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O2 Xda Atom Exec Review

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the short-term-upgrades-rarely-are dept.

An anonymous reader writes "CNET has posted a full review of the new O2 Xda Atom Exec smartphone device. They were very impressed with the handheld, giving it their 'Editor's Choice' award. From the article: 'On its own, the Exec is a highly impressive, push e-mail enabled smart phone, but if you already own the first Atom, its upgrade worthiness is questionable.'"

6 of 58 comments (clear)

  1. Printer friendly link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Text only version

  2. How much do they get paid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    for posting these fscking Slashvertisements?

    How about this for a proposal:

    - There are at most 3 slashvertisements for every legimate story

    - slashvertisements are clearly marked as such

    - subscribers can hide the slashvertisements on the front page

    1. Re:How much do they get paid by Jerf · · Score: 3, Insightful

      If I found a nifty gadget and sent a link into Slashdot, and I had no attachment to it whatsoever, I just thought it was nifty, how would you know?

      If you think about it, honestly maintaining your cynicism (e.g., even if I said I had no attachement to the product, you're not going to believe me), and follow through the implications, I think you'll come to the conclusion that there are one of two choices: Stop talking about products entirely, or run things that somebody, somewhere is going to consider a "slashvertisement". All things considered, for the purposes of the site, the former is preferable.

      I wouldn't mind a clear statement of Slashdot's advertising policy. On the other hand, I'd lay money they don't run every ad that gets sent in, because I bet they're getting at least 25 a day, and I wouldn't be surprised if they said it was in the hundreds per day (because of people re-submitting the same products over and over, not necessarily hundreds of distinct products). Presumably the editors actually think this is neat and aren't just being handed wads of cash. If you want to hand Slashdot wads of cash and get your product advertised, that's what the banner ads are for.

      A "product" category wouldn't be all bad, though.

  3. Re:Handwriting recognition by glesga_kiss · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Like your other reply, I too bought a device with a slide out keyboard. I've never seen anyone regret that decission. You might be able to use handwriting for text messages but you do not want to EVER try it with vi over ssh. ;-) Also, imagine an "rm -rf" mis-recognition...

    Mind you, there are some neat bluetooth keyboards you can get, such as The Virtual Keyboad, so it's not all lost if you don't have one.

    I've been using my phone/pda for a year or two and I still think it's one of the coolest and most useful gadget I have. Google in my pocket, access to my home linux box, a camera and an mp3 player. Everything I'd ever need most days. One piece of advice though; get one with WiFi, this is an absolute must. It's much faster than GPRS and it's free most of the time.

  4. Re:But does it run ... by DrXym · · Score: 4, Insightful
    A more relevant question - what damned difference does it matter what it runs, just as long as it works?

    Linux PDAs have traditionally been cursed with buggy software, awful handwriting recognition, crashes and high prices. But hey, it runs Linux right? Certainly Linux is not the cause of these issues, but it seems symptomatic of certain manufacturers that they think they can release some junk and get people to buy it simply because it runs Linux.

    Fortunately we're getting to the stage where Linux is reliable and mostly behind the scenes. What OS is running underneath is an irrelevance to most people. They'd rather that their PDA / phone did what it was meant to do, namely make calls, take notes, make appointments, store addresses etc. If it runs Linux then all well and good, but a piece of crap running Linux is still a piece of crap.

  5. I have the O2 Exec... by Madcowz · · Score: 3, Informative

    I have the O2 Exec... otherwise known as the HTC Universal and I love it.

    It does all of the usual PDA stuff as well as being my mobile phone, GPS (with additional matchbox sized receiver) and I can walk round town using MiniStumbler to detect open WIFI.

    It syncs with Exchange so I can access my work public folders and Global Contacts. It also does email, texts, web, etc etc.

    And yes... the Universal can run Linux: http://forum.xda-developers.com/viewtopic.php?t=35 972

    Oh, nearly forgot, it also doubles up as an mp3 player with an additional SD card (up to 4GB). So quite a step up from my previous Palm V :-)

    /Mad