Windows Phone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"These days, most of us use Bluetooth enabled car kits, and it is not necessary to have a second SIM card for safe vehicle use anymore. However ... many people have multiple phones. Smartphones are now quite prevalent, but sometimes you don't want to carry your most complicated phone everywhere you go. For instance, I like to carry a smaller phone on me during the weekends while on the road with my kids. The hassle now is to get my SIM card out of one phone and place it in the other. And we all know how frustrating it can be to do so. It would be so much easier to have a duplicate SIM card already placed in my second phone..."

Johan van Mierlo (and others, including myself) have had ENOUGH with the 1 SIM per number draconian rule of US carriers. It would be relatively easy for carriers to allow more than one SIM per number, which would be great for those of us with multiple devices that hate swapping SIMs in and out all the time. Mobility Minded is running a poll right now on the issue, and if you're wanting a second SIM to soothe swapping, I'd encourage you to vote!

I really like a lot of things about my T-Mobile Touch Pro 2. However one thing I detest is the SIM card slot. The provided method you are asked to use (pressing down on a small silver latch and then sliding the card out) simply doesn't work. I've tried jamming the stylus under it, on it, around it, and that isn't the best solution either. Finally this morning I found a method that works very well, is easy to do, requires very little outside funding, and is safe: A Paperclip! Bent up paperclip to be precise, with a small loop that can lift the SIM card up just enough to slide it out. Check out the video below for my simple fix, and be free to swap SIMs like a maniac (a.k.a. like me).

Dual-SIM Windows Mobile devices are few and far between, so SmartMania.cz's latest report (translated version) naturally caught our attention. The Czech site is reporting that E-TEN has a dual-SIM, HSDPA-capable Glofiish up its sleeve and before you ask - it's not the upcoming V900. Instead, this one's dubbed the DX900 and features Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional, a Samsung S3C6400 533MHz processor, 128MB RAM, 256MB ROM, a 2.8" VGA touchscreen, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, GPS, an FM tuner, a 3.0-megapixel camera, a G-sensor (accelerometer?), and a microSDHC slot. No details yet on price and availability, let alone whether this device actually exists, although next month's Computex might clue us in.