m dot
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Lately I've been trying to use my Treo 700p less and work with the Samsung Upstage that I received through Sprint's Ambassador program. I started doing this in anticipation of writing a series of reviews on the phone. I quickly figured out though that the phone isn't that great. At first I thought that you would want to know this, but it soon became apparent that nobody needs me to tell you. I know it, Sprint knows it, and anyone that checks Best Buy and sees that this $379.00 phone comes with a $300.00 instant rebate knows it.
I've kept with it though, mainly as an experiment to see how the other half lives. By "other half" I mean people that aren't using "smart" phones like my Treo or my P6700 - phones on which you cannot install applications. Surprisingly, I found that some of the new mobile sites out there work really well. I'm not ready to give up my Treo just yet, but in a pinch I could certainly continue uninterrupted by using these services.
Here's a round up of my favorite mobile sites, some of which I use on my Treo as well.
gmail (gmail.com/m) Google does have a great application that can be installed right on these phones, but their mobile web site is actually pretty functional and easy to use. Its not something that I could live with for an extended solution (like a weekend out of town) but for the occasional email checking throughout the day its good.
google calendar (google.com/calendar/m) A good implementation of Google's calendar for the small screen. Its not full featured (I was looking tonight and didn't see where I could delete or edit an entry) but their "quick add" feature works very well. I just entered "haircut wed 8pm" and it added it. Then thanks to Plaxo (which I have listed a below as well) that one entry was synced to my Outlook at home and will eventually end up on my MacBook Pro and my Treo 700p.
google reader (google.com/reader/m/subscriptions) Another good implementation of one of Google services (in this case their RSS reader) to the small screen. When I first looked at this "m" site, I was impressed at all. I browsed over to http://google.com/reader/m and found all the articles from all my feeds simply listed. It was very hard to read and I really didn't like it at all. Then I found that if I add "subscriptions" to the end of that address it worked pretty much as I thought it should. Nice reader when I'm on the go...
grand central (m.grandcentral.com) I've written before about what a fan I am of Grand Central. I've even started giving out my GC number as my direct number and am having printed it on my business cards. At first I thought this would be the first non-Google mention on my list, but it seems that changed today as its now rumored that Google is buying them. Their mobile site if very handy though. The first thing I noticed was that in a pinch, I could look up a number from my phone book on their site, and their systems would call the person and my cell and connect us. Since I have no way of syncing my large phonebook with this Upstage, it was a good fall-back. Again though, Plaxo one-ups this in my opinion but its still great for retrieving the voice mails left on their system. You can very easily pay back the voice mails or (in the case of my Treo) download as a file and save/share/listen to them later.
twitter (m.twitter.com) I quit having Twitter send every message to me via SMS about an hour after I returned home from SXSW this year. I do though like to browse through them when I am out and about sometimes and their mobile site is very well designed for this. Minimal graphics make it quick and on small screens. You can post Twitter messages here (which I sometimes do from my N800) but on the phone SMS is still the easiest way to go.
facebook (m.facebook.com) I'm not a 'power user' of Facebook, and honestly (like Twitter) I find that for most things I want to do SMS is the way to go, but on occasion I do like to check it from my phone and their mobile site lays it out very nicely on the small screen and provides a consistent 'Facebook' experience - well done.
weather underground (m.wund.com) This is my favorite weather site for mobile devices. It formats perfectly for my Treo and the Upstage. Simply enter your zip code, then bookmark the resulting site; for some reason it doesn't seem to cache so the information is current ever time I access it. It even provides an animated GIF of the radar (in case you don't know which way the wind is blowing).
plaxo (m.plaxo.com) Plaxo's new service works very well on mobile devices. It gives me access to all of my sync'd data quickly and cleanly. The calendar access doesn't let you add an event as easily as Google's but it does let you edit and delete existing events. Contacts are easy to look up, and when selected it makes the phone (either my Treo or the Upstage) dial it directly. Very handy at times.Labels: facebook, google, grandcentral, mobile, plaxo, Sprint Ambassador Phase 3, twitter, upstage, wunderground
posted by Russell @ 12:13 AM,
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The New Phone Arrived Today
Saturday, March 31, 2007
My new Sprint UpStage phone arrived today which, being a Saturday, took me by surprise. I already had my day planned out so I wasn't prepared to play with it a whole lot. But I did snap a new pictures and carried it around with me for the afternoon.
The first thing I did of course was connect it to my computer and load myPodder onto it. Works like a champ! And I quickly discovered that not only will it download all of my podcasts, it will play them through the speaker so I can sit at my desk and listen without headphones... nice!
Beyond that, here are my first impressions:
- It's small... the smallest phone I've ever had. And thin. Almost too thin and light, but not quite.
- Flipping the phone back and forth is going to take some getting used to, especially when you are browsing on the big screen (okay, I played a little) but entering text on the keypad.
- The connectors are proprietary - it came with a special USB cable and a special headphone adapter... not what I would typically like in a phone, but its the same on my Mylo (non-standard headphone connection) and at least in that case the functionality supersedes my desire to only carry one cable.
- The battery wallet (sorry, no picture yet) is surprisingly light weight and does not add much bulk to the phone, although actually talking on it with the wallet attached seems awkward.
- The menu structure seems pretty much the same as the other Samsung phones I have owned.
- The navigation on the MP3 side of the device is going to take some getting used to. The center button is a real button, but the square around it is touch-sensitive. It seems they knew this was going to take some getting used to as the phone automatically boots into a tutorial every time you turn it on (it was easy to make that stop).
Labels: myPodder, Podcast Ready, sprint, Sprint Ambassador Phase 3, upstage
posted by Russell @ 11:38 PM,
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The Samsung M620 aka UpStage
Sunday, March 25, 2007
I'm totally making a guess here, but I think this is the "Yet To Be Released" phone that Sprint mentioned in their Ambassador Program letter.I'm going way out here on a limb (sarcasm), but the other choice of phones in the program is the Samsung M610, and being a dual-faced phone this would certainly be redefining "flip" as it pertains to cell phones in this day and age - and the specs match.
I find the overall idea of this phone very exciting though. Expandable with an SD card of some type meaning I can make it 'podcastready'. Stereo bluetooth headset plus external speakers for listening without headphones (I do that a lot at my desk with my N800).
I have always preferred the "candy bar" design and although I will say now I am not convinced that a dual-faced phone it going to work for me, I do hope this is the one nonetheless because it seems like it would be a really fun phone to play with.
Labels: samsung m620, sprint, Sprint Ambassador Phase 3, upstage
posted by Russell @ 4:04 PM,
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