Notes: Handwritten versus Typed

So, I found a pretty interesting feature while playing with my phone. I can save notes that I write myself. Yeah, not many cellphones let you do that, right?! Anyways, this one has an intresting feature with it's notes ability... Handwritten notes.

So, instead of having to flip out the keyboard, or using the stylus to hit tiny blocks on the keyboard, I can go to “Start”, “Programs”, “Notes”, (click “new , of course) and then if I click “menu” and make sure “draw” is selected, I can write with the stylus.

The image at the beginning of this post is an example of what the notes looks like, depending on how neat your handwriting is.

The only comment I have about this is that I would prefer to be prompted to save my notes, instead of each note being automatically saved, when I really just want to show folks this cool feature, and now I have around 10 notes in my phone that I don’t need.

One of the first things I wanted to do with my new phone was change the default ringtone. So, I went right to the media mall in the browser, and clicked ringtones. I went through and finally picked one. I clicked it, downloaded it, agreed to pay for it, and then clicked the save button.

I then went to play the mp3 file I downloaded (the theme song to the Indiana Jones movies). The file opened right away in Windows Media player, and it played just fine. I clicked the options, and saw no way to set it as a ring tone.

I then went to Settings, and then Sounds and Notifications. I choose the Incoming Call option, clicked ringtones and was presented with a drop down menu of choices. My Indiana Jones MP3 was not listed.

I looked in the help menu that came with the book, and it told me that I needed to copy the MP3 file from My Music to My Documents in order for the song to appear in the choices for ringtones.

Perhaps I should have looked up how to copy and paste files at this point, but I plugged the phone into my laptop, thinking it would be easier to look at it through my laptops File Explorer and copy the file this way. It was not easier! My computer wanted the CD that came with the phone, which was in my car. So, I took the phone away from the computer and went back to the help book.

It turns out, you have to go to Programs, File Explorer, locate the file, click the options menu, and click copy. You then have to navigate to the My Documents folder and click options and click paste. Then, close all that, go back to the Settings, Sounds and Notifications, Ringtones and magically, the Indiana Jones MP3 I downloaded from the Ringtones area on the website was available as an option now.

A little more complicated than I thought!

Where Is The Stylus !

That was the first obvious question when I got the phone. I had read that it did not solely really on your finger to do everything (which can be very annoying from someone who has the iPhone). Well embarrassingly enough it took me over 5 minutes to figure our the what I had thought was a notch for a strap was really a notch for you to pull out he stylus.


DOH!

Got The Tilt!

Hello Curious Fans of The AT&T Tilt !

A client brought me this phone and I thought I would write about some of my experiences with it in the hopes that it will help others figure out some obscure features or decide wether they want to invest in this mobile device.

The first thing you notice about the phone is the size. It is a large phone and I am used to large querty keyboard phones, but this wears off once you see that your basically holding a mini laptop in the palm of your hands. The great thing about the phone is Windows Mobile Office Pro. This is a big deal. Having the ability to run Microsoft Word or Excel on my phone is a big bonus. Having no excuse to not proof my bosses documents is bad...




The AT&T Tilt's most obvious feature is that the screen tilts up 45 degrees. This is a good feature if you sit down on a table but its not very useful for killing time in line while at the bank or while driving your kids and being chased by paparazzi (Hi Britney!).

I have been exploring some other features of the phone and will write about them my next chance.