So I joined the reset of the natural world not long ago and splurged for a Smartphone.

Before, I could never really justify paying hundreds of dollars for a bunch of stuff I would never use. But since my memory seems to be getting worse on a daily basis, I needed some sort of calendar/task list and I got a crazy deal on one.. so I couldn’t pass it up.  

I got an HTC P4300, which is wicked amazing. Full slide out keyboard, micro-sd slot, lots of built in memory, nice big touch screen.. I had to install a hack to upgrade it to Windows Mobile 6, but other than that, this thing had everything I wanted out of the box.

But the problem with this thing is, when you actually try to use it as… well, a phone.

My first big complaint is the notification. When I have a missed call (and I think this is Windows Mobile in general) it puts a stupid little button in the bottom left hand side of the screen saying “notification”… that’s it. I had to install an app on my home page just so I could at least see when I had missed calls.

Another annoying thing is that when I’m talking to people, I touch all sorts of buttons with my ear/cheek on the touchscreen.

Besides that, the ringer isn’t very loud, and it doesn’t vibrate very heavily.. so needless to say, i’ve missed quite a few calls.

I’ve noticed this as pattern for a lot of Smartphones as well.

I think the manufacturers are so caught up with adding all the bells and whistles a PDA could possibly have, that they completely ignore the phone side of it.

Oh well, I guess that’s what happens when you make something “smart”.. it loses it’s common sense.