[General Topics] KenDB3:
Hey there,

I'm a Winmo user/fan and have been for a few generations of phones now. My first Winmo device was the HTC/UTStarcom Apache for Verizon (aka the XV-6700). My next upgrade was to the XV6800, which I loved. It served me very well, even when friends around me went on and on about their iPhones, I couldn't help but say how much I loved my phone.

Now, I have the Verizon Touch Pro2 (Rhodium). It really was a natural upgrade for someone who loved full qwerty keyboards, and this phone really didn't disappoint. I pretty much stuck with stock ROMs for a while, from the original Winmo 6.1, to the MR1 update to 6.5, and finally when MR2 landed, I loaded up Mr X's custom ROM, which was the MR2 with some annoyances fixed (he did a great job with it, I picked it up at ppcgeeks.com). With Sense 2.5, I finally got to mod my home screen with Cookie's Home Tab, and it simply rocks. CHT is a very awesome mod.

So, suffice to say, it wasn't all that long ago, I got my phone to the point where I really really liked it. I'm extremely happy with my current phone; I have over a year left on my contract. Which gives me plenty of time to think about what's next. Where do I go from here?

So, what is next??

Hardware is just going to keep getting better and better. I'm not really worried about that so much as I am what OS I use.

I love Winmo simply because it is so customizable. It isn't all that hard to get it to do what you want it to do. Most times, all you have to do is look around, and someone already solved the problem you're working on.

Windows Phone 7 doesn't really appeal to me. I can certainly see why it would appeal to other people, but it doesn't look like its going to really be my type of phone OS. Honestly, if I wanted the type of OS Microsoft iss building, I would much rather go with an iPhone. And, for that matter, if a CDMA version of iPhone hits the big VZW I might really think about it.

And then there is the new kid on the block (sort of). Android.

Android intrigues me. So much so, that I tried installing the Project Android Port on my TP2. Gotta love Haret. I started with the basic ROM that looks a lot like the UI for the Motorola Droid. It wasn't too bad, but the ROM ran rather poorly on my device. Then, later on, I installed the Klinux version, that has the Sense UI on top of Android. I think I really like that interface. It rocks. The port is still a little slow, but its also running off of a SD card, and its not really a 100% working port yet.

Now, I think I like the Sense UI implementation in Winmo more than I do the implementation in Android. However, HTC has done a fine job with it on Android, and it's got a lot of potential.

So, I'm really starting to think now, "Could my next phone be an Android device?" And to be honest, it doesn't sound like a bad idea. It's an open platform, it's very customizable (why I liked Winmo so much), and it seems to be picking up steam in the Apps category (sometimes I'm jealous that I can get an app for something on my Android port and not on Winmo).

But, what would be nice to have, in my mind, is a little more help from the big G itself. Google already has a feature with its Gmail application that allows you to basically tell Gmail to log into your other email address (that you are presumably trying to switch from) and it will pretty much import all of your old messages and contacts, etc.

I think it would be really spectacular if they could do the same thing for Winmo users. Basically, have a new site --> phone.google.com (or something similar), and have it be your cloud based backup location for everything that doesn't get synced now from Google. Sync up all of your SMS Text Messages, your documents stored on your phone, music, videos, and photos. Also, it can be a portal linking you to other Google apps like your calendar and contacts. And then, give this new site the ability to log into myphone.microsoft.com and pull all of the old stored data from there.

It would be perfect for someone like me who has all of his content there. Bam, all of your saved SMS messages... pulled over from MS to Google, and you don't miss a beat with them. Seriously, SMS is becoming as important as email for a lot of people. I hate having to lose texts, so when MS offered MyPhone and the ability to back them up, I was all over that.

Heck, Google could even improve upon what MS started. Have customizable settings, where if any SMS is older than a certain date, it gets archived in the cloud (so its still stored and searchable), but your device doesn't have to get bogged down with actual files, and older messages that have been archived get automatically removed from your device. If your device gets wiped, and you reinstall everything, when it syncs up, you pull back all of the messages that are newer that "X" date, while everything else older than "X" stays in the cloud in your archives. They could make the data exportable... its just data in a database, you could export to a spreadsheet like Excel, or Google Docs equivalent. Give people options, they'll love you for it.

I'm sure that there is only a small fraction of their userbase that is coming from Winmo over to Android, so I really don't expect them to do this... but wouldn't it be nice. They'd surely win me over with it. I know, somewhere out there, there is an SMS backup application for Android, but it sends your SMS messages to an email account to be backed up there. I think a dedicated system in place for backing up, restoring, and archiving SMS would be better. To me, its one of the missing pieces to Android's way of doing things.

If any of you out there have any thoughts on this, why not comment. I'd love to hear other ideas that people have regarding this.

(Also, I couldn't really figure out a good place to post this, so "General" seemed as good a place as any. If any mods see fit to move this to somewhere better, go for it.)