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The Windows Mobile Smartphone (Standard Edition) and Pocket PC Phone Edition (Professional Edition) started out as two distinct platforms. However, starting with Windows Mobile 5, they started to try to bring the two platforms closer together. The most visible sign of this was taking away the Pocket PC’s bottom bar area that many applications used for menus (leaving the top bar are for status information). However, the two platforms not only remain distinct (despite the common bottom bar changes) but the Smartphone with the traditional portrait mode display works differently from the more recent landscape mode display.

A portrait mode screen displays 9 application icons in the Start programs list in a 3 by 3 matrix. Each of the 9 icons is associated with the 1 through 9 numeral keys of the numeric keypad. This means that every application in a given menu view is just one click away.

A landscape mode screen displays a 2 by 4 matrix of icons. Unfortunately, these icons are NOT associated with the 1 through 9 embedded keyboard numerals of the QWERTY thumb keyboard that most landscape mode display devices have. This means that every icon except the upper left default focused icon needs a minimum 2 clicks to select and a maximum of 5.
This dichotomy exists even in dual mode Smartphones like the HTC Vox.

It would have been nice if Microsoft had just placed small 1 through 8 numerals next to the application icons and allowed the use of the embedded numeric keyboard in landscape mode.

How much more basic can you get than the Windows Mobile Smartphone’s on-off button. Of course, this is a WiMo device, so nothing is as simple as you might want or expect. In most of our minds, on-off switches work in a 19th century mode. Setting it to the on position closes a circuit and electricity flows. Turning the switch off breaks the circuit and electricity does not flow. But, the WiMo Smartphone button is not a simple switch, is it? So, let’s look at the implications.

ON: You might sometime hear or read someone advice a WiMo Smartphone user to press and hold the power key until the screen lights up. This, IMHO, is a waste of effort and potentially damaging to the finger or thumb pressing the button. Here’s a better way: Press and hold the button while you count 1 2. Release the button. If you wait a second or two the screen will light up and the Smartphone begins its boot process.

QUICK LIST: If you press the on-off button and quickly release it, you’ll see a Quick Menu like the one displayed above. It gives you access to a number of functions including the alert profile (Normal, Silent, Vibrate, etc.) as well as turning the phone off (option 1).

OFF: Press and hold the on-off button for a two count (similar to turning it on). This bypasses the Quick List and starts the shut down process.

UH OH: A WiMo Smartphone can get itself into a mess once in a while (for me this is about twice a month) and reach a point where pressing the on-off button is a useless gesture (literally). Smartphone, unlike Pocket PCs, do not have a reset button. You should do what the manufacturer recommends at this point. Me? I take off the battery cover and pull the battery for a second and then reinsert it.

What, you may ask, can I possibly say about the Talk key on a Windows Mobile Smartphone (aka Standard Edition)? There’s three functions assigned to that key. Let’s start with the obvious and work our way down the list.
1. If you press the Talk key while the phone is ringing, the phone will pick up the call and let you talk to the other person.

2. If you press the Talk key when no call is in progress, it will bring up your recent call history. You can use the navigation pad to scroll up and down the list. Pressing the Select key (center of navigation pad) brings up the contact information for that call (if available).

3. If you press and hold the Talk key while a call is in progress, it switches you from normal listening mode to speakerphone mode if your phone has speakerphone capability.