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!