So to say that my HTC Mogul (PPC 6800) was broken would be a huge understatement. I was optimistic of the phone for awhile, but eventually I just became sick of it freezing. At least twice a week it would require a soft reset, and in the interim all texts and phone calls received would not be recorded. Twice I even had to do a hard reset, because I could not get the device to power on. Even with the aforementioned ROM hacks applied, the device was really faulty.

So I was looking for an upgrade in late January, and I found that Sprint was sending HTC Touch Pros (PPC 6850) aka the HTC Raphael as replacements when you utilize their self service phone replacement program, because they were low on PPC 6800 stock. The only stipulation is that if you don’t have their TEP replacement program (with monthly fee), you’d have to pay the $55 replacement charge. This was not a problem for me, I bought the phone refurbished on eBay anyway a few months back. So I initiated the replacement order.

I received the phone on January 21st, surprised to find out this thing came with a crapload of accessories. My Mogul came with literally just the unit, battery and stylus. The device is VERY sleek, and the best part is that it hasn’t yet crashed after being on for 5 weeks now. The technical specs of this device are quite impressive, I can see why it goes for $300+ with two year contract. The 640×480 pixel screen is probably the most impressive feature; you just don’t see that kind of resolution on such a small device very often. I use this phone a lot now, way more than I did the Mogul.

Here are some of my favorite apps:

• Real Dice Poker for Texas Hold’em. Good when you’re bored.
• Pocket Scrobbler for listening to streaming music on the go or while working out (and it even Scrobbles to my last.fm profile).
• Dashwire, still a very amazing synchronization tool for Windows Mobile phones. It made my transition from the Mogul very convenient — less than 5 minutes.
• ShoZu, FINALLY a way to geotag photos and auto-upload to Flickr.
• NuevaSync, FINALLY a way to 2-way synchronize my Google calendar and phone on demand. It uses the exchange protocol and syncs instantly. Very impressive.

Honorable mentions:

• MusicID, play audio into the microphone and it will tell you what song it is. Seems to be about 75% accurate for radio songs, pretty impressive.
• Google Maps mobile, once upon a time this would have been my #1 app, but it seems to be lacking in functionality these days. While it is apparently the best freeware GPS manager out there, it has some non intuitive controls and actions making it pretty frustrating overall.
• Pocket Youtube looks amazing on this device, although somewhat laggy. I’m not sure if it’s because of the video processing required, or the network latency. Probably a combination.
• Teeter, a G(ravity)-Sensor utilizing app. The only decent G-Sensor app out there for Windows Mobile tat this point, while the Apple store is full of them. I suspect as Windows Mobile phones start to have G-Sensors standard that these apps will become more common. Definitely a fun game.

Here are some pics, click to go to the set:

Overall, I am very impressed with this unit.
Rating: 9.8/10 at the price I received it.
At retail price, it is much less appealing. Suffice it to say I would not have purchased this device if it cost me over $300, but I think that speaks more of me than the phone .

The product in the company for which I work has been purchased by Sedo, one of our larger competitors. Overall, I think this is a good thing for the RevenueDirect product and its customers, it can finally get the attention it requires to be truly successful.

As far as my employment, I will still be employed with Dotster. I will be put on and given ownership of other projects, and I truly feel as though now I can be free to pursue some things that will allow me to mature more as a Software Engineer. It has been an amazing learning experience, and I’m ready to move on.

I’m always looking for good deals, especially when it comes to food. Restaurant.com has good deals on food, especially with coupons, but there aren’t too many good choices for restaurants in my area. I redeemed a coupon today for some fajitas as Mexico Lindo. Price:
$10.29 + ($0.85 tax) + (30% * $3 = $0.90 for coupon) – $10 = $2.04 + tip for some $11.14 fajitas.

Delicious (geotagged).

I plan to do this once a month — as often as the coupon allows.

People who publish vidcasts or podcasts should know the difference between a forward slash, aka a slash, aka “/”, and a backslash, aka “\”. Backslashes are NOT used in URLs, when are people going to stop saying “go to http colon backslash backslash domain dot com backslash”?

grumble…