Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Ten Things I Hate About You

I have recently become disenamoured of Windows Mobile. I don't know if I got a bum device or what but for as much as I paid for my Fuze, I kinda expected more. Here is the list of problems I am experiencing and other things I want to bitch about.

1: Web Browsing - Opera and Internet Explorer will not function at the same time. In fact, I think I've only gotten IE to work once. As for Opera, half the time I fire it up and it won't connect properly. I have to cycle the radios off then back on (it's easiest to just turn airplane mode on then off) to get it to work. It all supposedly has something to do with the AT&T proxy server but I honestly don't understand why it has to be that complicated. This is one of those things that should just work.

2: Touch response - Is it too much to ask when I'm trying to dial or use the calculator that if I tap a button once I only get one instance of the number? This is actually where it is most noticeable but it happens trying to navigate Touch Flo 3D. I even undid all of the tweaks once and it didn't make a difference.

3: Navigating left and right using the D-pad. This is actually a design flaw.

4: GPS - Why does it take five fraking minutes for the GPS to warm up and get a solid lock? My friend with a Palm on Sprint does it in about fifteen seconds. Supposedly a new ROM (recently leaked) improves this but I haven't seen an official release yet.

5: Holiday mismatch - I think I may be the only person having this problem because I posted it to a forum and didn't get any 'me too' posts. My holidays are listed on the correct day on my Outlook calendar but my Fuze thinks they are the day before they are supposed to be (i.e. April 14 is Tax Day in the United States?). This does not happen with any appointments I create or meetings I accept. Just holidays.

6: TF3d vertical scrolling - The touch screen is either too sensitive or not sensitive enough. There doesn't seem to be an in-between. It never fails if I am attempting to scroll through programs, I invariably launch one I didn't intend to launch. Then, if I'm trying to flip through emails or text messages or contacts or whatever, I have to do it several times before it finally takes.

7: The keyboard - I have thought the horizontal sliding keyboard was cool for many years. Apparently I never used one of these phones long enough to really figure out just how inconvenient it really is to have to slide out the keyboard, turn the phone, then wait for it to decide that I've turned the phone to switch the orientation.

8: Hang up dammit! - To place a call I HAVE to use the hardware button. Even though there is a giant, red 'End Call' button on the screen, I can't use it because the phone turns off the screen during a call. And, apparently, the hardware button doesn't think I really want to hang up now.

9: ActiveSync - There is a function to be able to synchronize your Outlook notes with your phone/mobile device. There is also a function where you can tell the system that in case of conflicts, replace the stuff on the phone with the stuff on the computer. I plugged my Fuze into my work PC yesterday hoping a sync might tweak the clock and the PC would tell my Fuze it was a dumbass and had the holidays on the wrong day. When I went to open a note this afternoon that had a nice list of things I need to talk to my boss about, it had information from two weeks ago that I had deleted and replaced. Nice.

10: Useless stylus - Seriously? You think a 3 1/2-inch stick of metal the diameter of a Bic pen ink cartridge is helpful?

Honestly, the thing has been getting in my way more than it has been helping me lately. I wish it were easier to switch phones but beyond the problems with AT&T and my contract, I just had to get the most expensive WinMo phone they offer. The wife would never let me live it down if she found out how I feel about it now.

Maybe I'll do an experiment. I'll undo all of the tweaks and do a backup tonight. Tomorrow (or at my earliest convenience) I will hard reset the phone (basically reloading the ROM), restore my backup and turn TF3D off. Then I'll go at least a week with an untweaked phone using the standard WinMo shell.

ADDENDUM: You may get the impression from the paragraphs above that I hate my Fuze. That is not the case. I'm just frustrated with a few of its quirks (some of which seem to be isolated to my phone) and knowing what I know now, I might not have been so quick to snag one.

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