Windows mobile better than iPhone 3G?

Edward of msmobiles.com mentions not 5, but 12 reasons that windows mobile phones are better than the iPhone 3G.

Here are the reasons:

  1. 3rd party applications in iPhone 3G cannot run in background: only one application can run at any given time in iPhone 3G so no background running of applications possible! In Windows Mobile phone several (many) applications can run at the same time so it is possible for example to simultaneously run in Windows Mobile: a) downloading a 50 MB MP3 file with a podcast, b) IM chatting with somebody including native Skype client for windows Mobile or native Live Messenger from Microsoft, c) edit Office documents, d) browse Internet, e) make a phone call, etc.
  2. iPhone 3G has resolution of only 480×320 what is 2 times less than VGA (640×480) and W-VGA (wide VGA = 800×480) used in several Windows Mobile phones, what practically means: you can read more text on the display at once and everything is sharper
  3. camera in iPhone 3G is inferior to camera in many Windows Mobile phones: it has only 2 megapixels compared to 3 to 5 megapixels in Windows Mobile phones and it does not have auto-focus – also present in many Windows Mobile phones
  4. one cannot record videos with built-in camera of iPhone 3G, what is possible up to resolution of 640×480 pixels and 30 FPS (frames per second) in Windows Mobile phones
  5. iPhone 3G supports HSDPA of maximal speed only 3.6 MB/second, while some Windows Mobile phones (including HTC Touch Diamond) suppport HSDPA of speed 7.2 MB/second
  6. iPhone 3G does not have exchangeable battery that all Windows Mobile phones have, but only built-in battery so if you run out of battery you cannot replace it to prolong battery life – as it is possible with Windows Mobile phones
  7. original (i.e. from Microsoft) Office Mobile is built-in in each Windows Mobile phone and allows not only for viewing but also for editing of Office documents, so there is no need ot buy 3rd party software for it
  8. there is much more 3rd party applications (programs) for Windows Mobile: over 20,000 compared to 500 for iPhone 3G
  9. to make applications for Windows Mobile one needs either PC computer or Mac but to make applications for iPhone 3G one needs to buy a Mac computer – if you don’t have Mac computer then you cannot develop applications for iPhone 3G
  10. most Windows Mobile phones come without SIM lock so they can be used at any operator in given country and with SIM cards from abroad (important when traveling and you want to use local prepaid SIM card to avoid International roaming fees) while iPhone 3G has SIM lock and can work with only this operator at which it has been purchased
  11. iPhone 3G has capacitive touch-screen meaning that it must be used with fingers and that it cannot be used with stylus or fingernails (what women like)
  12. iPhone 3G has no physical keyboard or keypad, so users have no choice but to use virtual keyboards on the display while Windows Mobile offers phones in various form-factors, including such that have both touch-screen and a physical QWERTY keyboard

I don’t know if he is really right. Why? Here are my reasons:

  • not all windows mobile have nice cameras. Not even the phones with 3MP cameras can take better pictures than 2y old SE K750
  • he stresses multi-tasking heavily, but I need not stress how stable the windows mobile is in handling multiple applications. A windows mobile device will most likely crash with running all those applications concurrently :!:
  • I’ve not heard any women complaining that she is unable to use the iPhone.
  • Infact, it is windows mobile that is trying to mimic iPhone these days
  • Third applications have just started to come up. Windows mobile is 8y old already. Obviously, windows mobile will have more applications than iPhone.
  • iPhone already has started enjoying better enterprise support. It now supports MS exchange, Oracle, 3G broadband etc
  • People have achived phenomenal speeds with the onscreen keyboard of the iPhone. So, this proves that if the softkeyboard is properly designed, there is no need for hardware keyboard.
  • Regarding resolution, iPhone makes full use of it’s 320 x 480 display. In case of WM, it merely does the pixel doubling. Very less applications actually make full use of 480 x 640 VGA resolution. Continue reading “Windows mobile better than iPhone 3G?”

Sprint releases Palm Treo 800w

Sprint is now offering a Treo 800w for $249. The Palm Treo 800w is one of the most highly anticipated phones of 2008. The core is the presense of wifi. Now, you guys will say that wifi is not a big deal. Well, folks this the first Palm smartphone having a inbuilt wifi module.

The device looks darn perfect. The keyboard looks sweet and on top of that, it is powered by windows mobile!

So, what are you waiting for? Go to the sprint website and get yourself one!

iPhone Activation Servers Fail: new users angry

Due to the overwhelming demand of the new iPhone 3G, the servers were brought to their toes when thousands (millions?) of new iPhone owners tried to activate their iPhone 3Gs. AT&T is actually sending customers home with their new iPhones and telling them to activate via iTunes.

So, you are left with a shiny new device with the emergency mode. Cool!

Is Windows Mobile really turning into Palm?

Alex, CEO and founder of WebIS, Inc has written an interesting rant.

A few years ago Palm was at the top of its game and had thousands of applications. But quickly developers started leaving and going to the more stable Windows Mobile. It had little to do with the operating system or zen of Palm or whatever. It had to do with the fact that the OS was becoming fragmented and becoming difficult to deal with as each device that came out broke this or that. You no longer were writing software for the Palm, but instead for the Palm Zire, or the III or whatnot. Each device had a custom PalmOS that required some custom coding for.

He says that HTC is making too many changes in the core OS and is making some libraries missing or has changed their behavior. I fully agree. I know how much the developers have to test their applications these days on different devices because every device is different now. This was not the scene a couple of years back.

Click here to read to full ‘rant’

Broswer sync Open Sourced by Google

We wanted to make sure that the code for it was available for the developer community to use and improve. While we’re no longer doing active development, we’ve released the code in the hopes that those folks who asked for it will use it to develop something cool. For example, it would be great to see the server ported to Google App Engine, or support for Firefox 3 implemented.

This is a really nice news as this will allow the us to hack the code to make it behave the way we always wanted/want.

http://google-opensource.blogspot.com/2008/07/open-sourcing-browser-sync.html

Microsoft's virtualization products

HOUSTON, TX–Microsoft has released a collection of virtualization products that the company says demonstrates its interest in capturing the server virtualization market.

During his keynote Wednesday at Microsoft’s 2008 Worldwide Partner Conference here, Bob Kelly, corporate vice president of infrastructure server marketing, said the company intends to capture the vast majority of servers that are not running virtualization technology.

To that end, Kelly announced a set of new virtualization products, starting with the company’s hypervisor virtualization system, Hyper-V for Windows Server 2008, that is available via Windows Update.

He added that Hyper-V would cost a third of that offered by competitor, VMware.

Continue reading “Microsoft's virtualization products”

iPhone 3G dissected

Super cool guys at ifixit have successfully dissected the iPhone 3G at 0001h, July 11, 2008! Now that’s cool :D

iFixit.com dudes flew to New Zealand to be the ones first to buy and disassemble the iPhone 3G. Call that madness or craziness!

Click here to know more

Google Agrees That It Will Meet Privacy Laws regarding Street View Tool

Google has said it is using face blurring technology to preserve the privacy of individuals photographed.

“In our view they need a person’s consent if they make use of a person’s face for commercial ends,” Simon Davies, of Privacy International.

Street View has already been launched in the US and includes photos of streets in major American cities. Photographing of areas in the UK, including London, is believed to have started last week.

Via BBC