Archive for the ‘Windows Mobile 7’ Category

Samsung Galaxy Note II voted best Android phone

Posted: February 12, 2013 by Troy Saxton-Getty in dropSKIP? What???, Phones, Verizon, Personal HotSpot Devices, Operating System, Windows Mobile 7, Android, Carrier, ATT, Handsets, Stylus, Samsung Galaxy Note
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Samsung Galaxy Note II, Android phone of the year as voted by our readers!!

By Troy Saxton-Getty

Those of us at dropSKIP that have a special place in our heart for Android love the Note II. Although truth be told, my daily drivers are iPhone 5′s, one from Verizon and the other from AT&T. We do however clearly agree on one thing, right now, this minute, the Samsung Galaxy Note II is by far the best Android phone on the market.

We are very cozy with HTC’s Sense UI on top of Android, fans since day one, we still feel Samsung has nailed it with the Galaxy Note II and the latest round of TouchWiz interface add-ons.

In the shop we have both a Verizon version and a few folks with AT&T versions. These are their daily phones and you couldn’t pry them away with anything else on the current market, even if you offered some incentive cash.

The Samsung Galaxy SIII is a close second and since we think the Blackberry Z10 is actually a Galaxy SIII with a different case, we suspect Blackberry might have a strong showing this year (thanks Samsung!!)

Take a hard look at the Note II, sure, it’s big but it does still fit in most front pockets or small fancy purses and you can ditch the additional tablet you most likely carry close by most of the time.

The included touch Pen and S-Pen apps are real contenders for daily work.

The phone comes with some carrier specific pre-loaded software but most of it is useful sans the $10 dollar a month Navigation, I still don’t know how that app ends up pre-loaded.

The phone also earns a 56/100 dropSKIP score for durability as long as you don’t put it in your back pocket and sit on it, it is one tough phone.

Our test phone took the 10 foot drop to standard office carpet without losing its battery or even its back shell.

If you have accessories left over from the Note I, the units are slightly different sizes so most won’t work, including the car mount kit.

Thanks to our readers for voting it was very clear the Note II then the Galaxy III ran neck and neck with Phone 5.
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If you are thinking Android, you can’t go wrong with the new Note II.

Share your thoughts current and prospective owners!

Pogo Sketch by Ten 1 – Unique Stylus.

Posted: December 4, 2011 by Gill Haus in Android, Blackberry Playbook, Blackberry Tablet OS, Fun Tech!, iOS, iPad, iPad2, Motorola Xoom realtime review, Samsung Tab, Stylus, Tablets, Windows Mobile 7
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We reviewed the Wacom Bamboo stylus a couple months ago and loved it.  At the time, we didn’t think we really need to look for another stylus.  Then we found the Pogo Sketch by Ten 1.  Why do we like this stylus (other than the great colors)?  For three main reasons:

1. It’s lighter.  It really feels a bit better when writing on the surface of an iPad.  It’s not heavy like those other styli so it feels good in your hand.

2. It’s thinner.  It just feels more natural when you use this stylus.

3. The tip is NOT the standard rubber cone that doesn’t seem to slide as easily.  This one has a different style tip that still works on iOS and glides across a surface (with the same accuracy as other styli).

These three things really made the difference for us and it’s become the stylus of choice (this week, of course).  Oh yeah, did we mention you can find it for under $20 on eBay?  Make it four reasons! :)

 

As much as we try to hate on Windows Mobile 7 – With the Mango 7.1 update, we have to honestly admit, we love it…

Posted: November 23, 2011 by Troy Saxton-Getty in Carrier, dropSKIP? What???, HTC HD7 - T-Mobile, Operating System, T-Mobile, Windows Mobile 7
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As much as we try to hate on Windows Mobile 7 – With the Mango 7.1 update, we have to honestly admit, we love it…
by Troy Saxton-Getty

At dropSKIP we have been tougher on Microsoft versus any of the other mobile OS providers (ok, maybe not as tough as we are on RIM-Research in Motion) and for good reason.

The first version of Windows Mobile 7 was pretty cool but lacked the basics of the much more mature operating systems. WM7 offered some interesting new and fresh ways of looking at mobility issues for data sharing and consumption but all-in, it really couldn’t stand up to the big boys and it was truly disappointing.

Well, we have to admit, as much as we liked to bag on WM7 and Microsoft not being able to compete, Mango (aka Windows Mobile 7.1)  has changed the playing field, it is a serious contender, and it’s plain fun and useful in a way that nicely fits the multi-connected individual.

We finally got the much anticipated T-Mobile Mango update last month on our dropSKIP overly tested – HTC HD7 (not the S model) and right from the beginning it had us captivated with just a few of the “500″ new features not to mention, it was lightening fast on our older hardware.

The first thing that caught our attention was the email grouping feature, most of the other OS’s offer a combined INBOX view if you happen to have multiple accounts, but this is something different, it’s much more usable, for example, on our test unit, we have 9 email accounts, 4 of which are work and business related, 3 personal and the remaining two are the “spam” and Junk accounts that end up being used for product registrations etc. With the grouping feature in Mango, we created three groups, Biz, Personal and Bulk. Each tile keeps a running total of new/unread email and it clearly denotes the unread number in an easy to see format making it super fast to get to what is important first, then less important second and so on, in a way “we” choose what we see grouped together.

Mango 7.1

Mango 7.1

The next feature we immediately fell in love with is the combined Messaging area, you can setup text messages, Facebook Messaging, Twitter, Linked-In etc. to show up in a single location just like the combined email inbox view. This is really a cool presentation and it makes the non-email reading/replying features much more useful.

In our tests between 9 active email accounts, 7+ messaging and chat feeds, we could read and reply faster then IOS5 and Android (2.x, & 3.x). Our test handset units are setup with all of our work, personal and junk email accounts combined with multiple messaging feeds gets well over 500+ items per day. We could read and reply faster on Mango then IOS5 or Android.

Last but not least, the contact-centric view, you can combine two or more contacts into a group, for example, Close Friends, Work Peeps, Family and Top Customers. This view can be setup to show you everything related to that group of contacts, Facebook feed, twitter, etc. basically anything related to the contact in the group for the services you sign up or login to. This is down right amazing, simple and makes a ton of sense and to top it off, the tile for each group has live feed update of little pictures for each contact in the group, so on the home screen, you are seeing updated photos live for each contact in the assorted group, clever & cool!

Mango 7.1 People Groups

Mango 7.1 People Groups

I can’t wait to see these features copied to the “other” OS’s! Microsoft, you are back with some leading features even the others don’t have.

The Multi-tasking works very well too, simply long-press the “Back Arrow” icon and it will allow you to select between all running applications. If you long-press the Windows icon, you can speak your commands like in Android and almost a cool as Siri on IOS5.

These are just a few of the many new features we found immediately useful and actually cooler then our favorite Android devices as well as our daily drivers, a pair of iPhone4S models, one Verizon and one AT&T.

Mango Windows Mobile Update is competitive and actually quite nice…

Posted: October 29, 2011 by Troy Saxton-Getty in Carrier, dropSKIP? What???, HTC HD7 - T-Mobile, T-Mobile, Windows Mobile 7
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Mango Windows Mobile Update is competitive and actually quite nice…
by Troy Saxton-Getty

We finally got the much anticipated Mango update to our T-Mobile HD-7 (it’s basically the same on all carriers) and right from the first boot, pretty impressive. The first thing you will notice is the improved main Tile interface, it is much richer and way more configurable than the first Windows Mobile 7 release, it is actually very useful.

You can group email, group contact and even Messaging can be a group of text, Facebook chat and/or other instant type communication.

Mango on HD-7

Mango on HD-7

Another great feature is Grouping of Contacts into sub groups, as you can see we have a Tile called Amigo’s, this is simply a small collection of favorite friend contacts (Thank you Aaron Fulkerson of Mindtouch fame for modeling ;-) )

The Inbox can finally be grouped or even “smart” grouped so that you can pick what you would like to see in a combined Inbox view or not. If you have multiple email accounts, you can select 3 of 6 for example to only show up in the combined Inbox view but still have separate tiles for the others.

Mango's multi-tasking view

Mango's multi-tasking view

Mango finally added multi-tasking so apps could run in the background, if you long press the Back button, you get this simple and elegant task swapping screen, simply swipe right or left to the other running application. It’s that simple.

If you long press the Camera button, even with the screen locked, the camera is available instantly. Great for practical jokes if you get your friend’s camera without them knowing. -grin

Mango took a long time to produce and release, we started to have our doubts, but with 500 new features, it is packed with new and fantastic tools, most are very practical, like cut and paste etc.

Another point of confusion is around the version number, the media and even Microsoft has called it version 7.5 previously, it’s actually version 7.1 – Mango is Microsoft Windows Mobile 7.1

If you want a simple, near fool-proof smart phone interface, the Mango release of Windows Mobile 7 really brings it all home, for a non-techie, it’s really great too. It ran really fast even on our older HD-7 Hardware, plus it’s widely available for most 7.0 models, one of our real gripes about Android updates.

As reluctant as we are to give Microsoft props, The Mango operating system update is Bad-Ass, and that is a technical term…I am saying this even with a pair of Apple iPhone 4S’s in my pocket for my main daily use. Damn, I am carrying 3 phones again…

Gadget & Uber Geek Truck – 2011 Ford Raptor SVT SuperCrew

Posted: May 14, 2011 by Troy Saxton-Getty in Android, Audio / Video Gadget, Bluetooth Headset, dropSKIP? What???, iOS, Windows Mobile 7
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Gadget & Uber Geek Truck – 2011 Ford Raptor SVT SuperCrew

by Troy Saxton-Getty

We never thought to include a car or truck in the quest for amazing and useful gadgets, but after spending some time in a Ford Raptor truck a few weeks ago in Baja Mexico, it was clear to me this truck was truly a gadget and a geek ride. Just as Scion, KIA and other car companies focused on the youth market, Ford has done something similar with the Raptor SVT, they included lots of electronics, services, gadget and accessories choices and built an eco-system of 3rd party products, reminds me of Apple with their products. From the first time we stepped into Raptor, it was a geek love fest meets great off-road utility and a combined load of fun.

Ford SVT Raptor

Ford SVT Raptor

After the Rip to the Tip ride a few weeks ago, BajaSAR Search & Rescue decided to add an SVT Raptor to the collection of useful vehicles focused on supporting its mission in the desert southwest. (And because the truck is just bad-ass fun!).  In less than a week, we’ve rolled nearly 2000 miles onto the odometer and I must say, it is pure fun.

So let’s talk about why this truck makes the dropSKIP gadget cut.  First, it’s the gadget option packages with the largest in-dash screen we’ve seen in a vehicle and it’s based on Microsoft SYNC – the media and entertainment options, navigation, weather, voice control and the pre-wired 3rd party accessories, not to mention that the factory supports jumping the vehicle, yes, off the ground on all fours… crazy huh!?!

From the moment you get behind the wheel, the layout of comfort, fun, usefulness and special functionality becomes obvious, that is why we had to have one.

Driving the Raptor

Driving the Raptor

Gauge layout, in-console multi-purpose screen, large Media screen in the center console and great seat comfort start you off, as you add miles, the fun level goes up.

Microsoft SYNC offers several solutions, some with minimal video screens as well as great support when you have more video real estate. Although we are a bit disappointed in some of the features that are disabled after 5 mph due to liability (Toyota and others do the same thing), nearly all of those restrictions are lifted if you use voice control. (I guess BMW and other fine cars aren’t as worried and give you full control, touch and voice, under regular driving speeds).

My real beef here is, why can’t the passenger operate the unit and plug in the new NAV destination? (I am sure we will find a hack….) I can understand the DVD video being disabled in the front of the cab, but basics? Go figure, I will learn the voice commands and quit complaining.

In addition to navigation, music, climate, and other great features Microsoft and XM/Sirius have tossed in some other cool things such as live weather maps, local fuel prices, movie times and other goodies such as Text messaging with presets such as “I can’t text now, I am driving”, “Got your message, will get back to you later” and of course the ability to type your own message. This is all linked to the wired or Bluetooth phone you have connected. Since we test phones in the real-world pretty extensively, we tested 9 different phone models of various OS and model types. As you would expect, it works great with nearly all smart phones, but it works even better with Microsoft Win 7 Mobile. We had the option to add quite a few different phones at the same time, regardless of what we marked as primary/favorite, it would default to the HTC HD7 running Microsoft Win 7 mobile. Oddly enough, it was the only phone we connected that supported sending text messages. We are just really digging in and exploring the media and entertainment capabilities as the more time we spend in the rig, the more new and cool things we discover.

Weather maps from XM/Sirius were a nice touch, as you can see in the behind the wheel picture, rain is ahead – here is the weather map shot.

XM/Sirius Weather Map

XM/Sirius Weather Map

We found it to be very accurate and updated frequently. You can zoom in/out and actually select wind directional icons with wind speeds to get an idea of the conditions.

When the truck is placed into reverse, the video display becomes a full screen backup camera, zoom features also offer different angles, including close in, which is the trailer hitch location, pretty handy for hooking up, of course, the trailer brake control is nicely setup in the dash too.

Dropping in a CD, the Jukebox tab allows you to rip the CD into the local in-dash storage, it appears to be fairly large, the docs say “Over 2400 songs”.

Additionally, you can drop a CD or DVD in with JPG photos and it will copy them over and store and display them.

We plugged in a USB thumb drive to the dash mounted port and updated the Microsoft SYNC system, this thing is more of a geekfest than you would imagine. I pushed a button and the truck uploaded a vehicle health report to the http://www.syncmyride.com website. I downloaded the SYNC Destinations App for the iPhone, searched for something and saved the info, it was available for SYNC turn-by-turn directions immediately.

Aux Panel

Aux Panel

The truck comes pre-wired for external “bolt-on” accessories, like off-road lights, there are several 3rd party vendors which offer light bars, even some fully ready with lights, HID, Halogen or grill mounted LED light bars. The wiring is set, fused and the switch is ready to go.

Off-Road mode and Hill-Descent mode buttons are also on this panel.

Off-Road mode changes the shifting patterns, keeping the truck in a more off-road friendly RPM range, Throttle mapping sensitivity changes, Anti-lock braking becomes less aggressive and better set to dirt surfaces. Yaw stability changes for better dirt cornering as well while increasing stability.

Hill-Descent mode allows the driver to control the vehicle on downhill grades without having to apply brakes.

The rear axle can be electronically locked, this works in forward and reverse giving full posi-traction capability.

Each key can be programmed to different settings, including limiting top speed, and access to certain features, including the volume level of the audio system, or a full Valet mode is also included.

This truck is truly an electronic marvel, but let’s talk about the other amazing stock / included power and drive train specifications:

A 6.2L 411 HP, 434ft lb. of torque engine, select-shift automatic transmission, the engine was tested at the infamous Ford Desert Loop testing center which simulates Baja 1000 testing.  For the suspension Ford teamed up with Fox and they put Fox Shox all the way around and the front lower arms are special cast aluminum.

Fox Shox on front

Fox Shox on front


Fox Shox on Rear

Fox Shox on Rear

These are a totally stock offering for shocks and the ride is really nothing like any normal pickup truck we’ve ever been in, on rough terrain the ride is very similar to what I would expect in a Baja pre-running rig. Absolutely wonderful compared to the classic truck suspension.

The stock tires are BF Goodrich Baja 315x70x17 inch tires, 35 inch tires and wheels you would normally buy after the fact.

Not bad for truck that can haul 8000 lb. and has built-in trailer brake control and anti-sway capability.

This truck is loaded with feature after feature, including a stowable bed extender, allowing the tailgate to be left down to accommodate a longer load the the bed itself. Something else we found which absolutely made sense is the rear tailgate step and handle. This pop-up handle and slide-out step make it very easy to climb up in the lifted bed of the truck with minimal effort.

Bed step from Tailgate

Bed step from Tailgate

A quick lever pull and you can lift the handle into place, grab onto the end of the tailgate and pull the step down and into place. Simply reverse the order to put it all back to normal.

The stock Sony 12 speaker and 390 watt continuously rated audio system also includes an under seat rear subwoofer and it will play video DVD’s when parked.

Keyless code entry, Auto-Engine start for those cold or hot situations with fully customizable A/C and heater pre-sets,  you simply program what you want and the truck will use those climate settings on auto-start.

There are a multitude of color and decal/graphic options, check out their Raptor specific website for more details. Ford Raptor Media Site

Here are a few more pictures, what a great truck, we are really having fun with this, now if we could just figure out a way to work from this truck versus an office… WFT…

Right rear view

Right rear view


Interior drivers side

Interior drivers side


Rear SuperCrew area

Rear SuperCrew area

T-Mobile HTC HD7 – Extended use of Windows Mobile 7

Posted: March 3, 2011 by Troy Saxton-Getty in Carrier, dropSKIP? What???, HTC HD7 - T-Mobile, Operating System, T-Mobile, Windows Mobile 7
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When the HTC HD7 shipped back in early November 2010, I was excited to see something hardware comparable to the HTC EVO 4G.  Although they are both made by the same manufacturer, they are very different in many ways but similar in some as well. For example, the EVO has a better camera, 8MP vs. HD7′s 5MP, the screens are both 4.3″ displays, the EVO presents 65k color vs. HD7′s 16 million. The EVO is exclusive to SPRINT running Android 2.2 and the HD7 runs the Microsoft Windows Mobile 7 operating system. For more on this, Craig Gillispie at SMARTPHONE ENVY has a fantastic article:  http://www.smartphoneenvy.com/featured/face-off-htc-hd7-vs-htc-evo-4g/.  These guys write great stuff on “Face Off’s of one phone vs. another”, check them out!

Our reviews are about longer term use ITRW (in the real-world), we basically port our personal and professional lives over to the device and use it in our day-to-day regiment.

I have spent years buying older Windows mobile phones only to come back to the conclusion that the experience of trying to recreate the “Big” Windows environment was just a stupid thing to try to do, about the same as Windows on a TABLET PC.

Windows Mobile 7 however is an entirely different experience, it is simple, elegant and very well designed, although it’s considered to be version 7, it is nothing like v6.5 or earlier. It is a clean slate and it’s lovely.

Over the course of the next few articles I will drill into what I really like, what’s so-so and what still needs improvement.

Windows Mobile 7 starts off with a simple summary screen, showing appointments, new email, missed calls, signal, battery etc.

Locked Screen View

Locked Screen View

A quick flick-drag of the finger upward and you’re in. (if you have a screen lock password, flick-drag and then enter the code and tap OK)

Windows Mobile 7 - Main Screen

Windows Mobile 7 - Main Screen

The first thing you are presented with are these simple TILES – email, text, phone and other tile icons representing some of your apps, you can modify their order very easily, remove or add by simply holding your finger on one for a second then it breaks from the pack and you can change that specific one and, of course, repeat this until you are happy with what you have for your initial TILE organization. It is very simple.

Windows Mobile 7 - Apps screen

Windows Mobile 7 - Apps screen

If you want to get to more apps than what you have on the tile screen, you can press the Right Arrow on the upper right side or simply drag-swipe your finger from right to left and you will see the All-Apps screen cleverly slip in from the right.  The interesting thing here, this is pretty much the main way to navigate around the phone, left, right, up and down, a finger drag-swipe motion makes it very simple.

If I drag-swipe back to the tile screen and click an email icon you enter the email app based on the specific email account for that tile, e.g. Yahoo Mail, GMail and so on. If you use corporate email on an Microsoft Exchange Server, the ActiveSync setup is a snap, and it is very solid. On our HD7 we have 9 email accounts setup ranging from Exchange, IMAP, POP and some cloud service types as well. They all just work, no drama. Another key point, corporate calendar syncing is very stable (I know, it’s Microsoft to Microsoft). How refreshing to see a nearly flawless calendar & contact sync.

Email account view

Email account view

One of the things that really sticks out nicely with Mobile Windows 7 is the use of great fonts, larger, very readable, contrast is great, really a very usable display when you are bouncing around on a bus, walking, riding in a car, etc. My initial thought was the colors seemed bland, though once you spend time using it you will clearly see why it is easy on the eye, quick to view and it just works. You will also see a reverse use of black backgrounds and white larger text as well. A Themes option in setup allows to change the primary color scheme, yeah, for you PINK fans, it actually looks pretty cool.

HD7 Kickstand

HD7 Kickstand

Like the EVO, the HD7 enjoys a very similar “Kickstand”, I thought this was a flimsy gimmicky thing but after having used the phone for a while, you really get the idea, it works for so many different things and it is rock solid. I wish this idea would show up on some of my other favorite handsets or cases!

To date, the best NetFlix experience on a small device has to go hands down to the HD7.  NetFlix works great and it is very viewable for short content as well as feature-length movies, you can plug-in headphones or you can just prop it up on the desk and the internal speakers are solid enough for a movie break with speakers on both sides, in stereo.

HD7-NetFlix

HD7-NetFlix

Well, that should get us started for HD7 and Windows Mobile 7 extended use kick-off.  Going forward, I will comment on specific things that work well or really need improvement and, so far, I really don’t want to admit it (as an Android and iPhone/iPad fan), the new Microsoft Windows Mobile 7 OS is fantastic, it is downright a contender and in some ways I like it better than the other “big” two.

If you are not a techie (even techies like it), but want a solid, easy, reliable and great phone experience, you should strongly consider Windows Mobile 7, seriously. The Zune media/content market is very nice. The Microsoft Apps Store experience is great, it’s new, it doesn’t have the developer following of the Apple Apps Store, but it is growing quickly.

I do have an equivalent app on the HD7/Win7 phone for all of the most used apps I have on my  Android and iPhone rigs, in fact, some of them are the same app from the same developer, the Win7 App Store is growing quickly so I am not too worried here.

If you are confused on what is the best choice for you, hit your local phone store and spend some time looking at all of them, I suspect you will find the Windows Mobile 7 operating system on a nice phone like the HD7 a great choice.