Phone thoughts January 9, 2007
Posted by mark in : Design, Device, Personal, Wireless , trackbackDesirable features for my next mobile handset (without wanting it to $satisfy all). Currently use a Palm Treo 650 (which doesn’t have 3G/ wifi/ gps/ multitasking OS), and not a landline. Grouped, but no particular order :
- Wireless : Wifi – for free SIP calls and browsing
- Wireless : Wifi – for better indoor data reception and call quality
- Wireless : 3G cellular – for SIP client (cf. GPRS is insufficient)
- Wireless : GPS – for tracklog, geotagging
- Plan : Flat rate data plan? For PC modem?
- No walled garden : Open to small 3rd party application developers
- PIM (addresses, calendar) : Handles thousands of records
- PIM : Sync’s with a desktop/ internet app
- Music : Plays FLAC files, and MP3/ ogg streamed from server
- Music : 3.5mm socket, for ‘proper’ headphones without an adaptor
- Bluetooth : Not crippled, so phone can be used as a modem
- Bluetooth : For headset and syncing with PC
- Usability : Easy to set up/ configure
- Usability : Easy to change (volume, bluetooth on/off, wifi/cellular, etc)
- Usability : Instant (ie. not clamshell) v’s accidental dialling in pocket
- Usability : Reliable, sturdy, compact, light
- Usability : Strong signal, long battery life
- Usability : Bright screen, that can be seen in sunlight
- Usability : Touch-sensitive screen?
- Usability : Keyboard – for typing (tag, blog)
- Usability : File manager to add/remove apps
- Usability : Multitasking OS
- SMS : Saveable, sync with desktop upon backup
- SMS : Threaded conversation option
- Memory : Non-volatile, in case battery fails
- Memory : Removable (expandable) card for media
- Security
Things that I don’t really care about :
- Game playing
- Reading/writing Microsoft documents
- Integration with Microsoft Exchange
- Push email
- Speakerphone …used occasionally, when on hold or hands-free
- 3G services and media from a telco
Comments»
I got a Nokia E70 (Symbian Series60 based) a few months ago because I wanted ssh-type access to servers, SIP seems cool, and wifi aswell. Multitasking is also useful – as you mentioned, the Treo & PalmOS don’t multitask which is probably the biggest let-down of the OS these days.
Whilst I’d like to move across and try it, the main things stopping me are:
* converting contacts/diary from PalmOS -> series60 apps
* getting a decent password app and migrating passwords from STRIP (on palm) to series60.
The former is a *big* pain.
Anyway, aside from that, I’d mention that I’m not too worried about a mobile device playing FLAC – it would be something I would like from a “free format” PoV, along with ogg-vorbis, but I don’t think a mobile device’s audio can do justice to CD-quality audio to make it worthwhile.
I pretty much agree with all the rest. With SMSes it would also be nice to do the following that my Treo600 can’t:
* not treat all chats between you + other as a single chat
* be able to remove some entries (eg if someone waffles a bit)
* be able to store/archive chats/smses (preferably on the device but, if not, on the computer)
The Treo600 (& I assume other Treos) treat the chat logs like ring-buffers (when it gets too full the oldest messages get deleted so new ones can be saved) which means I lose entries.
Push-email would be nice if there was a nice standard (I’m not aware of one) .. although I wouldn’t want a crackberry affliction like several of my friends
Regarding the SMS’s :
1. I’m ok with it like that, but I don’t save most of my chats for long
2. You can remove entries (on the Treo 650). Turn off the chats ["Options > Preferences > Chat > Create chats from messages: Never"], then delete your entries, then turn chats back on
3. SMS’s get stored on the PC when you sync (and were re-added to my replacement Treo, from my PC, when I first sync’d). I guess you could ‘archive’ chats by saving copies of those files periodically; but reading them again would be a hassle