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Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review Dec. 21, 2007 / 12 Teves 5768

A ‘gift’ to avoid

By Mark Kellner

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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | The AT&T Tilt, a $399 cell phone, is up against substantial competiton. On almost every level this device, which is powered by Microsoft Corp.'s Windows Mobile 6, falls seriously short when compared even with other devices offered by AT&T.


The Tilt is designed to do two things: serve as a mobile phone and offer mobile communications including e-mail and Internet browsing. While the phone has a few nice features, the rough edges are sharp and at best only irritating. At worst, those rough edges might shred your composure.


Let's take dialing the phone for example. It is apparently best accomplished with a stylus, which slides out of the bottom of the unit. Fair enough, except if you're driving a vehicle and need to make a call. I know: the mobile industry and other safety types suggest, insist even, that the only way to use a cell phone in the car is to pull over to the side of the road and then dial. Back here on Earth, however, many of us sometimes need to multitask, even when stopped at an intersection. Yanking out the stylus isn't the most elegant solution. Voice dialing or a quick-access phone book is fine, until you need to dial a number that isn't already stored on the device.


To its credit, once you start tapping in a number, the phone will call up recent ones that fit and you can select one of these. It's a nice feature, but doesn't really compensate for the lack of an easy-to-use numeric keypad. The on-screen, supposedly touch-sensitive one, is hit or miss without the stylus.


The display also goes blank during the course of a conversation. Hitting the hang-up button on the phone doesn't bring the screen back, which would be helpful if you want to make another call. Redisplaying the screen requires the press of a side button, and perhaps crossing the fingers of the other hand.


The "tilt" part of the phone's display works quite well. The screen will slide out and tilt at an angle, revealing a miniature QWERY-style keyboard. You can view a bit more of, say, an e-mail or the mobile version of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, with this screen orientation.


But Internet browsing on the AT&T Tilt is hardly the seamless, wonderful experience of Apple, Inc.'s IPhone , ironically also available from AT&T for the same $399 list price. The Apple product's display screen, which can be navigated by one of the five stylus-like appendages generally found at the end of a user's arm, is more vivid, also rotates for better viewing and, yes, is based on Apple's Safari Web browser, and provides a vastly superior experience to the Microsoft product. Even the Tilt's faster data speeds, using AT&T's EDGE network, don't help browsing here.


While the IPhone's 2-megapixel camera doesn't boast the 3-megapixel quality of the AT&T Tilt, the I Phone's camera seemed easier to use and its photo display software much better than the Tilt's. Overall, of course, Apple wins the handheld phone multimedia race hands down: the IPhone, after all, incorporates an I Pod music and video player.


Of course, the IPhone is touted as a "consumer" device and, for corporate users, AT&T may not allow its use with a company-wide rate plan. Yet in terms of functionality and usefulness to a "road warrior," the Apple product meets many of AT&T's touted Tilt features. It offers handheld organization with ease and elan, words which cannot, in my view, be attached to the Tilt, a name which may ironically resonate with those of us who played pre-PacMan arcade games.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Mark Kellner has reported on technology for industry newspapers and magazines since 1983, and has been the computer columnist for The Washington Times since 1991.Comment by clicking here.

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