In the 5+ months that I've been using my Blackberry Bold, I've hardly even given much thought to Windows Mobile and what I've been missing. Sure, every now and then I'll hear about a new application, and wonder if its changing the WM game, but not really enough to cause me any longing. I've also got an inherited Jasjar in my possession, so every now and then I can pull it out if I really have a hankering to test out an app. Unfortunately, as its running WM5, most of the latest and greatest just won't run on it.Yesterday I decided to borrow Dean's Ubiquio to take a look specifically at the new Facebook app and the latest Windows Mobile Twitter application, Twikini. The first thing that struck me was how small the screen seemed after using the Bold for a few months, and how poor the 320x240 resolution appeared after getting accustomed to 480x320. Now I know for a fact that I won't be able to go back to QVGA....ever....I think. Since my husband doesn't have a data plan on his phone, I turned on the Wifi to download and run the apps. As someone used to running WiFi on my phone all the time now, I was shocked to see how an hour of WiFi drained his battery almost 30%!
I downloaded the Facebook application and I have to say, its really nice and polished. There was an initial lag, but I think that had to do with downloading the information from Facebook. Navigation was easy and it seems like an application I'd probably get a lot of use from if I was on Windows Mobile.
Next up I installed Twikini which I'd recently heard quite a lot of positive noise about. It does seem to be much faster than PockeTwit, but without its suaveness. I think for a phone with less screen real estate, Twikini probably makes more sense. Although- I haven't tried any of the recent builds of PockeTwit, so that impression could be entirely outdated at this point. I also like the ability to chose between various color schemes, although it would be even better if I could build my own color scheme from the ground up.After experimenting with both apps I decided to email my screenshots from his mail application using Gmail and ran into a roadblock. For some reason I kept getting kicked back to the prompt to enter the password for the email account. Because the Blackberry mail setup experience is so seamless and transparent to the user, I had no idea what the issue could be. In the end I decided to pop the MicroSD card into the computer and transfer my photos that way.
As I tinkered with the Ubiquio, I realized there are a few things I miss from my WM days. I miss being able to completely backup and restore from the device. I miss the thrill of endless discovery of quality free apps. I miss glossy icons customized via iLauncher. But on the whole I am quite convinced that I am on the platform that works the best for my needs, and happy with my choice.
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