I'm now on day 3 with the Audiovox PPC-6601 from Sprint.  Overall, I think I made the right decision.  The screen is very nice, and seems to be more clear and have better contrast than my Viewsonic V37.  I think the keypad on the Treo 650 is better, but the slide-out keypad on the 6601 in exchange for more screen real estate is definitely a plus.

Exchange ActiveSync works like a champ, and I also have a POP3 account set up.  It's so cool to be driving down the Interstate, receiving and reading new e-mails, all the while oblivious to other drivers honking and careening out of the way.

You definitely need a headset for making & taking calls.  The phone is just a little too big to feel comfortable next to your face.  I feel silly every time I make a call in a public place.  Plus, there's the greasy smears and dusting of beard crust on the screen when I'm through.  I suspect even if you've just scrubbed your face with Noxzema (which I apparently need), you're going to leave smears on the screen.  The included stereo earbuds and microphone work very well.  Man, I gotta start cleaning my ears, too.

Speaking of earbuds, I loaded up a few MP3s.  It works, but the sound quality leaves a little to be desired. 

I was disappointed that the battery only lasted 9 hours yesterday.  Of course, I had used it quite a bit making calls, surfing the Internet, and letting my co-workers handle it.  I definitely need to get another cradle for the house, or at least a charger.  Unfortunately, I've had a hard time finding accessories.

My next goal is to try out the bluetooth support.  From what I've read, it's possible to use the phone as a modem.  May laptop doesn't have bluetooth, so I need to buy a USB adapter.  I'd also like to try one of those bluetooth headsets.

The phone has locked up on me a few times, requiring a reset.  That disturbs me.  I'm also a little bummed out that it doesn't have a built-in camera.  I guess you get what you pay for.  Hey... wait a minute!

 Update: Here's a picture.

My employer gave me the green light last week to buy a new phone -- the Sprint PPC-6601. It arrived two days ago. I'm still trying to get used to it. The keypad is functional, but, it's taken me an excrutiatingly long time to write all of this! More to follow...

ComponentArt has launched a Most Valuable Professional (MVP) program to recognize individual contributions to their product forums and in the online community.  As hard as it is for me to believe, they have decided to bestow me with this title.  Wow!  I am honored.  Blown away, to be more precise.  Thanks!!  Read more...

Oh, and they announced it on my birthday.  Isn't that crazy weird?

Every time we tried to sync the Treo 650 VersaMail with Exchange, we'd get the very (un)informative HTTP error 500.  WebMail, OMA and RPC over HTTP has been working for months, so I knew there wasn't any issues there.   After a bit of Googling, following these steps finally solved the problem.

My co-worker picked up the new Treo 650 yesterday.  Wow.  I think I would much prefer a Windows Mobile smartphone, but this is one cool toy.  I took a picture of my office with its built-in camera and mailed it to myself.

The Treo 650 supports Exchange ActiveSync, which we plan to set up soon.  You can read more about this feature here and here.

ComponentArt has released the WebUI 2.1 Beta, which includes enhancements to all their controls and three new ASP.NET controls: TabStrip, MultiPage and SiteMap.  Check out the announcement here.

I've decided to try Firefox as my default browser for a while.  I like the idea of tabbed browsing since it keeps my task bar uncluttered, but I'm so used to Alt-Tab to switch between windows that I might get frustrated with it (you can use Ctrl-Tab to cycle through tabs, by the way).  I believe Firefox users will enjoy a period of rest from spyware until the scum who develop the stuff decide to focus their energy on exploiting other browsers like Firefox and Opera.  However, that may depend on how successful Firefox is in gaining a significant share of the browser market.

One of the first things I noticed was that the menus on my Web sites didn't work quite the same in Firefox.  Instead of the mouse pointer turning into a hand when placed over the menu, it would look like the I-beam used to select text.  Apparently, in CSS you must use the following, and the order does matter.

.someCssClass { cursor: pointer; cursor: hand; }

Firefox recognizes "pointer" where IE uses "hand."  If you reverse the order, then IE won't work correctly.

John Dyer announced last night FreeTextBox 3.0 RC.  Although the traditional functionality of the WYSIWYG editor will continue to be free, apparently there are some new features that will require a license.  Pricing details haven't been announced yet. 

I don't disagree with John's position on this.  I think he deserves to be well compensated for all the hard work he has put into this control.  I donated to version 2.0 a while back to show my appreciation for his contributions to the .NET community.  Not to lay a guilt trip on you, but if you use his control, I believe you should donate, too.

EggHeadCafe is offering free icons from Lokas Software. 

Here's a sample:

Thanks go to Jon Galloway for the tip.