The breakthrough, though, was when Matthew Frye figured out the main problem. HTC has written proprietary software that “overlays” on top of Windows and provides selected bits of information, like certain appointments. But the pattern is mysterious. I guess it caps the number of appointments it will display across an unspecified period of hours. For someone like me with a lot of appointments, seeing only some–almost at random–made us conclude the unit was broken.

We actually swapped it out for a replacement, costing us many more hours, before we figured out that we just needed to remove the Outlook calendar from that software’s sorting function. Now it seems to work much better. Verizon has excellent customer service, so having them as a carrier has really helped.

I’ve now incorporated into most of my routines, and it’s great being able to clearly see emails, Outlook task lists, OneNote and (for the most part) websites, wherever I go. We may get a Franklin Planner overlay that’s supposed to improve the Task List functionality, but I still need to understand better what I’ve got first. But now I can begin to reinvest some of the time it’s begun to save me into understanding its deeper functions. Pretty soon I may even learn to speak “alien.”

Sleek Style Over Hopefully Lots of Substance

That still leaves the incomplete syncing. I guess I can compromise and use one portable device for Internet browsing and the other for Outlook, but I just can’t afford yet another technology wrestling match these days.

Of course, technology problems aren’t the best way to get me thankful for Thanksgiving, so I got some new perspective from Louis CK’s appearance on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien at Everything is Amazing; Nobody’s Happy. He probably didn’t need to slam the entire Millennial Generation, but his comments are both insightful and hysterical. Hopefully, with a little more insight and laughter, I’ll soon be amazed with my HTC Imagio in a good way….

Meanwhile, Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Jott and reQall are services that allow you to make a call from your cell phone and record a message. This message is then transcribed to text and emailed to you along with the attached recording. You get home, open up your email, and there’s the idea you wanted to remember waiting for you. You can also manage your messages on the services’ websites, and you can setup reminders that will text message you at the time you set.

Each service is a little bit different. Jott has lots of options for sending messages to other people by transcribed text message or email. reQall seems more aimed as a task manager/mini calendar, with the ability to choose between categories such as Tasks, Meetings, or Notes, and to assign a date and time using natural language (Jott just added organizational folders too). Jott, however, has the power to be connected to web services via their APIs, giving it a leg up on reQall. Some of the services already connected include Twitter, Blogger, Remember the Milk, and Google Calendar, letting you blog by cell phone or let your social network know what you are doing. The Cranking Widgets Blog has a nice post about how handy Jott is.

If you use web services to manage your life then give Jott a try. If not, reQall might be better, especially if you have lots of appointments during the day.

To use Jott you must be in the United States or Canada, but reQall also has you covered in the U.K..