We were in a rush to see my newest nephew get baptised on Sunday and I commited the cardinal sin of not patting my pockets before I left the coffee shop which we used to break up the journey (you know the drill guys; keys, wallet, phone!). Needless to say we returned an hour later and my shiny Xperia X1 was gone and the staff knew/saw nothing. Reported it all on Monday and just waiting for the Insurance Company to get back to me now. T-mobile were swift with a capital S, got my new sim card today! We tried contacting it a few times but its out of signal range or switched off and we had to get it locked and blocked by the network. Good news: All my passwords are locked up in SPB Wallet giving my enough time to change them all along with my memorable info so everything is secure. All the data (contacts, calandar, files, music, video, etc) is backed up on my PC. Bad news: Didn't have a lock on it and never got around to installing Mobiwee when I reflashed the firmware a few months back so they have access to addresses, calendar dates, etc including when we are next on holiday and our address Let this be a lesson to others - secure your phone, if you lose it you're vulnerable! Phone was covered under contents insurance and they replace like for like so I can get a new phone provided its <£400, any suggestions? (No iphones)
No iPhones eh? Desire for Android, HTC HD2 if you like Winmo. Does suck that it got stolen though First order for me with any new phone is to set a pin code now. Tempted to get Exchange or MobileMe so I can set a pin policy and such however (Hosted Exchange is pretty cheap these days). Google Apps is OK with the Activesync part, but not great imo.
I know you said no to iPhone, but combined with mobileme, you'd have been able to have located the phone and if it couldn't be located then you could wipe it remotely... (obviously along with having it blacklisted by the network) That's one of the biggest things for me - the peace of mind knowing I have those services available to me in the event of theft/loss. Only works out to like a fiver a month for "lojack" style stuff, plus you got all the happy cloud stuff bolted on too..
Your network should be able to brick the X1 so the bastids don't get any use of it. Have you contacted them and asked for this to happen? EDIT - Sorry I missed the part that mentions you have done this
Or get a blackberry and download buddy-guard as you can track where the phone is via gps, wipe it at any time and ring it at any time with any sim card in it.
Thanks for all the suggestions, I'm leaning towards the HTC Desire and have been reassured that remote wipe and lock are available either with firmware or through a 3rd party. I'm also keeping an eye on the Samsung Galaxy S (though it will probably suck for updates). I don't think I'll be going Winmo for a while as I was on Winmo 6.1 and it hasn't changed much since winmo 2003 - buggy and slow. Will keep you posted as to how this goes.
There are a bunch of Android applications that allow remote lockdown, and notification to all your mates/whoever that your phone has been tampered. I use WaveSecure, because they had a 'everyone gets it free' when it was released, but there are others. If it's updates you're after, you could go for the Nexus One, it's Google's baby so stays pretty much up-to-the-minute re. software versions. And the Droid 2 and/or Droid X are coming out June 23rd so it might be worth waiting to see what they're like (if it's Android you're after).
A quick update: Its all going well, no problems with my acounts since my phone went missing (phew!). I've finally changed all of my passwords and memorable info. The Insurance company contacted me today to tell me there would be a cheque for £400 in the post in the next 4 days. Result Now its time to pick a phone... Symbian and Windows Mobile are too old now and I can't wait till Christmas to get off this Nokia Classic and back onto a smartphone. Iphone? As much as I like the software and the simplicity I don't like the fact that the hardware is always old and I don't want to get sucked into the cult of itunes; its clearly a one way path and I'm much more of a butterfly when it comes to brand loyalty. That leaves Android. It's not established like the other 3 but it is growing steadily. Until Froyo comes out the storage for Apps is low ~170-200mb on the best phones according to most. It is very customisable, the hardware is top notch and so the phones are very fast. Tons of new apps and games coming out everyday. I've narrowed it down to: #1 HTC Desire - Low app storage (no Froyo yet - just a rumour) but good at everything. #2 Samsung Galaxy S (I9000) - No flash for the web browser, no flash for the camera and no optical joystick. #3 Google Nexus - Guaranteed to get updates but is not for sale sim free in this country yet).
Nexus One is available, but it's £450 here or £600 here Edit: Ninja'd to Panamoz deal Of those, I'd go for the Desire, even though the N1 has better software - the Desire has an optical trackpad rather than rollyball. Also, who are you with? Vodafone do the Nexus One on contract, if you were already with Vodafone...
Some careful research reveals panamoz to be a 'grey' imports company who wrote many of their own reviews. On with the search I can't commit to a carrier because I'll be moving in July (leaving Oxford ) and I don't have any work yet so I don't want to tie myself to a contract when I might get no signal at one of my 3 important addresses (wife's parents, new work and new home).
Finally got the new phone, just got to finish some work before I rip into the packaging and try it out!
I got the HTC Desire despite the many minor bugs/inconveniences. It is a quantum leap forward when held up against my old Xperia X1. I'm just tweaking it now and trying to fathom out Android without getting out the manual (typical bloke). The screen is beautifully sharp (word of warning they don't include a screen protector so I'm going to put one on order) and the 4GB microsd card is a welcome touch. I'll let you all know how this progresses but for now its time to tinker
Okay, I updated the firmware to the latest revision before I did anything. I thought it would be a good idea to check this was stable before loading it up like a buckaroo and waiting for it to kick. Today I've been checking out the apps and encouraging my kids to play with it (field trip lunchbreak turned into a product testing session) to see how quickly they figure out how to work it. Results: The camera is very good and will fill in for any point 'n' shoot around the £100 mark (lightyears ahead of HTC cameras in the past). Its simple to operate (all of my group could figure it out in 30 seconds and some of them started digging through the menu to change the white balance etc), works well in sunlight and shade, has good facial recognition and enables you to quickly check the resulting picture. The screen has 'some' sunlight issues but I wouldn't describe it as awful in sunlight or 'unreadable' (with full brightness it is fine and with partial brightness you may need to tilt it a little). The web connection through t-mobile was very fast everywhere we went today and the phone is so smooth that you can download and do other tasks without any noticcable slowdown. The screen quality is what stands out the most. It is streets ahead of the 3G iphone (didn't have a 3GS to compare it to) Overall the phone is lightning quick, streets ahead of anything using Windows Mobile and really feels like a cutting edge phone (my xperia left a bitter taste as it never quite 'worked'). My experiences of battery life are as follows: - When you first get it you'll abuse the phone mercilessly and the result is that you'll run through the battery within 6-7 hours. This is because it does everything and does it a lightning speed so that you an do several battery intensive tasks at once. - If you're conservative and reduce the frequency of updates, go for a static but beautiful back drop and turn off HSDPA, 3G, Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, etc when you're not using them it will comfortably see out a couple of days use between charges. I haven't run into any issues yet but I'm sure I will over time. It is such a good phone that I just won't care. Advice so far: buy one!
The HTC Desire is an AMOLED screen, the sunlight-legibility is a well known issue. Samsung have 'Super' AMOLED screens that are readable in sunlight, but all other AMOLEDs are affected. Still, when not in the sun, it looks good eh?
Info backed up, secured, phone locked and all done within a few days. It sounds like you did things the right way. But be very careful of patting yourself down in public places as it tells observant thieves/pickpockets that you have something valuable and where said thing is located.
