Calling Jordan for 3.6¢ a minute!

 

My I-Mate SP5 was dying on me. So I needed a phone that will, "limp" me till I get the next generation of smart phones (That has same functionality as a Nokia N95 but run Windows Mobile). My choice landed on an inexpensive new comer to the Windows Mobile phones. The HP iPaq Voice Messenger Model 510. It looked sleek, small and shiny! It even felt like a quality phone (compared to all the plasticy windows phones out there including my aging SP5). For the first couple of days I was disappointed! The camera is barely OK with 1.3MP, the screen was HORRIBLE! No external LEDs to indicate anything. But that' EXACTLY where the bad stuff ends!

 

This phone is AWESOME! I mean it! It's short on the "bling-bling" but has it where it counts! Here are the features I LOVED about this phone!

• Call Jordan for 3.6 Cents in THE BEST QUALITY you can imagine using its NATIVE, BUILT-IN SIP client.
  (This is no Skype piece of junk barely working soft phone, THIS IS THE REAL DEAL) Best part? It integrates with the phone NATIVELY. Now all my address book is callable DIRECTLY using my SIP Client!!! Hurrraaaahhhhh!
• When GSM coverage is not all that great, and WIFI is awesome (like inside the huge faraday cage that I work at) I can switch to my SIP client, and STILL make calls while GSM is NOT THERE! How about that!!
• The first EVER wifi smartphone that DOES NOT drain my battery in 4 hours! I now have the courage to keep WIFI on ALL the time! And the damn thing STILL lasts over 2 days on a single charge! Now compare that to my SP5 of 2 hours on wifi and you have an obvious winner!
• It works at Starbucks :) YEAAAY It hooks up to Starbucks/tmobile hotspots and Poof, I am surfing the web in no time
• It works as a modem, well EDGE is not that great, but it is enough to get all my corporate mail. Windows Live mail, Contacts, All while streaming rotana/MazajFM live!
• Awesome speakerphone!
• Built in Pocket Word, Excel, PowerPoint
• Voice commander. Which is an awesome addition. This commander doesn't need training or anything. It adapts to what ever voice that is talking to it. Male, female doesn't matter.
• Voice Commander reads my email, SMS or appointments for me and BEST PART....... You can reply back VOICE EMAIL, Schedule call backs and more!!
• Call history logs with: Time, date, duration for ever call coming in or out. Organized by the number you dialed!
• Syncs over the GSM network with my outlook contacts :) (I didn't have to type anything but my exchange password)
• Live messenger, Windows Live client
• Standard 2.5mm headphone Jack
• Stereo bluetooth with A2DP and AVCRP (I love these)

Although setting up the Wifi (I do WPA2 with 802.1x at home) and the SIP service was a nightmare. I managed to get them working

Remember my Wifi Enabled car? Guess, what. I was able to place a call from my TMOBILE phone over WIFI through the AT&T(Cingular) network and it was awesome! Now I would love to see an iPhone do that :)

HP, here are things you need to work on improving:

1. Better, bigger, higher resolution screen (recommend a 640x480 or better)
2. Slide out QWERTY keyboard like the HTC 710s
3. Built in GPS
4. Better SIP configuration
5. Faster Processor
6. 3MP+ Camera With flash
7. Even bigger capacity battery
8. External LED indicators for, Missed calls, Bluetooth/WiFi ..etc
9. A roller dial on the side (similar to black jack)
10. Internal Harddrive/flash 8GB+
11. 3G or 3.5G
12. Built in UMA Client (Where is the UMA Client that is supposed to be in it?!)

Now, I'm off to calling my buddies in Jordan for 3.6, that's cheaper than my friends in Jordan call each other (IN JORDAN!)