An angry Dash customer..

Like I said, take it with a grain of salt. He made up his mind in only 48 hours. Don't know about you, I always give products atleast a week.

I hate to say it, but it sounds like he just wants another sidekick. I agree with his complaints on the touch strip and killing running applications, but everything else was just kinda silly.
His complaints on email for instance, he had to find a solution for his sidekick, but couldn't be bothered to look into a solution for the dash (it sounded like he just needed a mail2web account).
He talks about the UI sucking "awful", but how does it suck. Auto-complete was hard to use? WHAT? Did he try, maybe, pushing a button to see what would happen? Was that really that hard to remember "oh enter got it"?
It sounds like he doesn't want an open platform SMART phone, but a closed platform FEATURE RICH phone. He sounds like a perfect fit for a BlackBerry or an iPhone when released.

I didn't get my 6700 for its out-of-the-box experience (which we can all admit is kinda crappy on WM, something I expect the iPhone to nail), but for the ability to custom fit the phone to what I want to do with it. It's a great PIM, decent media streamer (ORB!), can log into my home computer, great GPS companion with a BT Puck (Navigation and Geocaching), and is a great mobile sound editing/music writing device.
Until I can do all that from one gadget...

Being the owner of this site and the person who posted this I think Jerrys comments hit the nail on the head.


floozy I personally enjoyed your video and appreciate your truthful comments as Microsoft needs to recognize.

batty?!?! bah!

I think its important to stress the 48 hour effect here. I gave the device 48 hours to fit me, complete me, and it didn't - simple as that. Now I will say the web sorta gave me some notions of what the phone was like prior to trying it. I read the reviews, i read about volume strip blues, wifi woes, and this and that, thats normal, google is gonna lead you all over the net for bits here and there.

its true though, i'm not a huge fan of the windows mobile UI, i really wanted to get past it, at work I used to have an audiovox smart phone with the full keyboard, that was ok, still the UI got to me, I was hoping i could get past it, but didnt..

as for being a prime candidate for a dumb phone, i'd prefer to be a candidate for something that delivers on the experience i expected to have, i would not put the sidekick in the category of a dumb phone that makes no sense to me

i dont actually work at best buy, i did work at a computer store once, i made a mint on japanese batmans for the genesis, those were the days... quite the opposite really i work in user experience research and design, so i'm touchy on that first experience

shut up read the manaul is what yer saying right now, thats all good and well but its not really reality when it comes life, people rarely read the manual, people will hit the net before they have to crack a book, i know, i did the same thing - its not fair to the DASH! bah.. so what its reality, a good company makes a product that is gonna be built proof for that exact expectation, or they make finding out how to use something very intuitive, THATS NOT SMART.. oh i see..

now as for a batty comment, i get that alot actually, and its because i dont have a script when i sit down and record a video, i just do it all on the fly one take, only thing i have is my list of postitives and negatives - one thing i actually didnt want to make is another "here is the phone" video with no real position good or bad about the device, there are far too many clips on the net that are lifeless, no real opinions, just "here is me unboxing a new phone..." and thats it.. say something will ya!!

i probably set the dash up for failure a bit as well, i researched it online, followed reports about it, kept checking out my friends Q, thought about the wifi goodness, i was all ready to just consume and enjoy.. not realizing the simple things my "dumb" phone did for me already.. i wanted to like the dash, and i lied to myself thinking i could get past the OS, in the end i couldnt and that was really the downfall of the phone to me in the end, i still like it better than the Q

anyways, thanks for the traffic :P

On a serious note, in many ways, this gentleman is exhibiting some of the basic "frustrations" that a "Joe user" may have when using a WM device. Dave, you touched it perfectly about the enthusiast and/or tech crowd. If I were a non-tech user or someone who wasn't adept at researching, hacking, or improving how a given WM device works, then I could understand the frustration that could occur with using a basic WM device.

As a side note, I truly wonder how many of the MS MVP's understand this and communicate this to MS. Will Photon be the holy grail for both non-tech and tech users? I hate to bring it up, but issues and comments like this gentleman brought up is a part of the reason I think something like the iPhone will bring a newfound level of usability and power to the "common man". I have no doubt that Apple will make it great to use "out of the box". So far in my experience I have rarely encountered any WM device that was "insanely great" to use out of the box. The closest I have come is the 750, but even that required hacks, and compromises, and even some frustration over things that "should just work".

Good entertainment for sure!

Wow! everyone is entitled to their own opinions and as a happy Dash owner of course I'll disagree, but I don't like seeing a "review" where the "reviewer" says "I was in Microsoftland and I didn't like that." Doesn't sound like someone who "wanted to like" the dash.

5 clicks to get to email?? I guess he didn't see theat little button with the envelope on it?

Finally, and this may be superficial, but I'm not convinced he doesn't have fat fingers.

BTW judging by his shirt...which Best Buy does he work at?

This dude seems to me to be a prime candidate for a dumb phone. Keep a smart phone out of his hands, please. Besides that he actually was right about two things, the wifi and the volume strip.

Interesting find Dave. I feel his pain on some of the issues, but I agree with Dean, kinda batty...

Lol! Dean you are funny.. I just think this is sometimes a wake up call to us enthusiasts..

kinda ding batty

Take it with a grain of salt. He's not a very technical person. He said it runs Windows Media Smartphone. LOL. There is no need for a registry hack to turn off the camera click sound. The dude doesn't even have a bluetooth headset.

Anyone that prefers a Sidekick over a Windows Mobile device- is definitely not a great source of technical information.