O2 Xda Atom Exec Review

An anonymous reader writes "CNET has posted a full review of the new O2 Xda Atom Exec smartphone device. They were very impressed with the handheld, giving it their 'Editor's Choice' award. From the article: 'On its own, the Exec is a highly impressive, push e-mail enabled smart phone, but if you already own the first Atom, its upgrade worthiness is questionable.'"

How much do they get paid

[Anonymous Coward]

for posting these fscking Slashvertisements?

How about this for a proposal:

- There are at most 3 slashvertisements for every legimate story

- slashvertisements are clearly marked as such

- subscribers can hide the slashvertisements on the front page

Handwriting recognition

[BobTheLawyer]

Does anyone actually find this usable? It's impressive it works at all, but I've always been frustrated by it, even when writing phone numbers and addresses.

Re:But does it run ...

[DrXym]

A more relevant question - what damned difference does it matter what it runs, just as long as it works?

Linux PDAs have traditionally been cursed with buggy software, awful handwriting recognition, crashes and high prices. But hey, it runs Linux right? Certainly Linux is not the cause of these issues, but it seems symptomatic of certain manufacturers that they think they can release some junk and get people to buy it simply because it runs Linux.

Fortunately we're getting to the stage where Linux is reliable and mostly behind the scenes. What OS is running underneath is an irrelevance to most people. They'd rather that their PDA / phone did what it was meant to do, namely make calls, take notes, make appointments, store addresses etc. If it runs Linux then all well and good, but a piece of crap running Linux is still a piece of crap.

Re:It has no keyboard.

[hattig]

Have you ever tried writing anything longer than a few words using a stylus?

Yeah, they're extremely accurate pointing devices for on-screen keyboards - far better than my thumbs trying to hit a tiny key. Also once you have the stylus in hand, you can use it to select the correct word from the 'word suggestions list', saving you time - although maybe this is a Symbian-only feature.

However handwriting recognition is still rather rubbish, I think the system on the original Apple Newtons is better than what Windows Mobile has.

Re:How much do they get paid

[GundamFan]

My head hurts to even think about a "News for nerds" site that does not include technology previews and reviews.

Perhaps you ment to type a diffrent URL?

Re:How much do they get paid

[Jerf]

If I found a nifty gadget and sent a link into Slashdot, and I had no attachment to it whatsoever, I just thought it was nifty, how would you know?

If you think about it, honestly maintaining your cynicism (e.g., even if I said I had no attachement to the product, you're not going to believe me), and follow through the implications, I think you'll come to the conclusion that there are one of two choices: Stop talking about products entirely, or run things that somebody, somewhere is going to consider a "slashvertisement". All things considered, for the purposes of the site, the former is preferable.

I wouldn't mind a clear statement of Slashdot's advertising policy. On the other hand, I'd lay money they don't run every ad that gets sent in, because I bet they're getting at least 25 a day, and I wouldn't be surprised if they said it was in the hundreds per day (because of people re-submitting the same products over and over, not necessarily hundreds of distinct products). Presumably the editors actually think this is neat and aren't just being handed wads of cash. If you want to hand Slashdot wads of cash and get your product advertised, that's what the banner ads are for.

A "product" category wouldn't be all bad, though.