Having used my HTC Surround Windows Phone 7 handset for a few months, now, I’ve come up with a few items to add to a user experience wishlist. If you have any other serious suggestions (i.e. not “make it an iPhone” or something like that), I’d be glad to hear them. (more…)

For Christmas, intrigued by the concept of it, we decided to buy a Polaroid PoGo Printer for the family to use. We hadn’t really heard of it before, nor did we really know exactly what it did, but it was on sale on Black Friday and many of the members of our family are fanatical about printing out photos, so we decided to give it a shot.

I have to admit, it’s not really what we expected, but it is a neat little niche product. (more…)

As I mentioned last month, I took the plunge into Windows Phone 7 on the AT&T network. For me, this is the first smartphone I’ve owned on my personal cellular account. I’ve had two other smartphones in the past; a Samsung Windows Mobile device on Verizon about 8 years ago and an iPhone 3G on the AT&T network for the last two years; but I’ve never had to track my usage or pay for those, as they were provided by my employers at the time. With the iPhone, at least (I’m not sure about the Samsung device), the data plan was unlimited, so there was nothing to track.

However, with my new Windows Phone handset, I selected the lower-tier data plan on AT&T’s network (200 megabytes of data for $15/month). (more…)

One of the huge downsides of being an early adopter is the lack of features you generally get in the beginning. For me, the humongous difference between the number of iPhone apps currently available and the number of Windows Phone 7 apps available isn’t that big of a problem, but there are a few apps I really miss. Following is a brief list of those apps. Please feel free to add more in the comments if you have any thoughts on the matter. (more…)

It’s been a little over a month since I first started using the Virgin Mobile MiFi 2200 wifi hotspot. I used it almost exclusively as my Internet provider for most of the month of September, and I have to say I continued to be impressed by it throughout the month.

There were a handful of times that I had to reset the device because it stopped responding; and there were one or two instances when I actually had to reactivate it. Other than that, I very rarely had any issues with it at all. (more…)

About a week ago, Virgin Mobile USA announced a new unlimited cellular broadband package. For $40/month (no contract), you can use one of their mobile broadband devices to connect to the Internet and use as much bandwidth as you desire.

Since I am still stuck with satellite broadband service at home, I decided to try it out. I’ve been looking into mobile broadband packages for quite a while, but the thought of signing a new two-year contract, paying almost as much as I’m paying now (the satellite package I have is $79.95/month – most mobile broadband packages are around $60/month) and being limited to around 2 gigabytes of downloads each month (my current plan allows 17 gigs on a revolving 30-day basis) really didn’t appeal to me.

This new plan from Virgin, though, had me intrigued. No contracts, apparently no bandwidth limits (I have seen no official word from Virgin as to whether there will be “reasonable use” limits imposed at any point, but, right now, it doesn’t look like it) and a price point half of what I am paying now all really appealed to me. (more…)

I didn’t report on this a few weeks ago when the news initially broke, simply because it broke late on March 31 and I honestly wasn’t sure whether it was an early April Fool’s joke or not. Now, though, the Zune Web site has been updated and the news has been officially released by Zune. New 64GB ZuneHD models are being sold via the ZuneOriginals Web site.

In addition to the new ZuneHD model, the original ZuneHD devices dropped.

I’d still like to see a slightly larger version of the device, but I definitely consider the 64 gig ZuneHD device to be my top candidate if my Zune 80 dies before a larger capacity model is released.

Select Best Buy stores throughout the United States are presenting demonstrations of the new Zune HD this weekend. If you are at all interested in the new Zune, you might want to check it out. While you’re there, you can go ahead and pre-order your own Zune HD. Currently, you can pre-order a silver 32 gig version for $289.99 (more than $100 less than the 32-gig iPod Touch) or a black 16-gig version for $219.99. However, the Zune Insider podcast has reported that more colors will be available shortly after they’re initially released.

I’ve uploaded a copy of the official list of Best Buy stores that are offering the demos this weekend.

On Friday, Apple released iPhone OS 3.0.1 for iPhone devices. The release was apparently put out in response to a vulnerability pointed out during the Black Hat Security Conference. To install the “patch” for this vulnerability, iPhone owners must download an entirely new version of the iPhone operating system (230 megabytes) rather than just being able to install a smaller patch.

However, there are rumors floating around the Web that the patch only fixes one of two separate vulnerabilities exposed at the Black Hat conference. The first vulnerability, known as the Miller hack, is apparently what the new OS patches. However, another vulnerability, referred to as the Miras/Lackey hack is still open and can potentially effect any phone on a GSM carrier (not just the iPhone). About the Miras/Lackey hack, @musclenerd says “3.0.1 doesn’t begin to fix them.”

It will be interesting to see if any patches or fixes come out to close the hole exposed by Miras and Lackey, how long it takes to do so, and from where the patches will come (will the phone companies themselves release them, or will they come from the manufacturers).

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the new ZuneHD that Microsoft is planning to release. Overall, I am impressed by the announced improvements to my favorite little portable media player. However, there are two features I think are absolutely necessary in order for the Zune to have a chance of taking a bigger bite out of the iPod market. (more…)