Scribblings

It's simple. I love this phone. Now a day I'm not easily excited or impressed by a phone. Couple of years back, you had a game changing new model every four to six months. But now, I bought the Xperia X1 last Dec and I don't find any drastic improvements in the last year or so.

And to start with N900 wasn't even on my radar a couple of months back. I was too busy drooling over the HD2 and X10. Since both are about 6 months away (at least states side). I turned my attention to N900 and I'm so impressed. I feel how I did 4-5 years back having a smartphone which could browse web and check mails.

One word of advice though, actually a couple. Don't approach this phone as a phone. Think of it as an internet tablet with phone capability. Next, don't think it would replace your iPhone or an Android mobile feature for feature.

Put it this way,

1. You are never going to get 10,000 or so apps on this.

2. You don't get the eye candy or the capacitive touch screen

3. Nothing is laid out to you. No entering your gmail id and see the phone set it itself

4. It's no iPod. Not a multimedia device per say

But,

1. The resistive touch screen is not bad. In fact its one of the best I have used. Take my word for it, this wont be a deal breaker. Just don't expect iPhoneish response

2. I love the display. One of the few with 16M colors and it shows. It has a 480x800 display. And it has 4 'desktops'. Love making the 480x3200 wallpaper.

3. Love the Skype and IM integration. First time the phone rang, it took me 5 mins to realize it's through Skype.

4. The browser and the legendary flash support. It's good, it's amazing. But be aware its not v10, its still v9

5. The keyboard is good and feels good too. But need time to get used to the right aligned space bar

6. Its not iPhone. Thank God for it.

7. Phone looks solid and built quality is top notch.

8. Has 32GB and a micro sd slot.

Few other things to know,

1. Cam is not all that impressive

2. BT is almost unsuitable. The phone shuts off the speakers (this incl calls and alarm) while connected to the headset. You have to wear the head set all the time or expect to miss calls and meetings.

2a. The phone frequently disconnects the headset after a call and need to restart the headset to connect again.

3. Setting up the exchange server is pain in all the wrong places

3a. Google exchange is not supported

3b. Works fine with Nuevasync but wont sync mail more than 2 weeks. Get an server not responding message if you set to anything more than 2 weeks.

4. Full fledge Skype app is still not ready

5. Ovi store for N900 is not ready

6. N900 is not added to the Ovi services (like contacts, calendar and others)

7. Not very impressed by the Ovi map

8. Nokia messaging is nice but I would prefer a native idle IMAP support (to get push mail from IMAP servers)

8a. Nokia messaging is very slow. When you open it only the local folder show up. Even the already downloaded mail don't show up instantly. It take a about 5 secs to get everything going.

9. Do not use the facebook widget, it drains the battery like there is no tomorrow. Actually like there in no today evening

10. Though the app list would grow; its still has only about 50 or so apps.

11. No native google voice support

11. Phone can't be used in portrait mode. Except for the dialer. For me this is no issue. In fact I love it can work only in landscape.

Conclusion:

This phone has great potential, but a lot of quirks. These are both software and hardware. Example, why no capacitive screen? why no bigger battery, why no IDLE support? Why can't it sync mails through google's exchange server? why is the Nokia messaging so slow? why can't I sync more than 2 weeks of mails from nuevasync?

These might be answered in a software update and the next models (they have already announced that 2010 will see an upgrade) will be much more refined.

I have a feeling this phone is not for the masses but if you are a gadget junky and need a new fix now and again, you can't do nothing wrong with this phone. Get it with eyes closed.

Folks looking for an iPhone replacement, please keep searching. This one is not for you.

Links to the points above:

BT Issue:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?p=410218

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=35756

Exchange Issue:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=35136

Nokia messaging issue:

http://talk.maemo.org/showthread.php?t=35648

In J.R.R Tolkien’s epic fantasy, Lord of the Rings; he writes about how earth (Arda) came into being and here is how. Eru (the Almighty) teaches his Holy Ones (Ainur, independent thoughts of Eru, forced into being) the theme of music. From this theme they form a template and of this template, they make the Arda (Earth). This world with heaven and hell is formed through the power of Music.

So where am I going with this, obviously to Michael Jackson. After his passing away, I felt a range of emotions. From shock to pain to anger to sorrow then was amused by the reactions of the celebrity world, people who happily trashed him before were getting their name printed with great things to say about him. How they shared this and inspired by that. So after a while, it became a publicity bandwagon. Same was the response from the public. I always knew he had a big fan following, but this? From record album sales to crashing servers with that many hits. So what once was a fan’s cry for his biggest loss can easily be mistaken to somebody searching for their 15 mins in limelight. This is the reason; I decided to go through this in a silent tantrum.

Then I went to see “This is it”. Yes, I was afraid. Afraid that they would further monetize our loss and it would all be a big gala of stars ‘sharing’ their views on the great one. And I didn’t see it on the first day, why? Because, call me crazy; but I didn’t want this to end. I don’t want to move on, I don’t want the world to make money off him and set him aside as they have done million times before. So with this fear, I approached the movie and I’m happy to say, it was beautiful, elegant and fun but most of all it showed me a little bit about the man himself.

People said he was too weak to even climb up the stage. He could not only do that, but for most part out perform fellow dancers, kids half his age. He was electric, he was methodical, he was polite, loving, courteous and you could see that he was not doing this for money or anything that menial but for something much deeper. In one scene, no not a scene, nothing in this documentary is acted out. These are the real events from his filmed rehearsal footage. He tells Michael Bearder (the music director), that he needs to slow the beats down. He hums it to him; you can see his eager face trying to get everything right. He patiently walks him through the entire sequence.

In all this, what struck me the most was that, how polite he was. There were million “I’m sorry”, a million “I love you” and a million “God bless you’. He stops the rehearsal at one point and says the ear phones feels like somebody is pounding on my ear. Kenny Ortega (Director) looks at him panicky and says, “Sorry Michael, I’ll change it”. Horror struck Jackson tells him quickly that that’s not the issue and he is simply commenting that it will take sometime for him to get used to it and he was actually apologizing.

This was indeed the movie I wanted to see, in a way this was the movie I had to see. Michael Jackson was far from done; this is a proof that he still had that spark, that magic. More so, this is a proof that this human being we see, dancing and singing and relishing the thing he does with all his soul was indeed god’s gift to us. And a sad reminder that, we are not good enough to hold onto them.

I don’t want to keep shoveling scenes from the movie, but I got to end this with another, they put him on a raising platform and Kenny Ortega tells him that its set at a medium height and that it can go higher. Jackson looks mischievously at him and says, “Why did you tell me that? Now, obviously I want to go higher”.

How can you argue with that!

God bless you Michael, we so dearly miss you

For a long time people have become more aware of what is behind the scene of all those porn. I don’t mean it in the literal sense, but I meant what is inside your personal computer. And how ever meaningless the brandings are, people know which one is a dual core in a Core2Solo and Core2Duo. And we are also reasonably equipped to navigate the world of clock speeds. We know a 1.5GHz Atom processor is not better than a Cor2Duo 1.2GHz processor or at least you are expected to know or the very least have all the info in front of you to know what you are getting into. Try googling Core2Duo vs. Atom processor and you have about a million websites explaining the same.

This brings us to something I want to discuss today, Mobile Phones. Or mostly smart phones, now do you have any idea what is under the hood of an iPhone? The Palm Pre maybe? Nope? And I don’t blame you. Though Apple slaps a big 2X sticker on an iPhone 3GS they don’t tell you why or how. We are left to take their word for it, and as I have written before, yes it is indeed faster than the 3G. And what’s underneath is quite impressive too and Apple should be proud of it. Ok let me give you a background.

The processor widely used in most of the phones in market today is an ARM11 based processor. Before you raise your hand to object hear me out. ARM is a company which designs these processors, they then licenses it out to others like Samsung and Qualcom for manufacturing. These manufactures take the design and slap other units like Graphics and Radio processors on a single die (chip) and sell it to Mobile makers (Like HTC, Apple, Palm and so on). This in itself a marvel, imagine a CPU, a RAM, a Graphics processor and a Radio processor in a single chip not more than a finger nail. Top of it they are designed with Power and Heat restriction.

Now this ARM11 processor is designed way back in 2001. Why is it in all the phones today, even the ones costing about 600 to 800 dollars? Simple. They are cheap, and nobody cares. Now they have designed another processor more efficient and powerful, it’s called the ARM Cortex A8, Samsung makes one processor based on it and calls it Snapdragon (you might have heard of this in recent phones). To give you an idea, look at the chart below

Scratching your head? Let me explain. The important stat here is the Issue Width. In a 1-issue processor only 1 instruction can be worked upon in a single stage of the processor. Example, if a processor has 5 stages (fetch, decode, operands, execute, retire) then only one instruction can be in one stage at any one instance. So obviously 2-issue means 2 instructions can go down the pipe line. Where in increasing the output speed.

Now this is not the only difference, look at the L2 cache, even though it’s optional in ARM11 processor, none of the manufactures put it. But in Cortex A8, L2 is a must. I won’t go more in detail about these, but this much is clear the Cortex A8 processor is at the minimum 40% faster than the ARM11 and in real world, almost 200% faster.

Now, do you see the baring difference, even if HTC Diamond has 528 MHz processor it’s still a 1-issue processor and is always trumped by the 600 MHz Cortex A8 in a iPhone; even though it has only a marginally better clock speed. So it’s my opinion that Apple should be standing on a roof top, baring their teeth, thumping their chests and shouting what a great processor they have. But I have an idea why they are not doing so, if they did, my first question would be that; then why on the name of all that is holy, can’t the OS handle multiprocessing? I guess that’s how bloated their OS is.

I would like to see the manufactures put these details on the box, and we should be really looking for these when we are buying one. Common people, Steve Jobs called the iPod touch a mobile computer, a gaming device and everything else in between. Shouldn’t we be pissed off when that ‘Mobile Computer’ comes with a processor 10 years old?

If HTC or Sony or Apple would not tell you all this, I will. Below is the low down.

Mobile Phones with the ARM11 processor (the bad one)

The one with Cortex A8

One of the things I do and do quite often is watch and read about movies. So naturally I have my favorite columnists (Roger Ebert and Richard Roeper) and web sites (Rotten Tomatoes) I visit quite often. I always felt that movie reviewing is a tricky business but what’s more complicated is to figure out the movies would like; so I wanted to write about how you go about deciding which movies you would want to see and which to avoid.

Since all of us don’t share the same psyche, our liking and choices differ. That movie which worked for me might not for you. Example, I personally think Pulp fiction is the greatest movie ever made, you might certainly disagree and you might not be wrong. Even though RT or another site of sorts can give you the general opinion about a movie it’s up to you to dig out those gems. Basically, you would know what arouses your attention and what moves you, you would have genre and actors you fancy and the ones with “no-no” on any cost.

I’ll give you few examples to illustrate this better. Take “Knowing” for example, RT hated it but my fav reviewer Roger Ebert loved it (Four out of four stars). What do I do? Now ask yourself why these people liked it or hated it. Then you get an idea. For me, I’m not a big fan of Nicholas Cage, and just saw Bankbook Dangerous and hated it, and with no gorgeous heroine in tow, I knew this is not for me. But take movies like fast and furious or the recent Funny People, I absolutely don’t care what others think. I waited for them all year and nothing is going to stop me.

This neatly brings us to another category, the movies you really expect and hope to deliver, like “Year One”. I love Michael Cera. And Jack Black recent outings weren’t that bad either. Tropic Thunder was a blast but can hardly call it his movie. But I was really impressed with him in Holiday. Then the reviews for “Year One” were a disaster and knowing Black (when he is off track he can be ‘stinking’ bad). I stayed clear, though might catch it on DVD. Roger Ebert thought this might be a movie about Adam and Eve (Cera is drag, ha).

Then there are the critically acclaimed “Limited release” movies. By limited release, the movie was made by people possessed by an idea and they live by it. It’s obvious then that most of these movies are well received. But I’m generally skeptical about these, again the trick is to find a reviewer who mostly shares your taste and find what’s so good or bad about the movie. So its quite possible that you might hate a movie which was showered with praises and love the ones which are thrashed. Take “Cars” for example, it’s the worst reviewed movie by Pixar and WALL-E is one of the best reviewed, in fact it’s the best reviewed of 2008. But I love “Cars”, (forgive me, I’m stealing this line but its so apt) If sally was a little more real and I was a little nuttier, I would marry her. And I found WALL-E to be so-so, even occasionally boring

Now that you got an idea how to navigate through the endless sea of reviews and movies and pick the one for you, let’s move on to the actual “Writing” of the reviews themselves. You might wonder why I like Ebert. Is it that we share same taste? Nope, most of the time I disagree with his choices but I love the way he writes, he always says that writing a critical review about a bad movie is always fun. So it is to read. About Transformers he writes,

“A horrible experience of unbearable length, briefly punctuated by three or four amusing moments. One of these involves a dog-like robot humping the leg of the heroine. Such are the meagre joys. If you want to save yourself the ticket price, go into the kitchen, cue up a male choir singing the music of hell, and get a kid to start banging pots and pans together. Then close your eyes and use your imagination”

I’m linking another review of Ebert to which I share the same sentiment. Happy reading and hope you have a better time at the movies.

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090729/REVIEWS/907299997

As technology progresses, there are few and fewer things that surprise you. One that surprised me recently is Google Voice; it has its history for past couple of years. But it’s forced into the lime light with the recent debacle about Apple rejecting its iPhone app. So what is this Google Voice you talk about? It all started with Google accruing Grand Central, which was a phone management service. Now after nearly 2 years of rebuilding it ground up, Google has opened shop (though invite only). Ok now we got the history lesson. What does this mean to us? For most people, absolutely nothing.

This works only in the US, and I don’t see any big advantage for the folks with ATT. Brass tax. This is basically “One phone number to control all” kind of thing. You register with GV and then you select a number (which you keep for life). Now you can forward all the calls to this number to other phones you use. What big deal? Yes big deal. Say I carry two mobile phones (business and personal) and then I have a home phone. You need to give out these numbers to people and hope they catch you on the right one on the right time. But with GV, you can set it up to ring one of these at the time you want it. You can send business calls straight to voice mail during off hours and set your mobile phone to ring when not at home. The possibilities are endless

It also has your back if you change any of your numbers, because you haven’t given it in the first place. Just enable call forward to the new number. Neat isn’t it? But it doesn’t stop there. For carriers who offer favorite numbers (like T-Mobile) or give free incoming, GV could be completely free, as in F-R-E-E. If you have a smart phone, install the GV app and dial a local (within) US number. Google doesn’t charge anything for its service and since your GV number is in your Fav 5, T-Mobile doesn’t charge anything either.

It also promises stellar voice quality, SMS (so that you don’t have to give your mobile number for it), conferencing and a web interface (one even customized for mobile browser) to control everything. It also has apps for Android, WM, Blackberry and the iPhone (though you need to jailbreak it to use this).

So guys, happy talking.

There are a few things that is indisputable in hollywood, one such thing would be the tile “The king of comedy”. And he is Judd Apatow. In the past few years he has either directed or written or produced at least a dozen top notch comedies. He even made heroes of Seth Rogen, Jonah Hill and Jason Segel.

I was very much looking forward to this movie, he not only produced it but also wrote the screenplay and directed. I’m happy to say that I loved it, na I adored it. Accepted, I went in wanting to love it but I’m also the one to point out when I’m disappointed (Harry Potter, hello!). Funny people did not disappoint, though it’s light on ”Bromance” and a lot less raunchy, the way you have come to expect of a Apatow comedy.

But it’s brim full of “Funny”, the story revolves around a famous and lonely comedian George Simmons done so convincingly by Adam Sandler. George hears the bad news from his doctor that he is terminally ill and puts him on an experimental drugs. Here on what happens to him physically is immaterial but what been done differently is that he does not turn into a saint and undoes all wrongs in his life. Instead, he just goes on being his selfish self. I wont spoil the fun for you guys

But I got to say that, there is good chemistry between Seth Rogen and Adam Sandler, and the beautiful Leslie Mann is ever so funny. I would definitely go on record and say that this has been the best movie of this summer. Sure some would complain its long and dry but Apatow finds ingenious ways to show us a peek into stand up comedy world and this is a much more personal outing for the King.

Disclaimer: - This is not written as full fledge review, there are a million out there explaining each feature. What this is, is a opinion or an gist of things you should expect and know before you decide on anything regarding the phone

Let me get this out first, I’m always telling people not to get the iPhone and I feel like a hypocrite for not just owning one but also getting the 3Gs on the first day of it release. But thinking hard, I’m not a hypocrite. Nope not in any way you cut it.

First let me talk about the 3GS, it’s definitely not twice faster than the 3G, it’s at least three or four times faster. It boots up way faster and you really see the difference in games. Also the battery is marginally better. And the fairytale end there. I couldn’t see any difference at all in the signal strength and no improvement in handoff between 3G to Edge. I must be looking like a circus clown when jumping left to right to catch a strong Edge signal to make calls. Also there is no big difference in Push interface, gmail(on the iPhone) is still not push capable and I never had problem with MobileMe for day one. Also the biggest disappointment for me was that there is no cosmetic changes, it looks exactly the same as the 3G, doesn’t even have a ‘3G S’ logo on it and I’m getting bored of the design now. So to recap, yes it’s faster and yes it’s marginally stays up longer but that is it. And you might wonder why I got it, ah; I was up for an upgrade and to see this for myself. O, I forgot; it’s got a compass though I still haven’t found a use for it, other than realizing that I’m facing SW when I work; is that good? Or is that the reason I’m not getting that hike?

Second, let me say a few words on the 3.0 OS. Mostly good news here, yes you get the ‘innovation’ of cut-copy-paste (OMG what a fuss this has been). Yes you get the video recording and also the much asked for voice control. Though out of ten tries not even once I got it right. But overall the new OS feels nice and fast. I here there are about 100 odd small improvements done here and there and I believe them. Now you get a percentage next to the battery indicator (no more guessing) (note: - though this worked only on the 3GS and not on the 3G). It also has a ‘Find my Phone’ feature for mobile me users, nice touch but not all that effective.

There this looks like a decently put together review, but still doesn’t explain why I’m not a hypocrite for asking people to stay away from it. And here goes…

Ah, before I dwell into that, I need to get a shout out to their customer care folks. Their call center, though inadequate as anybody’s; they don’t boast they know better than you. But their ‘Genius Bar’ is outstanding. Very pleasant, timely and they take the time to make you fell better.

Ok, brass tax. The phone is plain stupid. It’s very colorful, innovative (but it’s been 3 years) touch screen, easy to use and has million apps (really) to do just about anything. But still it’s all so stupid. First of all this is a phone, and I expect to get phone calls in it (Hello!!!). This doesn’t happen half the time. As I talked about this before, you make a call in 3G signal (very low) then it tries to switch to Edge the call drops. And in the iPhone 3G, most of the time I don’t receive a call, the person calling me happily hears the ring and the VM prompt but nothing on this end. I have changed the phone, changed the sim, and restored it a million time, still no calls.

Still this is not the reason I call it stupid. The smartphones in market for years now can do all the stuff this phone can do and some more and do it better. What I would suggest is, get this phone if it’s your first smart phone, and then quickly move on to an HTC or an Xperia. WM phones have always been so solid and unbelievably versatile. Now that these companies are realizing that there is a market for smarphones, you see a lot of innovations or improvements in the least.

Now for the folks in India, iPhone is a huge no-no. There is no 3G and GPS, so basically you won’t be able to do anything on the iPhone except make and receive calls (which it’s bad at). And considering that, it’s bulky. In my opinion get an iPod touch or an Archos (Archos if you ask me)

I had watched all the Harry Potter films and even once tried to read the 'Goblet of fire' but couldn’t get past all the detailed descriptions of how the magical washing machine worked or the clock showed where the Weasleys were at any given time. So for the most part I have been relatively Potter free. But about two years back, one way or the other I got pulled into the fiasco. I stared listening to the audio books and my friend filling up the gaps as we went. As they say, once you have sampled it I couldn’t get enough.

That is why looking back I find the movies to be so inadequate. I know, my heart crossed I know that a book cannot be made into a movie word for. I loved the Watchmen though, which for the most part stuck pretty close to the novel. I also loved the Lord of the rings series, though its was not an exact replica, it nevertheless it captured the essence of the books and you can say I loved both the book and the movie of V for Vendetta. Though both were very different , they both still had that touch. But here, the books are so complex and well thought off; it is a disgrace to deviate from it; to be fair I thought the fist four movies were decent (though I hate the way Dumbledore is portrayed), This is where the fifth and sixth movie faulters, The half blood prince is so off the mark, it not only neglected the book as a mere annoyance but created huge plot holes which is both unnecessary and stupid. How can Harry just stand there and stare when Dumbledore is being killed? Or why is the Borrow burnt down? Or why is Tonks calling Lupin “Sweetheart”? Or how on earth can Draco Malfoy disarm Dumbledore one on one? Then there are things with even bigger consequences, how will Harry know where Hufflepuff’s cup is (he was closing his eyes when Ginny hid the book)? Or that Nagini is the last Horcrux (Dumbledore does not talk about the other horcruxes except for the Book, Ring and the locket) or if he is roaming from one coffee shop to another when he is not in Hogwarts, then why would Madeye Moody die?

Now that’s off my chest, I actually wanted to talk about the books and the Harry Potter universe as a whole. There are loads of things I liked, but a few I loved. One being how Dumbledore is portrayed, He looks old but he is the single most powerful wizard, he has the elder wand but thinks of it as a duty he needs to burden rather than use its power, he was offered the post of Minister of magic but doesn’t trust himself with the power, how much he loved Harry, but still send him onto the world equipping him with enough knowledge but not showing him the way and in all likelihood lead him to his death. And how he always saw and spoke to the good in people, when everyone saw Snape as a coward or a spy, Dumbledore trusted him. Even when everybody saw that Harry was special for escaping the killing curse, Dumbledore knew Harry was special not for escaping the killing curse (as everyone did) but for he was pure at heart, that he wouldn’t be drawn in by the all the power or that when he saw into the mirror, he saw only the things which were taken away from him and not any riches or glory. Dumbledore in any sense is the true hero of this series(If not the whole seven books, read the last two chapters in Order of the Phoenix to understand this) .

I also loved all the side stories, yes Ron falls in love with Hermione and yes Ginny gets Harry but I’m so intrigued by the love between Tonks and Lupin, I loved the way it was built up. Tonks is still my fav character in the series. Then the masterpiece, Snape. Snape has got to be the most complex character ever conceived. He is hated on all sides, hated by the Death eaters for being Dumbledore’s yes man and despised by the Order for being a spy to Vodemort. And he had to protect the kid who looks so much like the person he despises the most and yet receive no credit for it. Harry hated him till his death. But the most striking part is love he had for Lilly. Read the book guys, no mater if you know the story or seen the movies or even read it once. Every time I read it, my heart leaps with sorrow. Half blood prince with the deathly hallows has got to be the most complex, emotional and personal book I have ever read.

When questioned by Dumbledore on his love for Lilly,

Dumbledore: "After all this time, Severus?"

Snape: "Always."

Michael Jackson -
The voice of a generation












God probably created Michael Jackson and said “That’s Michael and it can be done only once”. You all might be wondering, am I going nuts. Nope, and I don’t live under a rock either, I know all the controversies, all the health scars and all the financial troubles. I’m also not that old, I wasn’t even born when Thriller came out.

I started writing this almost a month back, after watching some old videos of his and after today’s most shocking and horrible news, I just want to finish this. I listen to a lot of music, from M. S. Subbulakshmi to Eminem. And I would also call myself a fan of a lot of artists. I’m crazy about Aerosmith, Air Supply and would even sell an arm and a leg to watch Eminem. But Jackson has to be all en composing phenom, when I saw MJ doing his signature moonwalk in that Billy Jean video; it was probably the biggest event I can remember when I was growing up.

We used go to my uncle’s place to watch Micheal's videos. I remember being so scared of full moon after seeing the Thriller video. Talk all you want about the controversies and the eccentricities no one can tell me one artist who had an impact like this. He is indeed the king of pop.

I’m so lost for words, there is nothing I can tell you that you don’t already know. Billions around the world mourn the loss and shed tears. I’m not ashamed to say I cried like a baby (still so bloody heart broken). The most heart breaking thing was that he was so close to his comback, his finance were coming into good shape and he looked so motivated. I wished that we would have the immeasurable joy in watching him do his magic in London. O I just wish, god is so so OMG cruel. 3 bloody weeks.

He left us all wondering what his one up to “Moonwalk” would have been or how extravagant his shows would be or even if there was an album down the line and to think I would never ever see him perform live breaks my heart million times over.

How much he gave us, from the funky cloths to the ever fashionable hair style, the white tee, the tied up shirts, the zipper leather jackets and oh that signature one hand glove.

My car stereo has been playing Relapse for the past month, back to back and my better half was so very tired, now she has got to put up with months of MJ and she better keep her mouth shut.

I have never met him in person or seen him alive, yet I feel as though I lost family. This is the effect he has across the globe, on the day of the news not just that the world stood still even the internet stopped for the man. Twitter had crashed and so did facebook and youtube (with all the video upload)

I always tell people that, if someone had his voice he would have been the biggest singer or someone had his dance skills he would have probably become a great star or his ever so kind heart; they would be celebrated has a world leader. But god put all this in one man, and he didn’t disappoint. World will always remember him as the best singer, dancer, entertainer, the professional, the philanthropist, the KING

ALL HAIL THE KING!!!

I bought the X1 after extensively using the iPhone (I still have), G1 and the touch pro (both returned)

First to clarify, yes this phone would not have 3G data on T-mobile. You can still make calls and use EDGE but that defies the purpose and the price. For that matter G1 would not work with ATT 3G, this is true for most phones. And if you need to blame someone, its T-moble. They have weird freq for their 3G which nobody else use.

Next, the Xi (the one sold here) has only 1900 freq but ATT uses both 850 and 1900 for voice so you should be good and most places have both the freq (I have never been to a place where my iPhone has better signal) but theoretically 850 is better.

This was one point I was worried, but believe me I don't see a difference. I lived in Atlanta (where 3G is great) and in Denver (where 3G is sketchy at best) and I don't see a difference. In general I drop more calls with my iPhone and I get better signal in places where my wife's phone(which has both 1900/850) doesn't have any.

So the choice is simple, if you live in US and don't mind the silver shell (I hate it) then go for X1a. If you even like the black a little better, get the x1i.

Now comparing to other phone and OS. I'll get this out of the way. right now, the x1 is the best windows mobile out there. Only the Blackstone (HTC touch HD) is comparable but that has no 3G in US (ATT and T-Mobile). So that leaves the Touch pro and Diamond. Touch pro looks great but the body feels cheap and i felt the phone will be in two pieces by the end of the week. Diamond is good but no GSM carrier. And at full price (to use it with ATT) its not all that cheaper to X1.

So I see the iPhone and G1 as its close competitors, G1 is great but the looks will def put people off and the OS feels like its still in beta. the iPhone is amazing (I use it in the weekends because I would want to find restaurants and movie theaters on the go and its so easy to use while driving) but you def don't get the unique feel, as 8 out of 10 people have it. So I take it that unique is what you are looking for if you are even considering buying this for double the price of a iPhone.

Ok here are the plus and minus of this phone
Great:-
1. Crystal clear display (480 by 800). The best so far
2. The finish (though some have complained about cracked body) is great in mine, I actually returned the first X1 (though it was the fault/inadequacy of the ATT support staff) but both x1 were great.
3. Def has a 'exclusive' feel
4. Great hardware, has everything in the market. Speed test shows the x1 for most part is faster than the Omnia (o, i hate that phone)

Good:-
1. I like the keyboard, though not as great as touch pro
2. Loads of physical button, though some may find it cramped.
3. Amazing forum, you can do virtually anything in the software side. They have already ported TF3D and other goodies from touch HD. But HTC (made and sold) devices like touch pro and HD have a bigger following.
4. This is more like 3a. You will def have 6.5 and even 7 ported to this phone (Not officially though)
5. Even though the OS is not touch optimized, it still feels like you can do anything with it. I love it (this is my 6th WinMo device)

Bad:-
1. No Captive touch screen, meaning you still need a stylus most of the time. But the TF3D and Panels make life a little better.
2. OS is like a siss army knife, Most would be overwhelmed if this is their 1st smart phone
3. Doesn't have accelerometer (the one which turns you screen landscape when you turn your mobile)
4. Comparing it with touch pro, touch pro has impressive list of sensors. For example it know when the stylus is in or out. Big deal? yes. For example you can auto launch notepad when in call and you pull the stylus out. You can do million things with these sensors. I had the pro pick my call automatically as i pick the phone from my desk. The x1 has none of these sensors.

Bottom line is if you are a vivid WinMo user and like spending hours setting up your phone and then flash it again and start all over. This one is for you.

Others try the G1 or the iPhone or wait for WinMo 7

PS:- If you do get this phone, the first thing you need to do is flash it with a custom ROM. Just google it