n9ik’s radio blog

I bought a Nokia 6620 when it was newly on the market here in the US from Cingular (now AT&T Wireless) and, for the most part, I liked it.  It had a camera, which was relatively new – at least at an affordable price – at the time; had Bluetooth connectivity which was important to me; had good send & receive audio; it’s receiver circuit was sensitive enough, and transmitter strong enough to maintain a good connection to the cellular network when some other phones could not; and it was the first “smart” phone available in the US that supported the new high speed EDGE network.  And also, I’ve been using a Palm PDA for years now, and I didn’t want to combine a PDA and phone into one unit, one point of failure.  Besides, Palm-based cellular “smart” phones just didn’t have an adequate screen size or resolution for my jaded “requirements”, and I’d used a Compaq WindowsCE PDA for a while before I got my first PalmPilot, and felt the Palm OS was superior.  Following the Pilot, I used the Palm III, V, and finally the Palm Tungsten T3, which I’ve had  the past few years and which spoiled me – all that screen real estate!

For the past couple of years now, we’ve all seen the power and functionality of cell phones, especially “smart” phones, evolve.  In the business world, the “Crackberry” was king (sorry Ring, of course I mean Blackberry!).  We’ve also seen some real improvements in Microsoft’s portable operating system, now known as Windows Mobile – enough so that I’ve been considering giving Microsoft another shot. 

And then, a few months ago, I fell in lust!  One day, while browsing the available offerings from AT&T Wireless to upgrade that I might upgrade to, there was this new “cool tool” that seemed to have every feature a tech junky like me could want: a phone; a high resolution camera (3 Megapixels!); a slide-out, full QWERTY keyboard for texting & email; .mp3 player with stereo audio; stereo Bluetooth; 3G high-speed data network support; WiFi; a GPS; full PDA functionality; and a touch screen with full 240×320-pixel display.  This new object of my techno-lust?  The AT&T Tilt, a branded version of the TyTN II manufactured by HTC.

 

Unfortunately for me the Tilt, or TyTN II, is expensive – way too expensive, at $400.00 or more.  So I resigned myself to some occasional lurid drooling and set my sites a little lower and waited a little longer.  Finally, my patience paid off: refurbished units of the Tilt became available, and my upgrade discounts got bigger, until finally I was able to buy a refurbished Tilt at under $50.00.  So I jumped.

 

Top: Tilt closed; Middle: open;  Bottom: side-by-side size comparison with the Palm Tungsten T3.  While the Tilt’s screen is quite a bit smaller, it has the same resolution as the T3 and is bright and sharp and, like the T3, is a touch screen.

 

First impressions, after using the Tilt for a couple of days:

1. I like it.  It’s a “keeper”.
2. The screen, while smaller than the Palm T3 that I’m used to, is bright, sharp and, with the back-light turned all the way up, fairly easy to read even in bright sunlight.
3. It’s not too big for a phone, and not too small for a functional PDA.
4. It has a solid, substantial feel.
5. The slide-out-and-tilt mechanism feels much more solid and sturdy than you might expect.  If I don’t abuse it, it ought to give me several years of use.
6. The keyboard is, obviously, small, although larger and easier to use than the Crackberry device I played with for a few weeks.  It’ll take a little getting used to, but I think it will pay off.  I wrote an email with it today, and it was easier than expected.
7. Some people have complained – rightly so – that the two small function keys on the keyboard are difficult for those of us with fat thumbs to press when the screen is tilted up.  I don’t see any real problem though; the screen is a touch-screen after all, and the functions that those keys are for are just as easily accessed by touching the screen just above the keys with the thumb.  More easily, actually.
8. The camera has auto-focus!
9. The camera takes decent images and videos. 
10. There are some features with the camera that I doubt I’ll ever use.
11. 3G data connectivity is fast – I love it!  I’ve downloaded Google Maps for the device, and there is little delay waiting for maps or satellite images to download.
12. WiFi connectivity is a wonderful thing.
13. Having the GPS built in is a dream.  However, I don’t think that I’ll use the full AT&T Navigator (TeleNav) functionality enough to justify the extra ten bucks a month.  I think I can get by without it “talking” to me, no matter how sultry the voice might be.
14. The GPS syncs up very quickly, and is much more accurate with it’s WAAS support than my ancient Eagle GPS.
15. Windows Mobile, while good, isn’t quite “all that”; I’m going to need to add on some software or hacks to make the interface a little more to my liking.

Here are a couple of pictures taken with the phone’s camera in tough light conditions, and a video:

 

With and without 10x zoom:

 

 

Some of the photo “features” that I’ll likely never use again:

And, finally, a video (the raw video looks much better than it does here; videos posted to YouTube lose definition):

What’s next?  Well, in addition to some more learning and tweaking, I’ll be trying out some Amateur Radio-related uses; APRS and packet radio on VHF/UHF, and PSK-31 and other HF digital modes during the weeks to come, as well as possible QSO (contact) logging.