When we use technology, we generally have our wishes on how technology can be improved (we also wish that technology providers would listen more). This is the post I ran across recently by David Pogue from the New York Times where David listed some of his readers suggestions for what cell phones should do:
http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2006/10/11/11pogues-posts-5/
I am sure you have your own wishes too about the smartphone you are using, and you probably have a lot more to say about it. If you want to share your experience on the 81-day-experiment, you can write to me at [email protected] to get the necessary information.
Technical support call still going
I called Cingular technical support to try to resolve some of the outstanding issues but without much progress yet. I was transferred to the next level support, and then was told that they will call me back after they research the issues further.
The issues I am dealing with relate to a) “tethering” (which means using the Nokia E62 as a modem for my laptop), b) e-mail not being pushed automatically to the device, and c) the Excel attachment error I got earlier.
The technical support team at Cingular however has been very responsive and is keeping me updated on the status of the issues. It is also understandable that when dealing with a new device (the Nokia E62 was just introduced recently to the U.S.), research and issue resolution can take longer.
Tethering with the Nokia E62
It seems that the problem is that this is a feature that needs to be enabled which may require that I switch to a different data plan. In addition, it seems that new drivers are available. So once it is determine which data plan would work and which drivers are necessary, I should be on the way, and able to use the Nokia E62 as a modem for my laptop.
E-mail connecting and disconnecting
Another outstanding technical support issue relates to e-mail. Even though I did enable the BlackBerry Connect option, my e-mail is not being “pushed” to the Nokia E62. I still have to manually retrieve it. When I retrieve e-mail, the device needs to connect (which takes a few seconds), and then when I leave the e-mail application, it needs to disconnect.
It seems that there are still some settings to be made on the Cingular/BlackBerry website relating to the device PIN number and IMEI number. So this is in the process of being done.
More e-mail attachments on the Nokia E62
When I opened this PDF attachment, I was able to zoom, review the content, and e-mail it to a colleague easily. Opening a PowerPoint presentation was just as easy. You can even add new slides and edit content (I am not sure if I would want to edit a presentation on the small screen under normal conditions, but in case of emergency, I know that I have this option). Word attachments worked just as well and Excel workbooks worked but with a few caveats.
Excel Attachments on the Nokia E62
Today’s Excel attachment gave me a warning (something about the content type, and that I may not be able to save it properly) but then the workbook opened successfully and I was able to view the content and navigate to different worksheets. The previous Excel attachment that I tried to open earlier did not open at all (see day #61 on October 13, 2006). The technical support rep today suggested that it may be that the attachment had some Macros which caused the problem.
Tomorrow the Nokia E62 wrap up
Tomorrow is the last day of the Nokia E62 before I switch to yet another device. So I will be summarizing my experience with the Nokia E62 and getting ready to the next device.
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