Fresh when it gets here from
Julie Barrett
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
Yes, I did it last night. This is an early birthday gift. What kills me is that the only way we could do it was to add a line of service. We're hoping to migrate my old number to this in a few days.
So, what about the phone?
This is a smartphone that uses the new Windows Mobile 6 operating system. Yes, it's a Pocket PC as well as a telephone:
Of course, I smudged out the number!
But the really cool feature of this device is the keyboard:
When it slides out the display goes into landscape mode. No, it doesn't have the sensor like the iPhone, but I'll live with that.
Since this uses the Windows Mobile OS, the Mogul can run a number of applications. I can add the Opera browser, I can install games and productivity software. Of course, it comes with mini versions of several Office apps so I can exchange data. (OpenOffice will save documents in the Mobile Word format.)
Does it surf the web? Of course! I don't have a picture, but Internet Explorer is included as well as Outlook so I can get my e-mail anytime I'm connected to the network. The Mogul does both wi-fi and Sprint's EVDO network called PowerVision.
Here's a side view of the phone compared to my previous phone. As you can see it's pretty thin, but it does take up a little more overall space. Considering what comes with all that space, it's a decent trade-off.
Yes, that's a camera lens. The Mogul comes equipped with a 2 MP camera that also does video. The flash also functions as a flashlight. Extra storage is in the form of a MicroSD card. (Yep, you can expand the memory on this baby.)
So what about those controls? The wheel is used for scrolling navigation. It's handy when you don't want to drag your finger over the touch screen and makes surfing web sites much easier. The OK button is what you think it is. The next button activates voice dial. And the slide switch turns Wi-Fi on and off. I'm assuming that turning wi-fi off helps the battery life. Buttons on the other side include power, the camera, and a shortcut to the Comm Manager, which is a control panel for activating and de-activating various features such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, mute the speaker, airplane mode and the like.
Sync is accomplished via ActiveSync or Windows Mobile Device Manager (Vista). There's also a third-party app for the Mac.
Now I'm ready to start customizing the Mogul. I'll be posting more observations after I've used this guy for a while.
Tags:
Technology,
Mogul