OK, while I've been glued to the tube watching some great NCAA men's college hoop, a different "March Madness" has quietly been taking place over at CNet. They have developed an interesting way to vote for your favorite...

I think Samsung chose size over features. Either way I don't think Kyo could've come out with anything smaller if they wanted to at that time. So I don't think either one did it better, just different. It's when the 550 makes it's way out and there's nothing in the Kyo pipeline to challenge it that the size/features debate will go away because then Samsung owners will have both.

ROFL ... that is too funny. The smilies in your avatar or cuter!

As for the voting... I'm sure it's possible for someone to fake things out and get an extra vote... we are relying on vBulletin's built in polling mechanism... but that shouldn't really be an issue since both sides have equal opportunity. I will say that if I catch someone trying to intentionally mess up the poll, they may be banned from the site. This is supposed to be good clean fun.

Yeah... and it's not as fun if the numbers have no meaning at all. I personally am pretty much dismissing the i700 numbers based on what I have seen (it also had a really big bump during the afternoon yesterday, in addition to the middle of the night action). The rest of the devices have had pretty much a steady increase throughout the voting.

With all the discussion about the numbers of phones available to influence the poll numbers; does anyone know where to find reliable data on just how many units of these phones has been sold?
I would love to see just how the market has responded.
Which phone has actually SOLD the most?

i personally think the poll has been mangled...

Marc,

Have you every heard of a site that follows the numbers of phone sold?

I only question the i700's numbers (no offense to the i700 ). The rest have shown no unusual voting patterns (I look at the numbers a couple dozen times a day by keep the page open and refreshing it once in a while). I wonder if Mike can break out the members only votes? (I don't suppose the IP address gets captured with each vote?)

In any case, the poll is a great idea and has lead to some fun discussion

It's probably because an announcement of this poll was just posted to the i700 forums. So for people like me, who have bookmarked the forum and don't normally go to the homepage, I saw the post and immediately voted. Check out the number of contributors to the i700 forum, and you will see why, after announcing the poll, there was such a huge jump.

The thread was started on 4/5, but over half the votes came between yesterday afternoon and in the middle of the night this morning. The number of contributors is very similar to the 7135 forum.

I'm not knocking the i700 at all... just pointing out some possible "voting irregularities"

There have been a number of posts made on other sites, so we get votes coming in on the i700 from other sites that follow Pocket PCs. There really is not another site for 7135 owners. If the votes are off, I don't think it's by a lot. I will be able to break out the members-only votes separately, but I'll wait until we are done.

I didn't anticipate so much interest in the poll... so maybe I'll look into getting a more sophisticated way of doing them in the future.

Hang Chad, then try him.

Have you listened to music through an i700? I happen to be an orchestral conductor (hence the JohnTheBaton), and the quality or circuitry is so good that I use the i700 as my main listening device. The secret? I bought a pair of high-quality headphones from www.etymotic.com and I can honestly tell you I have a very good quality sound system, that is loud enough. Even on a loud bus, I can hear the clicking of the woodwinds' keys in a soft passage, with no hiss.

You are right about the memory issue. I convert my music to WMA at 192. This is my compromise, but I can still fit a few CD's on my 512MB card, which is enough to hold all the music I study for a few weeks. Transferring the music to SD card takes only a few seconds using a USB SD reader.

Sure the i700 is a brick, but the point is, IT"S THE ONLY BRICK I CARRY AROUND. I don't have to carry around my svelt phone, my MP3 player, my PDA, my GameBoy (or my Nintendo), my laptop, my DVD player.... The point is, the brick on my belt is the only electronic device I ever take out of my house (save for the fold-up keyboard), which makes it by far the smallest and cheapest device available. I don't have enough pockets for a non-converged world, no matter how small they are.

As far as carrying around a $600 phone (not $700), I have it insured through Verizon for $5.00/month. My point still holds: 1 $600 insured phone is cheaper that 4-5 smaller devices, each of which would need to be insured. And it's a heck of a lot cheaper than a laptop!

I don't have to use the 'virtual' keypad, because I use the voice recognition software included with the phone. With no training required, I can call anyone in my contacts list, using my voice with about 99% accuracy. When I do choose to use the keypad, my WriteShield screen protector keeps away the grease. One swipe with the side of my palm and good as new.

I'm so glad I don't have a physical phone pad clogging up precious screen real estate. How would I be able to use my GPS device effectively if my screen was half the size? What would I do when I want to watch DVD's on an airplane? And worse yet, how would I browse the internet at 56k+ using ThunderHawk in landscape and still be able to see most of the horizontal web page? I simply can't imagine it.

I'm not sure that any phone will ever replace a laptop for serious work--the screen is just too small. So for business use fitting the i500 into my pocket (sans bulge) and then having my Palm, my phone, the internet, SMS, alerts, etc., just cannot be beat. Anyway JohnTheBaton, "Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard are sweeter."

BB

Go check out this image from ThunderHawk and tell me you have a better internet experience.

I'm trying to figure out your comment about melodies. If you are implying that as a conductor I should be able to hear the music in my head, I commend your understanding of the field. My job is to hear the music from the notes on the page, and create a viable, organic interpretation. And as an amateur composer, I enjoy many moments of unheard melodies. That said, there is nothing better to block out the sounds of the noisy bus I use to commute than the music that I am studying. It gets me in the mood for the music I will be conducting the rest of the day, and it's a way of checking my memorization of the score. It is NOT my means of learning the score.

All this is just a moot point anyway, since within a year Pocket PC's will have 640x480 screens, clamshell designs, national wireless broadband from Verizon, and faster graphics processors. I'm sure Palm OS's will make similar leaps and bounds, since they finally started to compete with Microsoft in terms of power, screen resolution, and multitasking. Then, and only until then, will I complain about the brick I used to carry around from 2003-05(except for the stupid cheap gimmick camera, only useful if videoconferencing was available. you can slam that as much as you want!).

EDIT: Sorry, one last comment I thought of, then I'll get off my podium . I read all these comments all at one, so I've got alot spinning in my brain.

Sure there are things you can't do on a PDA, such as create Adobe Paintshop files or work with hugh spreadsheets. But there are enough things that my PDA can do that my laptop can't outweigh the disadvantages:

1) Instant-on connection. I'm already taking notes before others even see their Windows welcome screen.

2) I don't need to pay for an additional $80/month data plan in the form of a wireless modem. I know too many people who lug around their 6 lb laptop all day just to take notes, and they still have to go plug in to some ethernet port and hope they can configure everything just to check email. I can do both of these faster, cheaper, and easier.

3) I can't use my laptop for GPS navigation in the car in a cradle. I get voice prompts and large, clear, screen instructions. This device has also kept me from getting lost on 2 remote backpacking adventures using topo maps, saving me the need to buy a separate (and expensive) hiking GPS.

I think, above all, it is the combination of built-in modem and GPS option that make this PDA a better alternative to a laptop and phone.

I'm sorry if I have come off a little strong. This is all in good fun, and I like being passionate about my toys. To rephrase what I said above, we'll all be ashamed in 5 years of how pitiful these devices are and how much we prided them at the time!

Remember not to take this site too seriously, but in re unheard melodies cf. John Keats, "Ode on a Grecian Urn." In your case I agree that hearing music is part of your workday, but in general I do not see the need for players or cameras on converged phones, especially if they require the device to be worn on the belt and/or have an exposed screen, rather than closed in the pocket and always be with you, even when you do not want to look geekish.

See, I'm just the opposite on the music thing. I'm OK with CD player quality, which isn't that great. But, I can't be carrying a player around so I wouldn't have music it if it wasn't in my phone. So, I live MP3 playback and having 10 CDs on my SD card is very good for me.

I also don't believe in running, walking fast, or doing any other exercise. You never saw anyone get hurt by sitting in a chair... look at all the people that hurt themselves while exercising!

Are you old enough to remember when office chairs (the kind with rollers on them) went from 4 legged to 5 legged? Well... the statistic then was that the leading cause of work related injury to engineers was from falling out of their chairs.
-Quick

Do heart attacks hurt?

BB

I figured I wake you guys up with that one...

Actually, I used to work grave yard shift and we had test operators get hurt falling out of their chairs because they fell asleep while working.