December 16, 2005 10:16 PM

Here is a picture of the phone in question. If you haven't seen it yet, then your first impression (like me) is likely to be dominated by the slider keyboard. I have to tell you that I have had the phone for several weeks and still get a kick out of sliding down the keyboard. I am completely convinced that a true smartphone needs a keyboard, but it has to be usable. This certainly passes the test. I actually enjoy using it to store contact info after receiving a new phone call or to record notes while on the phone.

Early Adopter Extraordinaire!

December 16, 2005 10:37 PM

With Bluetooth licked and very happy with my EVDO capabilities, I moved on to WiFi - this is the first phone I have had that also includes WiFi natively (no separate card or sled needed).

I drove to the nearest WiFi hotspot and had no problems getting the phone to recognize and connect to the network. This of course was even faster than EVDO but with both networks at my disposal, I felt even more connected than ever before. This began to feel like a very powerful gadget, possibly the first real threat, for me, to my tricked-out laptop.

A couple of notes on the WiFi and other wireless settings. These will obviously consume additional battery life and you should explore the configuration options that let you enable these only when they are being used. At first, it seemed convenient to leave them on all the time but a dead smartphone is neither smart, nor a phone.

There was a setting I DID eventually change. You can have the phone ping you every time it finds a new network it can try to connect to but this is simply annoying and I recommend not using it.

Early Adopter Extraordinaire!

December 22, 2005 12:03 PM

Here's another treat which should appeal to those of you who are fed up with proprietary mobile phone cables. The PPC-6700 uses a simple USB cable for charging and syncing!!!

The included power cable plugs into the wall and uses a mini-USB to charge the phone. I guess you could call that proprietary since you won't likely find a replacement at Radio Shack but what it means is that the phone can charge over the USB port. Sprint also includes a USB-to-miniUSB cable in the package which allows you to trickle charge from the computer while plugged in (to sync).

I already had a few of these cables lying around as they are fairly general purpose. This is a big win for folks like me who won't need to invest in a completely new power/charging solution for the new phone.

Early Adopter Extraordinaire!

December 22, 2005 1:59 PM

Let's take a minute and review the key selling points so far:

1. GIANT slider keyboard
2. High-speed EVDO network supports fast web access, email, and messaging
3. Built-in WiFi for even faster network access in wireless hotspots
4. Convenient, inexpensive charging solution
5. Compelling Windows-based Internet applications for work (telnet/ssh) and play (XM radio)
6. Bluetooth profiles for wireless headsets and transferring documents between phone and PC

And I'm just getting warmed up!

Early Adopter Extraordinaire!

January 11, 2006 2:40 PM

So for Eric's sake, lets do a quick compare:

Treo wins for:

• One-handed operation
• Breadth of apps (that are useful to me)
• Faster camera
• SD memory card (vs. mini-SD)
• Beaming applications back and forth
• Sync with Mac

PPC-6700 wins for:

• EVDO
• Bigger keyboard
• More convenient charging solution
• WiFi
• Landscape mode

Despite the various pros & cons I have to say that high(er)-speed Internet access on the phone makes this an easy decision for me. It is the number one reason why I would never go back but, of course, this isn't the only EVDO phone available anymore.

Early Adopter Extraordinaire!

January 11, 2006 3:04 PM

And speaking of photos, I decided to do a side-by-side comparison of the Treo and PPC-6700 cameras. On the left is the Treo shot and on the right is the Sprint phone. Now, pictures uploaded to this site can be scaled down but the same process would apply to both.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

One other note. On a hunch, I timed the process of getting the phones ready to take a picture from the "off" state. The PPC took more than twice as long to get into camera mode. That does not necessarily encourage paparazzism, now does it?

Early Adopter Extraordinaire!

January 14, 2006 11:34 PM

So in response to Ron's post, let me add this to the thread. My first in what will likely be a series of dislikes about my PPC-6700. It can't all be good, right?

Here are the things that have already risen to the level of frustration:

• Slider Too Slide-y - I was a sucker for the slider design but quickly found that the phone will not stay shut. Too many times, I have pulled it out of my pocket or belt clip (no laughing!) and found it ajar. I haven't found there to be any harm caused by this condition other than it being slightly annoying to have to continue to fully close the phone each time I go to use it.
• Battery Life - any time you pack this much functionality and power into a handheld device, you are going to run into battery life issues so its not like this problem is unique to the PPC-6700. Still I find that I am reluctant to use all the features, like WiFi or media playback as much as I would like for fear of being without the power to perform basic phone functions. I know a spare battery is in my future and the charging cradle accommodates the phone and a separate battery (which rocks) but until I get a backup, I will have to continue to choose my demos carefully.
• Full Contact(s) Sport - this is probably a silly gripe but the useful Contacts link is constantly on the move. During simple phone use, the button to access your phone's contacts moves to three different places! I understand the benefits of "soft keys" that can be reused for a variety of contexts but this seems to have gotten out of hand.
• Separate Power Button - maybe this is a leftover hangup from using the Treo 650 for a year but I still haven't gotten used to having a separate power button on the top of the phone. It doesn't really fit into the one-handed use scenario and is actually quite awkward to use.
• Camera is Sloooooow - this is a legitimate complaint, not just because the Treo was much snappier but because it proves just how easy it is to abandon a popular function if it is not convenient. As I mentioned earlier, it takes way too long to launch the camera application and taking pictures in the highest resolution (not an unreasonable request) is just frustrating.

Now, it may be that there are workarounds or setting changes for some or all of these issues but until then, I will continue to struggle. Please don't take this as a slam as I still value this smartphone very high. All devices are going to have good and bad points and I want to be fair to the readers of this thread.

More good (and bad) coming in the days ahead...

Early Adopter Extraordinaire!

March 4, 2006 8:53 AM

Seems like I have had this same conversation with a half-dozen people over the past few weeks. They ask about my phone and I tell them that I still feel its the best phone out there but I caution that it might not be the best phone for them. I still enjoy using it but I can see how an even better phone could be done so I hope others will hold out for new models.

John, I haven't tracked down any sites like the ones you are looking for. The garage door opener is an interesting app. Did you ever find that?

Any other cool uses for this phone?

Early Adopter Extraordinaire!

June 19, 2006 7:57 AM

tmenet:

I have gotten a single laptop to connect over the phone's modem but had not even thought to try you scenario of making the phone its own access point.  I'm no expert at this but I'm not sure Windows Media 5 is sophisticated enough to do the type of connection sharing you're thinking about.

 My suspicion is that you will be stuck(?) with accessing the Internet directly from the phone or through a single connected computer.  

 BTW, I haven't tried hard to connect my laptop to the phone's modem via the USB cable - only through bluetooth - but its on the list.

Early Adopter Extraordinaire!

June 19, 2006 3:31 PM

Better bring a power solution to the camp site! I have been disappointed for months now with what I thought was gradually failing battery life but only recently decided to look into the problem more closely.  I hope others will find this interesting:

3 Ways I Found To Improve Battery Life

1. You should absolutely turn off all wireless features that are not being used.  I hardly use the WiFi actually(!) so that usually stays off but it is the Bluetooth setting that now stays in the off position more frequently.
2.  I had originally set up my email accounts to check for new mail every 15 minutes which is great if you are obsessive about getting new emails asap (think blackberry) but underestimated how much of a battery drain this activity is.  It now stays off and I update by hand only when I need to - this seems to have a big impact on battery life.
3. Limit your use of SlingPlayer Mobile! - ok this is partly in jest but one of the real reasons I bought the phone was to watch my Slingbox on my phone which works REALLY WELL and has kept me sane at many an airport gate over the past few months.  But the streaming video also takes a toll on the ole lithium ion.  Still a fan of course and will continue to evangelize this amazing combo (Windows Mobile 5 EVDO phone and Slingbox) but now look for external power supplies wherever possible.

Another interesting charging-related note that is worth (re)mentioning.  This phone charges quite nicely over a fairly standard USB cable and will draw power from any laptop in an emergency.   There have been several times over the past few weeks for example where I have plugged the PPC-6700 into my Mac laptop for an emergency charge.

Last note.  I also bought a replacement USB charger recently that retracts the cord and is great for traveling - only $13.  Also picked up iGo system for the car which of course has a USB tip for charging on the go.  Will post more impressions of iGo soon.

More later... 

Early Adopter Extraordinaire!