Windows Phone Thoughts: Plan A: Make Sure it Works Before Leaving the House

David Berlind, ZDNet, plugs and prays that his HP iPAQ Pocket PC connects to the Internet. In the article "Plug and pray: a wireless experiment goes awry" he moves from Plan A to Plan F trying to beat the other journalists by getting his story in first. It's a good story to read, many lessons to be learned: First, Microsoft and partners has to make Pocket PC connectivity easier. Second, "Connection Manager" has to go. Third, we professionals (including David Berlind) have to learn our way around our tools and make sure they work before leaving the house!

"I went to the connection settings screen. It said something like, "When needed, automatically connect to the Internet using these settings" and it gave me two choices: Internet Settings and Work Settings. Um. Internet? Then, there was another setting that said, "When needed, automatically connect to Work using these settings," and it gave the same choices. Work? Next it asked what my network card connects to, Work or the Internet? Huh? My PC never asks me these confusing questions. I tried every permutation and none of them worked."