iPhone or TP2/Tilt 2.

[Jeffp25]

OK, so if I can find a Tilt2 this weekend, one of the first things I'll need to find is a good video converter, that can take my existing videos and convert them to the best format for the Tilt. Any recommendations?

 

[Dave Blake]

Google Format Factory it works great and its free

 

[Jeffp25]

Google Format Factory it works great and its free

I've found lots of listings, which brings up a problem with free software for WM today - anyone can post a malicious application on the Web under the name of something worthwhile, and cause havoc to those unlucky enough to think they're running a good application. The new App stores are a way around this, but Microsoft has to catch up with Google and Apple - hopefully they'll do that quickly because there's great stuff out there.

Having said that, do you have a recommendation for some reliable sites that might have Format Factory?

 

[Dave Blake]

I've found lots of listings, which brings up a problem with free software for WM today - anyone can post a malicious application on the Web under the name of something worthwhile, and cause havoc to those unlucky enough to think they're running a good application. The new App stores are a way around this, but Microsoft has to catch up with Google and Apple - hopefully they'll do that quickly because there's great stuff out there.

Having said that, do you have a recommendation for some reliable sites that might have Format Factory?

http://www.formatoz.com/

 

[bumblefreak]

Or, there's option (C)

Nope, I want it all! BUT, I don't need it for navigation as I prefer the much bigger screen and features of my Tomtom 920T for that.

As for your comments about the browser, I'm finding it far easier/quicker/more reliable to access the Internet with the iPhone than I ever could with my Tilt, even with Opera Mini on my Tilt. But maybe that will be better with WM 6.5 on the Tilt 2.

For fun things, I still think that the iPhone is better. But for things that matter, the Tilt 2 might be better - we'll see.

I went into this as a firm WM user, having always avoided Apple products. My wife convinced me to try the iPhone, and I've tried to do so with an open mind. I've used it enough to see the advantages and problems, and it will be tough to choose. Maybe what I really need is an HTC HD2 running WM7, but that won't be out for a year.

Or, you could just wait 6 months for the HTC HD 2 to come out. It looks like it'll have all the things you want in the iPhone with all of the important elements of a WM device. If you don't do that much surfing outside of a Wifi zone, then you could conceivably get it soon (i.e. November when it comes stateside). I'm on the fence myself as I'm a long time Tilt owner myself. I've played with the iPhone and it's nice and user friendly, however, with all of the custom ROMs and hacks that I've incorporated into my Tilt, I can't really see myself selling out to the iPhone crowd. In any case, g'luck with the decision.

 

[bumblefreak]

Video converter

OK, so if I can find a Tilt2 this weekend, one of the first things I'll need to find is a good video converter, that can take my existing videos and convert them to the best format for the Tilt. Any recommendations?

It depends on what type of videos you have. Could you be more specific? As a general rule, anything that takes advantage of the Tilt2's 400x800 screen should be fine. I've found that Cinemaforge is a nice little app that I've been using to convert all my videos to mp4 format. The videos work well with my gf's iphone and my Tilt... and the best part is that it's free.

 

[Jeffp25]

My videos are mostly in AVI format - a format that covers so many sub-formats that this doesn't help that much! Mostly, I transfer things from cable to my Archos 705 DVR and then copy them to my PC. A 2 hour recording is about 2 GB. I've used the converter with my Sansa Fuze to convert them and watch them on that. I've used the converter with my Creative Labs Zen too, but both bring the resolution down lower than that on the Tilt 2. With the iPhone, I found a free converter that worked pretty well, creating MOV versions. So, I have at least four formats of many videos!

The iPhone worked very well and a video player, and the Tilt 2 should match - as long as I use the right converter. (I have an 8 GB micro SD card waiting, and will probably order a 16 GB one once I decide on keeping the Tilt 2.)

 

[Jeffp25]

Or, you could just wait 6 months for the HTC HD 2 to come out.

Yes, that is an option, but I've already waited about 6 months for the Touch Pro 2 to come out, and there's no certainty that AT&T will carry the phone. With WM7 coming out next year, there should be a lot of interesting phones coming. I may end up cutting my 2 year contract at 1 year (an paying the penalty) to get one of the new phones!

As for "selling out" by getting an iPhone, the fact is that the brand shouldn't matter. If the iPhone really is the best for your needs, why not get it? I came close to keeping it, as it does many things very well, but it does a few things that really bug me (no snooze option on calender alarms, for example), so it's going back.

 

[Jeffp25]

http://www.formatoz.com/

I found that one, thanks for confirming it is ligit.

 

[Jeffp25]

Great luck: I went to a major store in a local mall and they have them AND there are Microsoft reps out front handing out $100 off coupon. I'm heading back to my car to get the stuff to return my iPhone.

 

[Jeffp25]

Hmm, one of my main reasons for switching from the iPhone to the Tilt2 was the lack of a snooze feature on the calender function - the only options on an alarm were to close it or to edit the event. I really missed the variable-time snooze on my Tilt. Now, I've discovered that the same functon on the Tilt2 is almost worse - there is a snooze function, but with a fixed time of onoy a few minutes, which is worthless. AND, there isn't the option of easily editing the appointment, so this is more limiting than the iPhone. On the other hand, I can ignore the alarm and move on (the benefit of true multitaking) and rely on seeing the alarm bell at teh top of the screen. So, in the end it is maybe a little better than the iPhone, but not as good as on the original Tilt!

Hopefully someone can tell me how to change the snooze time.

The calender on the Tilt 2 also has one more shortcoming compared to the Tilt 1 and the iPhone: the calender only gives a daily and monthly view, lacking a weekly view.

As for first impressions: straight out of the box, the Tilt 2 is certainly harder to use than an iPhone, and the vertical virtual keyboard is a little smaller, making it tougher to use one-handed than the iPhone. The two included browsers are also vastly inferior to Safari on the iPhone. So, I'll be looking for replacement keyboards and browsers for the phone.

 

[nrfitchett4]

sounds like you are ready to go back to the iphone.
If not. skyfire works great on my tp2 but I have no problem with the keyboard so I can't help you there.

 

[Jeffp25]

I'm getting better with the keyboard. For casual, one-handed typing, the iPhone is a little better. For serious writing, the real keyboard on the Tilt 2 is better.

I've installed Skyfire. So far, I'm not impressed with it (or the two that came with the phone). The iPhone browser is MUCH better, both for ease of use and speed. But I didn't get this just for the browser, and I need more time with Skyfire.

I'm coming to the conclusion that my phone isn't available yet. But I'm going to keep working with the Tilt 2 and see if I can be happy with it. If I can, I'm planning on keeping it and doing a 1-year upgrade next year when the flood of WM 7 devices arrives.

 

[Jeffp25]

Having spent two days with the Tilt 2, here's my observations/decision:

1. If I didn't want to sync with Enterprise AND my home PC, I'd probably get the iPhone. It does everything well, and the lack of multitasking with third party apps isn't much of an issue in practice. In addition to being a good phone, it is great for e-mail, Web access, video playing, and music playing. The voice control works very well so I can do what I want while driving (placing phone calls, playing music of my choice) without even looking at the phone. But working with Enterprise and my home PC just doesn't do what I want - the segregation of the two causes too many problems.

2. The Touch Pro 2/Tilt 2 is pretty good, has a very good screen and a great physical keyboard. But the user interface is tough to manage without the cursor control pad on earlier phones. The Tilts 2 has voice control, but it doesn't work well at all and is not reliable/simple enough to use while driving (I don't want to have to glance down to see if it is calling the number I requested, or remember a list of 50 artist names when selecting what music to play).

3. The Original Tilt has a screen which isn't as good as either of the other two, and has a pretty worthless physical keyboard (to me). BUT, it has a much easier user interface overall (primarily because of the cursor control pad) than the Tilt 2.

So, iPhone has a problem for my type of use, and the Tilt 2 doesn't offer enough compared to the Tilt 1 to be worth $200 and locking myself into a 2 year contract. I'm returning the Tilt 2 and going back to my original phone.

I'm keeping my eyes out for the next generation: WM7 or even Android 2.0, which now supports Exchange.

 

[Jeffp25]

"It was nice to be able to get in my car, hook up the iPhone to the Aux in jack on my radio, press the button on my Bluetooth and say "play music" and have it start playing MP3 files. Later on, I switched to the next track by pressing the button and saying "next song", and then selected an different album by saying "play album Across the Universe", and finally "play artist Pink Floyd". And then I pressed the button and said "call home home" and it dialed the entry on my phone for home, paused the music until I was done, and the went back to playing. I don't know if a Windows Mobile phone can do this so effortlessly.

YES IT CAN

Not really. I tried this same scenario today with the Tilt 2. When I said "Play Artist Pink Floyd" it responded "Which artist?" and then started listing ALL the artists on my phone - with about 1 GB of music, that was over 50 artists. I tried saying Pink Floyd while it was giving the list, and it ignored it until it was done. Then I pressed the button and said "Call Home." It replied "Call Home?" I tried "Yes" and it gave a low toned beep and ended. I tried several times, and couldn't come up with anything that made it work. I then tried "Call . . ." giving the phone number. It repeated the phone number and then said "Correct?" I replied "Correct" and that worked.

So, while it does have voice command capability, it works very poorly compared to that on the iPhone. I think the issue is that the MS one accepts a MUCH wider range of commands, and that adds to complexity that makes it hard to use.

My Tilt also has the voice command tool, which I've enabled, but for some reason that doesn't work. But maybe I'm not missing much!

 

[Dave Blake]

I use MSVC all the time for everything it recognizes things fine for me. It might be your bluetooth device sound quality that's causing the problem. Try giving the commands directly to the Phone. I hate the play artist thing to 50+ artists takes for ever to announce so I don't do that.

 

[Jeffp25]

I've already moved the SIM back to my original Tilt and boxed up the Tilt 2. But I might give VM a try on my Tilt. Any idea why it doesn't respond on this phone?

 

[Jeffp25]

By the way, it feels like I'm loosing $100 by returning the Tilt 2 because of the $100 coupon from Microsoft that I won't be able to use again!

I really wish the Tilt 2 had worked out for me, but maybe I'm looking for too much.

 

[Dave Blake]

Don't settle for a device your not happy with keep searching the rite device for you is out there. As far as MSVC there are tricks that can help with recognition like on short names like Tim for example use his first and last name when making his contact information. Companies that are just letters like GE put a "." between the letters like this G.E. There is a Wiki around somewhere but I haven't read it in a while cant remember where I found it.

 

[badersk]

Having spent two days with the Tilt 2, here's my observations/decision:

1. If I didn't want to sync with Enterprise AND my home PC, I'd probably get the iPhone. It does everything well, and the lack of multitasking with third party apps isn't much of an issue in practice. In addition to being a good phone, it is great for e-mail, Web access, video playing, and music playing. The voice control works very well so I can do what I want while driving (placing phone calls, playing music of my choice) without even looking at the phone. But working with Enterprise and my home PC just doesn't do what I want - the segregation of the two causes too many problems.

2. The Touch Pro 2/Tilt 2 is pretty good, has a very good screen and a great physical keyboard. But the user interface is tough to manage without the cursor control pad on earlier phones. The Tilts 2 has voice control, but it doesn't work well at all and is not reliable/simple enough to use while driving (I don't want to have to glance down to see if it is calling the number I requested, or remember a list of 50 artist names when selecting what music to play).

3. The Original Tilt has a screen which isn't as good as either of the other two, and has a pretty worthless physical keyboard (to me). BUT, it has a much easier user interface overall (primarily because of the cursor control pad) than the Tilt 2.

So, iPhone has a problem for my type of use, and the Tilt 2 doesn't offer enough compared to the Tilt 1 to be worth $200 and locking myself into a 2 year contract. I'm returning the Tilt 2 and going back to my original phone.

I'm keeping my eyes out for the next generation: WM7 or even Android 2.0, which now supports Exchange.

All of these issues are non issues after about a week with the phone it take a little time to get used to especially if you are using the TouchFlo interface. But the above poster is right don't settle for a phone you don't like. The original tilt is still a good device and will carry you for a long time if it doesn't get broke. I hope you find what you want.