I’m probably one of a very few loyal Windows Mobile fans, which is why I never jumped on the iPhone bandwagon. It frustrates me when my iPhone wielding friends try to show me for the umpteenth time with childlike wonder some feature on their phone that Windows Mobile has had since like 2005.
Marketing genius and fan loyalty aside, another difference between the iPhone and Windows Mobile is that the iPhone does what it’s supposed to do relatively well, where as that isn’t always the case with WinMo devices.
I got my first pocket pc in 2006, it was the HTC prophet branded as the Imate Jamin, a cute feature packed device that ran Windows Mobile 5. I loved it but it wasn’t without its issues… in fact it had a lot of issues. You couldn’t use it satisfactorily right out of the box, it was buggy, slow, kept freezing or resetting itself and some of the applications it shipped with just didn’t work. I discovered XDA Developers and within a few weeks I had a totally different phone, but it wasn’t without work.
I basically had to start over using cooked (unofficial) ROMs, overclock for speed, play with the registry and a whole host of other hacks and tweaks. This was even before third party applications came in. WinMo doesn’t have a dedicated App store (yet) so sites like Handago and PocketGear were the places to go.
I loved my phone and used it for two and the half years but I never recommended it to anyone because I realize it isn’t for everyone.
I customized it just the way I wanted, which is what I loved about WinMo devices, you’re sure to find whatever modification/alteration you seek on XDA Developers but that takes a lot of time, it’s risky and most people just want their phones to work. I’ve had a few incidences where I almost bricked my phone and those weren’t fun.
I’m probably a bigger fan of the Taiwanese Company HTC than I am WinMo, that’s partly the reason why I stuck with WinMo devices, I think HTC designs are innovative and they’ve always been ahead of the curve.
For my next phone I was going to wait for HTC Rhodium (Touch Pro2), in the interim I used my sister’s old Tytn, my Prophet became painfully slow and unusable after I tried to update to a WinMo 6.1 build.
I’d been thinking about the Android too and the more I read about it the more I wanted to try it. I liked that it’s open source, making it easily customizable and I use Gmail all the time.
Although, WinMo and devices have improved tremendously since the Prophet, I really don’t think much have changed since WinMo 5 and I heard that devices running WinMo 6.1 (like the Touch Pro 2) couldn’t officially upgrade to upcoming 6.5.
For once I wanted a device that worked just like it was supposed to right out of the box. I’d forgotten the joy of not having to feel like I’m reinventing my phone all over again and frankly I’m tired of spending long hours on XDA forums, fun and enlightening as it is.
I got the Android powered HTC Dream when it came to Rogers last month. It’s been a refreshing experience! The only major thing I’ve had to do is unlock it, which was more for me as it can be used on the Fido network which I’m on.
It works seamlessly, I haven’t had to tinker with it much, which kind of made me get the appeal of the iPhone – it’s fun and very easy to use.
I have certain basic requirements for my phone; Bluetooth with A2DP profile, Wifi, a good media player, highly customizable and of course phone and messaging capabilities.
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The HTC Dream has these features and works effectively. After a month of relatively heavy use, I’ve downloaded a few apps, I’m still having fun discovering the OS, and the only thing I want to change right now is the Rogers splash screen.
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