About four years ago, I used a phone as a wireless broadband modem all day long. It worked perfectly well over USB or over Bluetooth. But I was in a relatively fixed location, and I had access to an electrical outlet for my computer, which in turn charged my phone over USB. These days, the only times my mobile devices see outlets is overnight, so I’m not so sure I’d rely on phone tethering for all of my 3G needs. For occasional use it would work just fine for me. And I do have Internet tethering on my iPhone as a backup, which really saved the day once before. I’m curious — would you consider using the Droid or another tethered phone for a primary 3G connection?

The point is, netbooks are great little machines for experimenting with operating systems. Sure, you can use any machine for these activities, but the devices — and their prices —  are relatively trivial by comparison and that can lend a more reckless experimental attitude when it comes to operating systems. At least, for me it does.

Matthew Dillon has a nice summary of netbook operating system choices today at Gotta Be Mobile and after reading it, I got to wondering what you folks are running on your netbooks. Our polls don’t allow for multiple choices, so if you have a multi-boot system, choose the OS that you use the most. And if you have multiple netbooks, base your response on your primary netbook. These days, I’m using Windows 7 far more than XP on my device. Even more now that the gigantic trackpad has proper drivers! For the poll, it’s not possible to list out oodles of Linux distros, so I’m lumping them all together for now — don’t hesitate to be specific with your distro in a comment. Perhaps we’ll chat about which distro is best suited for mobile devices in the future!

This got me thinking about my own headset usage. I get to try lots of cool Bluetooth headsets and I probably own three or four of them. There was a time when I used a Bluetooth headset every day — in fact it was a common sight to see me with one in my ear even around the house. I never left the home without one.

That changed at some point recently, and I didn’t even realize it happened. I rarely use a headset these days; In fact I can’t remember the last time I put one in my ear. It wasn’t a conscious decision, I just stopped using them. This realization surprised me quite a bit. I was a big believer in the technology and the benefits of using a headset, yet I stopped using them. To tell you the truth I haven’t missed it at all. If I had not run across this survey that made me think about it I wouldn’t even be writing about this.

So how about you? Do you use a headset? This poll is strictly driven by my own curiosity about Bluetooth headsets and how others view them. If you want to respond to the poll, great. Otherwise it’s no big deal. I’m just trying to figure out if I’m alone in my lack of headset usage.

Doesn’t it figure that days after I became a Remember The Milk Pro user, Google graduates Tasks out of beta? Now my wallet is $25 lighter, but I think I’m more productive. The only part I’m debating is if I made the right move. Oh well — even if it cost me $25, Remember The Milk Pro along with the iPhone app with support for pushing task reminders seems to be working. I also noticed that the iPhone web interface works better on my Palm Pre than the standard mobile view. Try http://i.rememberthemilk.com instead of http://m.rememberthemilk.com and you’ll see a huge difference.

Maybe I didn’t give Google’s Tasks a close enough look, but my solution is definitely working for me. Ultimately, that’s what the best task management system needs to do — work for you. I often get asked what task tool I use, so now it’s right back at you. What are you using? I’ve tried various solutions: OmniFocus, Things, RTM, Hiveminder, Google, and various GTD plugins. I really wanted something that was mostly platform independent and could easily be used on the web. How about you?

We should first point out that our readership is a technically savvy bunch for the most part, and this no doubt impacted the results of this poll. Most newbies shy away from doing things like jailbreaking a phone simply because they are intimidated by the process, but not so our readers. The results of the poll bring to light how smartphone owners definitely feel that they own the phone, not the OEM or the carrier.

Read on to see the results.

The breakdown of the responses to the question “Is hacking (jailbreaking) your phone OK to do?” are as follows:

• Absolutely not, it’s stealing- 56 votes (6%)
• Depends on the circumstances- 89 votes (10%)
• Yes it’s OK, it’s MY phone- 720 votes (83%)
• Total- 865 votes (99% rounding effect)

While I am not surprised to find the majority feel it’s OK to hack their smartphone, it does surprise me somewhat to see how overwhelming that POV is reflected. There are a number of factors that determine how much trouble those who hack their phones are exposed to (carrier TOS violation, EULA violation, etc.) but not that many respondents are worried about them.

Many poll respondents left some excellent comments to explain their vote:

We’re talking about a private contract between you and the vendor here, folks: that’s all an EULA is. Businesses breach contracts with each other all the time; especially when the balance of incentives and risks makes it rational to do so. The law has a concept for this too: it is called “efficient breach”. – Benjamin Ries

If you go off of TOS and EULAs and whatever other licensing agreements you (are forced) to accept when you purchase a phone then the answer and simple: it is not okay. There is no way around that. However, I think what most of us struggle with is whether or not those agreements are fair. I think most of us can agree (as the poll is currently indicating) that we should be allowed to use our device as we see fit. We have already purchased it and if we want to take it apart, we should be able to take it apart. If we want to use it as a paper weight, then so be it. If we want to install certain software on it, then we should. – Jose R. Ortiz

I think it depends on what you’re doing with you hacks. If you’re hacking to steal service, I think that’s a problem. If you’re hacking to improve your user experience, I don’t see a problem with it. – Nate

I have a friend whose iPhone 3G was hacked not to long ago. I loved the customizations that he was able to put on it once it was hacked. So, as soon as they hack the 3GS, I’m going to jailbreak it as well. I won’t even think twice! – Manny

It is YOUR phone. You bought it, paid for it and can do with it as you will. If it came with a contract to a provider you are still legally obligated to fulfil that contract but the carrier is in no more of a position to tell you what you can or cannot do with your phone than the manufacturer is.

The iPhone is a good example. Apple cannot legally stop you from hacking the phone but they can “brick” your phone via software updates without fear of reprisal as you are modding thier software. If you installed something elso on the device, say linux for example, then you arent affected in any way. – Connall Bullock

Rightly or wrongly, the readership has spoken, and quite eloquently at that. We recommend you spend some time and read through the comments submitted to the poll if you are on the fence about whether hacking a phone is right or wrong.

“Are you using this as a companion to your primary desktop or laptop PC? If so, then you’ll want it to have the same interface and experience as your primary machine so you can seamlessly move back and forth without any confusion or hassle and easily transfer and share files between your computers.”

That’s definitely a valid question, although having the same interface and experience isn’t a requirement in my book. For many consumers it does make things seem easier. To me the bigger question is: Will your netbook be a true companion to another computer or is it your primary device? This gave me pause and it really got me thinking about how people are using netbooks with their other computers. More specifically: How are folks managing the data between multiple computers? Put your netbook on the same network as your other computers and you can easily transfer files and data. But are folks really doing that?

The obvious alternative is to use some type of online cloud storage or synchronization tool for data access. That’s what I do, although it’s not an ideal solution for everyone. It requires web connectivity on an as-needed basis and also some heavy faith in third-party services. I have both, so I’m good. But what about you?

I’ve set up a poll to see how you’re using a netbook with data on other computers, but don’t hesitate to elaborate in the comments, too.

Drop a note in the comments, and tell us if this is replacing or complementing other handsets you have. It’s a complement for me as I’ll be keeping my iPhone for the moment.

ASUS opted for an integrated, non-user replaceable power pack, much like Apple did with the MacBook Air. The difference between the two, however, is vast: The Air runs for around three hours on a single charge, while ASUS claims their Super Hybrid Engine should net you double that with the 1008HA. Six hours ought to be enough for a netbook used as a companion device. But I personally can’t get past this from a mobility standpoint. There are times when I do work on the run all day long, sometimes for more than six hours. For that reason, I nearly always purchase a spare battery for my devices. I can’t do that with the 1008HA, so as much as I like the design and specifications, I simply can’t pull the trigger. For folks that do indeed use a netbook as a companion and/or don’t rely on for more than five or six hours at a time, the newest ASUS netbook is well worth the look. How about it? Does the battery situation have any impact on your potential purchase?

There’s something to be said for a phone’s internal design and signal strength, but my iPhone shows “more bars in more places” more often than Om’s did. Case in point: I used a gallon of gas last week just to find a two-bar signal on my iPhone to test a signal booster. That’s because I don’t live or work in an area that’s oversaturated by iPhones and AT&T customers. Still, I can see why Om broke up with the device: if it’s not working for him, why should he agonize with it on a daily basis?

Anyway, Om’s running a little poll on the main GigaOm site that I’ve also embedded here after the break. He’s wondering how satisfied folks are using an iPhone on AT&T’s network. Me? I’m pretty happy, but I don’t live or work in a major metropolitan area so there are fewer handsets competing for service. Last I checked, the cows by me hadn’t even signed up for Twitter yet.

After all is said and done, my first impression rates all this as “satisfactory” from where I stand, and now I’m leaning more towards a Palm Pre when my iPhone contract is up in July. I really wanted to see video recording as well as background applications, but perhaps Apple’s push notifications are a more optimal solution in that area. Time will tell. What do you think?

ABI Research recently took a very small sample of people who installed apps on their smartphones last year and queried them as to their total expense. Out of the 235 respondents, nearly 17% reported an expense between $100 and $499, which shocked me for two reasons.

First, I’d think that the many 99-cent applications for Apple’s platform would offset higher-costing software on other operating systems. Second, some of these folks could actually be spending more on software than their hardware cost them. I’ve bought plenty of smartphone software over the past half dozen years, but I don’t think I ever spent more than the hardware cost me. Perhaps I’m in the minority?

Have at it in the below poll, in which I break the expense brackets down in a more granular and lower level, as my guess is that most folks spent under $200 on smartphone software in 2008.

With all of the “app store” models, however, this has me thinking. Is the smartphone market making a bigger move towards the “Gillette” business model? Gillette, of course, famously makes relatively inexpensive razors, but makes money hand-over-fist on relatively expensive replacement razor blades.

Sadly, none of us are going to see new devices running Windows Mobile 6.5 until late this year. That could be nine months from now and yes, it will only be on new devices, which is just silly. Many of the new devices won’t offer much more (if anything) different in terms of hardware capabilities. In cases like that, it sounds like a business decision to sell more Windows Mobile handsets and thus, gain more Windows Mobile license revenue.

So what will we see from the more nimble players in the market between now and then? Even if we saw nothing new from them (highly unlikely), the bar has been raised some time ago and the reaction from Redmond has been slower than an oil tanker making a turn.

Just to put the timeline in perspective here, let’s look at some history of when Microsoft released or announced different Windows Mobile versions. Bear in mind that many devices didn’t see these versions for months after the announcements, if at all:

• Windows Mobile 5 = February of 2005
• Windows Mobile 6 = February of 2007
• Windows Mobile 6.1 = April of 2008
• Windows Mobile 6.5 = February of 2009 announcement, devices in late 2009
• Windows Mobile 7 = expected in 2010

Ultimately, I like what I see in where Windows Mobile 6.5 is heading with a more finger-friendly shell. Should it take this long to develop, test and release incremental improvements, however? James in his recent editorial says no, and I agree. It has that “day late and dollar short” look and feel to me. No doubt that some delays can be attributed to carriers for their testing and customizations. We’ve seen that time and again. But this doesn’t seem to be the main reason for slow progress and evolution.

This sluggishness and other factors are allowing other mobile OS platforms to catch up or even surpass Microsoft. One of our frequent commenters mentions that Windows Mobile devices outsold rival Apple’s iPhone in 2008. I’m not exactly positive that’s the case, as I haven’t seen any numbers for the full year yet. I have seen them for as recent as the third quarter of 2008, and there were more iPhones sold than Windows Mobile devices in that particular time frame. Quibbling over who sold more in a quarter or a year is pointless; the real point here is that it shouldn’t even be close. But it is. A lack of innovation and speed to market has opened up the door for others to own this space. Incremental updates every 18 months or so aren’t going to close it. Here’s wishing luck to Windows Mobile 7.

I’m already anticipating the comments with a list of what a Windows Mobile phone does well and how it has feature X that you folks can’t live without. Hey, I’m sure you’re correct, as the platform is evaluated against your own requirements. And if Windows Mobile 6.5 is going to meet your needs, then that’s the platform you should use. I’m in agreement with you with respect to your needs. Chances are, however, you’ve used Windows Mobile for several years, which isn’t the case for the market at large.

Regardless, the main issue here isn’t how good or bad Windows Mobile is as a platform. That’s an individual choice, as I alluded to above. This is more about Microsoft’s development model with the platform: At one point it was acceptable to be the tortoise, but now the hares are passing by.

I agree with Matt that the lack of support for capacitive touchscreens is a gap. I realize that in some areas, a stylus and resistive touchscreen are the norm. But why not support both resistive and capacitive at this point? That would give carriers and handset OEMs good options for their local clientele.

Matt rightly points out that the Exchange / ActiveSync experience on a Windows Mobile, er Windows Phone, is second to none. No argument there either, but that strength is getting licensed away to Apple, Google, Nokia and others. Overall, I see the new Windows Mobile version as a very incremental update based on what we’ve seen so far. More concerning to me is what we’ll see from other platforms between now and when Windows Mobile 7 hits.Thoughts?

Calendar card

So word on the street is that the Palm Pre debut is coming soon: possibly as early as Feb. 15th or more likely March 15th. It’s rather timely that I’ve just read a 22-page report from Forrester on how consumers choose their mobile phones, no?

The report shows various segments of consumers, ranging from those who look at value and services to others that focus more on handset choices. I found it staggering that only 5% of those surveyed switch carriers for a specific phone. I would have thought the number far higher simply given the churn of folks that went to AT&T for an iPhone. Even more amazing was the 39% that have remained loyal to their first carrier. As in, they’ve only been with a single cellular carrier from the time they first got a mobile handset. Clearly, Matt Miller with his two dozen handsets wasn’t part of the survey.

So the potential Pre timing coupled with the report and Sprint’s new Premier customer program got me thinking: how many of you in the U.S. are considering a switch to Sprint simply to get a Palm Pre? Our poll is hardly scientific as the readership base tends to be the geek vote (and I mean that as a complement!), but I’m curious. I can’t affort multiple carrier accounts, so I’m even thinking of moving from AT&T to Sprint myself just for the Pre. How about you?