Getting started with my beautiful P800 is a little more of a roller coaster ride than expected. The Sidekick was limited to the essentials and thus pretty simple. The P800 has much more capability and complexity. I soar with the possibilities and then, because my expectations are so high, get frustrated even more when I can't get something to work. Luckily, I'm persistent and enough of a geek to appreciate that this may be one of those no pain, no gain situations that's worth it. The P800 is clearly a new computer (actually, this is a powerful, open-ended platform to learn - I'm not used to this with a cell phone - but I'm also pretty thrilled to have this much to play with in a mobile device).
Favorites so far:
- Camera - it's a fun extra. I have a terrific little Minolta Dimage X already, but I don't always take it with me. Now I can record rough shots that will be perfect for quick emails to friends.
- Big screen for a phone-shaped device.
- Phone and speakerphone work very well. Stereo headphones included.
- Expandability with both software and memory.
- Jotter - cool note taker that lets me do little color drawings.
I have web browsing working now. But I need some time to play with it. Opera's web browser for the P800 is supposed to be really good but costs $39. I plan to get it once I've gotten my sea legs under me with this thing. It needs a name - P800 doesn't really quite do it for me. Any suggestions out there?
Bluetooth Blues
I want to be able to synch with my Powerbook and my iApps like Addressbook and iCal. Apple's website says I can do it. The Sony-Ericsson site says I can do it. On Saturday morning, I went out and bought a USB bluetooth dongle for my Powerbook. After some futzing around (futzing is an important technical term you know), I was able to get the Powerbook and the P800 paired. It's great, on the Powerbook Bluetooth preference pane, it now shows a heart next to the P800. How cute! A tiny little bluetooth icon appears in my menubar from which I can choose various commands like send files to other paired bluetooth devices that are in range. This worked and I was able to send some nice pics of the people I talk to most often so they appear on my P800 screen when I receive calls. Very fun!
But I'm Beaming
I now have lots of contacts in my P800 address book even though I haven't gotten iSynch to work yet. There's lots of different ways to go with a device that has Bluetooth, USB and infrared capabilities. I was able to beam a category at a time from my Treo 90 to my P800 using infrared. It is very fast. Only drawback is that the category doesn't transfer over, so I was doing some quick reassigning work over on the P800 after the category got transferred. Fume. But, hey, I'm thrilled to have all these phone and email addresses - about 250 or so in my cell phone.
I had the same thing going with my Sidekick after even more effort but the Sidekick wasn't a great phone so it didn't really thrill me that I had all the phone numbers in there. The P800 is an excellent phone so it's a priority to get all my numbers in there - especially with caller ID. A cool aspect is that the big-for-a-cellphone screen lets me see lots of information at once.
These are some of the things that aren't yet working:
- Browse the P800 from my Powerbook. This would let me copy files from the p800 back to my Powerbook. I would like to copy the 640x480 snapshots I've been taking so I can view them on a bigger screen.
- Send email. It's good at sending SMS messages, but so far email is not working. I can receive email. I think it will take one more call to T-mobile or perhaps a re-read of the user manual to solve the issue.
- Use the P800 as a cellular modem for my Powerbook. Haven't even tried to learn how to do this yet. That's down the list but if I can get it to work, it will come in handy for sure.
- Thumbboard. Ack! I really miss the keyboard on my Sidekick.
- No giraffe-like game to help me master the handwriting recognition. I'm getting better already, but I like having a fun game to play. A half hour of that would probably really help me right now.
Over and out, Scotty, I gotta get back to my real work or at least get some sleep.