Helio Ocean

What can I say? It is beyond belief that such a phone would catch my eye after using such a useful (yet pretty cumbersome) PocketPC as my HTC Touch P3050. It has many of the features that I’ve wanted or missed from previous phones that I’ve looked at or used. When Telus had their ‘smartphone’ sale (now deprecated on all but the HTC S720) close to the end of last year, my girlfriend and I had to go for it. She got a Blackberry Pearl 8130. After working with my phone trying to ring out the last shred of usability out of it, I gave up. Why? Not enough hardware buttons! The iPhone may have screen size as the reason it need not have a hardware keyboard but my thumbs are huge compared to what ‘softkeys’ I have to press on Cootek’s TouchPal or TenGO’s TenGO Thumb which can be quite cumbersome and slow despite the excellent dictionaries they both have and the HTC Touch’s screen is 2.8 inches versus the iPhone’s 3.5 inches (i.e.:I need a hardware keyboard). Furthermore, the QuickDial application’s history browser is pretty counter-intuitive not to mention that the weak Touchscreen makes softbutton presses a major annoyance (i.e.: I need phone keys). The answer to such woes are to either do things one-handed (which PointUI’s PointUI Home, Cootek’s TouchPal and TenGO’s TenGO Thumb support well) or get a ‘smartphone’ with a hardware keyboard and more buttons (expensive considering the plans I’d have to get and the hoops I’d have to jump through). That’s where the Helio Ocean (or Pantech PN-810 if you want the original name) ends up drowning much of its competition. I’m not about to go about waxing poetic about the Ocean if people already beat me to it like at Technology Review (requires registration). So if you live in the US and want/need a smartphone, I recommend you checking out the Helio Ocean.

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ULTIMATE

Just what is it? It is a phone I would like to see produced. It will have previous, current and near-future technologies for every part of its entire being while trying to prevent the I’ve-got-a-brick-in-my-pocket-syndrome. It will be a mobile device beyond anything seen today, and most of all I need your help to make it a reality. I welcome any and all ideas within reason as to any technology that should be in the phone.

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New Years Thoughts and Hopes

Happy 2008 to everyone! Well it’s a new year and I’ll be blogging about what I like to most in the technological world: Gadgets! Not just gadgets but mobile devices such as PMPs, Smartphones, PocketPCs, PDAs, etc…as well as the hacks for them. Since I ended up getting a PocketPC myself (a Telus branded HTC Touch Enhanced (P3050) w/o WiFi), I’ll focus mainly on programs, hacks, and updates on PocketPCs and Smartphones. Every week I’ll post a summary of my thoughts for what I’ll be posting within the week as sort of a sneak preview. And so we begin 2008…

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