HP iPAQ 510/514 Voice Messenger Review

Home screen	Main menu

Interface:

Despite its non-standard resolution, the unit relies on the traditional Windows Mobile 6 Standard operating system. Therefore it has a lot in common with other models that make use of it – HTC Vox for example.

As a default, the home screen shows system information, shortcuts for recently used applications and active stand-by screen that shows other information, for instance, Upcoming events. It can be personalized by themes to look completely different and several Windows variants are a nice example that can be changed from the menu: Settings – Home Screen – Home Screen Layout. The possibilities for personalization are almost endless.

The main menu is shown as a grid of 3х3 icons with shortcuts to numerical keypad. A scoll on the right indicates you can move down and up, to see more options in the menu. Sub-menus are visualised as vertical lists.

Searching

Phonebook:

Searching and dialing a number from the phonebook has never been easier. You can start inputting the number or the name you want from the homescreen (no matter if it is first or last name), but if you press the key for the corresponding character just once, it is as if the system for predictive text input is turned on. For instance, if you want to dial “Neo”, you have to dial 636 (6-MNO, 3-DEF, 6-MNO) and almost immediately the phone will show you all matching names. With “down” button select the contact you wish and dial it with the green receiver. The “earpiece volume” should be at minimum or step 1-2, because otherwise the sounds at key-press are extremely loud.

Looking through the phonebook is possible by means of list of names. You can search here too, but only by name (not by number) and the phone will not display which symbol you have input, so if you misspell one you will not be able to see what to clear (with back/clear button)and to edit it.

A long list with many fields is available when you add a new contact. You can find here many phone numbers, addresses and e-mails, etc. But here (like Pocket PC System) you cannot add two phone numbers of the same type – for instance, two mobile phone numbers. You can also attach a personal photo and a music file to each contact, but the displayed photo is so small when you receive a call or when you make a call that it is pointless, though there is plenty of space on the screen for a big photo.


By pressing the green receiver from the home screen you can see the call history of the phone. You can easily add a number from here as a new contact or as a new number for already saved contact.

Day	Week	Month

Organizer:

In the phone menu you will find the electronic calendar where you can save your appointments. They have options for subject, starting/ending time/all day event, location, notes. You can use options like: reminder (PRIOR NOTICE 1/5/10/15/30 minutes, 1 hour/day/week), recurrence (Once, Every (same-day-of-the-week), Day (same-date) of every month, Every (same date-date-and-month) for every year, sensitivity (normal, personal, private, confidential). You can also add attendees (required or optional) from your contacts where e-mail addresses have been added and where meeting requests will be sent.


Examining the calendar can be done by day/week/month and you can choose starting day for the week and the week duration (5-6-7-day week). The appointments for the day are clearly shown in their time limits, so you can see your free time at a glance. This is one of the new things of WM6 compared to WM5.

You have Tasks menu, where to-do items can be added. For a given Task you can set subject, priority (normal, low, high), start/due date, reminder (to be notified if it’s due), category (business, holiday, personal, seasonal) and note. The Task can have recurrence (Once, Every (same-day-of-the-week), Day (same-date) of every month, Every (same date-date-and-month) for every year and sensitivity (normal, personal, private, confidential). Examining the tasks in a list you can easily see which of them are finished and which are not. The tasks options can be: sort by (status, priority, subject, start date, due date) or filter (all, recent, no categories, active, completed).




In the Accessories menu is located the calculator, still lacking a scientific option. Here are also a few HP applications, and also three managers: Resource, Space and Task that help for managing the system resources of the phone.

File Explorer is the mobile version of Windows Explorer and it helps you to explore the content of the phone memory and the card memory, reaching even to the system folders and files. And you are not limited to use only the phone types of files, but you can see all files. There is no option for selecting several files together (hence you cannot work with them at the same time).

Voice recorder is can capture voice notes. There is no limitation of the time duration, which depends only on the available free memory.

Voice commands are switched by holding the right-side button. Loading of the interface takes 2 – 3 seconds, sometimes more. From here, one can make a call to a telephone book contact or dial a number through voice number input. Voice commands for composing SMS/email/audio email are also possible. The commands are speaker independent.