It had been a year since I had dropped my Samsung Smartphone for the larger, more functional Audiovox XV6600, and I was ready for a change.  Not because I hated the phone, but rather, because it left me wanted more of what the platform would give me in the next iteration of the Windows Mobile platform (version 5.0).  There were two particular things I was not going to be able to do with the XV6600:

• Use it as a modem (legally at least, since as an author and producer of software I would like everyone else to follow the rules with my stuff)
• Direct access to my corporate email

I think there were hacks to make it work as a modem, and it was technically possible to get web page access to my mail, but neither were seamless.  So I decided to bite the bullet and upgrade a year early (I got renewal pricing, but not the biannual rebate.)  It really came down to the next edition of the Audiovox (which was no longer technically Audiovox, it was Harrier,) the XV6700, the Trio, or the Q. 

The Motorola Q was the only one of the smartphones available at the time that would allow tethered (via USB cable) modem usage using Verizon's software, which is pretty good, and is really quite nice.  I worked three hours today (well, when I wrote this) at my in-laws house over VPN to my corporate desktop computer.  The primary limitation is that their "unlimited" plan isn't really so much unlimited as it is all you can use if you stick within the parameters (the biggest limitation is no streaming video/audio, as that will really eat bandwidth.  I would like to see that limitation lifted, but I can see their reasoning too.) It is not a cable connection, but it is better than having a full ISDN line (400 kbit/s seemingly the average).

As far as the Smartphone platform, I like it, but you need understand what you are getting into first.  It is built to be a phone + Pocket PC, whereas a Pocket PC phone is the other way around.  There is no stylus, which means you do everything with the keyboard, and most things can be done one handed, which is nice when driving a car.  It doesn't have file editors and comes with Word, PDF, and Excel viewers, but not editors.  I purchased Orneta's notepad product for editing, and it works great for my non-book writing days.  I mostly jot down notes in meetings and when I get an idea for a blog, article, or even book.

For the most part, the device is a communication device about 70% of the time.  The next 20% it is a web surfer, which it does well enough (I can't wait for Deepfish to come out, it looks awesome.) Then I watch the occasional video, take the occasional picture (1.3 MP camera isn't bad,) and play the occasional game of Solitaire or Suduko (Smoresoft's version is pretty nice.)  I was always a pretty big fan of the Samsung i600 Smartphone as it was an adequate phone, but lacked a few features I wanted.  It was never the "best" phone, but a really quite good phone and the Q really kicks it up a notch. Easy one hand usage for when I am driving, good Bluetooth support (I just picked up a Motorola T305 handsfree device that connects to the visor of the car that works really well for just shy of 100 bucks, and I just picked it up at Best Buy, in case I wanted to return it.  I have a 6 speed manual transmission, so I don't usually have hands to drive AND talk.  I have used it several times in my slightly loud car, and it has worked really well.)

Overall, I am pleased.  The battery life from the included battery is fine for a typical day of surfing for 20 minutes to an hour, and 30 minutes to an hour or so on the phone, and having the phone check my email every 10 minutes (yes, I have the email monkey on my back bigtime!).  I purchased the long life battery (and ran through it with a heavy day of usage) for the recent MVP Summit and things like the  PASS conference where I might be out for 15-16 hours in a day and have extra free time to kill waiting for stuff to happen.  ONE WORD OF WARNING.  The extended battery is huge and sticks out the back.  The typical holster case that Verizon will try to sell you is tight with the standard battery.  I purchased a blackberry holster at Best Buy and it is perfect.

If you are a user of a PocketPC phone, you really ought to consider checking out the new Live Mobile Search download from the Live Search team. 

Click http://blogs.msdn.com/livesearch/archive/2006/11/30/search-on-the-go-with-live-search-for-mobile-beta.aspx for the full scoop, but this one is just too cool to not tell people about.

One downside is that it makes the version of Pocket Streets that I have loaded on my Pocket PC seem like it was written a hundred years ago on Windows 1.0 (wasn't that just the coolest piece of semi-useless software back then?)  It is just that cool.  It can do directions quite nice, get traffic information, and you can either road or aerial maps, just like the online version of local.live.com.  The only downside I see right now is that I don't have any way to zoom back out from a map using a hotkey.  Zooming in is easy though.  If this thing worked with a GPS I might run out tomorrow and pick up an SD card GPS (it is that cool!)

I expect this to be on the top of my list of applications used on my phone now, right after Internet explorer for outlook mail, Hotmail, and of course NewsGator.  I also use Word a good amount for writing, but I am veering off topic aren't I?

I got a new mouse recently (one of those little Microsoft notebook mice) and it is a really good mouse.  However, it isn't the mouse that I want to review.  I actually haven't used that mouse but once to try it out.  I have actually been home fore a few weeks now and can use my home mouse.  (another Microsoft wireless mouse, in fact.)

No, what I want to mention is the Magnification feature.  I thought this sounded like yet another stupid gimmick (all other features that have come around since the vertical roller middle button have been real downers: extra keys, horizontal movement of the middle button, etc)  but the magnify feature has been immediately useful. 

Take the image to the left of this text.  You look at it in the browser just as is, and it is a bit hard to see.  "What is that text?"  Click the magnification button, and you see the following:

Not strictly necessary as a feature, but will be useful when trying to see the image on the screen in just a bit more detail.  Like when working in a editing program.  If you need to get more detail to touch up a picture at the pixel level.

What is really awesome is that it does not actually require new hardware.  I have an old Wheel Mouse Optical mouse that I use on my main computer (the one I am not VPN'd on all day) and I went and downloaded Intellipoint 5.5 from here: http://www.microsoft.com/hardware/mouseandkeyboard/Download.mspx  and was able to assign the magnify button to the wheel button.  Really really cool!

Look at PCWorld's: The 50 Greatest Gadgets of the Past 50 Years.  How many have you owned some or many of these things.  I figure I have had ~13 of them, not even listing those my wife has (like the iPod, blech :)

I mean extremely close matches only, not something in the same genre.  As an example, from the list I had a Kodak Instamatic camera, but maybe not model 100. Or a Tivo, not exactly Tivo model HDR110. That is close enough for ...

On the other hand there are cell phones listed, but not just a generic cell phone.  Frankly, if you don't have a cell phone, I am amazed you are browsing the web.  Seriously, I am all for not being tethered down by a cell phone, but I couldn't imagine not being able to communicate with my family whenever I need to.  Or the auto club when one of my tires has decided that it has done enough air holding for the day...

1.  Sony Walkman (Cassette, and many of them)
3.  Tivo (have 2 now)
4.  Palm Pilot (had a reasonably early model)
7.  Atari Video Computer System (ah Atari)
8.  Polaroid SX-70 Land Camera (still have one that looks just like the picture)
14. BlackBerry 850 Wireless Handheld (the little one)
18. Diamond Multimedia Rio PMP300 (my first MP3 player!)
23. Kodak Instamatic 100
26. Nintendo Game Boy (and every model since then, except the new Micro!)
27. Commodore 64 (my friends used to load games from a cassette.  I had a disk drive when I got mine)
32 Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (I don't agree with this one until they added opticalness, but many buttons were nice too!)
36. Iomega Zip Drive (remember the click of death for Zip Drives.  I think that killed them)
38. Milton Bradley Simon (Red, green, red, green, blue, yellow, d'oh!)

I blogged a while back aboout my new toy, the Samsung yh999 Portable Media Center.  I got it to watch the random TV show while I was on the road non-stop for the next month or two.  This makes me nerdy enough right?  Well, it gets worse.  Enter channel9.MSDN.com and iPodder.  Now my PMC is another reason to learn nerdy stuff. 

The best thing I have watched so far is this two part series by Jim Gray:

Jim Gray - A talk with THE SQL Guru and Architect
Jim Gray - Part II of talking about Database Design

His comments in the second part about client server vs multi-tier development are very interesting (and strangely like my own, not that I think he got them from me!)

Granted I have only used it for a day, but so far I really really like it.  It is a few bucks cheaper than most of my recent gadget purchase, but it is really cool.  What it is is a little half inch thick pad with two fans in it to set a laptop on.   I generally spend most of my writing and working time (after hours) sitting in my chair with my laptop propped up on a pillow.  Of course pillows are not known for their heat dissapating qualites, so heat builds up, fans get excited and the machine starts buzzing away. 

With this guy, I have sat with the computer on a pillow most of the day (sad way to spend a Memorial day, I suppose, but the book must get written somehow!) and have not had the internal fan kick in at all (the main loud "mercy captain, I cannot hold her much longer!" one anyways.)   I bought it at CompUsa when I was returning my failed (yet under warranty) 80GB USB2 disk.  Thank goodness for my server and duplication system for backups. It had the functional copies of all of my MP3 collection on there.  I certainly don't want to have to rip my 400 cd collection again!  As for that collection, I hope to make it public later this year in my case study for my book.  Not that anyone cares to see a simple listing of CD's from Barry Manilow (just kidding!) but I am going to put out three different case studies following the design methods outlined in the book just to prove that while I am full of something, that thing that some of you might be thinking is not it!

Over the next two months, I will be out of town for at least three weeks, and it might be up to six weeks.  A week of that is TechEd (where I will be dispensing my exciting advice face to face!) another is a seven day stretch in the happiest place on earth (note, even though TechEd is in Orlando, cannot stay at DisneyWorld every day!.)  And then up to four weeks in Virginia Beach working on a DW project. So I needed a treat.  And in this case a treat to make it bearable to stay away that long.  The Samsung YH-999 did the trick.  It is tiny, like four by four inches and less than an inch thick.  Bigger than an iPod (which my wife has and loves) and it plays video (from my Media Center PC AND my TiVo.  It even connects to the TV for when I am in the hotel (I always get hotels with TV's that I can attach stuff to.)

I considered the Creative Zen model, but I was swayed by the small size of the Samsung, even if the battery only lasts for three hours of video, and like twelve for audio (and it shows you the disc covers and everthing!)  The only time I ever watch this small of a screen for more than three hours is on long trips in airplanes, and my portable DVD player covers the rest of the time (~5 hours) and if that runs out, I can watch two hours of video on my Smartphone (or I could read a book, I suppose, though my Smartphone doesn't have a good book reader yet that I know of (I do have the Bible on there, but it is the only book))

Windows Media Player compresses the video down to WMVs, but it looks pretty darn good, even on my 20" TV. There is some artifacting, but the sound is good, and considering I have 780 songs, and 15+ hours of video on the device and I have only used 8.22 GB of disk space, I am darn pleased.

My only gripe so far is that you cannot connect it up to the PC or charge it without taking it out of its leather case, though I think my knife might just solve that problem.  The leather case is really cool, because it is made to connect to a belt loop.  And if you ever get into a gadget showdown with a fellow nerd, it can help to have an oversided item to put on your belt!

In my never ending attempt to fill my office desk up to the gills with stuff I have added yet another cool gadget to the mix.   It is the Microsoft Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer with Fingerprint Reader.  I didn't leave comments there as of yet because their comments are pretty much  my comments.  Really nifty gadget for remembering website passwords.  Plus, it saves quite a bit of time as all you do is touch the fingerprint reader and bam! it enters the password for you.  Of course you have to enter and save the password once, but if you couldn't have guessed that, well, you probably wouldn't be reading this blog now would you :)

In order to watch my favorite serialized shows, I have to watch live TV.  For all of you who don't own Tivo, and still have 12:00 flashing on your VCR screen, you are thinking that I am some sort of whiny idiot. 

The rest of you know just what I am talking about.  After my first year of Tivo ownership, I rarely watch TV as it is being broadcast.  I watch stuff from between 20 minutes and six months later.  A few special shows are elevated to the 20 minute level, and they are must see shows (though rarely are any of these shows on NBC any more!)  Tonight it is 24.  If you haven't been watching it, be a little bit happy.  The show is nuts, but it really draws you in.  Well, for the zero persons who are reading, sorry, but I have to go watch 24 or I have to wait two weeks to watch it  Two weeks.  How barbaric :)

I have a SPOT watch (which reboots itself far too often) and a Smartphone (which is totally cool) and most anything else that Microsoft will create.  Microsoft didn't make either of these, but they did build the OS for both of them.  I am blogging on the MSN site, and I am an MSN user.  I am also a SQL Server MVP, so I know my way around a computer. 

However, Microsoft is not the only company that makes cool stuff.  I don't own an xBox, as I am still a Nintendo junkie.   Give me a game with a fat little plumber and I am quite happy thank you (or a green adventurer isn't bad either.)  I have TiVo, and feel it is a great product.  I haven't really played xBox, and I haven't tried to acquire a Media Center PC.

Which brings me to the iPod.  The iPod is just an awesome device. It looks cool, it looks like it is worth the price, and does what it says it will.  My wife, who is a non-technical person, can use the iPod on her Mac (she is a school administrator, and they like Macs, heaven help them) like there is no tomorrow.  The question is, why must Microsoft beat that?  I don't mind if they do, and I might just get one of these when the big red guy hits the chimney late this year, but I might also opt for an iPod. 

So why shouldn't Microsoft employees buy iPods?  If you are going to make the next best thing, you should have your hands on the current best thing.  Just my opinion.