My New Windows Mobile 5 Phone, O2 Atom

Anyone that knows me, knows that I have been waiting for an all in one device, that is a phone, for a long time. I first wanted a Palm phone, however, after using a Palm for a few years without a phone, it just became a toy, a toy that was taking up space in my pocket. Also it was not convenient to use; like moving files from my computer to my Palm, using it on the Palm, and them moving them back to the PC, was not seamless or strait forward. So now I got a new Windows 5 enabled phone with WiFi, the O2 Atom from Europe; it looks like the all in one devise that I have always wanted. It’s a phone; it’s an MP3 player; it is a video player; I can read eBooks on it; it can send and receive emails; I can take pictures; I can brows the web using WiFi. And because it is using Windows Mobile 5, I can install almost any program I want on it, to do almost anything, I should be jumping for joy, however I’m not.

Microsoft did not deliver with the new Windows Mobile 5 OS. Some of the problems I have had with the phone are:

• The number one complaint that I have is that you can not use the phone with one hand. I can open and run programs with one hand. However if I want to close the program, and the program does not have an exit option in its menu, I have to use the “ok” or “x” button in the top right corner. I should be able to navigate up to this button using the hardware navigation buttons, but I can’t. (I had to go into the hardware button setup and change one of the buttons, to do this for me)
• I find myself rebooting all the time. Programs hang, or the system starts to really slow down, a lot. This did not happen to me with the Palm.
• Some programs interfere with the phone. At one point, I was always getting disconnected from calls after one minute. I thought it was the phone; however I found out that it was not the phone, but a program that was disconnecting me. What made it even more baffling was that program did not have anything to do with the phone functionality.

There just seems to be this list of little things that keep giving me problems. But The one main thing that really bugs me, is that Microsoft does not have a good RSS reader, that will download text, video and Audio files. I love to read news on my phone, and I have really gotten into listening to podcasts. What I have to do today, is get the podcast from iTunes, then move them into my play list in Windows Media Player, then sync it with my phone. After I have listened to it on my phone, I delete it from my play list in Windows Media Player, sync again, and then delete it from iTunes, I hate doing going though all those steps, however if I want to listen on to the podcasts on my phone I have to do it. If I had an iPod, I would just have to sync. but I want my all in one device, not just an MP3 Player.

I really hope that Microsoft has some major updates in the works for Windows mobile 5; updates that I can just download. I don’t want to have to get a new phone, just to get some new features. I still really like the phone, and it does all the things I want, however, it just not ready for people that aren’t tech savvy.