Mobility Site » Mobilitysite Polls

One site for all your Mobility?

Chris Leckness — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:26:12 +0000

I wanted to query our readers to see what you think if the idea. I have been unifying the forums for the last year and now that it’s complete, I am thinking about bringing GotZune and iPhoneMVP news/reviews into Mobilitysite as well. So we don’t flood the site with iPhone and Zune news, I plan to work up a system where we’ll offer RSS feeds and filters to get just what you want. With this move, we can all concentrate making one site better and better each day. I have to stop the niche site urge I get all too often.

I realize that we’ve evolved from a Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) background, but we are moving forward. Lots of our folks stayed with Windows Mobile, some to iPhone, many to Blackberries, etc… We are evolving with our members. I currently use the iPhone and I would like to share that here and not over on a seperate site. We are Mobilitysite, lets take the talk all over the spectrum. What do you say?

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The NEW “What Mobile OS Poll”

Chris Leckness — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 07:07:22 +0000

There has been a lot of shuffling going on around this game. Android is making some big splashes. Windows Mobile in some eyes has done a belly flop with their 6.5 release. Palm Pre seems to be drowned out by others. Apple is sitting in the Lifeguard chair saying nobody is going to catch them. RIM and Nokia are still out there too. Nokia’s recent offerings are causing me to get interested and the Blackberry Storm 2 seems to be nice as well.

I posted yesterday asking for some input on why some of our readers have jumped ship on WinMo and gone to the iPhone. I am amazed at the response. I have gotten 16 comments and 20+ emails explaining their flight so far. This makes me wonder just how many converts there are out there. I decided this morning that it’s poll time.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

As I said yesterday, I am not jumping ship on any one Mobile OS. I plan to cover, test, and enjoy all of them in what I do here. I also plan to give other Mobile OS platforms a better look than I used to. I now carry an iPhone 3GS as my primary device, but this could change at some point. I think that Andoid is making the most waves in this market right now and I hate to say it, but I think that Andoid will sink WebOS and grab many WinMo folks in the process. Android 2.0 looks very nice and Google’s push behind this can’t hurt one bit. I am concern that they might end up with the same issues that some have with Windows Mobile though. Too many choices. The beauty of the iPhone is the OS is updated often and Apple doesn’t have to wait on other OEMs and Carriers to “approve and update” their devices.

Please take a moment to vote in the poll above. Thanks!

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iPhone Users, What’s the big deal with MMS?

Chris Leckness — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 15:17:41 +0000

So, today all the “Buzz” is about AT&T enabling MMS for the iPhone customers. It seems as if it’s a huge deal to all iPhone users, but is it really or is it just something to whine about not having. Do people still use MMS? Other than my daughter, I don’t think there has been an MMS message sent from any phone under my plan in 2 years. (that’s my line, my daughter, my wife, my mother, and my father)

I decided this morning to look for some stats about the MMS using demographics and I came up kind of short, but I did find a great post from a couple months ago on the iPhone blog. Rene posed the same question and inserted a poll. The results really surprised me. Would these results be the same had the iPhone had MMS to start with? Who knows. Anyhow his poll showed that 84% would use MMS if it as available. That shocks me really.

With all the other methods of sharing media available today, why MMS? I mean, we have email. We have Flickr, Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter even.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

I decided to have a poll of our own here. Strait forward, yes or no. Do you or would you?

Also, if you missed it, I posted about a video AT&T put out explaining MMS. Over at our iPhone blog, Adam posted info on how to enable MMS earlier too.

Help me understand people, who and why do people use MMS? Is the lack of the “ability” to use it the ruckus or would most iPhone users sincerely use MMS on a regular basis? Discuss…

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Big Summer Smartphone Poll

Chris Leckness — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 13:04:35 +0000

I am catching up on some action I’ve missed and it’s amazing looking back how fruitful this summer has been in the smartphone world. There has been an insane amount of new devices hit the carriers this summer. I thought a poll was in order to see what everyone is liking.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

* I am sure I missed a few, so feel free to leave a comment with what phones I missed.

I pick the HTC Touch Pro 2. I already have the unlocked version and I love it. I am waiting patiently for the AT&T version to hit the streets.

What did you pick and why?

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Poll: Expanding Focus….

Chris Leckness — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 14:40:02 +0000

Within the dungeon that all the mods and editors here at Mobilitysite are kept in, there has been a little discussion of expanding the focus.here. We have deep Windows Mobile roots here and those roots will never leave the ground I am sure. The recent discussion brings me to believe that an idea that I discussed with Mr.Cook not so long ago would be a nice addition here. I am toying with the idea of creating a couple spin off blogs in Mobilitysite’s likeness. These would be something like “iPhone.Mobilitysite.com”. This would be just a blog covering iPhone news and reviews and would be linked with the core of Mobilitysite.com. I am thinking iPhone and Android to start with and maybe more later. What do you think.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

This wouldn’t necessarily be different sites, but part of a mini network that covers other technologies a little more in depth. Something that you may or may not know about our staff is that MANY of them have iPhones. (more than I knew)

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Widgets? Love them or hate them?

Chris Leckness — Tue, 10 Mar 2009 22:11:50 +0000

Ok, I have just started evaluating the Samsung Omnia. I have the Verizon, CDMA version with 3G support. I have had the chance encounter with the Omnia a couple times already, but now I have one to test myself. So far, I love the phone, but there are 2 things I don’t care for already. The 1st is the optical mouse. I turned it off and made it act like a 4 way dpad. I just don’t like the mouse thing. Didn’t like it on the Epix and I didn’t like it on the iPAQ HX4700. The other thing I don’t like thus far is the default “Today Screen”. It came basically with the “Samsung Widget” Today plug in enabled. While the widgets are kind of neat, It’s not my cup of tea. You can turn this off by going into the Today Screen settings and disabling this plug in. You need to enable the default plugs or use your own program like SPB Mobile Shell, etc. What I chose to do was use the other Samsung plugin that came on the Omnia, the “Samsung Today” plugin (Pictured to the right). It matches all the other custom menus that Samsung has done with the Windows Mobile Shell. The widget idea is cool, but kind of gimmicky if you ask me.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Well, if you don’t have an Omnia and want some widgets, Gil has posted about a program you can grab to give your WinMo phone widgets too. FEWidgetsLite is a Windows Mobile freeware which allows the creation of visual widgets. It brings a similar look and feel as Samsung’s TouchWiz UI.

Read on for a video and where to get this program…

(...) Read the rest of Widgets? Love them or hate them? (6 words)

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Windows Mobile 6.5 Opinions?

Chris Leckness — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 19:25:35 +0000

There are tons of opinions out there after hands on time and video demos of Windows Mobile 6.5 hit the streets at MWC last week. Some are optimistic, some are harsh, some are great. Me, I am not overly impressed, but I didn’t set myself up to be impressed. I never expected much out of 6.5 since it’s only a dot release. That’s something to remember. I am very disappointed with how slow the ball rolls at Microsoft, but I am sympathetic at the same time. Being somewhat of an insider as a Microsoft MVP, Mobile Devices, I know how painfully slow the process of getting things to market is at Microsoft. Our complaints and suggestions won’t fix that though. So we have to move on with knowing this.

Gil posted a poll on his blog, but I thought today would be a good time to hit you guys with a poll here at Mobilitysite. I made this basically a grading system. Give WM 6.5 your grade.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Here are some resources to help you assign a grade:

Windows Mobile 6.5 Video from Microsoft (Video)
Remember All Those WM 6.5 Screenshot Leaks? (Screenshots)
Windows Mobile 6.5 Hands On : The New Interface Rocks (Gizmodo)
Windows Mobile 6.5 walkthrough with Engadget

Kevin over at JKontheRun has chimed in with his thoughts as well as results from their own poll on the subject. More than 75% of the responses were either middle of the road or negative. If I would have voted, I would have gone middle. PocketNow has a slightly apologetic rebuttal of Engadget’s commentary online. I agree with some of what Adam has to say, but not all of it. This is a dot release of Window Mobile, so expecting big things is expecting too much. For those that expected Zune stuff in 6.5, show me where Microsoft “Officially” said this would be coming in 6.5? I don’t recall seeing this, all I remember is rumors and speculation.

You guys all know me and know that I support Window Mobile, but you also know that I have been known to enjoy other devices too. I look forward to actually using 6.5 and 7 whenever devices hit the streets, but I am not very optimistic at this time. Microsoft has gotten themselves behind in certain aspects of Windows Mobile, mainly in the GUI though.

What do you think?

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Do You Want Your Phone to "Just Work"?

Chris Leckness — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 14:42:56 +0000

I used to love fiddling with my phones/pdas to make them look different using custom backgrounds and plugins, but in the last year, I have changed. Lately, I just want a phone that works without having to install a ROM, change the today screen, or tweak it in any other way. It’s still fun to tweak, but when life is so busy, sometimes you just have to go default. Some people just mod their phones to have something unique and that I can understand, but I just don’t have as much time to do that these days.

What are your thoughts? Do you like to tweak, tweak because you have to, or just prefer default?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

I spent several hours customizing my Fuze to look like my old Tilt today screen only to return to TouchFlo the next day. Sometimes it’s just not worth the hassle.

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How Much Would You Pay For a Hot Phone?

Chris Leckness — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 15:06:25 +0000

Here in the US, many of the hottest phones are linked to one of the Big 4 carriers and can be picked up for a good price with a contract. The carrier is subsidizing a good portion of the phone’s cost. Occasionally a phone comes along, like the Palm Treo Pro, that is unlocked and not linked to a carrier. A couple hot phones that have peaking the curiosity of many are the HTC Touch HD and the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1. Brighthand ran a story the other day saying that these two hot phones are easy to get in the US now. Yes, they are right, but the cost is outrageous. The Xperia X1 for almost $700 and the HTC Touch HD for around $800. I can’t say that I wouldn’t pay either of those prices, but how many would? I doubt too many would drop that kind of coin for a phone. Would you?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

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Poll – Which Mobile OS Will Be Hottest in 2009?

Chris Leckness — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 18:57:39 +0000

With all the buzz with Palm’s new OS, Android getting in gear, Apple’s iPhone 3G selling well, and Windows Mobile falling behind, which one will be hot this year?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

The Contenders

Windows Mobile – Even though WinMo is still doing well despite all the hurdles, it’s falling behind. The usability is being questioned every time you turn the corner. The OS is still quite powerful, but it needs to be dumbed down a little to make it more “friendly”. New developments seem so far away.
Android – We’ve only seen a couple devices come out so far, but with HTC backing some development, Android could be a star still.
iPhone – Well, it’s the innovative phone that everyone is comparing others too now. It’s here to stay. Does Apple’s over controlling hurt themselves down the road?
Palm WebOS – It’s not out there yet, but it’s all the buzz after Thursday’s announcement and demo. I have to agree, it’s hot. Is it enough though? Like WinMo, Palm has many, many loyalists in their following. I think that is enough to keep it afloat.

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How do you view Mobilitysite?

Chris Leckness — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:22:36 +0000

I am digging for a little info on what resolution and browser our readers use to view the site. A sample from our logs seem to indicate that 40% are using IE and another 40% are using Firefox, with the last 20% spread across other browsers. I am happy to see that the logs show that 95% of the readers that visited last month are viewing at better than 1024×768. This data shows that more than 400k visitors last month are viewing at 1280x or higher. That is awesome. Still, I want to do a little live poll as well.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Also, does anyone have any display issues with the current layout of the site? The reason I ask is that I had the unfortunate chance to view Mobilitysite on an old PC with an old browser at 1024x and saw some CSS formatting issues. This resolution and browser has a VERY VERY LOW percentage in last months logs, but still, I like to make sure every viewer has the chance to view the site correctly.

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Do you Black Friday?

Chris Leckness — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 14:37:34 +0000

First off, I didn’t post a bunch of Black Friday info here leading up to today. The reason why is that there are great sites that cover Black Friday in obscene depth. I’ll leave that to them.

I had to work on Black Friday, so I didn’t get out there. Even if I didn’t, I don’t think I would have done it anyhow. Do you get out there an get the deals early?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

If scored on Black Friday, tell us about it, what did you get? What was your best savings? I hear that someone had a $99 Wii today.

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Poll : What OS is Windows Mobile’s Biggest Enemy?

Chris Leckness — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 14:31:31 +0000

Well, the easy answer is all of them. With all the new innovation going on in the mobile industry, Windows Mobile is seeing some big competition in all segments of mobility. Apple is pushing the consumer market hard, RIM is pushing enterprise as they always have, and Android is coming down the trail looking pretty nice. We all know and agree that Windows Mobile needs some new life. It needs to work on a better way to implement updates. It needs some GUI upgrades, but the phone manufacturers are doing a good job on that.

So, out of the major operating systems powering the hottest phones today, which one is the biggest threat for Windows Mobile. Which one could fire a deadly shot into the Windows Mobile Camp?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

I know that I have been quite impressed with the iPhone, the Android OS is pretty fast running, but I absolutely despise the Blackberry experience. You thought WinMo had a lot of menus.

I realize that Windows Mobile is going to be ok, I am pulling for them. I also love that these new, fancy operating systems seem to have lit a fire under Microsoft’s tails.

Out of all the new phones that are “not” powered by Windows Mobile, I like the G1 and the iPhone equally. The iPhone gets a point for getting Exchange Server support, something the G1 can’t do right now. The G1 gets the edge on the keyboard, the iPhone onscreen keyboard isn’t bad, but I prefer a full qwerty “keyboard”. Of course, it goes without saying that I don’t like the G1’s looks overall.

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What if there was only 1 Windows Mobile Phone?

Chris Leckness — Fri, 12 Sep 2008 16:22:49 +0000

Looking at how quickly Apple is throwing out updates for the iPhone makes you wonder why Microsoft can’t do the same. Well, you can think about it for a minute and then common sense tells you why. They just can’t. Too many models, too many variables, too many carriers, too much BS. Still, I can’t help wondering what the Windows Mobile Life would be like if Microsoft just made their own, single device. Would they still drag their feet like it appears they are doing if only looking at the surface, or would they roll out updates fairly fast like they do with the Zune? Can Microsoft learn anything for the positive reaction to the Zunes updates? I think so. I don’t think Microsoft will ever make their own phone. There are too many partners that would be a tad upset if they did.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Look at the Windows Mobile 6.1 update. It’s been out for quite a while already, but the current devices that are being updated to 6.1 are rolling out finally. Is this Microsoft’s fault? I am not 100% sure on this, but I am pretty sure that it is not. The updates are device specific and they responsibility of updating them is in the hands of the OEMs.

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Poll: Digital Music, How do you Roll?

Chris Leckness — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:18:38 +0000

In light of a post I caught on PPCT today, I figure this would make for a good conversation. Before I ask the question, the article on PPCT is about Yahoo Music shutting their doors. I won’t speculate, but could it have something to do with Microsoft trying to buy Yahoo and having it’s own all you can eat music store? Any, Ed Hansberry reports that Yahoo Music users got an email stating that they were shutting down and their DRM licenses would expire September 30, 2008.

I love the concept of renting music. Sure there are albums you want to have forever and ever, but really, how many times can you listen to Shania Twain’s Up CD? Really. So I opt for the all you can eat plans that cost ~ $15.00/mo, that way I can download all I want, keep what I like and try some new stuff next month. I used Yahoo Music for 2 years before jumping into the Zune Pass all you an eat plan. In fact, Just yesterday there was a little Twitter buzz about how cool the Zune Pass is.

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Don’t worry, If you steal music, I won’t tell. Your votes are counted but they don’t register against a user name, so you can be honest.

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