I was at a team lunch yesterday sitting next to Jeff Cooperstein (our security guru for the .NET Framework), who was showing off his new AudioVox 5600 smart phone. After playing with it for only 5 minutes I was hooked, and I went out to the mall and bought one myself earlier today.
After using it for a few hours today, I feel comfortable recommending it to anyone. It really is a stunning piece of engineering (both hardware and software).
What really sets it apart is the fact that:
1) It is pretty small
2) It has good battery life
3) It is running Windows mobile software
4) AT&T is offering some really connectivity pricing with it
I have friends who have worked on Windows mobile, and I’ve been giving them grief about it for years. Usually this was around the fact that the battery life of smart phones used to not last a full day, that bandwidth charges cost so much that doing any network connectivity on them didn’t make any sense, and that syncing email/calendaring required docking the unit with a PC – which made these scenarios significantly less useful.
This new model comes with a built-in version of Outlook that supports network based syncing with a remote Exchange server (over the GSM connection) – meaning the email, calendar, and contacts list is always up-to-date and cached locally for quick interaction (no network pauses when reading items). You can configure the interval over which syncs happen (and can even tweak things so that the interval is longer during off-peak hours) – right now my phone updates every 15 minutes. The synching is a true sync (unlike some systems I’ve used in the past where they simply copy data down and never push it back), meaning if I delete an email on the smart-phone, it will be gone the next time I check Outlook on my desktop. This is going to dramatically change my information workflow model – since I can now easily monitor and respond to changes to my calendar during the day, as well as keep an eye on my inbox, without ever having to power-up my laptop or plug the phone in.
The phone has some nice consumer features – including Windows Media Player (allowing you to use it as a music player), and a built-in camera. What is more intriguing to me, though, is the fact that it provides built-in support for the .NET Compact Framework – allowing anyone to build an application that extends the system. Yesterday Jeff was showing me a cool application that someone in Microsoft Research had built to track Seattle traffic status and pattern flows – allowing them to see real-time traffic status while in their car. I’ve never built an application with the .NET Compact Framework before, but am now looking forward to playing with it more with the new phone.
All this extensibility and network connectivity is great, but in the past the problem was that it cost you big-time in terms of charges and fees. What put me over the top with this phone was the fact that AT&T is offering an unlimited network data access plan for only $25 a month. This means I can automatically sync thousands of messages of email, outlook contacts, and calendar meetings without worrying about what it is costing me.
I can also then optionally use the built-in pocket IE to read news headlines and sports. The phone comes with a few page feeds pre-populated for this. I was able to add an IE favorite to point to http://weblogs.asp.net as well. It worked ok when hit by the phone, and I was able to read various peoples’ blog entries without having to-do anything custom. The multi-column default style for .Text is non-ideal for the small phone, though, and one thing I’ll probably end up doing in the next few days is to investigate publishing a page on my www.scottgu.com site that uses the ASP.NET Mobile Controls features to optimize an RSS layout for a smaller form factor such as a phone.
All in all, I can’t say enough good things about this new phone. It really has blown me away. I’m not usually in the habit of recommending products to others – but I’d definitely recommend people head to an AT&T wireless store to check it out. PC Magazine also has a review that provides more details here: http://www.pcmag.com/review/0%2C2491%2Cs%3D1713&a%3D136901%2C00.asp
Great job Audiovox, Windows Mobile, and AT&T.
Nov. 19th Update: Here is a link to some cool Windows Mobile Content: http://myersmobile.com/