Launch Giveaway 7: This Is The End

You really did save the best for last.
These prizes are absolutely UNBELIEVABLE !!!

My story is of the time when I tried to get my wife to jump on the Windows Mobile train. I spent some time trying to understand what she wanted from a phone even though she repeatedly told me the only thing she wanted was “a flip phone that was small and made calls, you know like the Razr”. Of course I took that to mean she wanted a small flip that could do tons of neat stuff, like music, games, email, keep track of her schedule, and all of the great things that WinMo phones can do (what can I say i’m an addict alright). So I got her the recently released Star Trek and loaded it up with all sorts of software, and her email account, and lots of other stuff. She got the phone, and I spent the next day or showing her all of the cool stuff I did for her phone. She responded with a completely blank stare through it all. A few days later I asked her how she liked it, and if she tried the stuff I told her about. She responded with “I tried to do the email, but couldn’t figure it out, then I tried to add my schedule”, but her company uses lotus and noone could figure out how to get PIM data on it. Next she played a game or two but didn’t like the games on it (solitaire and bubble). Basically none of the stuff on the phone was what she wanted (except the contact manager… she did like that), and shockingly the games were horrible. A couple of weeks later the hammer dropped (just long enough to not be able to return it) ” You know (my friend) has a Razr and I was playing with her phone and I really liked it I think I’m just going to get that instead”. So you know who ended up with a Razr (at the out of contract price of 299) and who ended up with the Star Trek right… right.

* Not a contest entry, just a reply to the comment above*

Fail
I like a lot of things about Windows Mobile, but one of the things I absolutely dislike is that it’s so hard to explain to someone in very quick and easy words what WM and what you can do with it. My girlfriend has het HTC Touch for several weeks now, but half of the time she doesn’t remember how to perform certain actions. If I send her a cab file, she asks “How do I install that again?”, or “How do I get that icon in my list on the Today screen?”. So much different actions to perform…
When I got my first WM device, I was excited to learn what I could do with it etc., but she just wants to have a cool device like her boyfriend has, and she wants to play the cool games. So apparently unless you’re really enthousiastic about it yourself, there can be quite a learning curve.

My favorite story is more about my favorite device, my Axim X51V. With the VGA screen and lots of power I am able to do all the things I want to do with a mobile device (except, of course, make phone calls and have all the time data. But paired with a bluetooth GPS receiver, it has become a toy for one of my favorite pass times, geocaching. True paperless geocaching and into places I would normally never go or know about. On a recent visit, it got me on the roof of a downtown building in New Orleans to take pictures and have a view that very few tourists would ever see. I wait for a converged device that with have the power and screen of my Axim (maybe the Xperia??).

It´s not so much a fun story, more a point of view. Since having a WM device I have been searching the net for stuff to put on it (first my Dell Axim x51v and later my MDAcompactIII). Where do you look for free software? Forums for said devices. Not only have I found a truckload of free stuff, I have also made a lot of new friends and acquaintances. Had I not had a WM device, I´d have missed out on all that. And the commeraderie between WM users is always top!

I’m still in Grad School, so while I often use my laptop for taking notes, there are plenty of times that my Axim and keyboard are a better choice. Particularly at a fully wireless campus (and a rather good connection too, I must say), it’s great always having internet access. This past Tuesday is a perfect case: about 10 minutes to my first class of this quarter, I looked at my Axim and headed to class. One look when I got to the classroom convinced me that it wasn’t the right place - so I backed up into the hallway, and logged on the mobile interface for the official university scheduling. Yup, they had changed the room some time the week before - and I had no idea where it is. Another minute on Google, and I knew where I was headed, and what it looked like. Running across campus, I was 5 minutes late to class - but I could walk in, whip out my PDA and keyboard, and start in at once (unlike using my laptop). This was a big help when the class features slides from a projector (yes, old school) - so when the professor has to turn off all the lights, I’m the only one who can still take notes. And, last but not least, a friend from previous classes was rather fascinated by it and she’s now getting an iPaq this week

“Where’s your computer, Ragart?”
Ah, it’s right here on my belt. This was the answer I gave to a number of people in my German class in Berlin last summer. One of my favourite moments on the trip was writing my journal in the middle of a thunderstorm. I had been biking around a park and exploring on my own when the sky suddenly changed colour and started to throw thick droplets of water at me. I took cover under a Chinese shrine (don’t ask me what a Chinese shrine is doing in a German park) in hopes of waiting out the storm. After thinking about it, I had absolutely no idea how long the storm would last and so I decided to blog about my day right there and then. I took out my stylus and used TenGo and Word Mobile to capture the moment. When I’d finished with that I just took the SD card out of my camera and viewed the pictures I’d taken on the Axim’s gorgeous VGA screen until the sky cleared up (a good hour later).
This isn’t so much WM-related as it is mobile lifestyle related, but I think the point is the same. I felt comfortable inside the storm (ha! How overly dramatic but true!). I felt “prepared” because I had my Axim with me and I had all the entertainment and the tools I needed to do…whatever I wanted to do. It’s experiences like that that get you addicted to having a device, to having a digital swiss army knife so that you just feel better about going out into the world. A simple trip to the groceries or being trapped in a thunderstorm…everything can feel like a frontier or an adventure with the right mindset. My Axim x51v is what got me into mine. And here’s the line that’s either going to stick to the wall or fall off like an old B-Movie poster: You look out your Windows, you pick up your device, and you get Mobile. What’s not to love?

Mu beststory is th fact that i triwd to send an emial to applu for a new job, by tryung to use the keuboard on my mobile (htc touchscren) ,but everytime i tried to ente some text, i mistyped because ofmy thick fingers. Even now it seems hqrd to entr a text properlu. As you probablu expect: i did not get th job.

My story is that every time my husband and I go on vacation, I make sure to preload my Treo 700wx with everything we might need while traveling. This includes maps for use with my bluetooth GPS, the Zagat dining guide software, WorldMate, and whatever other destination related information I might need. I enter all the information about our itinerary for easy reference. When we get there, I have everything I need with me all the time in my PDA. And I don’t look like a complete tourist while accessing it. It is always fun to see other tourists lugging heavy guidebooks around or trying to keep their giant maps open in the breeze.

Stories, stories, so many devices and stories over the years!
I *could* tell you about the Lexar SD card that I can use to instantly factory reset ANY device. There’s some kind of short circuit in this thing and whatever I put it into immediately gets wiped. I reset my Epson inkjet after putting this card in the built-in card reader. Before the thing would even turn on again I had to pull the power cable, wait a few minutes, then reconnect the cable. Unsurprisingly WM5 fared no better. It’s a very quick way to hard reset any device!
Alternatively, I could tell you about my initial experiences with Windows Mobile which almost saw me take a hammer to my device. The frustration with time settings and the uniqueness of my Israeli timezone meant that no matter how hard I tried, I would get everything in my calendar and then sync with the computer and my appointments would all shift. One day when it happened there was a hammer on my desk and my trusty old Palm Tungsten T3 and I took a long considered look at my options. I was IMing with a friend who referred me to another friend. He taught me about CityTime. I downloaded it, installed it, and the problem was solved. If a PDA could sigh in relief, mine would have as (to remove my dark thoughts) I put away that hammer
Selecting the best one would be tough but here goes…
I work for a technology company but most of those in my department wouldn’t know which way up to hold a PDA and they’re constantly amazed/bemused by the uses I show them for my HTC Wizard. My boss with whom I share an open plan office, is over the fact that I read books and access the web on my commute to work but there was one thing she had no idea about. As a fellow geek, I get on very well with the techies in the IT department and about six months ago I got the details from them for syncing with the company exchange server. It revolutionized my PDA usage and is now one of the core features I will never be able to do without on any future device (the others are A2DP and a hardware keyboard). My boss had no idea of the concept of company mail coming through to the PDA. One morning, she sent me a meeting request through Outlook and I replied instantly. As I mentioned, we share an office and she wrote back “WTF? Invisible?”. I returned to the room after the meeting I was in and she was VERY freaked out. One more lesson for the philistines at work!

This one is a little personal, but I’ll share it.
Back in the first days when I just got to know my girlfriend, we spoke a lot on the phone. We didn’t even meet each other yet, and could only recognize each other’s voices.
The more we talked, the more we wanted to continue talking, each hour of the day.
Finally we resorted to chatting with each other, when phone conversations were not an option.
We talked about how we should meet face to face, but haven’t set a date for that.

One day, when I was in a coffee shop, I pulled out my Dell Axim X51V and started to chat with my soon to be girlfriend (whom I’ve never met).
During that chat, I told her that I am enjoying a nice cup of coffee in a coffee shop. Much to my surprise, she told me that she was doing the exact same thing.
But I was completely blown away when we both found out the we were both sitting in the SAME coffee shop!

This was the first time we met! and it was not planned.
Without my Dell Axim, who knows when or where we would have met.
It’s amazing for me to think how much technology changed my life…

Everything I learned I learned in Kindergarten - Windows Mobile Edition:

1. Having a couple of kids’ movies loaded onto your WM device makes for a peaceful 3-hour flight with a two year old. (Of course, you probably need a spare battery or a recharger, but that’s what you have power adapters for, right?)

2. Having their favorite music on your device helps calm them down and may make them sleep faster.

3. Slideshows of people they know are a good way to get a quick five-minute relief.

4. In a pinch, a good note-taking program can double as a portable etch-a-sketch.

5. The under-appreciated Bubble Breaker can be employed as a distraction while changing diapers…