WinMo No Mo

After a long run with Windows Mobile, I am done and done. It took a fair amount of deliberation, but I decided to go the Apple fanboy route and get an iPhone 3GS… and I can hardly begin to put in words how absolutely glad I am that I switched! For the past several months I have been able to play with the iPhone a little here and there, as several people I know have the phones and were more than happy to demonstrate all the things the phone does so quickly and so beautifully. And that’s what finally won me over… just how easy and intuitive it is to work with this thing! It really IS like a breath of fresh air in using a smart phone, not having to worry about using a stylus or fingernail (my long-time method of screen operations) for selecting an arrow or a micro “OK” or “X” button on the screen or even hitting the hardware Back button. No having to navigate through a Start menu or Programs list, all apps are just a swipe or two away. And one button to get back to the main springboard screen. Easy! While I can’t say it is a perfect phone, this is as close to one that I’ve ever had.

This ease-of-use comes down to probably the biggest transition for me, switching from a 320×240 resistive screen to a phone with a 480×320 capacitive screen. This is what takes you from a stylus to a finger touch. It’s so liberating and intuitive to use finger gestures to work my way around the iPhone’s springboard interface and also inside the applications. This is really what separates the “old-school” phones with the next generation ones. The future does NOT include a stylus! As a quick fer instance, to make a phone call is as easy as a swipe and a few finger taps. My old phone required about twice that many operations, especially if I was calling someone not in my main contacts page or speed dial list. And absolutely forget trying to do all that one-handed! The larger screen also has more real estate for web pages, emails, ebooks, etc., and the denser pixel count also looks better overall.

One if my hesitations with going iPhone was the lack of a physical keyboard, like I’ve had on my last two WinMo phones. But I have found, to my amazement and pleasure, that the on-screen keyboard is easier to use and I’m faster and more accurate using it even with the one finger, hunt-n-peck method than I was with my old phone’s keyboard! Even in portrait mode, it is quite usable… and being able to rotate the phone and have the screen automatically rotate to the larger keyboard is SO SO welcome in my world. There was just something about having to slide out my old phone’s keyboard and wait that second or two for the screen to rotate that just got to be so annoying. My old phone was also continuously popping up the onscreen keyboard in portrait mode when it thought I needed to do some text input. Again, annoying, because then I’d have click on that infuriatingly small keyboard button at the bottom of the screen to make it go away. Good riddance!!

Apps… need I say more? There are now over 100,000 available for the iPhone. I know I won’t even use a fraction of that, but having such a choice is awesome. As they say, there really IS an app for that. On the WinMo side, let’s see… oh, they just launched the Windows Mobile “app store” which is clunky and most developers don’t like. Ah, and you have to have a WinMo 6.5 phone to use it (oh I forgot they “back-ported” it to 6.1 too now, win!). Wow, now that’s a compelling reason to upgrade. But let’s talk about the CAB file method of installing software. It’s not bad, but there were many times I would click on a link in PocketIE to download and install a CAB file, and the stupid browser would start loading the file like it was a web page! Lots of binary code! Ok, so it’s finally downloaded, so you open it, Do you want to install this? It hasn’t been signed! Where do you want to install it? Oh, your phone RAM is getting low, better install to the SD card, but wait, the developer says it’s more stable if it’s installed in the phone’s RAM… blah blah blah.

Install an iPhone app: tap tap done. Backed up in iTunes.

But, how can I like a phone that’s so locked down? Simple, I did a jailbreak on it. The first jailbreak for the 3GS was released not long ago (I got my phone like only a week before… good timing!) and it opens the world for setting up your iPhone for how YOU want it to look. My personal favorite is the ability to show email, sms, and calendar info on the lock screen, so at a glance you can see what’s going on and what you need to check. Of course there are gobs of themes out there to let you deck out and “decorate” your phone, but I like to keep it simple. What’s really great is that this is in addition to using the Apple app store, it just adds on other software sources. The downside is that it voids your warranty… but I’m willing to risk it.

And battery life… I was worried that even going with the iPhone I’d only get about a day’s worth of juice on an overnight charge (this preconception came after talking with my iPhone compadres). That’s what my old phone was doing, even with push email turned off and no wifi or gps running. Well, to its credit, that phone was approaching two years of continuous use on the original battery, but even in its prime it still HAD to have a nightly charge. The iPhone, on the other hand, is doing excellent with battery life! I can easily go two full days of average use and still be rockin’ at 25-30% charge. I know it’s fresh and new and these batteries fall off over time, but I’m really happy with it right now.

One other tipping point was the fact that Microsoft is only just now starting to come out with phones running WinMo 6.5, and are planning v7 late next year. There was nothing in 6.5 to make me want to upgrade (from 6.1) just to have it, and v7 is sounding like it’s where the first iPhone was back in 2007. (As a quick aside, most WinMo phones are NOT fully upgradable… my old phone only went from v5.0 originally to 6.0 to 6.1, no chance of 6.5 working on it. The iPhone? Even the most recent release can install on a Gen 1!) (Another aside… there are 6.5 ROMs that DO work on my old phone, but they are FAR from official.) I had a previous post here on the blog about the first capacitive screen WinMo phone, the HD2, coming out early next year. It does look intriguing and the size and resolution of that screen looks absolutely gorgeous, but it only shines because HTC put their own interface over the default WinMo apps. (Also looks like only T-Mobile will carry it, bummer.) There are the same, old, boring, crappy applications, especially for mail. My other strong leaning was the HTC TouchPro2 which is out now, but you know, after watching several videos of people using it and seeing how the good stuff was still tied to the HTC TouchFlo3D interface (which I’ve never been fond of), it just wasn’t enough.

So, guess I just have to say, sorry, Windows Mobile. We had a lot of fun and Microsoft could have taken you to such heights. It’s too bad they didn’t make you a priority years ago, especially when Apple first dropped the iPhone bomb. They have the money, developers, talent, (shrinking) market share, EVERYthing they need, but no vision. Now, even when there are inklings that they’ve finally seen the light, it is too little and much too late. Of course, I’ll keep watch on the WinMo world to see how it develops, but since the iPhone feels like a new and liberated world for me, I can’t see ever going back. I’m quite content and happy with that.

Remember this mantra, Microsoft: It – Just – Works.

[2009.12.01 addition: Just came across this post [http://www.mobilitysite.com/2009/12/droid-iphone-or-hd2-which-would-i-choose/] from Chris Leckness on MobilitySite.com, he compares the iPhone 3Gs, HTC HD2, and Droid… and basically sums up a lot of what I’m thinking. iPhone is still the best.]