vB Easy Archive - ATT Tilt Windows Mobile 6 ( AT&T ) A-Z What do you think?

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ATT Tilt Windows Mobile 6 ( AT&T ) A-Z What do you think?
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Posted by: mcbain942

I just bought a new cell phone called the "Tilt" from ATT. My Verizon bill was going to about 130$ a month and it just didn’t seem right. I am now paying 80$ a month with way more then I had with Verizon. Here is what is cool about the phone...

- 3G - 3g is what Google is trying to get into. This seems to be a faster wireless wifi signal for your internet. The next GPhone by Google will be using this.

a) It is better then the Iphone. I have windows mobile 6 professional edition. This is a pocket PC. The Iphone has about 50 less programs then windows. Plus you are "locked in" on the iphone leaving customization not applicable. I’m not even sure if you can buy games and programs for the phone. With my phone since I am a computer program I can even write programs for my own phone to do WHATEVER i want.

b) This is also my iPod so I do not have to carry around another device. I don’t need an iPod. Apple did come out with an "itouch" which does the same thing in combing the two. But still it does not have near the options as this phone. Not only that, I bought the new Bluetooth stereo headsets so I can now listen wirelessly to my new phone.

c) This is also a game boy or psp. I play allot of tiger woods golf, and those new smart brain games can become addicting. I also like marble madness. Games just go on and on.

d) The Camera!! or should i say video camera!. Its 3 megapixels which in cell phone land is ALLOT. But I must elaborate. The functions on this phone are endless. When your turn the cell phone sideways it looks no different then a Digital camera. The button to take the picture is in the same place and everything. You can crop pictures, they have default Man of the Year and Woman of the year frames. Effects on pictures, etc etc

e) The Mobile TV. Finally it looks like they got it right. Put the tv in full screen mode and the quality and audio is on par with any device out there. I could easly handle watching tv on this thing. Also they have all the major networks so there are tons of channels.

f) The screen saver automatically scrolls threw your pictures that are on file. Small feature but nice =)

g) The Internet Explorer. Its still not perfect but its better. Att's network seems fast enough to not have to wait long for pages to load. I don’t like how you cannot have more the one window but it seems to be only IE 4.0 compatible still. I don’t know the technical details of the browser yet. It might be IE 5 compatible but stripped down not to allow java script etc. But it does seem to be working fine with activex controls and installing applications.

h) GPS!!! I think they are charging me an extra 10$ a month for this but its kinda worth it toy wise. I never had navigation in my car or a hand held navigation before but this showed me where i was and how to get home right on point. It gave me a visual and audio directions perfectly. Well not perfectly because it doesn’t know the shortcuts ;x

i) Messaging. This handles SMS (Text messages/Outlook synch/Yahoo/Hotmail/AOL/AIM mailboxes!. It keeps control of all your email in one application and shows you a count of new messages on the today or desktop of your phone.

j) Instant Messaging. They have all 3 messengers now. Yahoo, MSM, and AIM included now. They only handle the basic operations but they are all there and working.

k) Bluetooth - This is nothing new but with this phone I cannot report any problems. I can tell my phone to call a contact and the voice recognition is working find and calls the person without a glitch. You can also start certain applications with your voice as well. There are some advanced features such as tethering over bluetooth or sending files from you computer to the phone via bluetooth, as well as a ISP over bluetooth, but i will get into that later

l) WinZip - Finally included is an unzip utility so if somebody sends me a zip file or i download something from the internet i can actually DO SOMETHING with it.

m) ActiveSynch 4.5 - Not sure what the difference is but its running flawlessly synching my contacts, calendar, files, notes etc etc to my phone and computer

n) Push to Talk - Now nextel and sprint users are not the only cool people to have this feature. ATT also gives you a buddy list to for this operation.

o) Microsoft Office - I can except and work in Excel, Power Point and Word. You cant work with files that have advanced options in them but i wouldnt expect such.

p) Event Viewer - This is a new feature and only for advanced users who want to find out more information on errors and stuff. You may think your phone is working smoothly until you look at this log to see more details on things that are not working

q) Skype compatible - THIS IS BIG!!! Most people have no idea how big this is. I tell the people at ATT who are even techs and they have no idea what im talking about. Im about to tell you. This is a VOIP program. That means you can make phone calls over the internet. That means you can tell them to take their "PLAN" and only give you the basic minimum in terms of minutes per month. You can make calls for almost free using the skype application instead of the phone line the att gives you. All you have to do is goto www.skype.com and install the correct version for your phone. Now you can for fee call skype to skype users without any money at all. But if you want to call skype to phone users you have to pay per minute. Skype used to charge .2 cents per minute but has now changed that and you can buy an unlimited 3 dollars a month fee. So for 3 dollars a month you can make as many outgoing phone calls as you want. Im not sure how you can handle incoming calls but that might be free already in terms of ATT.

r) I absolutely love the sliding "tilt". That means i can open my pocket pc phone to look like a sidekick. Even the sound is so cool when i "tilt" my phone back and it looks like a little personal computer! I also like the keyboard. it looks very nice colorful and easy to find buttons.

s) Windows Update is now built in. Although this should have been in the previous two versions!!! This now lets microsoft apply patches and even security patches to fix any issues with the phone. This means you wont have to wait for a new cell phone in order for something to work ( and eventually another option that doesnt work) its and endless loop that has finally ended. Security wise this is a major benefit.

t) The interface on this phone is just great. I love how its black instead of silver like all phones. It has chrome buttons and it gives you allot. It has a button for call and end call. Star menu, internet explorer , email, ok, cancel, and appropriate menu buttons for the screen. It also has an instant take a picture button for those quick people. It has a click button and a navigate button as well. Also if you do not like to use the pen, it is possible for you to just use the scroll wheel on the side and push it in to select something. It aslo has a PTT (push to talk) button the left side to do so.
u) Memory - For everything I have mentioned here memory is super important. There is allot of positives to talk about here. One, they give you a default 150 megs of space which is about 100 megs more then normal. Secondly, and most important, they give you a 36 GIG compatible phone!!!!!

v) Wifi - This phone has a built in wifi card so you can now connect to local wifi signals in your area. These connections are faster then the 3g network (or internet line) that comes with the phone. So if you can pick one of these up use these instead for your internet connection.

w) Tethering. This means you can use your cell phone as your ISP. Drop your cable bill, drop your dsl. If you have dial up still (god forgive you) you can now use your cellphone for you personal computer or mac to give you an internet connection. You suppose to pay for this per month, they charge you an extra 30$ a month to your unlimited internet bill which is 30 bucks a month to a total of 60$ a month. Technically its not worth it because the speed is around 30k which is not competitive to DSL or Cable at all. But you can tether via your phone without telling them or paying for it. Whether they catch your or not I have yet to find out =)
- i will give you a quick how to set up tethering on this phone without paying for it instructions
1) hook up your USB wire to your phone. Make sure ActiveSynch is working and connected.

2) on your phone, AT&T has hidden it but i seemed to have found it. By using the file manager, you can browse to your Windows directory on the phone and then double click the Internet Connection Sharing icon. From here chose the USB (or bluetooth if you wish hahha) and now your phone is listening for a connecting to really as an internet service provider. Now on any device, all you need to do is disable your wifi or LAN connection if you are using one. Now you computer will look to the new connection by default

X) Works with PDF files
y) A very good J2ME or Jbuild java support from sunsystems
z) The phone is very light for what it can do!!

Recommendations to ATT
- Allow svideo and/or rca output. This could allow you to use GPS to a mounted monitor on a dashboard in your car. not only for GPS but for anything. The only negative about these phones will always be the screen size.

- ATT mall. This is where they allow you to shop for games, programs and music. They use internet explorer to take you to there webpage which is not ideal yet. The page they bring you too is bloated and too big for the screen size. They can probably fix that on their side but still i do not think IE is they way to go. I have seen Handagos shopping application which gives you a WAP like menu and automatically filters things to only see what your phone is compatible with.

- Instant Messaging. They seem to not allow any of the instant messages to work when you are connect via a local WIFI connection. I dont understand why but the application detects and doesnt even let you try!

- Quick GPS - not sure what this is but evetr time i run it it says cannot connect.

- Phone lag - Phone seems to have a slight lag to clicking on things. I dont mind it but instant would be nice =)

- PTT - Couple things here. One major problem is i have nobody to PTT with? Everyone seems to have verizon. I know thats their problem but this feature is useless without people. So i hope people start realizing the ATT is where it is att. Another problem is this feature is not an "always on feature" When i start my phone i have to tell it that im available. Im not sure if this is only for buddylist display or nobody can PTT me until i say im available. Im still trying to see how the PTT options work in terms of privacy, mute, vibrate etc

- Dont hide ICS or internet connection sharing .... its just not cool =)

- The battery seems to only last about 2-3 hours which is not good at all if you ask me. 4-6 is the minimum in my book.

Recommendations to Microsoft
- I dont like when using mail applications that i do not see the entire message and they give a click here to download the entire message. I click here to do so, but it says it will show me the message next time i check mail. I check mail and it still has not download the message. I think you actually need to restart the phone or somehow close the email application and open it again (via the task manager) to see the entire message. I believe this also applies to attachments. Very annoying.

- I really dont like when sending SMS message i cannot "SELECT ALL" contacts. I hate having to add all my contacts manually one by one (and where talking 4 clicks to add each one) when i want to send all my friends a message. Also, people are responding to me saying they cannot accept large messages over 160 characters because you are not a verizon customer etc etc. Maybe that is on verizons side I cannot tell. But there is a probably when sending txt messages are large.

- Voice recognition - (made by cyberon so not sure if this is a microsoft thing) It will not dial people by voice. I also dont know why it doesnt read other messages like sms and email which is just text. Text to voice is easy.

- Search - I did a search for *.* and nothing comes up? thats not possible?

- The space button on the stylus keyboard is not on the default keys. You have to page to the number screen in order to click the spacebar. This is totally illogical. Maybe that had a space problem when they were clicking the interface. But there is two big spaces to the left and the right of the keyboard that i would assume would create spaces when i click them but they do not. Changes definitely need to be made here.

- Task manger - for some reason this is only showing the high level applications. There are programs that are running that are not showing up in the menu and I wanted to end and is very frustrating that i cannot end them. Microsoft should really give you the same low level access they give you in at least like windows xp in terms of ipconfig, netstat why this is hidden is beyond me.

- Remove programs - This option does not work for all applications that i have installed. Very frustrating to install an application that is in use under this scenario. This means I cant manually delete the directory because a file is in use. I cant kill the process in memory because the task manger doesnt seem to show all applications that are in memory as i have stated.

- Connections - This is in settings and i have no idea what this is. Im not sure if this is just and ATT thing but its useless. It brings me to a menu of add a new modem connection, add a new vpn server, edit proxy server ,manage existing connections etc. It would be more logical to separate this icon into more then one icon.

- WModem - This feature did not work for me. I Told the application to connect to my computer. Then my computer prompted me for a driver. Fine..then i inserted the CD that came with my phone and pointed to the folder where it should go to . The only problem is its looking for the wrong file name. I have checked the internet and the folder on the CD is the correct driver for what i am trying to install . But my XP is looking for a different filename for the driver then what is expected on my CD. I had to use the hidden ICS(internet connection sharing) instead of this application

Not mentioned
- Sim Manager. I dont really use a SIM card to store memory anymore outlook synch seems to do that fine
- Calendar, Bubble Breaker, JewelQwest, Midnight pool, Ms PacMan, My Cast, MySpace, Solitair, Proxy Manager, calculator, file explorer, sprite backup voice recorder, sim manger, tasks , phone dialer, help, TTY, button manager ,input manager, keyboard sound manager, lock manager, menu manager, owner information manager, phone manager, sounds manager, today manager, voice manager, about, backlight manager, certificates manager , clear storage manager, clock and alarms manager, device info manager, encryption manager, error reporting manager, power manager, regional settings manager, remove programs manager, screen manager, task manager, infared, wireless manager, click to play music on desktop, lock icon on desktop, running applications on desktop icon systray, improved toolbar next to start menu.

Posted by: petard

This is a pretty good impression write up, but it is clear you do not understand how some stuff work. An example is the task manager. This has nothing to do with Microsoft, it was created by HTC (the manufacture of the Tilt).

Its great that you like it, the more you own it and use other WM devices, the more you will understand on how this OS works.

Posted by: celltechy

My opinion is that you posted a VERY long post in the wrong forum

Posted by: Elfreshcuh

Not Exactly better than the iPhone at some things, i hate that i can Scroll on the net with my finger
its to small

Posted by: zephxiii

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elfreshcuh

Not Exactly better than the iPhone at some things, i hate that i can Scroll on the net with my finger
its to small

Posted by: mcbain942

I really havent used the iphone to really make this statement. But from what i saw it didnt have much. Maybe from what it has its a little better. But overall i dont think it could compare.

Petard, You right i do not completely understand who is responsible for what operation on the phone. The OS, the ISP, or the Hardware. Cant blame anyone to know in there head who owns what. I would assume the OS, Microsoft, should take care of there own task management like they do in XP. But it seems they left that responsibility to somebody else , which is a bad choice IMO