Mobility Today Podcast #99

Will do bitter!

Phys, I just saw your PM. Immature is a good way to describe me, but trust me it wasn't personal

As far as the show, I was actually a bit surprised to hear the negativity towards SkyFire. I can see the security issues, but I'd bet most people are like me and use the browser mostly on the can (there I said it!!) or for a much prettier visual, on a bus or train. I personally look forward to a mobile browser actually supporting Flash.

BTW I'd love to hear more Symbian love as well as your take on the Eee, Dave.

I think your podcasts have been pretty balanced. I am quite happy with my Windows Mobile 5 I-Mate SP5m though I understand that others have problems with Windows Mobile.

I want a Windows Mobile 6/7 device in an all screen (iPhone like) form factor, also I am looking forward to full Windows Vista MIDs (look at my home page).

"...(don't want to tick off Miyagi)..." If this is true, a good place to start would be NOT partaking in immature name calling and personal attacks, Bitter.

Getting back on-topic, I am not sure that I will be satisfied with the limited software offerings of BB. It looks like there is not going to be a release of the Skyfire software for BB any time soon and I have yet to find a seemless Pocket Quickbooks Pro solution for BB devices.

Bitter - LOL! Pehaps the upon hearing the lambasting I put on Sling over EDGE my sling box sends spikes of data over my cable connection! :)

Just finished the show at aork today guys. I may be wrong, but I swear on teh last 2 episodes, as soon as Jerry starts hacking on Sling over EDGE, he gets all skype-y. Wiiiieeerd

BTW thanks for the tips. I am actually pretty happy with my Dash/Nokia N80 along with my jailbroken iPod Touch (still at 1.1.2, not gettin another $20 from me). They seem to fit my needs pretty well. Unless I win the lottery so I can get an 8gb N95, I'll prob look at a blackberry curve when I get the itch again (don't want to tick off Miyagi). I used to have an MDA as well, but I spent more time flashing ROMs that actually using it.

Good luck finding the mythical perfect device. Me thinks it is called mythical 'cause it don't exist. However, there are devices out there that work pretty good depending on what you need and as long as you are aware of what the device can not do before you purchase, you should be pretty satisfied.

I was actually pretty happy with my MDA. I inadvertantly and unkowingly downgraded reliability when I purchased the Wing. So I do agree with Dave, Steve and even Jerry when it comes to HTC current stance and practice with it's customers. Not to mention, it seems that T-Mobile just is not seriously investing in the success of WM devices as they are in the success of their BB devices. Just look at their product offerings, there are 4 WM devices to 9 BB devices. AT&T has 7 WM devices and 6 BB devices. Anyway, that is why I am now considering the BB from AT&T. I think I will wait for the 3G version first though.

Mr Miagi think "Blackberry Curve" miagi Son...

Mythical Device? Don't you know?

It's the i-Windows Mobile-blackberry-s60 series one device! ;)

right on. I was hoping you had found the mythical perfect device. I'd like to know what it is too.

Bitter, I call 'em like I see 'em.

If a particular technology is verifiably having difficulties then I will speak out about those problems. If a particular technology is verifiably and adequately suiting consumer needs, then I speak out about those benefits. One can not hope to be objective about product and service analysis while holding a fanboy perspective on any one technology product or service all the time.

It makes perfect sense that if one is making objective analyses that there will be good and bad statements regarding the same products or services. These conclusions are dynamic and depend on how a mfr., service provider, product or service is performing at a given time.

Don't confuse having balanced objective analyses with switching fanboy sides. Stick to the facts and you will see that I stick to the facts in my posts more often than not. I have comented from a consumer advocacy perspective, corporate perspective and occasionally I do express personal and biased opinions, but always qualify them by disclosing (there's that word again) that fact as much as possible.

Currently HTC is showing itself as having a non-consumer friendly behavior, as I described below, with regards to supporting (or the lack thereof) recent devices, releasing updates on their devices that have been branded by other companies, releasing technology without meeting standards of consumer expectations or mfr. capabilities for the purposes of profit mongoring and not communicating well with their consumers regarding the known shortcomings of their products and how they will go about rectifying the issues as opposed tabling issues for future product releases.

BTW, I have the nightmare T-Mobile Wing, which currently does not work as advertised due to a mfr. software issue (memory leak) that has not been rectified in over 9 months since it's release. I am having flashbacks of the HP h6315 which also did not work as advertised, was not going to be fixed (per HP), and required that I got my money back in full for the device after involving the Better Business Burreau.

So there you have it. I may be looking at the Curve w/ AT&T or T-Mobile myself.

Phys, what device are you using? You complain when Dave was raving about the iPhone. You seem to complain when people "bash" WM, but here you are griping about HTC and WM. So out of curiosity, what are you using?

I disagree 100% that SkyFire is not presenting a solution that is a First in its class of software. Currently there is NO browser software available to the public which supports FULL Flash 9 and FULL Java code plus all the other codes mentioned on their site including the AJAX and more:

"Skyfire gives you speedy page loads, full audio, video, images, dynamic Flash content, advanced Ajax, Java and more – just like your PC"

Neither Safari, NetFront, ThunderHawk, Opera, PIE, Mozila mobile nor any other browser software to date has brought together ALL of these features in one package.

Considering these facts it should be obvious that there would never be a time where one would have to switch from SkyFire to another browser anymore than one would switch their desktop browser from one to another. For those who are unduly paranoid about their information being maliciously collected, you can use Opera to submit the information that you are under the impression will be sooooo much more protected in this manner.

I have elaborated on the security and Google comparison that Jerry brought up and discussed with Steve, here:

http://mobilitytoday.com/news/Skyfire_Beta.html

I wholly agree with HTC becoming consumer unfriendly and crappy with the quality as of late. Their lackadaisical attitude with updates is atrocious. I mean a freakin' year to fix a known memory leak in the Wing, give me a break!

I also agree that MS needs to step it up since last year. Waiting almost two years to come out with the necessary memory management capabilities that 6.1 will deliver is rediculous. I won't even get started on the slug pace of at least revamping PIE.

David

Your IPhone rant is way off. I have followed your same migration path...IPhone to the HTC branded Tilt to Curve. At no time was I charged a fee. I changed the apple plan over to the blackberry plan and ATT never said a word nor charged a fee. Since that time I have used my IPhone as a touch and my weekend device. I slipped my sim chip with the blackberry plan in, when I activated after 1.1.13. All worked fine and my plan stayed Blackberry and did not revert to the Iphone plan.

I think you are the victim of some bad customer care and your experince is a one off and not the norm.

Thanks again for having me on guys, it was a ton of fun!