Yesterday, I was able to purchase a T-Mobile Wing. None of the phones on our Family Plan was older than 24 months, my MDA is 14 months old, so I had to pay $349 with a new 24 month contract. If you are over your contract term you can purchase the Wing for $299 with a 24 month contract.
So far I am very pleased with how it feels and right off I was very happy with the full length stylus. Two hardware problems which have plagued the MDA were the stylus holder and the mini USB connector have been redesigned. Even though the stylus holds in place in my MDA it is a little loose and on occasion have fallen out (I lost 2 stylus that way). I never had a problem with the mini USB connector but I know people who had issues with it. The Wing's stylus holder is setup like most PDA with a full length stylus which fits tightly into the case. They placed a cover on the mini USB connector to protect it. I am not sure this will solve the problem since the cover will probably break off at some point.
I was able to easily synchronize with Windows Vista's Mobile Center via Bluetooth. The setup for my 4smartphone Exchange email account was a breeze.
I have grown very fond of one handed operation with my MDA using Smarstkey. It looks HTC and Microsoft have learned some lessons from Smarskey and they have reorganized the buttons on the device. Now I need to learn the new scheme, but so far I like it.

The MDA on the right has 2 buttons at the top (default to Mail and Pocket Explorer), 4 buttons at the bottom (call/answer and right/left soft keys), and the D-PAD. I used Smartskey on the MDA which allowed the use of the right/left soft keys to bring up the start menu and force the closure of programs. The Wing on the left has all the buttons at the bottom. HTC has replaced the Mail and Pocket Explorer buttons with a start menu button (below the call button) and an OK button (below the call end button) which can be configured to force the closure of well behaved applications (new Windows Mobile 6 feature). The buttons on the Wing are smaller and cramped together, however I am getting used to them with my fat fingers.

On the left side, the top button on the Wing is for Camera while the MDA was for the Comm Manager/Vibrate mode. The slider was placed lower on the Wing. The reset switch pin hole is right below the slider. The Micro SD slot on the Wing is below the reset switch pin hole. I like the cover, however I hate having to buy one more flash card format. I feel like I have a become a forced flash card collector...what a racket, although the prices have dropped significantly.

The right side of the Wing has two buttons. One defaulted to voice dialing/voice note, the other to Mail. I am glad they have a button for Mail, I still have to figure what to do about the Pocket Explorer button, I got use it to on the MDA. The MDA has the voice dialing/voice note button and camera button. In the middle of the MDA is the infrared port which is a feature that is missing from the Wing. I think I used the infrared feature once on my MDA so I am not sure I will miss it. It seems Bluetooth is becoming the standard for inter device communication.

The top of the Wing has the power button the left while the MDA had it on the right. This is taking a little time to get used to. The MDA has the mini SD slot on top.

The bottom of the Wing has the mini USB connector protected by a cover. The mini USB connector is used for headphone, charging and data connections. The MDA has an mini plug for headphone connectivity and a switch to pop the back cover off. This picture shows the lanyard hooks on both devices. Lanyards are not included in the package T-Mobile sells. I am not sure I like not having a dedicated headphone, however someone should be producing an adapter which will work with standard headphone jacks.

The backs are quite different. Both have external antenna connectors up in the upper left hand corner. The Wing's back cover slides off. The cameras are in different locations. I like the side location on the Wing which makes it less prone to be covered by my big hand when I hold it.

The styli on each unit. I really like having the full size Stylus. Hopefully someone will produce one with a pen which I have found very useful on my Dell X51v replacement stylus.
So far my experience is very positive, I like the feel although it seems a little heavier (I will have to weight both of them). The Bluetooth sound quality seems much better.
The week of August 13th in My Digital Life
This weekend I migrated over from 4smartphone.com Hosted Exchange 2003 server to their new Hosted Exchange 2007 server environment. The process was fairly painless.
I am now running against Exchange 2007, everything seems to be running fine however some of my rules don't seem to be executing on the server. The mail comes through on Windows Mobile before it gets to the rule. I am researching the problem.
So far here are the new features I find outstanding:
Now I need to migrate my wife's account so we can continue to share our calendars and contacts...
I played around with MusicBridge this weekend with no luck. Unfortunately, this along with my DFL-210 router VPN setup will have to go on the back burner for now.
As I mentioned in this post, Ilium Software has just released ListPro 5.0. I have never used it and will start playing with it for a pocketnow.com review early next month.
This week:
Posted by sskarlatos on August 13, 2007 at 09:14 AM in 4smartphone, Commentary, HTC Herald, Office 2007, T-Mobile Wing, Web/Tech, Windows Mobile, Windows Vista | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
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