awful noises I have ever heard. The ear piercing sound of the infamously horrible Trill ring tone that my alarm is set to was almost enough to make me smash my Smartphone with a hammer.

After fully coming to my senses and realizing that my city was not under some kind of nuclear attack, I started wondering why Microsoft hates us so much. It is sort of like a cruel joke. Microsoft creates a beautiful operating system which gives it users' unlimited possibilities for use, yet they still cannot design a decent homescreen or include less offensive ringtones/tones. In fact, a majority of the tones that were included on our devices sound like they were created on an old MIDI keyboard back in the dark ages of the twentieth century, better known as the 1980's.
Maybe I just don't get it. Maybe I'm asking for too much. All I do know is that Microsoft has spent a fair amount of money and time on creating the ultra pleasant sounding start-up music, alerts, chimes and other little sound clips that are included Windows Vista. I also know that these files are relatively small and all Windows Mobile Smartphones have the ability to play mp3, WMA and WAV files. There is no excuse for Microsoft to continue to torture our eardrums on a daily basis with our current horrific monotone offerings.

Please Microsoft, for the love of all things mobile and good, save us from your tone deaf offerings with the release of Window Mobile 6. If not, who knows, you might lose a few customers when Apple and Cingular release the greatest one trick pony of all time, the Apple iPhone. Think about it, while Steve Jobs and the majority of all Apple products are extremely pretentious and annoying... They have always been kind to the senses. Windows Mobile devices are no longer the toys of professionals and geeks. With the release of the Samsung Blackjack and the T-Mobile Dash, Microsoft has managed to step out of its niche market place and plant itself firmly into the hands and minds of every day consumers. No longer is the battle going to be about which operating system has the most business-like features but instead, which system has the coolest toys or which system looks the prettiest or which system will be the best for listening/watching to media on the go (sorry Jerry!)

Trill, Ding, Dogbark, Fantasy, LaDiDaDi and Mystic are not going to cut it in this new battlefield. In fact, I recommend destroying them all together.

Rocco Augusto currently resides in the Portland, Oregon and owns and operates the online cellular accessory store RoccStar Accessories. He also works fulltime as a Web Developer for a local digital marketing agency, The New Group. Rocco enjoys tinkering with all things technology related, but his real passion lies in Windows Mobile Smartphones and Home Theater PCs. When Rocco does not have his head bury in lines of code, you can usually find him listening to some of his favorite Netcasts on the TWiT network as well as spending quality time with his beautiful daughter and fianc�e.

"During the past two weeks, I heavily played with my new i-mate SP5 Windows Mobile Smartphone and one question came into my mind almost every day: how many contact buttons does a regular mobile phone user needs?As a matter of fact, the standard Windows Mobile 5.0 platform offers three ways to open the contacts: two from the Home screen and one from the programs menu. However, HTC just added a third way to open the contacts from, let's say, everywhere and I came to the conclusion that two of the options are too much."



Arne Hess over at the::unwired, has posted an article talking about the number of different ways he can do the same thing - open contacts, on his new SP5 Smartphone. Grand total: 3 from the home screen (non SP5 phones have 2), and 1 from the start menu. I agree, it seems like overkill. I didn't realize that the SP5 had a dedicated Contacts button. I can't imagine it will be long before someone figures out how to hack this button and have it run whatever application you want.

"The ability to customize your Smartphone is one advantage Windows Mobile has over other phones. From customizing the homescreen to hacking the system to get it working the way you want, Windows Mobile gives you the freedom you need. Unfortunately doing these things isn't as easy to do as one might like. Luckily there are savvy program developers out there willing to help with this. Tweak2K2 .NET is aiming to help with some common hacks for the Smartphone. Tweak2K2 .NET should be familiar to anyone who's used the Pocket PC version."



If you haven't checked this application out yet you should. Here is a nice review of it with lots of screen shots. Go read it now! 8)

It wasn't until this morning, after reading a news story and watching several videos on the subject, that I fully grasped (if such a thing is even possible) how horrific the earthquake and subsequent tsunamis were that struck southeast Asia. I've been wrapped in post-holiday events and don't normally watch news on TV, so this event didn't become "real" to me until this morning. To those of you who were disappointed we didn't mention this until now, I offer you my most sincere apologies. And to Isaac who sent a rather scathing email to us this morning, you should have known better than to accuse us of not caring. It's always better to ask them to assume.

We normally don't post on world events, because it always seems that it upsets someone who has some dislike for the country/religion/ethnicity (which explains a lot of the problems the world has today), the conspiracy theories come up, the finger pointing starts, and we have to lock the thread before our community members tear themselves apart. I've come to realize that there is a time and place for everything, and a Web site about Smartphones is not the place to discuss politics, religion, or even most world events. I'm often stunned that, in matters of human life and death, people will be so petty as to bring up the fact that country "X" has a certain political stance that the don't like - as if it justifies their refusal to feel sadness or assist in some way.

All that said, I hope that in this case everyone can put aside their personal bias and focus on helping the victims of this terrible tragedy. To the families and friends of people affected by this, on behalf of the staff and volunteers of Thoughts Media, I offer you my most sincere condolences and prayers. If you're reading this Web site, odds are good that you're among the wealthiest 5% of the people on this planet, and it's time to put that to good use. Regardless of how much you can afford, I'd urge everyone reading this to make some sort of financial donation to support the relief efforts that are now underway. Google has a useful page with several organizations you can donate to. I've made my donation, and I encourage everyone to give as much as they can.

Let's unite our efforts and help the people who need it. In honour of the people who have lost their lives in this horrific event, there will be no more posts until tomorrow.