The mobile phone gets amazing

Vanessa, a vice president for an information technology company, has a busy schedule with her usual day full of several out-of-the office meetings with clients. She works closely with her secretary who updates her contacts and calendars on her desktop Microsoft Outlook in her office that she has access to.

After one early executive breakfast meeting, she sits down, whips her phone and instead of calling her secretary to ask, "What’s up?" on her schedule, she goes to the familiar MS Active@Sync on the phone screen. She clicks the joystick action button of the phone and in a short while, her smartphone’s Inbox, contacts and her calendar for the day are all synchronized over-the-air (OTA) with her MS Outlook data on her desktop PC.

Of course, using ActiveSync this way has been used and proven in other devices such as Microsoft Windows-powered handheld PCs, Pocket PCs and older devices such as Microsoft Windows-powered palm-sized PCs. But according to Smart Communications Inc., this feature will be available in the very near future on a more compact and personal device – right on the interface of the Smart Amazing Phone.

Unveiled last Valentine’s Day to the press, the Smart Amazing Phone – the first Microsoft Windows-powered smartphone in Asia – is said to "span the door to a world of advanced wireless and mobile Internet services," according to a Smart statement. It will also enable phone users to manage their personal information via the Pocket Outlook – Inbox, contacts, calendar and tasks.

The phone, which will be available at Smart retail outlets very soon, will also feature familiar software and applications such as Pocket Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player and MSN Messenger. It will be offered complete with an attachable camera, cradle and charger.

Synchronization of Pocket Outlook functions will be immediately available using Desktop ActiveSync where the user connects the smartphone to the desktop computer through a universal serial bus (USB) or serial cable, or via infrared (IR) transmission.

The Desktop ActiveSync, aside from its synchronization capability, can enable the user to view and manage files on the smartphone, back up and restore the smartphone’s data, configure the smartphone from the desktop computer, and even install a program through the PC to the smartphone.

In this scenario, Vanessa is able to do OTA synchronization via ActiveSync on her Pocket Outlook because of the Microsoft Mobile Information Server (MMIS). In the very near future, when MMIS is in place, it will make the Smart Amazing Phone the wireless office PC, increasing productivity for mobile people like Vanessa. Synchronization can be done either automatically or on demand.

MMIS will allow Smart Amazing Phone users to send and receive e-mail "on-the-fly" via GPRS. Aside from OTA synchronization on their Outlook, users will be able to perform device and software management.

Tagged as the "mobile personal computer" by Smart president and chief executive officer Napoleon Nazareno, the new phone promises to "change the landscape of the mobile phone industry" by combining mobile telephony with the latest information technological advances.

The new phone is sleek, lightweight and trendy with 2.2" 176x220 dots resolution TFT Transflective LCD display, giving a 65,000-color output that’s sure to maximize the clip on digital camera. It is tri-band and supports GPRS.

Memory-wise, it has 32MB Flash ROM, 16MB RAM, and Secure Digital Input/Output (SDIO)-compliant card slot for removable multimedia storage like files, programs, movies, pictures and music. Storage can either be via a Multimedia Card slot memory extension that can store up to 512MB sufficient for 320,000 book pages or the SD Memory Cards using a form of encryption similar to DVD movies to protect data.

Aside from the Personal Information Management software, the Smart Amazing Phone comes with Voice Notes, Dialer/Call progress and call logging, World Clock, RAMDISK (iPSM) for data retention, Games like Solitaire, SIM Manager, MMS Client, T9 text entry, IA album, MS Media Player (that supports MP3, WMA, WMV, asf, etc.) and only from Smart, a Smart portal right on the phone’s interface for easy access to Smart services.

"We have worked extensively with Microsoft and the hardware manufacturer to ensure that the Smart Amazing Phone offers features and functionality that are easy to use and relevant to our customers. We are now working with applications developers to create compelling services that can take full advantage of the capabilities of the phone," said Anastacio Martirez, head of Smart’s personal communications and mobile services division.