New Home for RichTech

Well, I've decided to take this blog more seriously and one of the things I want to do is include screen shots, etc. in my blogs.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to figure out if/how you do that in MSN Spaces, so I've stepped up to a WordPress blog.  I've heard good things about WordPress, so with any luck, WordPress will be RichTech's home for quite some time.

Are the Carriers Missing a Market?

So, I've been wondering – Is Cingular missing a market?

I've been using the Cingular 2125 Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone for about 3 months now and until something better comes along, you're not going to pry it from my fingers.  I rely on it heavily as my calendar and phone book, alarm clock and MP3 player and much more.  No question, I'm a power user.  And a business user, which is the market that all carriers have set their sites on for these types of products.

But I have to wonder.  If the right combination of software and services were offered, would a Smartphone be good for my wife (a project manager – corporate America)? My mom (a housewife)?  My sister (a teacher)?

Most PDA users don't stretch the capabilities of the unit that much.  Actually, few I've encountered install more than maybe one or two apps.  They use it for the Personal Information Manager (PIM) functionality.  They don't even do much entry on it, if any.  They use it for reference.

And how many people do you know who have an up-to-date phone book on their cell phone?  These things are a pain to program!

So, imagine a smartphone, bundled with: a 1 or 2GB memory card for music, etc. and a free service like web2mail.com which will offer over the air sync of information, along with maybe some applications like Audible, etc. As ONE package.  Would the average consumer benefit from such a device?  I think the answer is YES.  Put that with a easy to read how-to or maybe even a video, and you have something.

While I don't believe that most people would be interested in carrying a Phone Edition device, which is much larger, I do think that a 2125 and the upcoming HTC StarTrek and others would make ideal devices for the mass market.

I think that carriers should look at ways to market to a more mainstream audience for these types of devices. While I realize there might be a cost concern, many people pay a premium for the latest bling phone, like they did when the RAZR came out.  They would pay up for a Smartphone, IF THEY KNEW WHAT THEY COULD DO FOR THEM.  Its about MARKETING and Microsoft and the carriers are missing an opportunity.

Don’t waste your money…

So, if you've read previous blogs, you know I am using a Cingular 2125 Windows Mobile 5 Smartphone.
But this morning, I had a problem, where the headset jack broke, making is so that the phone only made sound through a headset. Kinda sucked. But unfortunately for me, not too suprising, as I've had this happen to me a few times over the years with my iPAQs.

Upon realizing what has happened to my beloved phone, I plug my phone into my PC and run PocketBackup ( http://www.thbi.de/us/software/pock…ckup/index.html). It dutifuly backs up the contents of my phone and I then head-off to the Cingular store for a replacement. No drama there and I'm back in about 20 minutes with a new phone.

I power up the new phone, plug it into my PC and run Pocket Restore. There's my first clue that this software isn't what is cracked up to be. First, I can't find the backup file for the phone. Why? Because apparantly the backups are dependent on the phone name (each WM device has to have a name) and the factory-default name is different from what I HAD called my first phone.

So I was forced to load up Tweaks2K for my phone and change the name to what my first phone was named. OK, now it can find the file and does a restore. Now, I've done a fair amount of customizing on my phone, and one of the many change I've made is to Start Menu and how the programs are listed. All of my most frequently used programs are right on the first screen. So imagine my suprise when I see the factory-default Start Menu. What gives?

Well, apparently it doesn't copy anything in the Windows directory or its sub-directories. Nothing. AND not the registry. For those of you who don't know, the registry is where all kinds of info about your phone is stored and its important. So you need to RE-REGISTER all of you programs all over again, etc. THAT SUCKS!

But then, to put the icing on the cake, I realize that my Ring Profiles don't work. Will only do Normal. I tried everything to get them to work. Finally, I had to do a hard-reset. Profiles worked again. Turns out, that there are xml files that make up your profile settings on your phone, and Pocket Backup backs those up. Great? No. Because apparently copying over them does something to them and then the don't work. Had to do another hard-reset, but this time I realized it only about 10 minutes into the process.

So, short answer to this story is, save your money. These folks are asking for $24 for something you could do yourself. If it can't restore a phone from a hard-reset, then it shouldn't be called a backup program!