Life With Windows Mobile 6 and HTP Snap (stinks)
Having spent a couple of weeks with my HTC Snap and Windows Mobile 6 I'm starting to regret my choice of phone.
There's nothing wrong with the phone itself, per se. I love the look, feel, size, usability etc. It's just the software on it that sucks.
Yesterday I was trimming my finger nails and was conscious of not going too far back on the thumb as I need it on a daily basis to remove the battery cover to do a hard restart!
It seems to crash at least twice a day. Seemingly for no reason at all. Although it has been a bit better since I stopped using HTC's customised home screen, which I prefer to what I have now, so that's a pain too, but there you go.
It even managed to lose all my email and text messages on one occasion. Not a big deal, as I had copies of the emails in Thunderbird too, but the fact it has the potential to just forget all email account settings and delete the messages is somewhat worrying.
I've tried using Windows Update to get any "service packs" there might be but that too fails. Something about the date and time being wrong on the device. Great.
Who To Blame?
Things that don't work really get on my nerves. I don't mind (and expect) the odd bug in software but when I have to mess about removing the battery cover and waiting for it to startup on such a regular basis it gets a bit daft.
If this were any other piece of electronic equipment that I'd spent +?ú200 on (camera, DVD player, whatever) then it would be straight back to the shop and I'd be demanding my money back. So, why do I feel reluctant to even try and return the Snap? As if whoever I speak to is just going to say, derr, it's Windows, what did you expect!?
Who should I contact -- the seller, HTC or Microsoft? I guess I should start with the seller? I think I'll start with them and see how far I get.
No Way Back
Having used a smartphone for a couple of weeks I can now see that I need one and don't want to go back to not having one. I just think that Windows Mobile probably isn't the way forward. Perhaps Android is...
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Or BlackBerry...
(not that I'm biased of course. ^_^ )
Chosing Windows Mobile was definitely a mistake.
There are few phones I cannot adjust to. The BlackBerry Storm, everything with Windows Mobile on it, and more recently, everything with Symbian on it. The Storm gets in my way of doing things, and both WiMo and Symbian were designed for the last century. WiMo really needs a stylus, and Symbian does not even know how to properly support touchscreens. In a way that is also true for BlackBerry OS.
There are a couple of phones I love to pieces. The BlackBerry Bold, all iPhones, some Android phones.
For me its currently the iphone. It just works and I love it!
Thats sad to say about a phone but for me the phone is the least important part of the device.
I like the look of the Palm Pre - just got access to the SDK but its not out here yet.
Jake, just get an iPhone. Everyone I know who has one has been more than pleased with it.
The recent 3.0 software has just made the experience even better...
I'm not an Apple fanboi by any stretch of the imagination, in fact it's the only Apple device I own but I really don't think you'll be disappointed.
Send the HTC back and get yourself an iPhone.
I'm really looking forward to the Palm Pre. It uses WebOS, so hopefully it's very easy to make your own applications. The downside is that it's not out in Europe yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R33Lc8cOXRs
Definitely start with the seller. They should be able to provide an exchange (same or different phone). It might be helpful to take a day and play with as many phones as you can. If you know you want a different phone that should be stated up-front. It sucks when when something you felt comfortable with ended up being a lemon. Good-luck!
-John
I recently inherited a Touch Pro (HTC Fuze) which is much more customizable than the Snap. The operating system is by no means perfect but there are plenty of apps to make the thing usable.
If you decide to stick with Windows Mobile: Keep watching forums like ppcgeeks and XDA-Developers... they are constantly pushing out ROMS and customizations for these phones.
I don't mind carrying two devices so a BlackBerry for Calls, Email and SMS and an iPod touch for fun.
The BlackBerry I have is dull but functional and very reliable. And the iPod does everything else.
I'll have a very good look at the Pre when it comes but the chances are I stick with what I've got because of the long contracts.
A Windows product that needs a 2x daily hard reset??? I've never heard of that before ;-)
I think the iPhone / Android would be the two phones to look at. I have an iPhone and love it, of course. Easy to hook up to the corporate network. Browsing is good. I just wish the business apps were a bit better, but they can be if you pay...I've only been using the free apps so far.
I think the Pre, which just came out, is a great first start, but it needs more around it. No SDK as of yet...whereas Android seems to be a positioned pretty well in those regards. Just needs a bit better hardware.
Jake,
A vote for Android. I was a Windows Mobile user for years, then decided to switch to iPhone last fall, but waited a month to try the Android first.
There is no going back. Three killer features for me are:
1) iTunes remote that allows me to control a PC from anywhere on the WIFI network. I love it and so do my guests. I just pass my phone around at parties. It's like a jukebox in your hand. (iPhone has this built in)
2) aNetshare turns the phone into a WIFI access point with internet access. Very useful for me on the boat or anywhere away from my regular internet connection. (cannot use on T-Mobile's ROM, but that is an easy fix)
3) RDP client for those emergencies while away from the PC.
I am guessing you can do any of that with a jail-broken iPhone which has admittedly more polished apps available.
Jake,
I have to say, I've experienced the same problems as you. The shop didn't want to give me a loan of the Snap, I bought it and within 72 hours I was back in there telling them about crashes and other issues. At the end I swapped it for an iPhone and haven't looked back since. It works, is fun to use, has loads of applications and does what it says it does. Don't hold on to a product that you dislike and doesn't work and don't wait too long, the seller has to agree to exchange or refund within a certain time period.
It's easy to conclude that the problem is Windows. But that might be a false conclusion.
I've run a Palm Treo750 with Windows Mobile 6 since it came out. I do email, internet, music, calendar, games, and a few other things. I've had to reboot very few times. I know that running certain software - some games, once an alternate browser - caused me to have to reboot. Once I removed those it was fine. I use it with the phone contract's internet access, not WiFi or tethered, if that makes a difference.
I know with my previous Palm device (non phone, non Windows), the WiFi card I bought for it made it crash a lot. So if you're using WiFi, there might be a driver issue.
Hey Jake,
Based on your earlier list of smartphone needs, I suggest the iPhone. I have both an iPhone for home and a Blackberry (though not the Bold) for work and the iPhone is much more useful. The only thing that's better on the Blackberry is its Domino and Sametime integration. The iPhone's non-Domino email and calendar support is excellent (I'm assuming you don't use Domino as your primary email platform, but if you do Traveler gets good reviews from people I trust). Whatever you do, don't get the Storm - it could have been the best of both worlds, but instead it borders on being unusable.
I just got an iPhone close to two weeks ago and I can't put the thing down! For the last two years I had a bit of a snotty attitude towards the iPhone - "All I need is my Blackberry".
My poor blackberry is feeling neglected me thinks.
If you have to restart it frequently, I would try to return it and change it for a different mobile. You don't expect your DVD player to crash, and you should not expect your mobile phone to crash because it has Windows in it!
Slightly offtopic:
I recently had to develop an app in Windows Mobile, and I was surprised at how little the OS had changed since I last used Windows CE... in 1998. It's so far behind the iPhone OS that it's not even funny (and to add injury, we were told not to use HTC devices because they were too slow). It was like going from Windows 7 / Leopard to Windows 3.11 (with a pretty start screen). And people buy it!!
If for some reason you don't want to go with the iPhone (which is probably the best option right now), go for something with Android or the Palm Pre (and avoid the Storm).
I still only own a very plain company-provided phone so I'm not in the smartphone business yet. However, there is no doubt in my mind that when I buy one, it will be an iPhone.
This blog post resembles somewhat what I think of the iPhone:
http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001280.html
You really should try an iPhone. I have had mine 10 months and I still love it. Here in the US, you can get one and if you don't like it within 30 days, you just bring it back and exchange for another phone.
Jake,
Try to upgrade your phone OS to Windows mobile 6.1. I had the same problems with mobile 6 version and i upgraded the same in my htc touch last week and there is lot of difference in performance.
I've avoided Windows since I had to oversee the trashing of an OS/2 network to install NT.
However, I got a HTC/WM6 phone last year, and was actually surprised by how good it was. I've had 2 hard resets in 18 months. And whilst I've seen people on the iPhone/Android jumping through hoops to share their phone's internet connection, whilst it just works on my WM phone. And to see that 02 are threatening additional charges against people who share their iPhone connection really puts me off using 02 as a provider.
I'd say there's something wrong with your phone (or maybe it's just there's something right with my phone).
I like that I can program visual applications in Tcl on a WM phone. Although I think I'm going to get an android phone next as it is programmable in Lua.
I vote for Blackberry, especially because of Notes/Domino integration - in the vein of "eat your own dog food"
All I will say about the iPhone is that if you have fat stubby fingers like me - any touch screen is going to be a problem for you.
I love me my Blackberry Keyboard :)
Hi Jake
Our company has worked with HTC quite a bit over the last few years, and one thing I would suggest is that you keep an eye out for the latest ROM's for the device.
Usually HTC are pressured into getting the product out - and the first ROM's released are usually not that good. The Diamond had the potential to blow many products away, but the first release was shocking and full of bugs. Now the newer ROM's are out - they are working as they should - but the damage was done at retail when they saw the first products.
If you got the product SIMM free, then register with HTC (you'll get the ROM's sooner here), if not, use the support pages of the operator.
Other than that - the XDA forums are a good place to look for the HTC ones and home brew versions.
Oh - and there's obviously an OS update on the way from MS...
In my years of using WinMO and Blackberries, and after having now used Android for about 6 months, I have to say one thing:
They all have their share of problems and glitches and bugs, but the Android phone has never _once_ required me to open up the case and take out the battery. ;) That's a big plus to me -- the OS just doesn't lock up in the same way, when it has problems at all.
I'm a long time user of Windows Mobile, primarily in non-phone Pocket PC's. In that environment I like it - the OS is stable and with Mobipocket as an ebook reader and TCPMP as a media player it's a fine, stable platform for running non-Microsoft apps - none of the built in ones were any use anyway - Media player was just abysmal. As long as the OS was just sitting there doing minimal OS'y stuff and not interfering it was fine.
However, I HATE it as a phone OS, it just never felt like a good fit. It felt like it was a non-phone OS being frigged around with until it worked well enough to release, it was unstable, slow and buggy. I tried an SPV-C500 then an SPV-C600 and neither were any good. I tried so hard to like it as I was a long-time pocket PC user but it was no go.
There are lots of great phone os's out there and IMHO Windows Mobile will always be playing catch up.
I have Windows Mobile on my Palm and I haven't had any problems.
With my old Palm I had to reset it all the time but not with this one. I've been impressed.
I just convinced my boss last week that I needed a HTC Touch Magic (Android), and I got one on the promise of integrating it with our existing domino applications :)
So far I am loving it, although it does seem to have a bit higher learning curve than the iPhone.
Also with the new 8.5.1 Lotus Traveller that is coming, it will be able to sync with domino using Excange ActiveSync.
i am Windows Mobile user for a number of years, and true, WinMo is very difficult to use. As a phone, winmo sucks (yes, changing a theme, set a ringtone, set a sms-tone, replying a sms, create a mms is way more difficult that you can imagine), but the, the fun of using WinMo is, u customize everything with 3rd party software, freewares, shareware, ur own software...
sms fucntion of the default winmo not good? ok, try Vito SMS-Chat... overall interface not nice? try Throttle UI, Spb Phone Suite, Spb Pocket Plus. The media player sucks? Try CorePlayer, MiniLyrics.. The FileExplorer just too lousy? way to RescoExplorer.... the default contact difficult to use? no problem, switch to iContact BE... the OS not stable? way to xda-developers.com.. u will be amaze with all the high quality and stable ROM there....
=)