I have a Motorola MPX-220 which is a Microsoft Smartphone and it was the most unstable POS that I've ever used. It'd actually crash when answering a call. The Treo's are just too bulky in my opnion. Who wants to lug around such a big device? Give me a small candy bar shaped phone that is stable with a good user interface and I'm happy.
Just recently bought a Sony Ericsson K750i and have never looked back. It's sooooo much better than the UI disasters that Motorola and Nokia inflict on their customers. The phone is fast, flexible and stable. One shortcoming was the built in email was really slow like every other GPRS phone. I found the solution though, http://www.movamail.com/ -- it is really fast plus it works with GMail/Yahoo/etc. Now I have the perfect device. Enjoy rebooting your smartphone's guys...
Geekmail (www.geekmail.cc) offers a Yahoo and Hotmail fetchmail type service for their IMAP accounts. Works quite well. I really like consolidating my accounts with their service.
Yes, most of us here are proficient enough that when we call it's almost always a problem that can't be solved by following a script or tightening the plug.
But what about the times you've called and it was a stupid problem that a clueless user should have figured out. All of us have done this at some point I'm sure. Being a network uber geek I've been biten by overconfidence as well.
Reminds me of the time years ago when I had a new 8 port ISDN BRI module for a Cisco router that was giving me a helluva time bringing up. The interface just wouldn't show any line activity at all. Calling up Cisco I brush past first level support and report the problem, complaining that it's a hardware issue and that they need to ship me a new one. They shipped me the new one and when I'm installing it I look at the back at the ports. They're numbered 0-7 from right to left. Not left to right. I was plugging the ISDN line in to the wrong port. Duh. I felt like a real idiot.
Since then I've always been worried that I'm going to get bitten again. Sure I likely know more about networking than the telco's tech support department put together, but just maybe I'm being stupid that day.
Another one to check out like this if you're a winblows user is etunnels, it's group centered where you create a group and only people you invite to that group can join.
Once you're in a group you can instant message, email and trade files. The cool thing is that you can share a folder out from your PC directly to your group mates and it appears as part of their filesystem. It works pretty well, I play MP3's directly from my buddies computer without a problem. It's a little unpolished at the moment but worth checking out if you're in to this sorta thing. They say they're doing a Linux version soon.
It does seem to have some of that old BBS sense of community, but then again my BBS days way back in the late eighties when were spent on invite only boards trading files back and forward. Er, the files were shareware only of course!
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http://www.movamail.com/ for IMAP/POP3/etc email. Free and much faster than any built-in email client.
I have a Motorola MPX-220 which is a Microsoft Smartphone and it was the most unstable POS that I've ever used. It'd actually crash when answering a call. The Treo's are just too bulky in my opnion. Who wants to lug around such a big device? Give me a small candy bar shaped phone that is stable with a good user interface and I'm happy.
Just recently bought a Sony Ericsson K750i and have never looked back. It's sooooo much better than the UI disasters that Motorola and Nokia inflict on their customers. The phone is fast, flexible and stable. One shortcoming was the built in email was really slow like every other GPRS phone. I found the solution though, http://www.movamail.com/ -- it is really fast plus it works with GMail/Yahoo/etc. Now I have the perfect device. Enjoy rebooting your smartphone's guys...
Geekmail (www.geekmail.cc) offers a Yahoo and Hotmail fetchmail type service for their IMAP accounts. Works quite well. I really like consolidating my accounts with their service.
Yes, most of us here are proficient enough that when we call it's almost always a problem that can't be solved by following a script or tightening the plug.
But what about the times you've called and it was a stupid problem that a clueless user should have figured out. All of us have done this at some point I'm sure. Being a network uber geek I've been biten by overconfidence as well.
Reminds me of the time years ago when I had a new 8 port ISDN BRI module for a Cisco router that was giving me a helluva time bringing up. The interface just wouldn't show any line activity at all. Calling up Cisco I brush past first level support and report the problem, complaining that it's a hardware issue and that they need to ship me a new one. They shipped me the new one and when I'm installing it I look at the back at the ports. They're numbered 0-7 from right to left. Not left to right. I was plugging the ISDN line in to the wrong port. Duh. I felt like a real idiot.
Since then I've always been worried that I'm going to get bitten again. Sure I likely know more about networking than the telco's tech support department put together, but just maybe I'm being stupid that day.
Another one to check out like this if you're a winblows user is etunnels , it's group centered where you create a group and only people you invite to that group can join.
Once you're in a group you can instant message, email and trade files. The cool thing is that you can share a folder out from your PC directly to your group mates and it appears as part of their filesystem. It works pretty well, I play MP3's directly from my buddies computer without a problem. It's a little unpolished at the moment but worth checking out if you're in to this sorta thing. They say they're doing a Linux version soon.
It does seem to have some of that old BBS sense of community, but then again my BBS days way back in the late eighties when were spent on invite only boards trading files back and forward. Er, the files were shareware only of course!