Archive for the ‘How I Use...’ category

Living with the Touch Dual

April 19th, 2008

I said I’d write this up eventually, well after using the device for a while about my experience with it.  I could do it in two words, but that would be a short post, “Really Great!”.  To put it simply this is the best Windows Mobile I’ve ever used, better than the Hermes – and that’s saying something!image

Lets start with the form factor of the device.  It’s a slider, like lots of other mobiles these days, and that’s probably one of the reasons it’s such a good phone.  Now I’m using Slide Actions it really works like a slide phone.  If I slide up the screen it will unlock s2u2, if I slide down it locks the screen with s2u2.  If it’s ringing and I slide it up, which I actually do much more than use the answer button, it answers the call.  Similarly if I slide it closed when in a call it hangs up.  I find I actually never use the call and end buttons.  The next fantastic thing about the form factor is the “proper” phone key-pad, by proper I mean it’s a 12 key keyboard just like most phones.  Why are these two things the most important thing about this phone for me?  Because I can now use this just like a phone, like everyone else.  It’s also great because it’s slick and thin and soft and rubbery in the hand.

Next, it’s the interface.  T-Mobile, who I’m still really impressed with, haven’t over customised the interface.  It’s fast and responsive and the touch cube is a great replacement for most of the physical buttons.  I find it works best if I just use the small area over the T-Mobile logo to start it.  I also find the D-Pad really nice to use, just like the keyboard it’s fast and responsive.

With all the mod’s I’ve made I don’t have to use the stylus all that much, but that again is a good little tool, it’s nice and solid and feels nice to hold too.

The camera suffers from the normal rubbish lens, but it’s a convenient little snapper and the newer software, version 5 of camera, is really good.  Out of the box the finger friendly Camera Album is really cool too – often makes people I show it to go “ooooh”.

All in all, this is really the best phone I’ve had for about 3 years now.

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HelloTwitFace update

April 17th, 2008

I’m planning on updating HelloTwitFace at the weekend, probably late on Saturday with new feature I’ve been working on.  I’m going to move the twitter tab away from simply using http://m.twitter.com to using the twitteroo 1.4 API to build my own twitter stream.  I’m planning on including an interesting feature in that too.  The option to keep the mobile page will be there still too.

For now, as they’ve been requested and I need to upload them, here are two screenshots.

Screen02 Screen03

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The best phone ever!

March 30th, 2008

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Finally after 18 months with Orange and my Hermes I’ve moved on.  I’ve picked up a touch Dual, a.k.a Niki, a.k.a Touch Plus.  I’ve also moved to T-Mobile to get the best value package, after 5 years with Orange.  I have to say T-Mobile customer services have been superior in every way so far.

So the first thing I do when I get a new device is get it set up right.  That means getting extra software on to it to make it work just right.  The two best places for that are Modaco and XDA-Developers.

More detail after the jump.

» Read more: The best phone ever!

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