What Every Mac User Needs To Know BEFORE They Get The HTC Mogul / Titan / 6800
 

I purchased the "HTC Mogul" (aka twelve other names) with Sprint this summer with the intent of using it with my Mac. I am quite capable with technology learned a very, very frustrating lesson with this, and I want to share my thoughts. On a few of these points, there may be workarounds I was unable to locate, so please feel free to correct me - I would actually greatly appreciate it. Otherwise, please respect my opinions - I know many of you may disagree.

Let's start with the positive. Bluetooth PAN was added in Mac OS 10.4.9. I use it in 10.4.10 and it works fairly well. It's almost like a DSL wireless router in your pocket. This phone manages to outdo the iPhone in terms of actual meat... having 3G, PAN, real 3rd party apps without endless hacking games, flexible text input options, etc. You have Skype available. Multiple IM clients. SSH. VNC. Lots of applications.

However, I own this phone and I hate it. As a Mac user, it suffers from an agonizingly designed interface. It's like running some cross of Vista and XP in your pocket. Of course, that's still preferable to Apple's iPhone which simply looks pretty but has no real capabilities. Frustratingly, there is nothing really any better available in the US with 3G at the moment. GSM-based services don't really have anything much better, perhaps a touch better battery life, but at the expense of lesser 3G coverage and potentially higher rates.

This phone has no capability to sync with your Mac without extra software - most people know this.The Missing Sync works, but I greatly regret assuming that it would actually work well when I purchased the 6800. It wasn't until after I bought both the phone and The Missing Sync that I found out bluetooth and IP (e.g. for wifi) syncing works with WM5 only (just advertised as being supported, not saying WM5 only.)

I also was forced to remove all UTF-encoded data (e.g. anybody with an Asian name, address, company, etc. or any other unusual characters!) from Address Book.app just to get syncing to work. Tech support could not resolve the issue despite countless back and fourth - they were literally stumped, despite getting extensive debug logs from me - and I eventually had to resolve the issue myself. The developers clearly forgot to include something as basic as a string filter to throw out characters it doesn't know how to sync properly.

Additionally, The Missing Sync appears to have strange malfunctions. Sometimes it refuses to sync some plugins but gives no errors. Sometimes it does not sync anything. Other times, it freezes during sync, either the whole app or a single plugin gets stuck. This is not just one in ten syncs, perhaps half the time I attempt to sync I encounter one or more of these malfunctions. Sometimes the only cure is a reboot of my entire computer. The net effect is you must babysit every sync and make sure every plugin synced properly. (Syncing has gone from a wifi/bluetooth zero hassle experience to a tethered babysitting job.)

There is no way to use iTunes AAC files with any media player on the phone fully, as far as I can tell. While plenty of applications will play MP3 and AAC files, even the built in Windows Media Player, and The Missing Sync will sync iTunes very nicely, I cannot seem to find any applications that actually read the metadata on the iTunes AAC files. So you end up with piles of "Track 01.m4a" "Track 02.m4a" and so and so fourth, making your lovely AAC audio collection borderline useless on the phone, unless you rename your files to try and make them more accessible. Still, that does not solve the organizational problem.

Getting a clean, usable interface for music playback in addition to even just basic, non-metadata AAC playback also poses a real challenge. If you have used an iPod before, prepare to be horrified at the complexity and difficulty of using these interfaces.

The strange flip side is that the Missing Sync is really quite feature rich. It will sync iTunes, iPhoto, files, time, videos, sms log, call log, note, etc. It just seems that it has a lot of bugs, and a few odds and ends that are clearly advertised as being supported, yet do not work on this phone.

If you plan to upgrade your firmware - and you will want to this, as Sprint has major hardware support upgrades coming (EVDO rev A) - you will have to use a PC or a virtual machine like Parallels or VMWare. If you do that, make sure your software is setup to automatically reconnect the USB device after it is disconnected and reconnected. While YOU won't disconnect it during the firmware upgrade, the phone resets itself which appears as a disconnect and reconnect to the virtualization software, which normally does not reconnect automatically.

I just wish somebody had told me all this before I spent hundreds of dollars. I would have at least been able to adjust my expectations... but as I said, there really aren't any other better options out there now, so I don't know that I would really do anything different. What a sad state the US phone market is in.

I will also add... if you have ever used Palm's Graffiti before (Palms are particularly popular among Mac users due to their Mac-friendly software and clean interface), WM6 has something like that. But don't count on it. It's an entirely different implementation of Graffiti. While you use the same basic strokes, it lacks the shortcuts that could be used to improve speed and accuracy, and many of the thresholds for various characters are quite different. You will find yourself frustrated. Additionally, after every reboot, it reverts to the keyboard rather than the pseudo-graffiti pad, so you have to constantly pull up the input menu and switch modes.

Unlike the Palm OS, there are no applications available to modify this behavior. Calligrapher is a great - unbelievable, even - application for handwriting recognition. It's just that it's not graffiti, and the screen simply isn't large enough to actually write naturally like the software is designed for.

Also do check out the hardware before you buy. Especially note the stylus, keyboard and battery life.

All this said... I still cannot find another phone I would prefer to have over the this one. But if I knew all this beforehand, I might be a lot less bitter about the hundreds of dollars spent. Or I might have waited until something better came along. I hope this helps somebody!

... ... ... ...

Why do people post stupid shit like this?

OP, I understand your frustration. A level of Microsoft platform dependency always exists with these PocketPC devices, and it never ceases to amaze me. Apple's stuff works well with Windows PCs, why can't it be true the other way around? Just because it doesn't have to be?

Best advice I can give to Mac users is to drop CABs onto the device to load programs (avoid weak-ass installers), and try to avoid needing to sync with your computer if you can. Sync with an Exchange server somewhere or don't sync at all. Sad state of affairs.

I use a mac and I dont have a problem. Of course I don't do much syncing but installing programs I usually use .cab's. I have missing sync as well and I dont even bother to use it. I agree that when I had a treo 700p it was pretty much plug and play compared to using windows mobile, but you just have to get used to using windows mobile and kick the palm os mentality out.

Ha, i posted that cause that post is soooooooooooooooooooooooooo detailed... and in depth... either way, i run a mac... and windows is always running in vmware so i have no issues... but missing sync wont work on 10.5 (im beta testing it)...

you could always get a backup program that backs up all your shiz on your SD card.. just a suggestion.. than move it to the mac for 100% purposes.. assuming all you need is contacts, etc.. I've used my girlfriends Dash with the missing sync and I agree, for wm6 it licks the balls.. she luckily has a pc too. but I've always assumed it could be done this way, hope its a plausable idea.

Yeah I'm running a hackintosh here and I totally agree with you on the Missing Sync.

I just use VMWare Fusion and an XP install to sync when I'm lazy or I just reboot to Windows and do it there.

So detailed.... which I for one appreciate. You may not like this, but considering your post consisted of nothing but dots, you should have placed it in the "raise your post count thread"; it just seems what you did was pointless instead of adding something relevant to what the OP had to say like you did 3 post later. Come on...most of us are adults.

/on topic

I've been looking at getting an iBook. I've been a windows user all of 25 years and lakai stated, you have to get a different OS out of your head when using something totally different.

OP's post is at least a heads up, for me anyway, that WM6 and Missing Sync dont/wont play as well together as WM6 and Active Sync does.

Syncing should not be a chore, no matter what OS we decide to use. Is Microsost so intend on dominating that they cant make their OS compatibile with another system without tossing the Mogul out the window?

I couldnt agree more. Apple's stuff does work well with windows. I havent had one glitch with my iPod and PC. Now granted the iPod is not a WM6 device, but if we were to stick to devices of that type, I havent read many complaints of iPhone users having trouble syncing with windows; just the other way around.

but thats only because apple needs to do that most ppl have a pc not a mac ipods wouldn't sell half of what they do if they needed a mac to run apple make there crap run well on both platforms to make there pockets fat they could care less about anything else