Microsoft Wants Windows Mobile On Nokias - LMAO!

Two days ago, the news started circulating all over the web: according to iTWire, Microsoft is in discussion with Nokia to have it add Windows Mobile-powered devices to its portfolio. While this news would have made perfect sense for me a year ago, and probably made me a little bit glad, it comes now as the most surprisingly hilarious news I have read in days. Not that I believe it's ever impossible, but it does have a funny ring to it.

I believe Nokia has invested a lot in the Symbian platform (S60 and S40), be it in expertize, research, development, hardware, education, marketing, and many more areas. I believe it has finally reached that place with S60 where it's been finally recognized worldwide as the powerful OS that it is, where people have finally understood and embraced the S60 way of life, and it has gained the amazing market-share that makes it the global decision-maker. For these reasons and more, I believe Microsoft will likely have to do a little more than "urge" for Nokia to change strategies. And I am not talking about whole portfolio switch, even a new line of Windows Mobile devices added to the huge Nokia product line is far from becoming a reality.

Another point to make is that WM's current market-share is 6% globally, according to the same iTWire article. Is Nokia likely to plunge into a 6% market? No. Nokia is more likely to eat that market, with Symbian. Because if it decided to venture in the WM arena, not only will it have to buy a license to use it and rethink its whole hardware design and function to fit the platform (touchscreen or not), but also it will have to invest in developing, improving, personalizing the platform, because that's what it did with Symbian: get the Symbian 9.1 OS and build S60 3rd on top of it. That's a lot of money to compete with giants like Asus, HTC, iMate, HP, Samsung and Motorolla for a bite in a 6% market-share.

And that goes without mentioning the vast array of services that Nokia have recently launched or will launch in the near future. Ovi, N-gage, Maps, Music Store, MOSH, all are based and solidly built on S60. Nokia is no longer the hardware company, it is the software company (recent acquisition of Trolltech) and even more the services company. These services have been engineered to work for S60 (and not S40 for example) for a reason. It's a commitment, on behalf of Nokia to the S60 platform. It's also a statement that hardware is no longer the main purpose, but services are. A company's benefit from hardware come from the device sale itself, whereas a company's benefit from services last for years after the device has been purchased.

The 6% WM market-share denotes that Windows Mobile is not a very popular platform worldwide, and there has to be reasons behind this. Fortunately enough, through the course of this year, I've seen those reasons myself and that's why, after having wished to see WM on a Nokia a year ago, I am now in a place where I'm repulsed by this thought. I am not saying that WM is a piece of crap, on the contrary it has a lesson or two that it can teach S60, but I would pick S60 over it in a blink.

If the news provided by the iTWire article should prove anything, it is that Windows Mobile is desperately looking for a safety net. With the recent success of Apple's iPhone, the near release of Google's Android, RIM's (Blackberry) massive US popularity, Linux sneaking on some devices (Nseries Internet Tablets) and the Symbian worldwide domination; WM and PalmOS are the black sheep. If Microsoft has learned a thing or two from the Windows PC market, it is that facelifts (read: Vista) do not necessarily please everyone. WM6 is a little bit more than a facelift to WM5, but core functionality remained the same. And it isn't putting a platform on more devices that will make it popular, but fixing and improving the platform itself.

I believe that we're now in a time frame where Nokia is a leader not a follower, and a global trend-setter, and if only for this reason, we're not likely to see a Windows Mobile powered Nokia device in the near future. Of course times can change and I can be wrong...

Handango Free App Friday, We'll Miss Ya!

Normally when I fire up my computer on a friday, the first thing I do is check Handango's Free App Friday offering. I have a Nokia, a WM device running StyleTap so amongst Handago's offerings, I've beneficiated from many cool free apps, for Symbian, WM and Palm.

Today, instead of a new app, I was greated by a "New Year, New Deal$" message. The fun is over. To tell you the truth I was pretty much expecting something like this, they seriously couldn't go at it for months, but it was nice while it lasted.

Salling Clicker Gets Reviewed

Jaime Rivera from PocketNow.com has just put up a 2-page review of Salling Clicker. I have been using Salling for quite a while now and just simply loving it. In a couple of words, it remote controls your PC, using your phone and a BT or WiFi connection. Make sure to check the review for all the screenshots they have posted to see what this treasure looks like. I'll just add a couple of things:

- you have to buy Salling Clicker once, no matter what device you use. Because you only register the PC client. Then you can download the mobile client to one or a hundred devices, they are free and they work. There are S60 3rd clients, WM clients, Java clients,... more than 300 devices are supported so it's an extremely nice deal.

- BT connection works like a charm. I usually have the PC client autostarting with Windows, and then when I need to use it, I just pick my phone, turn BT on and then launch Clicker and connect. Takes 5 seconds all-in-all. I do agree with Jaime that getting connected on WM is slower and less intuitive than on Nokia, but hey, their loss!

- It works this well even on the Toshiba BT stack (which is quite weird and doesn't work with most apps)

- The iTunes controlling is just Awesome. You can search for a song from the device (search by artist, genre, album, song name), you can browse full playlists and launch whichever you want, you can view album art.

- There are all sorts of PC notifications when you pause, forward, skip or rewind a song. But the greatest one is when you get a phone call and see the caller number or name on the PC. Brilliant.

You can check out Jaime's review here or catch the official website here.

Skyscape on S60 - Pinch me!

Thanks to Mark for posting a comment on the I'm Outraged - part 2 post, I now know that Skyscape have released an agent for S60 3rd devices! I haven't checked Skyscape's website for a couple of weeks now and this is what I get for doing so. I almost missed the news! Lesson learned.

If you've been on this blog long enough you would know that my MAIN ache with Symbian was the unavailability of professional medical applications. Well now I believe my prayers have been answered or Santa got my letter, which proves I was a good girl this year, Skyscape decided to go for S60 after all. There ARE now and will be dedicated medical apps on Symbian, no need to wait for StyleTap or Net60 implementations. I can't tell you how excited I am! I have now to cross fingers for Epocrates and Lexicomp to follow their path.

The installation process seems a little bit complicated, but at this point, I couldn't care any less. Anything is better than having to put up with the WM madness! Just 2 days ago my Qtek 9100 decided to no longer launch any software installed on the memory card (only solution: format) and I was so bumped that less than 12 hours ago I was telling Ricky litterally (thank you conversation logs):

"If only there were med apps on S60! I wouldn't even get 100 meters close to a WM device, would invent some sort of WM repellent"

Now picture a red angry outraged emoticon, shaking his head and taping it with his hands. Point made.

Snowed In 6 by ClickGamer - Free game for Xmas!

It's FREE-zing! Celebrate Xmas 2007 with Clickgamer.com’s new DEEP FREEZE game. Download this free game and help us combat climate change.

Help us reach 1,000,000 downloads before 15th January 2008 and clickgamer will donate USD 10,000 to a non-profit climate change organisation. Let's 'play' our little part in stopping global climate change this winter!

Well, it's good someone is thinking ecologically. I, myself, have been finding myself thinking very frequently about planetary damage, everytime I throw something in the garbage, like batteries, broken electronics, paper, it's too bad there is no recycling programs in Lebanon or I would be the first to adopt it.

Anyway, back to the game, Snowed-In is a nice bejeweled-like game and it is made free from Nov 15th 2007 to Jan 15th 2008. What's more, it's available for every platform you can think of: PPC, Smartphone, S60, S80, S90, UIQ and desktop PC!

To get it, simply go to Snowed-In 6's page on Clickgamer, pick your platform and click on the TRY icon next to it. After you download and install it on your device, go to this registering page and write the 16-digit code that you can find on the "Register" menu of the game (on the device). Tap your email, choose your platform, click "Generate" and you instantly get the unlocking key!

Correction about Red Five Labs' Net60

I guess I jumped fast on the wagon and assumed Net60 wouldn't allow users to install windows mobile apps right out-of-the-box on their Symbian. Seems like that's not the case. Filip over at Red Five Labs replied to this post where I praised the StyleTap innovation, and said that some apps for WinMo should work right out of the box with Net60.

One thing I liked about his comment is that I REALLY appreciate developers who care enough about their products to watch out blogs writing about them, even though bloggers of said blogs aren't in any sort of connection with them : I never contacted anyone @ Red Five Labs, yet Filip found my post, which means he was out there looking. This kind of support where developers seek users and not the opposite proves to me that they care, even if their solution isn't out yet!

The other thing I liked is that in 2008 we should have 4 formats compatible with our Nokias *bounce* : symbian, java, palmOS and WinMo. The more the merrier. That means more compatibility and less "i can't decide on a platform, i like both" typical indecisions. I can't think of any platform out there other than Symbian that could allow this sort of versatility! One platform to rule them all! Add to that the touch UI, the amazing hardware packed in Nokias, the new NGage,the Ovi doorway, and you've got yourself more than you can ever dream of. I believe 2008 will be the year everyone will remember in the mobile world, a landmark for innovations, and I believe Nokia will have a lot of roles to play on that scene.

Gosh, I just luv S60! I would like to see another existing touch interface (you know where my thoughts are headed) compete with that. Haha, they're doomed :)

StyleTap - Connecting Peop... ehm Devices

I first read it over @ SlipkornSaad's Symbian 9.1/9.2 applications blog and I couldn't believe it:

Styletap have announced a new emulator that allow users to install and run applications and games meant for Palm Treo devices on Symbian OS 9.x based Nokia S60 v3 Officially called "StyleTap CrossPlatform for Symbian OS", the product is planned for release early in 2008, the software is working now in "alpha" mode – most of the APIs are working, most applications are running well...You can read the full details over here...

We had already heard about Red Five Labs' to-be-released beta of Net60 a couple of days ago, a solution that helps developers produce apps for s60 3rd using .NET compact framework, instead of symbian's SDK, but seriously this one is NOTHING like it! In fact, like Zach from SiMo reported from Red Five Lab's stand @ the Symbian Smartphone Show this week (following my constant nags), Net60 is merely a developer tool, meant to make it easier for developers. It didn't mean a thing to end-users, unless developers decided to use the .NET CF for Symbian Developing. In other words, we were still relying on their good wills *sigh*

[Update about Net60: read the 3rd comment on this post and the correction made here]

On the other hand, the StyleTap concept is totally different and is everything I needed and thought Net60 would promise and deliver. In simple words, it's an application that you install on your device and that allows you to run almost any PalmOS app, without porting, without modification, right out-of-the-box.

Does it work?
Sweet you might say, but does it live up to its expectation? I asked myself the same question, and i got the answer *drum roll, people* YES it does! How did I find out? Ehm, well I would like to say the haughty "I have my sources" but no, that's not it, I've been in the blogging business for only a couple of months and I don't have any source whatsoever. I only have my wits.

How did I test it?
Since StyleTap had already released their product for Windows Mobile, I decided to give it a spin on my Qtek. Downloaded the trial of StyleTap and installed it: piece of cake. The app consists of 2 components: the StyleTap Launcher that installs to the WM and the StyleTap Application Installer that installs on the pc. The latter allows you to choose which installation files (they are in .prc and .pdb for PalmOS) you want installed on your WM. After figuring this out, I went to Skyscape's website and got myself a trial version of Evidence-Based Diagnosis (EDB) for Palm (just coz it was the smallest app I could find :p ). After going through a mere-suicidal state because of Skyscape's installation process (I thought I had to install Palm Desktop Software, which is like ActiveSync for WM, but then figured out a way past it), I managed to grab the .prc and .pdb files, added them on the PC's StyleTap Application Installer, chose to install and grabbed my heart for a couple of seconds. When the process was finished, I ran Start - Programs on the Qtek, and found the EDB in the programs list. Launched it and there it was! Working!!! This emulator is a one good piece of software. In a word: it promises and it delivers!

I just can't express how excited I am. If the process worked for Skyscape's abracadabral installation system, there is no wonder it would work on almost everything else! They already have a list of apps certified to run on StyleTap on their website, Skyscape's solutions aren't on the list but they work. I'm litteraly jumping off my feet here.

What does this mean to the end-user?
I'll explain it in a very easy way. A week ago, a friend of mine specializing in Medical Lab came to me and asked me what device would I suggest he buys. He was very confused between Symbian and Windows Mobile (more specifically iMate JasJam and N95). His point was that the N95 is smaller, nicer, has a great camera, but doesn't have lots of medical capacities which he needs, but does have WiFi so he could search for information online, read PDFs and Office Files so he could put all his info on. On the other hand, the JasJam was bulky, had a horrible camera, but benefited from full support of medical software and had WiFi. First I told him that if he got the N95, he'd be paying for features he'd never use in Lebanon (GPS and 3G) but suggested that if he settled on it, he'd better get the 8GB version or I would kill him. But then I even confused him more by telling him about the love'n'hate relationship I had with my Qtek. He was close to deciding not to invest in anything for the time being.

When I found out about StyleTap (which was like 3hrs ago now), I instantly SMSed him and told him I might have a solution for his problem. After getting it to work, and seeing the result on the Qtek, I SMSed him again and said "it works on Windows Mobile, I don't see why it wouldn't on Symbian".

There you go: StyleTap solved this guy's problem as I'm sure it'll solve many other people's. He is now much more likely to go for the N95. Most medical apps are available for both WM and PalmOS, and most applications in general, available for one platform are also for the other. Which in other words mean: if you have a Palm or a WM and want to switch to Symbian but are afraid of losing some apps (esp the ones you paid for on Palm), you can now do it and benefit from the plethora of features an S60 phone comes with, from cam quality to phone utilities, stability, smaller size and endless software lists.

When?
StyleTap hasn't released their beta yet for Symbian, but stay tuned because I am sure gonna apply for beta testing once it's out (which should be soon if they plan to release the whole thing in Q1 2008).


A final note before I go dancing on the roof again: I first started this post by saying I learned it through SlipkornSaad's blog. I want to mention that this guy is awesome, I don't know how he does it, but he's almost always the first on my RSS to announce new apps or app updates! Definitely worth adding to your rss reader :)

My Madness Makes Sense: .NET for S60!

Usually I don't pour every news I read on the blogosphere over here, because, well, you don't want to read the same thing 10000000 times, but forgive me: this is H.U.G.E!

A couple of months ago, I was chatting with Darla and I asked her a question that even for me sounded mad : "is there or do you think there will be an application or an implementation that will allow symbian to run windows mobile applications?" At that time, I was furious with the lack of medical apps for symbian and was thinkin about getting a WM device. The question had been running in my mind for a while and it kept on popping up every now and then, but I eventually came to the point where I convinced myself it was total madness and got myself the Qtek.

Now this came a little bit shocking, but I just read on AAS that a company called Red Five Labs was about to launch the Beta of its Net60, a .NET compact framework implementation for S60 3rd. What does that mean? Just read this sentence from the press release:

Net60 enables managed Windows Mobile applications to run unchanged on S60 devices. Using C# and Visual Basic .NET in Visual Studio, developers can now use the .NET Compact Framework environment to build applications for Symbian devices.

Now tell me: how huge is that? I know it's just the beginning and probably it won't work right out of the box, will have limitations, will cost a fortune,... But can you see the possibilities? Can you see the future? Can you see yourself buying an S60 device without ever regretting it because almost every single application on the planet runs on your handset? We've already got .sis files working, iPhone web apps run quite well, and now WM apps (which are almost the same over RIM and Palm)...

That's why I love symbian. Because no matter how mad you can be, thinking about a feature or a trick or an implementation that you want to add to it, there's always a way to do it.

P.S: Red Five Labs will be exposing their product over at the Symbian Smartphone Show so if anyone reading this is going (nudge @ Zach) pleaaaaaaaaaase make sure you check their stand.

First Device : Must-Read Editorial

The interesting part about RSS is that you can sometimes subscribe to sites you never knew about, just because they exist in the channel support of your reader and have a title that seems interesting. Most of the time, you don't even know what to expect so you give the feed a couple of reads then decide to dump it or keep it. When I purchased my Qtek, I was mostly annoyed by the fact that I didn't know any blogs / sites in the WM domain, yet needed to be informed and kept up-to-date, so my unique solution was RSS channels.

That's how I got to WMExperts. What I really love about this site are the very-well written editorials, one of which grabbed my attention today. It's called "The First Device". In this writing, Dieter Bohn explains the concept of the first device:
That, in a nutshell, is that the "First Device" is: your go-to gadget that you grab first when you want to "do something." That "something" is different for everybody : a quick search, YouTube, SMS, getting directions, checking your To Do list, jotting down a quick note ... these days it could be pretty much anything.

That is a very interesting concept indeed, he also continues to state that the First Device isn't about speed and immediacy, but also about how well it does execute the job we need it to do. There's also some iPhone luv 'n hate, together with a comparison with WM devices and a nice story about coffee and spoons. Definitely worth reading.

But the idea that blinked in my head was this one:
It's not enough to make a Smartphone that's able to do anything. What a Smartphone needs to do is be a compelling First Device in the category that matters to you most.

The first thing that came to my mind when I read this was the N95. The N95 is able to do anything, 'eck it's able to be a console for a Wii remote! But how does it perform when it comes to the First Device concept? I haven't had one, so I can't judge. What I do know, about the Symbian platform in general, is this:
Having an iPod, a Nokia 3250, a Qtek 9100, a Toshiba laptop, every gadget has its usage when it comes to First Devicing.
1- The 3250 is an amazing phone call / sms First Device
2- The Qtek is very handy when it comes to web surfing in WiFi zones and to reading mobibooks
3- The laptop is my one solution for web surfing for more than an hour, storing photos, chatting, creating powerpoints,...
4- The iPod stays in the car for road music.
5- The 3250 remains my first choice when it comes to taking a song with me instantly: turn BT on and send, while the iPod takes years of turning iTunes on, adding the song to the library, getting the connection cable, sync'ing, removing
6- The 3250 and the Qtek share the spots for First Device medical utility: 3250 is a good fast concise medical information, Qtek with skyscape apps is an amazing in-depth info provider
7- They also do share the spot for gaming utility because both have different games installed on.

I think that Dietler is right-on with his concept. I don't want my 3250 to do everything, because it can't. Even if it had GPS and WiFi like the N95 and QWERTY like the E61i/E90, it still won't be able to run Skyscape's medical apps, provide me with an instant way to navigate through mobipocket books, connect instantly with my laptop, give me a basic free Word/Excel editor or have room for my >40GB music collection. So it won't replace neither my iPod nor my WM. Yet I love it, like it is, for what it does, because it does it well and quickly.

What do you think? Is there any wisdom behind these words? Do you believe a device can be a top-seller just because it's a First-Device in one specific area? And do you think the iPhone falls into that category, which partly explains its huge success? And what appeals to you more: a good First-Device at only a couple of things, or a joker device able to do everything but not as well as the stand-alone gadgets it's meant to replace?

Free App Friday @ Handango!!!

I just came across this amazing news and it's a MUST to share. Handango have started a nice new giveaway called Free App Friday. Basically this means that every friday we'll be able to enjoy a free app courtesy of Handango. How awesome is that?

This week's freebie is CodeWallet Pro 6 Mobile for PPC2003, WM5/6 which is a password/security utility, normally priced at around 29$! Just click on the link, fill your info, create a Handango account if you don't have one, and you'll have a 100% discount on the application. They are also offering 25% discount on selected apps during the week. Hurry on, grab yours, offer lasts till 11:59 CST!

P.S: I wonder if there will be any symbian apps and what would they be...

Note: For further referal, I've added the Handango widget on the left column of my blog...

What I seriously love about WM

I know I have been going on about Windows Mobile for quite a while now but bare with me, this one is actually going somewhere. Windows Mobile is probably one of the most hated yet most loved platforms ever. I can't express how excited I am when I find a new thing I can do over my Qtek, yet I also could go on for hours talking about the disappointments I had.

One of the most amazing things about WM (besides the ones I already cited here) is something I found out recently : when I connect my WM to a computer with a running internet connection, using ActiveSync, I can actually use the connection on the WM device. No settings, no barriers, no questions, no answers, no add-ons, no applications, no nothing. It just works. I love this feature because I still haven't gotten a WiFi Router for my ADSL connection, so I'm pretty stuck with cables and laptops, which isn't very portable or very bed-friendly. So what I do now when I just want to chat with a friend or check a couple of small websites is that I put the laptop on a table beside my bed, turn it on, connect my Qtek via mini-USB, then lay in bed and do whatever I want. That's as portable as it gets right now. And I'm pretty satisfied, especially that I don't need to go through a hundred steps everytime I do it.

As far as I know, the only way to do so with Nokias is through GnuBox, which I haven't tried and won't ever think about trying. I only read it twice and it seemd as complicated as a heart transplant surgery. There's no way the average user would do it!

So that leaves me to wonder, shouldn't Nokia add this feature to their mobiles? Easy connection, no setups, no hassle. It's a must.

Symbian vs Windows Mobile - Clash of the Titans

As y'all know by now, I've been owning a WM device for a couple of weeks. Having only dealt with Symbian devices (s40 and s60) in my life, the discovery of Windows Mobile was a nice change, being quite overwhelming at moments and irritating at others.

I don't claim being able to put these 2 leaders of operating systems on mobile devices for a full Head2Head (that would take months to write and days to read) but I will be placing here the most flagrant differences that make the positives of one platform and the negatives of the other.

Assuming that most addicted mobile users usually cling to one platform and buy all their devices in a specific range, I suppose that some readers of Dotsisx may have never tried WM and hence don't know its benefits nor the features it lacks (which, on the contrary, have been implemented in Symbian for quite a long time now). That's why I decided to write this.

This Head2Head will be divided into 2 parts: one showing 3 good things in WM5 that should be implemented in S60, and one with the 3 main letdowns I faced in WM5 that I never had with S60.

What Symbian Should Learn From WM

1 - Today Screen: it's right, we have our Symbian standby screens, but they are nothing as versatile, as customizable, as useful as the today screen in WM. For those of you not familiar with the today screen, it's the main standby screen. Every developer can decide to give a today plug-in for his software so, for instance, if we talk about an RSS reader, you would see how many new articles are available and some headlines, straight on your screen, without opening the program. You can also see the date, calendar events, your pocket msn,... Also you can choose which plug-ins are visible and which are not. Basically the possibilities are endless. Some software even consist of just a today screen plug-ins allowing shortcuts to apps to be placed right there. If I'm not mistaken there hasn't been any 3rd party app yet for Symbian that can add one single line to the standby screen. That's a waste! You won't know what you're missing until you've tried it! I have been using SPB Mobile Shell and SPB Pocket Plus (both today plug-ins based software) and they are the greatest software I ever tried.

2 - The "professional" prejudice: when a platform appears to be professional, there are more profession-axed software for it. I've already talked about it in my Rant to Symbian Developers, and I can never emphasize it enough (it was the main reason I got the Qtek) I don't think there's an autocad (the superstar architecture tool) or a drug interaction tool for Symbian, just to give two examples. But they are available for WM. I don't believe it's hard to code for such apps for Symbian, but nobody bothers, why?

3 - Standardization: you will always find what you're looking for in the same place, on all WM devices. Settings and programs are always where they are supposed to be so it doesn't matter whether you have an iMate, a Qtek, a Toshiba, an HTC or any other WM device, you'll always find your way. I'm so frustrated to admit that it's never like this with Symbian. Even with the slightest firmware update, you can find things tossed around, that's not acceptable!

What WM Should Learn From Symbian

1 - Stability: I first thought stability was just an issue with my 2nd hand Qtek, then I found out that some of my acquaintance's WM devices face the same problem. The device can randomly reboot or turn on, and when I say randomly, I really mean randomly: it can reboot/turn on while being used or most of the time when it's not (wtf?) even sometimes when it's off and untouched (seriously wtf?). Plus it experiences freezing moments quite often, even when you wouldn't imagine it. It also decides at moments to not recognize the memory card, you have to remove it and replace it in order to get things going again. I don't think I ever experienced these issues with my Symbian devices, that's why I'd NEVER make the Qtek my main phone device (calls n sms) or trust it with my SIM card.

2 - Office: ok Symbian doesn't have a Word/Excel editor built-in, but what's the deal with the built-in office in WM? I mean I'd rather have a good viewer than being laughed at by this basic version in WM! All that you can do is type, adjust the font, center and right align, bullet and number. Seriously? Not even justify! No tables, no pictures, no headers and footers, no nothing. I mean, seriously? Is that what you expect in a self proclaimed "windows" mobile? I won't even talk about the lack of equations in Excel or the poor Power Point viewer only. At least S60 offers a nice built-in viewer, Quick Office, that doesn't change a thing from the original file for viewing (which can't be said about the WM viewing experience), while on the editing side we're covered by Quick Office Premium and Office Suite!

3 - Phone Utilities: I guess that Symbian was built with phones in mind first then shifted to smartphones, whereas WM has a smartphone background first. But after years of producing WM devices, it's not acceptable that the phone utilities are still way beyond any of its competitors! Making a phone call to a non-contact can be quite challenging, whereas in Symbian it's as easy as pressing the numeric keys. I won't even talk about other phone utilities like sms, profiles, voice commands, speed dials,... These don't constitute a new technology for WM to make an alibi, these have been around for years now and they're disastrous over WM!

That's about it for now, anything you would love to add to these main differences?

Just got a Qtek 9100 - Rant to symbian developers

Symbian and Nokia fans, don't scream tragedy! Yours truly is and will always be a Nokia fan and a Symbian addict, no matter what! I will always be amazed by how much I can do on these phones, that I never expected and that no one expects. By using my Nokia 3250, I feel like I'm carrying at least 10kgs equivalent of stuff: camera, phone, bible, answering machine, mp3 player, dictionnaries, books, games, calculator, watch,...

The Rant
However, the Symbian platform has its limitations. Don't get me wrong: for performing everyday tasks, symbian may be the best platform, since it allows very complex operations on very small and integrated devices. But the problem that you encounter with Symbian, is that despite the wide availability of applications, it's yet not regarded by developers as a "capable" platform, and that in comparison with windows mobile and palm for instance. Probably it's the lack of a touchscreen interface and the fact that symbian devices are considered more wide-public oriented, while windows mobile and palm platforms are more for professional usage. That was the view until a couple of months a go, but with the release of extremely powerful and pricey symbian devices, like the E90 or the N95, that conception is about to change.

Still, you will find that most professional-oriented applications have yet to be available for Symbian. At least that's the case in the medical field. I have wandered the web searching for medical applications for s60 3rd, and basically ended up with Oxford's medical dictionary, Merriam Webster's medical dictionary and Mobireader with the wide array of ebooks they offer. That's it. What about medical calculators, drug interaction suites, laboratory utilities, medical news updates,...? Nothing. It's almost a disaster. Are doctors, physians, nurses, pharmacists and all paramed professionals considered as wealthy persons that can afford high-end devices? And why can't they carry a small ordinary but powerful Nokia device while keeping the same functionnality and the same benefits?

Well, so many questions that have yet to be answered. Hopefully someone will step up and do something about it!

The Qtek 9100
Let's get back to my recent purchase now. I was thinking about getting a below 100$ second-hand iPaq, but that was basically impossible in lebanon. No mobile store has a new iPaq, let alone a used one, and most of them don't even know what an iPaq is. So after 3 months of desperate and vain search, I dumped the iPaq idea, and decided to go all-the-way with a 300$ second hand Qtek 9100 (bluetooth, IR, WiFi, Windows mobile 5, QWERTY, touchscreen, and all the medical goodies I can imagine). I got it yesterday.

My initial impressions
Worth the money. The Qwerty is amazing, and so is the huge touchscreen and the WiFi. Finally, I can enjoy internet mobile at my university, without having to carry around a laptop! MobiReader looks extremely nice, and so does iSilo. Screen rotation works smoothly and makes internet surfing a blast. Skyscape medical apps are more than available and from what I can see, some are extremely useful and they function really well.

Where do I stand between Nokia 3250 and Qtek 9100?
It's hard to choose between the 2. Very hard.
My solution: use both.

The Nokia 3250 will be my main phone: it will hold my sim card: calls and sms will have to be managed from there. It will go in my back pocket and will be the device I will take with me everywhere: from the toilet to the kitchen, to my friend's houses, to the grocery shop to the car,... It will also be my in-car music player, a function that it lost a while ago because I had to dump music from my memory card in favor of some medical books.

The Qtek 9100 will be my professional phone: it won't have a sim card, because tapping an sms or making a call on-the-go in the car can be very hazardous and dangerous. It will be used to surf the internet at uni or at any hotspot, to jot down Word notes (the Qwerty makes it easier), to read ebooks. It will also be my companion in my 2months laboratory training this summer and my 7months hospital internship next year. It will find place in my bag, safe from the world, ready to be used, but not as quickly available as my back pocket's Nokia 3250.

Unfortunately, that's what you have to do nowadays to keep everything you want, the way you want it. As I said, I hope someone will try to find the solution to the unavailability of medical apps (for Symbian.

This will be the case until I get sick of having 2 devices and decide to dump one of them. I wonder if that will happen, and what device will that be?