The Smartphone Round Robin

Jennifer Chappell · 10/30/2007, 11:19 AM

This is an official Round Robin Contest thread

Yep, we're having a big contest called the
Smartphone Round Robin among all the Smartphone Experts community sites. Each week during the month of November, the community editors from all the sister sites, TreoCentral, CrackBerry.com, WMExperts, and Phone Different will be switching, well, trading smartphones and will learn what it's like to use another device. I've piddled with Windows Mobile a little here and there but haven't hardly touched the surface on a BlackBerry device. Will I love it or hate it? Could I become a CrackBerry addict? This should be fun and very interesting.>

You all will get to be involved in this too. Each week we'll be posting questions in the different forums asking for your help with problems that we might have with our smartphone. Goodness knows that I'll be needing help! ;-) Each time you participate in a Smartphone Round Robin official contest thread, you'll be entered into the contest to win some cool prizes. The grand prize is the smartphone of your choice (that is of course currently available in the US and Canada) and some money to spend on accessories. And three runners up will receive coupons for smartphone accessories.

Check each day for updates on how all the editors are doing with the smartphones here at the Smartphone Round Robin Update page. I'll be posting an article later today talking about how I've done with the iPhone so far. Dieter has the Treo 680 this week, Mike has the BlackBerry Curve, and Kevin has the AT&T Tilt. We'll be posting in each other's forums to ask questions about the particular smartphone we're using at the time. There are plenty of experts in all the forums so we should have no problem getting answers.

Find out all about the contest and rules here at the
Smartphone Round Robin site. And you can read the official press release here.

tymerock · 10/30/2007, 11:31 AM

i am all-in

gadgetluva · 10/30/2007, 11:34 AM

I'm in for this, and I'm curious about Blackberrys...

dreadpiratedoug · 10/30/2007, 01:03 PM

Wonder what WM phone they will get? The Touch, or perhaps something less powerful, like the Q ... haha ... the Q would make anyone cry.

Gas Man · 10/30/2007, 01:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by pdaluver

This is an official Round Robin Contest thread

Yep, we're having a big contest called the
Smartphone Round Robin among all the Smartphone Experts community sites. Each week during the month of November, the community editors from all the sister sites, TreoCentral, CrackBerry.com, WMExperts, and Phone Different will be switching, well, trading smartphones and will learn what it's like to use another device. I've piddled with Windows Mobile a little here and there but haven't hardly touched the surface on a BlackBerry device. Will I love it or hate it? Could I become a CrackBerry addict? This should be fun and very interesting.>

You all will get to be involved in this too. Each week we'll be posting questions in the different forums asking for your help with problems that we might have with our smartphone. Goodness knows that I'll be needing help! ;-) Each time you participate in a Smartphone Round Robin official contest thread, you'll be entered into the contest to win some cool prizes. The grand prize is the smartphone of your choice (that is of course currently available in the US and Canada) and some money to spend on accessories. And three runners up will receive coupons for smartphone accessories.

Check each day for updates on how all the editors are doing with the smartphones here at the Smartphone Round Robin Update page. I'll be posting an article later today talking about how I've done with the iPhone so far. Dieter has the Treo 680 this week, Mike has the BlackBerry Curve, and Kevin has the AT&T Tilt. We'll be posting in each other's forums to ask questions about the particular smartphone we're using at the time. There are plenty of experts in all the forums so we should have no problem getting answers.

Find out all about the contest and rules here at the
Smartphone Round Robin site. And you can read the official press release here.

All the phones should score high! It's just the Palm phones should be top dog but they are not because of slowiness to update the OS. Why 5 years and nothing yet. 6 and half years to update an OS; doesn't seem logical!!!

jrinehart · 10/30/2007, 01:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dreadpiratedoug

Wonder what WM phone they will get? The Touch, or perhaps something less powerful, like the Q ... haha ... the Q would make anyone cry.

I never had a problem with my Q. I loved it (after the update). I believe they are using the AT&T Tilt for WM devices.

dr004 · 10/30/2007, 01:30 PM

I'm in

jhoff80 · 10/30/2007, 02:37 PM

This is an awesome idea, though I think you should also post the thoughts of the writers after switching back to their prior device, to see if they realize the limitations of it more, etc.

Dieter Bohn · 10/30/2007, 02:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhoff80

This is an awesome idea, though I think you should also post the thoughts of the writers after switching back to their prior device, to see if they realize the limitations of it more, etc.

That would be week 4, actually.

Overthrow · 10/30/2007, 03:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jhoff80

This is an awesome idea, though I think you should also post the thoughts of the writers after switching back to their prior device, to see if they realize the limitations of it more, etc.

I wish I could tell you what week 4 was going to be initially. All I will say is that it would have been VERY bad for everyone, esp. after a 3 week break from our main devices.

seadooken · 10/30/2007, 04:02 PM

You guys have more guts than me. Once I get used to a phone, it would be writing with my left hand if I were to switch (yes I am right handed). Good luck and have fun with it!

B-model · 10/30/2007, 05:39 PM

love it

jmystikcfl · 10/30/2007, 08:22 PM

My hats off to you guys, you're truly entering a brave new world. I'm on my second WM5 device, and I don't know that I'd be able to switch.

charliewat · 10/30/2007, 08:33 PM

I've tried using my Dad's Q and my friends Sidekick but nothing beats a
Treo

mthreenixon · 10/30/2007, 09:25 PM

oh, yay! This sounds pretty interesting. I am new to the whole smart phone world and I've had my Treo 680 since last Christmas and I love it. I would like to learn about the other devices out there as well. Im in!

roams11 · 10/30/2007, 09:40 PM

Great idea! Of course my personal phone, the 755p is my preferred device...and I have also enjoyed using a friends new Centro- which has a nicer sound and screen look compared to my 755.

I can help here by first offering observations of my work device- a Blackberry 8700 on the EDGE network. The device has its good points- nice keyboard, thumb wheel is decent for navigating once you get used to it, and there are actually some third party aps that work well, notably the GMail application, GoogleMaps and an SMS utility (hey, its a work phone).
What I will never get past, and what would keep me from actually paying for one of these myself, is that it is on the EDGE network. Truly slow- even compared to the old PCS network, buggy, and even manages to make web-surfing more annoying than Blazer's rendering (egads! use Xiino), and several times a week causes problems with my corporate enterprise software. Add to this that hundreds of people using these devices where I work, including myself, have been experiencing numerous random 'shutoff' issues. The device will take itself off the network, making the push email feature corporations like mine just love kind of pointless. Our IT department has been going crazy, as RIM (the last I heard) has indicated they are not going to address this issue on the 8700.
So, in a nutshell, that's my review. I'd be open to checking out a non-EDGE Blackberry, or other device.
But I actually enjoy my Treo, it's multitude of Aps and yes, EVDO. One thing Palm has been right about in recent history is pairing their device to a worthy, stable network that I have been able to find throughout the United States (with Sprint).
On a side note, I am enjoying the round-robin idea, but what I would really like to see is a comparison of real world utility between the different smartphone OS offerings. It would be of interest to see phones equipped with appropriate third party apps competing among different tasks.
Some task ideas: opening Office Documents, typing a set number of paragraphs, texting, saving documents, taking/sending photos, switching between applications(hello Butler!), download times, and even average stability based on number of crashes over a predetermined period of use, ease of syncing third party apps such as to a Money account. Please consider this!

...the possibilities are endless. At least with the Palm ;-)

PalmHead · 10/30/2007, 11:51 PM

Will you tell us what carrier you're using when the phone is available from several?

WhoAmI · 10/31/2007, 11:14 AM

Sign me up! I want to hear about the Crackberry's personally!

Darth Pooh · 10/31/2007, 01:03 PM

I can help anyone really transition from the PALM OS to WinMo if they need the assistance. I am very very interested in hearing about how someone comes from WinMo background to Blackberry's. Maybe even a write up by Mal would help because he and I are the same user (very much using the device for same reasons and we both like the functionality of our Treo 700wx's).

Since I am a former Palm OS ******, I have written a few things on the forums that have shown transition isn't as hard as people think.

edoan · 11/01/2007, 01:54 AM

Are you guys going to be looking at the devices from a consumer perspective, enterprise perspective, or both? An iPhone would utterly win from consumer perspective, but I think Treo vs. BlackBerry is a harder one for enterprise.