Send this page
to a friend

David Pogue The New York Times

December 15, 2003

In the beginning, operating systems were only for computers. Who would have guessed that one day you would require an operating system for your watch, TV and car? Before long, you'll need an operating system for your operating system.

In any case, the most visible battleground for OS dominance, after computers, is the cellphone. Microsoft, Palm and a European alliance called Symbian have each devised a software engine that is supposed to manage all the functions of the modern superphone: taking photos, processing e-mail, surfing the Web, synchronizing your calendar and phone book with your computer, playing games, showing video clips, listening to MP3 music files, and wasn't there one more? Oh, right: Making phone calls.

In this corner, wearing the shorts with the Microsoft Windows for Smartphones 2002 logo: the Motorola MPx200. In this corner, wearing the Palm OS logo: the Treo 600. And in this corner, wearing the Symbian logo: the Sony Ericsson P900 (an upgrade from last year's P800).

Microsoft is coming to the cellular game very late; it was not there at the birth of the industry, as it was with PC's. Microsoft does not have monopoly power on its side, either; you do not need a Microsoft cellphone to be compatible with everyone else.

As a result, the company has managed to persuade only one American company to build its phones Motorola and only one American carrier to sell them AT&T Wireless. Nonetheless, Microsoft generally does its best work when it has meaningful competition. And sure enough, its first cellphone OS is attractive, simple and easy to understand. But the one confusing aspect: Windows Mobile for Smartphones is not the same thing as Windows Mobile for PocketPC, which runs certain palmtop-phone hybrids and is designed for two- handed touchscreen operation.

The MPx200 itself, at $300, is a gorgeous flip phone, clad in shiny black plastic. You can recharge the battery either by plugging its cradle into a wall or, when you are traveling light, by connecting its USB cord to your laptop.

Either the cable or the cradle can synchronize the phone's address book, calendar and e-mail stash with Microsoft Outlook on a Windows PC.

The Home screen displays your coming appointments, the number of new e-mail messages, your ringer setting and other information. The phone is kind enough to switch into vibrate mode automatically whenever your calendar indicates you are in a meeting.

Another nice touch: As you tap out the letters of a name in your address book by pressing the appropriate number keys, the software filters down the list to show only the matching entries, rather than simply scrolling.

Unfortunately, the MPx200 exhibits symptoms of 1.0-itis, those little design goofs typical of a first release. The thumbwheel on the left side, for example, works nicely to adjust the ringer or earpiece volume but it does not scroll through menus.

The keys do not light up, either; there is no way to punch in a number in the dark. You can't use the on-screen dialing pad, because there isn't one. Unlike its rivals, this phone's screen is not touch- sensitive.

Of course, if it is features you want, the Sony P900 is probably more your cup of tea. Its hardware perks include a camera, Bluetooth transmitter, and five-way side-mounted thumb dial.

When you are making calls, a dialing pad ordinarily covers the lower portion of the huge screen (208 by 320 pixels). When you flip open the pad, the screen becomes touch-sensitive, so you can use its palmtop functions by tapping with the puny toothpick-like stylus.

On the MPx200, which lacks an alphabet keyboard, composing e- mail and short text messages is a tedious proposition. But on the Sony, you can write directly on the screen with handwriting- recognition pen strokes reminiscent of those on a Palm organizer.

There is practically nothing the software does not let you do. Take low-quality 640-by-480-pixel photos and touch them up with painting tools. Capture tiny, short digital movies with sound and send them by e-mail. Assign photos to your phone book; when the phone rings, the caller's head shot appears. The MPx200 and Treo can do this, too.

*

Now for the bad news. First, all these functions swamp the phone's processor. It scrambles to keep up, like a comical, out-of- shape personal assistant.

Then there is the little issue of mastering this phone. Microsoft's software is vaguely Windows-like, and the Palm OS is vaguely Mac-like.

But Symbian's software is just strange. You need a secret decoder ring to identify its infuriatingly unlabeled icons and buttons.

Of course, all of the phones in this category are, to an extent, aimed at geeks and gadget freaks. But the P900's technical level is, well, let's put it this way: if such user-manual topics as To add a DTMF tone sequence and To create a new WAP account do not make immediate sense to you, you're shopping in the wrong aisle.

Of the three phones described here, the one that demands the fewest compromises is the Treo 600.

Unlike earlier Treo models, this one is not a flip phone. It is a solid, relatively slender slab, about a half-inch narrower than the old Treos. The color screen is one of the smallest Palm screens yet; it does not offer the superfine, quadruple resolution of other Palm OS 5 palmtops; and, as with the Sony P900, you worry about scratching all that exposed glass. Like the original Treos wide, fat flip phones the 600 exhibits a deeply considered respect for your time; the screen always seems to offer the function you want at the moment, and shortcuts are everywhere.

For example, you can flip a dedicated Ringer Off switch as you enter a meeting or a movie. And whereas all three phones can send SMS, or short message service, text messages to other phones, Handspring recognized that most SMS messages trigger responses. So the Treo's SMS screen looks like an instant-messaging chat window, with previous exchanges scrolling up like a screenplay.

*

As on previous Treos, there's an illuminated alphabet keyboard for entering text, like e-mail, with your thumbs. This keyboard, alas, may be a deal-breaker for some people: It is positively microscopic. The entire keyboard fits into a horizontal space only two inches (five centimeters) wide.

All three of these phones offer a speakerphone, voice dialing, and slow Web browsers. All three can run add-on programs games, world-travel information, and so on although the 10,000 Palm programs available for the Treo dwarfs the comparatively puny software selection for the Motorola and Sony.

For corporate types and gadget freaks, the era of superphones has officially begun.

(C) 2003 International Herald Tribune. via ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved

More Mobile Computing News