My mate Matt recently bought one of the new HTC TyTN II phones from 3 (aka the HTC Kaiser), and has been raving on about how awesome it is - he's never had a Windows Mobile phone before. Meanwhile, I'm beginning to pick up on all the annoying bits in it and it's driving me up the wall - which idiot thought the search feature should be an afterthought, and why doesn't it let me pick a different number for that person on the spot when I call someone and they don't answer!

The phone is quite well done though - I like how they even made the screen tiltable when in keyboard mode. I still have some reservations about the solidity of that sliding mechanism, plus Matt tells me that when in GPS mode, you can't make/answer calls on the loudspeaker - the GPS software just stops, and the loudspeaker and microphone drops out occasionally. So sounds like there's some kinks that need to be fixed - 3's QC levels need a bit of improvement.

Anyway, after he surprisingly managed to get ActiveSync and Outlook working on his computer, he ran into a problem. His calendar kept shifting his appointments a hour later, and every time he tried to fix it, it would work for a while, then randomly, it'll shift all the appointments again. For someone who had already become fairly dependent on a PDA, it was driving him nuts, and understandably too as he no longer know when was what, meaning his calendar was useless. Worse, his Outlook was buggered too.

So we went through the standard troubleshooting steps - checking time zones on his phone and PC, and whether daylight saving was kicking in. It turned out whenever the appointments were shifted, his timezone had been reset from GMT+10 Sydney to GMT+10 Vladivostok (a Russian city I now know). And if he changed it back, it would stay that way, until some random time and it'll change back to Vladivostok. Windows Mobile (and Outlook) automatically shift your appointments for you when you change timezones so they'll be right in your new timezone - useful feature, and isn't the cause of the issue, but a side-effect.

A bit of googling told me that this was a common issue on 3 and Windows Mobile (WM5 or WM6) phones. It has to do with those that have the automatically update timezone option installed. This option is a provider option (i.e. one that providers choose to enable on their phones), although I think it will soon be a standard one. The idea is that your phone will automatically switch your timezone whenever you enter a different one, so you don't have to fudge around with changing times etc.

The implementation of this 'automatically update timezone' functionality is somewhat flawed on Windows Mobile. It doesn't seem to be able to pick the right timezone. I'm suspecting that the signal broadcasted from the provider only tells the phone what the UTC offset is, e.g. GMT+10, so when Windows Mobile receives that signal, it scans through the list and sets the current timezone to each of the matching timezones it encounters. It probably stopped at Vladivostok because it is the last GMT+10 timezone in the list.

Now daylight saving in Vladivostok starts in March (becomes GMT+11) and ends in October (reverts to GMT+10), which is exactly opposite to us - daylight saving for us starts in October (becomes GMT+11), and ends in March (becomes GMT+10).

So assuming it was last week when daylight saving had not kicked in for us, if I had entered an appointment at 9AM whilst in the GMT+10 Sydney timezone, when Windows Mobile changes to the GMT+10 Vladivostok timezone, it will change my appointment to 10AM, as Vladivostok is in daylight saving (becomes GMT+11), and we're not (GMT+10).

If this happened this week, when daylight saving kicked in for us, and was reverted in Vladivostok, our appointment times would instead be pushed back 1 hour, as it'll be GMT+11 for us, and GMT+10 for Vladivostok.

Therefore although the GMT/UTC offset is the same, because the daylight saving periods are different in Vladivostok than in Sydney/Melbourne, the two timezones are not interchangable.

Anyway, enough explanation. The solution is simply to disable the automatically update timezone option, as it is unreliable. To do this,

• Go to Start -> Settings.
• Make sure you're in the Personal tab (down the bottom).
• Select Phone.
• Click the right arrow at the bottom right corner to scroll the tabs, until you see one titled Timezone. Click that tab.
• Untick the box there for the Automatically update timezone option (should be the only one there I believe).
• Tap OK in the top right corner.
• Make sure your current timezone and time settings are right.
• Whilst in the Settings screen, go to the System tab.
• Tap the Clock & Alarms icon.
• If you're not on the Time tab, select that.
• Make sure your timezone is GMT+10 Sydney (or whatever it should be), and that the time and date is right.
• Tap OK to save. 

And that's it - while your phone will not automatically change times anymore, at least it won't fudge with your calendar now.

Now let the fun begin when daylight saving periods are re-aligned next year in Australia, ending on April 6th, and starting on October 5th instead I'm predicting an update will come out from Microsoft soon, but it'll be a manual thing because no automatic update mechanism exists. Hopefully by then HTC/3 will have fixed this automatically update timezone feature so that it actually works too.

Ah, isn't daylight saving great

Engadget's managed to get their hands on the new Samsung F700, you know, the iPhone-like phone but with a QWERTY keyboard and 3.5G.

They've also managed to get their hands on the new glofiish (or E-TEN if you know them by their previous name) X800, which is packed with everything you could possibly think of right now - 3.5G, video calling capability with a front-mounted camera, Windows Mobile 6, Skype, GPS, Wifi, Bluetooth, and a 2-megapixel camera to cap it all off. That's one giant battery waster too, with 4 radios, and two cameras. Wonder how long it lasts if you turn all 4 radios on...

But so what, they're loaded on features. Hardcore geeks, corporate types with money to burn aside, and wannabe geeks/gadget freaks aside, why would someone want this phone over the iPhone, which is their biggest competitor at the moment. They can't deliver the user experience, they'll never be able to generate enough advertising and promotion to make them desired, to make them cool, to make them the thing I need.

And that's probably why Apple will still kick arse even though its product doesn't have 3G (well, the first generation one anyway), doesn't have GPS (although it boasts Google Maps), is relatively more closed than the Windows Mobile 6 platform (although the Samsung platform is also probably fairly closed except for Java), among other things.

Phone manufacturers suffer from the same problem that Microsoft suffered from, forcing them to create their own music player, the Zune. They can't work closely enough with the many phone providers around the world to pull off a concerted advertising campaign and a user experience that kicks arse. They also can't design polished, well-designed devices either that are easy to use and don't require buyers to read a 1000-page manual.

Apple on the other hand, stomps in with a stylish and well-designed product, and smothers strategic advertising platforms with unique, smart, witty, competitor-bashing, creative ads that plant the user experience seed in everyone's mind when they see it - their user experience starts then, not when they get the product. The amount of crap they say is irrelevant (Mac's have no viruses/worms or security issues, my arse). Case in point - we were talking about Vista and a mate says, "Vista just copies Macs." The thing is, he's never had a Mac, never tried Vista, and uses a Windows XP machine. When I asked why, he couldn't give any reasons. This is the most powerful advertising any company can get - people subconsciously thinking that their product is better than the competitors without justification. After all, how many of the decisions we make in life are fully backed by facts and facts alone?

Is it really that hard for anyone else to design a nice, sex-oozing product (which is subjective and perceptions can be changed through advertising), but more importantly pull off such an advertising campaign, even if its just in one part of the world to start off with? Why does no one else have an advertising strategy that's similar? Hell, even Microsoft, with its huge cash reserves, doesn't - no, the lame Vista 'Wow' ads don't count; the Vanishing Point game was cool and unique though. I'm not talking about copying the ads and the concepts behind the ads, but just the techniques that Apple uses. The only other products that has unique primetime ads that people immediately identify with when they start are the Red Bull line art ads, and that's a completely different industry (that's as much as I can think of right now).

Some marketing strategies work for products, and some don't, and fair enough, I wouldn't want to see the ads all following the same formula. But I don't understand why of all the tech companies out there, no one is copying Apple's techniques. Maybe the fear of Apple and its fanboy's wrath is enough to act as a deterrent...

P.S. just saw the new ANZ ad, with the voiceover and scrolling credits telling viewers all the various places the guy in the ad was helped by, e.g. dressed by, hair by etc. Nice tactic I reckon.

A company called Zi Corp has an application called Qix [via WindowsForDevices] that puts a new twist on navigating a Windows Mobile phone. If you've used an HTC or O2 Windows Mobile smartphone/pocket pc phone, or some of the newer Symbian-based phones, you'd know that it has a T9 multi-match search functionality when it comes to looking up phone numbers. For example, punch in 7-2-6 on your phone, and all entries matching the letters PQRS-ABC-MNO will come up, e.g. all entries with sam, ran, pam, sco and more will appear.

Well Qix takes this further. Not only do matching contacts come up, but also matching applications, settings, bookmarks among others. Below is an example from their Symbian version after punching in 9-3:

Although Windows Mobile 6 was announced very recently, it still has a user interface that basically requires a stylus all the time (unless you have very small fingers or very sharp fingernails). The idea hasn't changed much either, which may work for business users, its not very efficient if you do a lot of things on it other than the organiser features.

SPB has just released the SPB Mobile Shell, which loads on top of the Windows Mobile to provide an alternative user interface. It looks much more like a phone, with larger buttons that are better for finger usage. It also scraps the information-overloaded Today screen for a simpler and nicer-looking mobile phone style home screen.

Still though, this is a good step in the right direction, I think the notion of 'programs' need to be eliminated. Mobiles should operate as one slick user interface, with 'plugins' providing extra functionality by extending the base user interface and integrating tightly with it. For example, the link between a RSS feed URL in the web browser and my news reader or podcast software should be seamless in both functionality and design; not disparate as it is now.

Readers by now would have realised I have an obsession with mobiles - it frustrates me how much unexploited potential there is for the device yet device manufacturers don't seem to get it. But the pieces are finally coming together - Siemens (remember the SL45?), Nokia and Sony Ericsson brought multimedia to the table, Motorola brought cool physical design, Windows Mobile/Blackberry/Handspring brought office functionality, and now Apple's brought more cool physical design as well as UI design, but more importantly, its brought the 'user experience' factor.

The latest devices from the annual 3GSM convention show that Apple really just managed to the first out the door - it wasn't alone with its ideas (phone producers seriously can't turn around that quickly with a design - its only been a month and a bit since the iPhone announcement).

Samsung's attempt is the f700, and it looks damn slick. Its a touchscreen only phone with HSDPA, video-calling functionality, and a QWERTY keyboard among other things. Its apparently flash-driven too, which gives it a good push in the design direction.

Asus, who usually only just produces phones for other companies, has joined the party too with its concept phone. Again its a touchscreen only phone, but the interesting thing about this one is that it has a row of movable buttons that sit on top of the touchscreen. Presumably this is Asus's solution to the lack of tactile feel.

New-ish player Neonode unveiled their newest device too, the N2. Another touchscreen only phone, but this one seems aimed at the more general consumer market. The size of the screen though is a turn-off I reckon, but then again, the web doesn't seem to be a large part of this phone, so it won't be too bad. More pics here.

HTC's got its renamed HTC Advantage design coming out soon. Quite stylish and highly specced, though I'm not sold yet about how sturdy the connection is between the QWERTY keyboard and the rest of the phone.

O2's refreshed their 'mighty Atom' with a new name - Atom Life, another camera, HSDPA, a faster processor (624MHz) and more memory. I can't work out why O2's suddenly decided to go with black buttons though - they looked ugly on the Stealth, and now on the Atom Life.

Microsoft released the new Windows Mobile 6 at the convention too, the most noticiable 'feature' being a design refresh. Not sure of any phones announced with it yet though...

And finally, Motorola hasn't released a widely available touchscreen only device just yet, but it has improved on the slider form factor by curving the handset to better fit the user's face in the new MOTORIZR Z8. Motorola's handsets still look better and more distinctive (against competitor's phones) than its competitors I reckon.

Hopefully these devices will have given the user interface a bit more thought as well as the battery life, and do a bit more promotion than they've done previously, especially when left to just the carrier.

The mobile music/video revolution is gaining pace, and O2 finally catches up with its new O2 Xda Flame. From its successful Atom Exec design (barring some production and battery issues they had earlier), the Flame adds 3G capabilities (HSDPA unconfirmed though), wifi-g support, 2GB storage space, VGA resolution and a NVidia GeForce Fo 5500 graphics chip, plus a few more things. More info here.

It hasn't appeared on O2's official site yet, but advertising has already been put up (from HK's Mong Kok Computer Centre), so release should be fairly imminent.



I have to wonder though, who are they targeting? Business customers who some how have time to watch movies, listen to music, and play games? That's quite a small niche if you ask me. The Windows Mobile platform is far from suitable for the young and hip consumer crowd - its first and foremost goal was for business users and hence it was designed for that. Yet it is that consumer group that will utilise the multimedia abilities of this phone the most.

Windows Mobile revolves around an organiser (i.e. datebook, tasks, contacts, notes etc.) and phone, with other abilities mostly relegated to the back seat. The interface is designed for business users too - its virtually devoid of graphics except the home screen, and there's no animations at all. Nothing screams out multimedia or graphics apart from Windows Media Player hidden in the Programs menu and the camera (I hope they've improved it now). Windows Mobile 6 (aka Crossbow) improves this a bit, but ultimately these are two very different consumer groups and I don't believe its possible to target both with the same interface. One judges a device based on its business functionality, the other judges it on style and entertainment value.

HP has tried and largely failed I reckon with their Mobile Media Companions (never seen anyone with one yet). Its not a phone, but did run Windows Mobile. They went out of the way to design special software for it too to promote the multimedia abilities more. It did look physically ugly though.

O2's got a pretty good history of providing good additional in-house & 3rd party apps for their devices (e.g. O2 Phone Plus, O2 Media Plus etc.) - let's hope they manage to do something special for this; otherwise I can't help but think the multimedia improvements would be wasted.

The additional load on the battery would be interesting to see (is the tradeoff between battery life and multimedia features worth it?), given my existing Atom already struggles without the added stuff, but I've already rambled on enough about that here.