Playing with my SmartPhone

I have had a Dopod 818 Pro for some time now, maybe 9 months or so, and the experience has been average with a lot of good stuff fighting for supremacy with a lot of performance issues. Anyway, that’s not what I’m making this post about. My original phone looked like this:

It is a phone originally made by HTC (HTC Prophet), and sold under many different names like the Dopod 818 pro, i-mate JAMin, Dopod 830 etc. More details on the same can be found in the link wiki here

And one of the new phones from the same company, HTC, is the HTC touch incorporating Windows Mobile 6 and TouchFLO, which basically makes these Windows based phones operate a lot like the iPhone. The positive side is that these phones have a lot many features that the iPhone does not have yet, like OUTLOOK and Hotmail sync and 3.5G browsing which can make a huge difference for a lot of people.

What I have been able to do, using some guides from the wiki earlier linked, as well as brilliant threads on how to upgrade the firmware and software on your existing Windows based smartphones here and here, is to convert my old phone into the latest, newest technology. Anyone attempting, please note that they should go to the WIKI first and find out exactly what model they are using. Of course, one is responsible for their own actions and the results thereof. Finally, my old phone behaves exactly like the video below. Whew, WOW. And I am adding some more brilliant apps to it now. Like Yahoo Go! 2.0

Though the Video is made by someone else, Check it out:

Network signal receptiveness of Mobile phones

I think all of us would agree that some cellphones seem to be better able to adapt to low signal areas than others. Still, I don’t see this as a criteria for rating when cellphones are reviewed. It’s really strange, cos there’s really no one who does not face a low signal area ever. If nothing else, when you’re driving out of your city/state, this capacity of your phone will determine when you move out of network coverage.

If anyone visiting this page knows of a resource that rightly even closely hints on the “Network receptiveness” of a mobile phone, please let me know. At least for me, it would be a big factor in deciding which phone to go for. More importantly, a manufacturer who gives a higher weightage to the task the phone was originally supposed to do should be rewarded for it.

Maybe I can make a website for this and make my million dollars off that? Who’d do the testing for me? Vote-mechanisms?

Tips:

1 – A cellular repeater can be bought for a residence or a vehicle, and though I have never used one, it seems like they should do the trick.

2 – A weak network signal makes a cellphone work harder, consuming more battery and emitting more radiations

Edit on 19th January 2008,

In my own world of testing and experiences, Sony Ericsson phones seem to have much better signal response in low signal areas that both the dopod 818 pro and the Nokia N80. My brother has the W850i and my wife just got the Z750i and they both seemed to get better reception in our low network coverage residence in Bur Dubai. Hence, for now:

Sony Ericsson > HTC & Nokia

Generic statements for now, but will try to add data as I experience it. Inputs are welcome!