Competitors chase Apple's iPhone

Star Tribune ^ | November 10, 2007 – 5:27 PM | By Peter Svensson, Associated Press

[Swordmaker]

Two "smart" telephones are Sprint and T-Mobile systems' potential competitors for Apple's iPhone. One tries to do too much; the simpler one is more successful.

If you reach too far, you can lose your balance and fall on your face. That's what happened with the design process for the "Touch by HTC," one of the smart phones fighting for our attention this holiday season in a field that has been both energized and shaken up by Apple's iPhone.

The $249 Touch, carried by Sprint Nextel Corp., overreaches badly in trying to be a touch-screen phone -- controlled by the user's fingers on the screen -- just like the iPhone. The resulting mess is the worst telephone I've tried in the last few years.

Oddly enough, T-Mobile USA just introduced another phone made by High Tech Computer Corp., the Taiwanese company that makes the Touch, and it's a diametrically different approach. The $149 Shadow is conservative and restrained. It's a good phone, if not a home run.

[TypeZoNegative]

If you’re smart, you’d avoid the entire smartphone scam and buy yourself a handheld computer. I’m buying the new HP Enterprise 210 and I’m tethering it to my handheld so I can surf the web.

It’s replacing my old Palm Zire 72 which has served me for 2 years faithfully. Also, handhelds don’t have to do the impossible balancing act between phone and computer so the screen is large.

[CheyennePress]

The problem is that the handheld comps aren’t readily available and fewer and fewer are being made.

I’ve got a Dell Axim, and I love it. I’ve installed Skype on it, too, so it doubles as a phone whenever Wi-Fi is accesible.

[MDspinboyredux]

There is no topping the original! I have an iPhone and I’m loving it.

[Biblebelter]

I am working on a radical new concept. When I leave my house, I leave my phones and my computer behind,(I turned in my cellphone and car phone when I retired from full time work several years ago). I leave my pets at home as well. When I am away from home, I FEEL like I am away from home, I tell you it is liberating. Instead of talking on the phone, you look at all the other people talking on the phone and you just wonder what is so darn important.

[papasmurf]

I’ll stick with my Pocket PC KJAM/Wizard/MDA II.

I have office functionality,faxing, emailing, internet, phone, video player, mp3 player, voice recorder, voice recognition, touch screen, and world wide connectivity. With my dual sim adapter, I can even utilize multiple providers. It has Blue Tooth, Wireless, Push mail, I can use it as a modem, or...just make good quality phone calls.

[papasmurf]

What’s so original about something many of us have been doing for 5 + years?

Except the name, of course.

[goodnesswins]

LOL....I never got the phone “gene”.......and I’m not retired and I AM female.....just don’t get what is so important to blab about all the time!

[DoughtyOne]

Earlier this year I purchased the Cingular 8525 phone, and it I have enjoyed it very much.

First of all, I am the proverbial gadget freak, and I am still finding things out about this phone seven months later.  It's incredible what it can do.

Am I able to use my fingers to utilize the phone?  No I'm not.  To tell you the truth, that isn't a priority for me.

This device offers phone, email, text messaging, Microsoft Office tools for docs that can be developed or edited, a camera, a video camera, 3G wireless and Blue Tooth connections, Windows media and some nice tools for making all these things come together for a pretty impressive array of capabilities.

I purchased two Blue Tooth excessories.  One I use for the phone allows hands free utilization of the phone. I tap it and say the person's name I wish to call, and it calls them.  It's quite reliable.  The other accesory I use is a wireless headset.  I use that to listen to MP3 music and MOBITV.  MOBITV pulls in over 40 channels on the televison.  And FoxNews is one of them.  Love it.  The headset can also be used to make hands free calls with all the functions the other device has.

While it sounds like I'm probably listing more than this phone can actually do, it is more than likely that I've left a lot out.  I have no doubt the iPhone is a great device.  I actually considered going that direction after it came out, but I value the ability to use the Excel and Word cutdowns.  I use the Windows XP Professional and the Microsoft Office suite of progams in my profession, so the Windows mobile seemed the right way to go here.

I surf FR on the phone.  The internet is a lot more useful on this thing than you might imagine.  In the wide screen full screen mode, the screens are quite easy to use.  There are of course some web sites that aren't windows mobily friendly, but that's okay.  I find what I want and it works out well.  When I'm traveling it really cuts down the passage of time, and except for flights I'm always able to obtain, develop or transmit information.

The camera is very adequate.  The video camera is as well.  I've gotten some nice photos with the camera, but I am never without my eight megapixil seven to one zoom Sony F-828 still plus video camera, so the serious stuff is captured with that, and I wouldn't want anyone to think otherwise.  Still, the phone camera does come in very handy when you've only got seconds to go before you lose a shot forever.  It also provides some nice photo enhancers such as three photo splice and a few other tricks.

I wouldn't recommend this phone to everyone.  If you're a gadget freak like myself, and you're not almost impossible to please, you'll probably like the phone quite a bit.

An electronics person told me a long time ago that when you combine capabilities in one product, you'll find that the capabilites will each be impared to a certain extent.  IMO the individual capabilities of this phone peform quite well.  As you learn how to use them to their optimal performance, you'll be quite impressed with what they will provide for you.

Larger photo:       http://pocketpccentral.net/images/cingular_8525_views.jpg   all but bottom (no buttons or ports) included

Product manual:   http://pocketpccentral.net/pdfs/Cingular%208525%20User%20Manual.pdf   212 page PDF

[DoughtyOne]

I’ve got the Axim also and it’s a great device.

I use it to surf the web as well.

[willk]

I have the HP iPAQ rx5915 Travel Companion. It has Tom Tom Go GPS as well as functioning as a PDA with Wi-Fi. If it only had a cell phone built in it would be perfect. Overall I really like it. With better promotion by HP it could have been a big winner. Why pay just for a GPS unit when you could have much more?

[DoughtyOne]

I agree with that. I have to tell you, my ideal phone would be about double the lenght and width (same thickness) of the iPaq with a phone included. It would essentially be the Cingular 8525 blown up to the size I just described. You could holster the think on your belt, and it would just about take care of everthing you needed, including the full blown versions of Microsoft Office and other programs.

My Cingular 8525 has a 2 gig chip in it that is smaller than my thumbnail. Solid state memory should not be a problem.

[Psycho_Bunny]

Ya....other than looking pretty, the iPhone’s actually a step backward from the functionality of Smart Phones.....Well....I guess THAT’S original.

[Greysard]

The review of Shadow is fairly bad. There is also a Slashdot discussion. Personally, I do not want any touch phone, from Apple or an imitation. One of my coworkers has one, and it is a joke (he says so.) I have a generic flip phone (Sanyo PM-8200) - it does the job and I have no complaints.

[ProtectOurFreedom]

... the Touch is full of problems. When I turned the screen on, I often found it cluttered with inscrutable Windows error messages that I sometimes had to perform a reset to get rid of. The Windows Media music player would skip while playing MP3s, making it useless. For every digit of a phone number you tap, there's delay before it appears on the screen. Cellular reception and call audio quality were not as good as a Palm Treo on the same network...

Yikes! Released prematurely? Or just a victim of Windows Mobile? What a dog.

[papasmurf]

Hah! 8525 is a cousin to the Wizard...





The top one is my Wizard in an "active" dash mount, and the other is my Parrot Blue Tooth hands free, voice operated and connected to my stereo.

Why isn't your screen rotated?

[papasmurf]

I agree with your preferred form factor. I also have a PPC 2K, it’s much larger. But, the keyboard on the Wizard is great.

[DoughtyOne]

That looks nice. You were right to metion the screen not having rotated. That’s just an advertisment presentation. I guess they opted not to present it in rotated form for some reason, probably so it would still be readable.

Your Wizard keyboard looks more separated, but I don’t have too hard a time using the keyboard on mine.

[papasmurf]

I’ve used yours. Your keyboard works even better than mine for me.

[DoughtyOne]

That’s interesting. Thanks for the tip.