My phone runs Windows!

A good friend of mine at Microsoft took a job in Microsoft China and the company got him a new phone. He had no use for his old one and gave it to me. I was very happy with my old Nokia 3220b. It has great reception; it is small. The battery lasts 10 days. It is relatively rugged. And I put some extra Java games and text things in it using the data cable. However I decided to try out the HTC Tornado which AT&T/Cingular labels the "2125." The reason I tried it out is that it is the same size and shape as my tiny Nokia and it has no silly "touch screen" (I can't stand those phones). The gadget freaks at work all have the new "Tilt" touchscreen with slide-out keyboard or the older models that lack a GPS and high-resolution camera. My wife uses one of them as well. They are bulky, fragile, and stupid (a two-handed phone?).

The reviews on the 2125 are mixed. Many people have the same problem as my friend, namely that the joystick in the middle of the phone sticks. When the phone arrived, I unlocked and flash upgraded to the latest wm6, installed all the usual suspect stuff (office, games). I found, purchased, and installed 9-way keypad to overcome the joystick stickiness and it works better than a functional joystick! (It includes copy/paste functionality and some other features).

I tried out the “pocket informant” calendar replacement my wife runs in her phone but that program is too big and slow for this phone and I don’t need to coordinate 7 calendars so I don’t need 99% of the features she uses. I deleted that application.

I used drdivx to convert NFL afc and nfc championship games from 10 GB mpg2 movies to 250K pocket-mobile divx and I installed the wm6 divx player on the phone. I watched them at the airport and on planes during my last trip. I don't like the divx player and plan to replace it as soon as I find a better one.

I own a Kyocera wireless Bluetooth a2dp stereo headphones that doubles as a Bluetooth hands-free mic and headset. I love the head phones (very good sound quality, very comfortable on the ears, and battery life is awesome); they Bluetooth bonded perfectly the first time with the phone so the phone is also now my mp3 player. I have a bunch of music on the storage card and also an audio book. I love it!

I never owned a camera phone before and started travel logging photos during a recent business trip. I also capture whiteboard and poster results from my class with the camera phone. I also captured a few videos but the quality is very poor.

I have e-text of a book I was reading so I stuffed that file into the phone and now I read it from the phone’s screen instead of paper (much lighter, always with me, etc.). E-text is very small so I have the next book in the series on the phone as well. I am looking for a better e-book reader than pocket-IE or ms-word; it appears the e-book readers all want you to web in to their site and buy e-books. I just want an ebook reader that will read files instead. I need it to remember my place (book mark) when I reboot the phone so I don’t have to scroll down to where I was.

Similarly, I would prefer a media player that lets me drag mp3 or video files to the phone's storage card and watch / listen to them. The concept of using the PC's media player to "sync" is silly. I was able to create playlists on the phone with some classical music and some Carla Burni songs but I don't know how to save / edit them yet. I actually like Microsoft's media player for the quality of the media (it uses the entire screen; divx player does not). But the interface is really difficult for me.

One thing missing is a GPS. The "tilt" has a GPS and it works great with the map programs, both online and offline (Pocket Streets 'n Trips). The other thing I miss is wifi. I can sync and get "net" via bluetooth but wifi has a longer range and works where I don't have a computer that does have net and bluetooth.

I really like the form factor of the 2125. It is much smaller and thinner than the 8125 / tilt / wing / mda family of phones

Here is a short video of my 4-year old that I took with the phone today: