For all the time that I was with Microsoft’s mobile platform, although it was not really an open platform, a fringe developer community (centered around xda-developers) filled the gap to make modifications and “improve” the user experience. However, as Google has pushed Android to be a viable mobile operating system and a more open development platform, it was time to make the jump.

In a nod to HTC smartphone success, I was originally trying to maintain my loyalty, but they were taking too long to come out with a high-end Android device on ATT. So after seeing the Samsung Captivate in action, and hearing Samsung’s announcement that they would be limiting their Super AMOLED screen to their own devices (i.e. no AMOLED for HTC), I made my choice.

The Samsung Captivate is a part of Samsung’s Galaxy S family which is a big push using the Android operating system into mobile communication and multimedia devices across multiple carriers. In addition to the awesome 4-inch screen, the Captivate with Android has some other cool features that I like:

• native Gmail, Contacts, Calendar support (push, stars, labels), including Google Apps accounts.
• strong apps and widget development and support via Android Market.
• open user development environment (xda-developers, still my favorite)
• Gorilla Glass for screen protection
• nice hardware touches: sliding USB port door, clever and secure access to battery and rear slots

However, there’s no such thing as perfection. So here are some gripes and dislikes, some are Android-related which have workarounds and eventual solutions while others are hardware-specific limitations:

• fail to filter My Contacts (stupid Samsung customization) [xda-dev]
• no default select of Google Calendars for new events [xda-dev]
• no native Google Docs support (come on, Google)
• no camera flash (limited indoor and night shooting)
• no front-facing camera (do I really need video calls)
• camera rotation tagging (annoying landscape/portrait fail)
• slow GPS lock (supposed fix coming)
• [update 9/14/2010] no way to designate default gmail account on sharing intent

After using the Captivate for almost a  month, I’ve pretty much settled on my current installed apps which are listed on AppBrain. Here is a highlight of those that I use more regularly:

• FBReader: ebook reader
• Google Maps: full featured maps, navigation and places
• Cubed (3): music player
• mVideoPlayer: video player, duh
• Astrid Task List: syncs with Remember the Milk
• Google Listen: podcast player (streamed and offline)
• LauncherPro: customizable homescreen
• JustPictures!: photo viewer (local and flickr)
• Profile: sound and settings by profile
• Google Voice: full integration and control
• AppBrain: application manager integrated with Market
• Yelp: restaurant reviews
• Root Explorer: file manager with root access

For some of the apps that are more web-based, it will be interesting how they come up with offline support when you are off the grid. Another wishlist app is something that can do automatic background cloud-storage syncing, whether for photos, docs or any other files.

A note on tablets. When Apple first came out with the iPad, I bought into the idea that tablets were going to be a new viable form factor. At the time, I was thinking that Android would be a great platform, and there are quite a few Android tablets launching in the coming months, including one from Samsung. But after using Android on the phone, it seems that any tablet based on Android would still feel like a big phone. This is not a dig on Android, but more like a recognition of how well Android works in the smartphone form factor. And just as the iPad is limited by iOS, I think the right platform for tablets would be a full-fledged operating system like Google’s Chrome OS. Regardless, it’ll be cool to see how this plays out in the coming year.

I started out reading on my Windows Mobile device and continue to do so because the one thing I have with me all the time is my phone. The e-reader software that I used back then was Peanut Press, which was later bought buy Palm, and then bought again by Barnes & Noble.

Lately, I have been testing a free program called Freda, which uses the increasingly more common and popular ePUB format [wikipedia]. With all the e-reader and tablet talk these days, there are a lot more options for accessing ebooks and ebook libraries as well as new hardware form factors.

For now, I’ve settled on managing my ebooks locally (rather than in a proprietary marketplace). I have found a couple tools that help make this easier. The first is a desktop e-reader application called Stanza which can also do some basic format conversion. They have since been bought by Amazon (you see the M&A theme going on in this marketspace) and development seems to have stalled since the Big A have their own Kindle platform to promote.

The other application that I have been making good use out of is Calibre which is a library management application. The real power of Calibre is its ability to convert ebook formats intelligently with pretty good results. It is also able to sync and manage all your ebooks, but I haven’t really gotten into those functions yet.

After having used my 8525 for just over a year, I have moved on to my next device, the HTC Fuze from ATT. I had been hoping and waiting that Google Android would develop quicker into a legitimate business PDA phone, but doesn’t look like this’ll happen for another year.

ATT has been better about pricing their higher end phones, so I was able to pick one up at a local store with a nice rebate. They did have to replace the SIM chip with an updated version, but there wasn’t any problems or delays with activation like I had the first time when porting over from Verizon.

The best feature by far with this phone is the 480×640 resolution screen. It is sharp and beautiful, considering I was coming from the previous Windows Mobile device standard of 240×320. The camera is also a significant improvement with auto-focus at 3.2 megapixels AND flash.

Sticking with HTC devices is definitely the way to go. Especially with all the”development” going on at XDA-Developers. I was able to read up on my new phone (which is codenamed Raphael) on their forums and wiki. There is also a website dedicated to this specific phone called Fuze Mobility, which is more user-friendly than trolling the XDA-Developer forums.

At first I had a difficult time getting used to the new TouchFLO 3D interface that is loaded on top of Windows Mobile 6.1. Initially, it seemed to be just “eyecandy” while slowing down the usefulness of the device. After a week of trying it out, I was able to find some modifications to speed up the overall device and also to customize the look and design. In the process, I upgraded the ROM and radio improving overall function, reception, data connectivity and battery life.

One new function on this phone is the built-in GPS. So far, it works pretty well, I mainly just use it with Google Maps for Mobile. It will be interesting to see if and when there are more location-aware applications coming out for Windows Mobile.

Here are the main software applications that I have running:

• Seven: push e-mail and contacts synchronization with Gmail and Gmail Apps
• PhoneWeaver: profile switching
• Oggsync: calendar synchronization with Google
• AE Button Plus: customization of hardware buttons
• Conduits Pocket Player: listening to music, streams and podcasts
• Palringo: multi-IM client (except for Skype)
• Skype: chat and VOIP
• eReader: reading ebooks
• Laridian PocketBible: multiple Bible versions, commentaries and devotions

For the most part, I am quite happy with this phone and can’t think of too much that I would want to improve. The speed is one area, but it is just a matter of time before xda-developers figures out the optimum settings.

I ended up having to get the SIM unlock for the phone, since I will be going to Asia next week and couldn’t wait 3 months until ATT would give it to me for free

One of the complaints that I had with my new PDA-phone is that the volume is actually too loud straight out of the phone. So on top of the headphone port adapter required to use my preferred headphones, I had to get a volume control adapter, which after it was all connected made my headphone cable ridiculously long. This really become a hassle on my latest trip to Asia, as I was using my phone to listen to music and podcasts while traveling.

So while researching a solution, I discovered that bluetooth headphones have become much more common and usable. It was just earlier this year, when I was with Elijah in Hong Kong, we saw some bluetooth headphones in the computer mall, and we commented that we couldn’t see any actual use for them. And here I am seriously considering them.

Some of the advantages of using a bluetooth headphone adapter are that the headphone cables aren’t directly connected to the phone and dragging all over the place and also that as a phone adapter, I can take calls without getting my phone out or taking my headphones off. One of the more recent improvements is that these adapters can also control the music player remotely.

After some searching, I settled on the i.Tech Clip R35 because I could use my own headphones and i.Tech products are much more available in Asia, where I was at the time. I ended up getting them at my second stop in Singapore, because I didn’t have time to search for them in Taipei. Turns out that if I waited to get them in Malaysia, I would have saved a few bucks :p.

Once I got the R35 adapter, I configured it with my PDA-phone and tested it out with different settings and players. Unfortunately, the bluetooth stack that comes with Windows Mobile 5 is not that efficient with the limited memory and the sound quality is pretty bad. I tried some different hacks and eventually got a configuration which required installing a hacked third-party bluetooth stack. The sound quality was better but not optimal (some minor skipping).

For software, I then tried both the included Windows Media Player and Conduits Pocket Player. Pocket Player has better playlist management and saves your ‘last played’ position among other features. But I ended up settling on the included player since it didn’t take up additional memory and the basic operation worked well enough.

As a bluetooth headphone adapter, the R35 itself works pretty well. The sound quality while talking on the phone worked fine, and the battery life is remarkably good. But I guess I expected too much, forgetting to pack the charger on my 30-hr flight back and running out of juice. In the end, the limitation is more with the device that I was pairing it with.

Fortunately, after I got back from Asia, I upgraded my phone operating system to Windows Mobile 6, which has a much improved bluetooth stack, and works as you would expect (good sound quality and no skipping). I still stuck with the included player because for some unexplained reason Conduits Pocket Player didn’t work with the remote bluetooth controls as it did with the old operating system.

One unrelated observation is that I use these a lot more when in Asia than I do back home. The primary reason being that in SoCal, most of my ‘traveling’ is spent in my car where I don’t need to use my PDA-phone to listen to music and I can just connect it to the in-car bluetooth for hands-free phone calling. While in Asia, most of my time is spent walking or in mass-transit and on planes, and with the bluetooth headphone adapter, I have my own self-contained media/phone environment.

We have been with Verizon a long time, since before it was called Airtouch. Unfortunately, because Verizon is using the CDMA network, we can’t use their phones overseas without incurring ridiculous international roaming charges. The cheapest solution is to use a GSM phone and swap out local SIM cards. For that, I have been using a basic flip phone, which is kind of redundant with all my data still on my Verizon PDA phone. Now that I travel to Asia more often, I was planning to get a converged GSM device.

Recently, there were some work situations where I needed to communicate more immediately with our Asia managers, which could have easily been accomplished if I had a GSM phone and just messaged them via international SMS (Verizon phones can’t receive international text messages natively). So I decided to make the move even though I would have to pay a penalty to break my Verizon contract before end of term.

I decided to get the ATT 8525 from a local Chinese equipment vendor which saved me a bunch of money, and they were able to port my Verizon number over as well (Amazon doesn’t port numbers that easily). Unfortunately, the porting process isn’t as smooth as it should be. My voice calls were ported by the following morning but the inter-network text messages didn’t get transferred until the following day. On top of that, the email-to-sms gateway address that ATT provides “number@mobile.att.net” didn’t work and I had to find the updated address on wikipedia which is “number@txt.att.net”.

After a couple days of porting delays (which might have been avoided by just turning off my old phone, but that’s not what they tell you to do), along with some configuration and customizations, my GSM PDA phone is working nicely. Whereas, my old PDA phone, Verizon xv6700, still had some bugs that had to be worked out or hacked around, this new one, ATT 8525, is all that a PDA phone should be. The battery life is great, the processor is nice and fast, and the windows mobile version has been updated improving the overall experience (still waiting for the official update to Windows Mobile 6).

Of course, there are always a few things that could be improved:

• the data connection isn’t as stable or fast as Verizon
• ATT email-to-sms gateway strips the header information, which limits the effectiveness of PushEffect
  [update: through some email scripting, I've been able to program a workaround and now it's working efficiently again]
• contrary to most other user complaints, my headphone volume is actually too loud
• interference with nearby speakers whenever the phone connects with the network

Hopefully, some of these issues will get fixed in future updates. Also, we’ll see how it works in real world international testing when I go to Asia next week.

Until the perfect devices comes along, this will have to do

I have been wanting to setup a simple process to take pictures from my pda-phone and have them posted to my site (ie “moblogging“). When I saw the new web service Tumblr, I was inspired to act on it. After a couple weeks of testing, I decided that tumblr wasn’t quite what I was looking for. You can still see the test site here: pls.tumblr.com. But at least it got me started.

I now have my moblog module setup where it is working pretty seamlessly from my phone to my flickr account and to the front page of this site (in the upper right-hand corner). Granted the pictures from my phone aren’t going to be very good quality (camera phones still have a ways to go), but I guess that’s not the point. The point is to have a simple way to keep a photographic log throughout the day.

In the past, when I have gone to Asia, I’ve had a frustration (one of many) with my US cell phone provider Verizon. Because Verizon is on a CDMA network, it does not natively support international SMS messages. So in order for me to send messages to Rebecca, I had to find a web-based solution or relay a message through someone in the US who has a GSM phone.

This last trip, I decided to try and use Twitter as an SMS gateway to exchange messages with my wife and it worked great…for the most part. The main hiccup being in Taiwan, I was only able to send messages but not receive them. The other being that I didn’t always know my local country number beforehand so I would have to send a message to someone first in order to identify my own number (need to remember to write those down). But that sure beats having to call directly or finding an internet connection to just send a message ping.