The HP Glisten

I recently had a chance to use the new HP Glisten Windows Mobile 6.5 device. We are primarily a Microsoft shop with Exchange 2007. We have tried to minimize our Blackberry costs by deploying more Windows Mobile devices, since we do not have to pay a fee for each device like we do on the BES.

Overall, I really like the HP Glisten. It uses an AOLED screen, which is much easier to see outdoors (important for our mobile, outdoor employees) and greatly improves the battery life. I would say I am able to get almost twice the use off of one charge as our AT&T Tilts, and probably 1.5 times as long as my previous iPAQ 910.

I also like the size and feel of the keys, and the rubberized case. The keys are fairly large for a candybar style phone, and have a good feel. The rubberized case is easy to grip and keeps me from dropping it. I often buy a case but don't need one for the Glisten.

Finally, the improvements to Windows Mobile 6.5 while minor are nice. The included Internet Explorer Mobile is more capable, and I like that I can now see an indicator in Outlook Mobile when I've replied or forwarded an email.

Overall, right now this is my favorite Windows Mobile device based simply on the battery life (a big issue for our employees with WinMo devices when compared to Blackberries), and on the screen. If we had had this device a year ago, we likely could have saved some Blackberry purchases.

Got coverage?

One of our mobile initiatives requires getting handsets in use in every county in our state. We also hope to use the handsets to get their home computers on the Internet as broadband connections with tethering. While we understand they won't have coverage everywhere while mobile, it is a real struggle to find reliable coverage information on their home offices to even come up with a list of providers that we know will work there. And if they don't we spend a lot of time swapping handsets and issuing cancellations and new orders. And I haven't even mentioned trying to find out if they have 3G and coming close to guessing why their speed might be.


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Welcome!

Welcome to my blog on enabling a mobile work life. I am an IT Manager for a state government agency. I also am intrigued with mobile devices and mobile communication. The incredible innovation in mobile devices has become an exciting time.

I will be writing about devices (of course), challenges, professional objectives and projects, and exciting new developments that I find.

My interest in blogging on this subject is that there aren't a whole lot of blogs out there that I've found that address meeting mobile work initiatives with the breadth of both professional and consumer level devices and technologies. As these merge, and the professional ones are driven by the consumer ones, I believe this is an important perspective that is not often addressed. There are many more sites that focus on devices than I could ever read. But I have yet to find many that bring a wide knowledge of mobile devices and solutions and write about how these are applied to real world business problems.

Anyway, if you've found this blog I hope you'll continue to read.