Pocket PC Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Samsung's Omnia is nice enough to find a good home in many a professional's pocket, but in terms of overall desirability it doesn't quite compare to the iPhone or G1. Why, then, did Verizon price the thing $50 higher than its alternate-platform competition? Your guess is as good as ours, but at least the company didn't take long to see the error of its ways, dropping the handset under the magic $200 mark just a few days after the early-adopters got done paying too much for theirs."

Verizon just couldn't resist getting the big bucks from early adopters then dropping the price of the Omnia back down to normal levels to be in line with it's major competitors. How do you early adopters on Greedy V feel about that? Or are you just enjoying your new devices?

"In a bid to create new eye-catching mobile phones, HTC Corp. has struck a deal that will expand the handset maker's creative team to include designers of furniture, housewares and athletic gear. HTC of Taouyuan, Taiwan, said it has acquired a San Francisco firm called One & Company Design Inc. that specializes in designing consumer products across a wide array of categories. Designers from HTC and One & Company previously collaborated on several phones that helped establish HTC's reputation for producing slick-looking gadgets, including the HTC Diamond, a smart phone with a large touch-screen and distinctively shaped black case."

Well, this is certainly interesting, and speaks to the desire by HTC to deliver world class designs in their products. HTC plans to allow the 18 person design team to continue to consult with outside companies on athletic equipment, furniture and other fashion conscience consumer products. I hope HTC manages the integration of this team well, mindful of how carefully you have to integrate different corporate cultures.

"Blockbuster Inc. caught up to the competition last week by introducing a set-top box that brings rentals from the Internet to the television. Now, the Dallas-based company hopes to pass the pack by teaming with Microsoft Corp. on new mobile services that will let customers watch even more movies on more devices. 'Eventually, we'll give customers instant access to any movie on any device with an Internet connection and a screen,' said Keith Morrow, Blockbuster's chief information officer."

I really love Netflix and their Watch Now service but the truth is their selection is pretty slim pickings. Out of the 400 DVD's in my Netflix queue, only 9 of them are available as Watch Now titles. Out of all of those 9 movies, I cannot play any of them on my Windows Mobile devices or any other mobile device I own. It will be very interesting to see how Blockbuster is able to pull this off, especially since they mention the ability to stream any movie on any device. Now the real question is does any movie count as any movie they carry in their stores and online service or will this be like Netflix where it is any movie they will have in their handful of movies that are able to stream. Only time will tell. It is nice however to see big name companies already utilizing the new Live Mesh platform.

"DVD Catalyst 3 converts movies quickly and easily into a format that can be played on a portable device (Apple iPod, Apple iPhone, Sony PSP, Creative Zen, Smartphone, PocketPC and more) It offers a multitude of different video types it can create, allowing it to even create video files for non-listed or brand-new devices. DVD Catalyst 3 incorporates an extensive feature list, with many unique, handy and industry-first options to make your conversions as easy as possible, while providing you with the best possible quality. DVD Catalyst 3 uses the award-winning open source mplayer/mencoder projects for detection and conversion, which allows DVD Catalyst to convert just about anything to any format without the need of having codec's installed on your computer."

If you're like me and you enjoy having movies on your mobile device, DVD Catalyst 3.7 seems like a good option. It appears to cover most of the industry standards and includes a multitude of various devices. Do any of you watch movies on your handheld? I especially want movies when I take a plane trip. I actually got rid of my 7" portable dvd player. No need to lug around the player and the dvd's. If you do watch movies, let us know what device you watch them on.

If you want to maximize your chances of winning the contest Jason recently announced, you need to enter as many times as you can. You'll get your chance to enter here soon, but in the meantime, you can enter right now at these site:

Gear Live

Bleeping Computer

Windows Connected

Thoughts on Poetics and Tech

Morningside Mom

Neowin

Boston Pocket PC

"In its profound wisdom, the FTC is allowing cell phone numbers to be released to telemarketers today. Now you can have the pleasure of being annoyed by a pesky telemarketing when you are just sitting down to dinner and have the pleasure of paying for it as well. Whatever possessed a government agency that is supposed to safeguard citizens’ rights to release private information to these vultures? In my opinion, telemarketers are the lowest life forms in the food chain and should be hunted down and exterminated. There should be a bounty on them."

I rarely receive telemarking calls on my mobile phone but I also have a habit of not answering the phone when someone who is not in my address book calls me. I figure if it is important they will leave me a voicemail and if they know me they will know to shoot me an email or SMS message instead of calling in the first place. However this decision still annoys me. It was one thing when telemarkers called you on your landline and you didn't have to pay for the call, but now that any of these answered calls are going come out of your minute package I feel this is highly inappropriate. I mean really, who still uses telemarketing nowadays? We live in the future. You would think these people never heard of SPAM before. Come on people, get on the ball!

The good news is you can add your mobile number to the national Do Not Call list. To do so please point your browser to http://www.ftc.gov/donotcall.

EDIT: Story turned out to be false, but its still a good idea to add your number to the list or even to make sure your landline is added to the list as well.

Chinese company, QiGi, is offering consumers one thing so many of its competitors don't: choice. The i6 officially supports Android and Windows Mobile. Unfortunately, dual-boot isn't an option - you have to pick one OS and stick with it until you choose to install the other. OSes aside, it packs a Marvell 624MHz processor, 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM, a 2.8" QVGA (240 x 320) touch screen, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS, and a 2.0-megapixel camera. Of course, you're probably never going to see this one outside of China. Still, if you had such a device, which OS would you choose and why?

"Compal Communications has received orders for two Windows Mobile-based PDA phones, codenamed the Alexander and Attila, from Motorola, according to a Chinese-language Commercial Times report. While both PDA phones are supporting 3.5G and Wi-Fi technologies, the Alexander features a sliding-out QWERTY keyboard and the Attila features an iPhone-like touch panel, said the paper, which also noted that shipments of the two PDA phones are now set in the first quarter of 2009 instead of the fourth quarter of 2008 as originally planned."

According to a Commercial Times report, Motorola's Alexander and Attila won't make an appearance until Q1 2009. Leaks suggest the two aren't blessed with amazing features, so unless there are some hidden extras, Motorola will probably have a tough time pitting these against the competition.

"I'm not going to beat about the bush here, I'll just come right out with it. I just love the O2 XDA Zest. I am fortunate as a WM reviewer to have a good selection of the latest devices to hand and the Zest is my device of the moment. I have an HTC Touch Pro, an HTC Touch Diamond and several other high spec devices sat gathering dust on my shelf while the Zest goes in my pocket every morning and back on charge every night. I've been trying to figure out just why I find the Zest better than the smaller flashier Diamond for example and I think it all comes down to O2 and ASUS having found the perfect balance of hardware and software. On paper the Zest is not the best device in stores at the moment, and it's not the prettiest, but it's just so easy to use (once you replace the SIP keyboard that is). It’s complete. The fact that O2 have launched the Zest as their first PAYG XDA as well is utterly amazing. £250 for what in my opinion is the most usable device on the market today? That's just a bargain, and to be frank, you should all go and buy two today (everyone needs a spare!)."

4WinMobile has reviewed the ASUS-built Xda Zest and given it a whopping 91%. If you're looking for a device that hasn't been touched by the hands of HTC, this may fit the bill.

Vaja is now offering an ivolution for all those Omnia owners out there that want to have a very nice case for their new friend. And with more Omnia owners on the way thanks to the news earlier this week regarding Verizon adding the Omnia, I suspect more and more people will be interested in this stylish case.