Monday, March 03, 2008

The Need for a Better Cell Phone

I have been using the Motorola Q for about 15 months now. To be honest, it is both the best and worst cell phone I have ever had.

In the best column: It has email, internet (slow), calendar, syncs with my outlook on my desktop, and a blue tooth head set.

In the worst column: It eats battery life like crazy. I am lucky if I can get 45 minutes of talk and 3 hours of standby.

In an attempt to fix the problem, (I have 9 months left on the current contract) I spent Sunday tracking down various fixes and hacks for the damned thing. What I found was that for about $40 I can get the extra large battery. I ordered it today.

After that, I made some adjustments (http://www.everythingq.com) found online. These include a handy little program called Candlelight which lowers the back light but makes it impossible to see in sunlight. I also learned that I need to kill all the programs all the time. Apparently, when you start your mail program, for instance, it runs forever. You need to "kill" through a messed up series of menus.

So if you are looking for a smart phone, stay the hell away from the Q.

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