I may have mentioned before that I'm sort of a gadget fiend. I am especially fond of getting new cell phones. While I loved my iPhone I was also patiently waiting for that "iPhone killer" to come along. As time went on I got more and more tired of my iPhone. The problem was I couldn't justify switching it out because nothing else available really compared. Eventually my thirst for a new gadget outweighed my better judgment and I picked up the new At&T Fuze. This is just their version of the HTC Touch Pro. I was interested in the slide out keyboard, but mostly it was the promise of their "TouchFLO" interface that got me excited. I've had the phone now for about three days and I can honestly tell you that TouchFLO is a pile of shit.
Actually that's not true, TouchFlo is like a very thin candy shell over the stinking pile of shit that is Windows mobile. Looking at my text messages for example is at first very cool. As I scroll through them each new message spins up from the bottom of the screen in what looks like a tornado of whirling letters before coalescing into a readable message. however as soon as I want to reply or get more information the TouchFlo interface disappears and I'm shoved into windows. This is true for each and every one of the phones features. contacts, programs, email all of it. It all looks great for about a second but as soon as you try to actually use any of this stuff the facade disappears and you're navigating through fucking windows.
TouchFlo is also ridiculously slow. Often times it can't keep up with my scrolling. The phone turns off when you hold it up to your ear but then doesn't turn back on when you move it back down to input commands. It often doesn't know when I have it landscape mode and when it does it takes forever to make the switch. The touch screen is unresponsive so I usually end up just using the click wheel. There's so much frustrating bullshit about this phone I could go on for a while. The only good things so far have been the very pretty screen, the nice speaker phone and I had a very good experience with AT&T's GPS navigation program. In the end I feel like that's hardly enough to warrant me keeping this thing. I have thirty days to return it so I guess I'll be exchanging it for a 3G iPhone. The gadget freak in me doesn't want to go back to it, but I really feel like it's spoiled me. I've seen sites online that have tips about optimizing you're fuze but they all involved editing config files buried deep in the bowels of the phone. I'm not a fucking programmer and I shouldn't have to be to make my phone work. I have no desire to scroll through lines of text so that I can change a 0 to a 1. I purchased a phone not a hobby.
So I guess I just reviewed a cell phone. I'm pretty sure that's not why people come to Penny Arcade but I was so pissed off by this thing I felt like I had to share. Oh and yes
Will, I know you told me so.
So the Lich is back and we have
a new shirt to commemorate it.
Also, bidding continues on
my Jim Darkmagic painting. I'm blown away at the current price. I think most artist's have to die before they get to experience this kind of success.
-Gabe out
