My current cellphone started to malfunction since it crashed on the ground around two weeks ago. After seeing the nice PointUI GUI on a friends pda phone, I decided to also get myself a pda phone at eBay. I googled a bit and decided to buy a HTC Magician (also known as Qtek S110, XDA-II-mini or MDAcompact) because the device is nicely small and I really have no use for a small slider keyboard. I found a XDA-II-mini in really good shape including a lot of software and accessories. I instantly bought it. After I received it several days later, I first started to do a de-branding of the software by doing a hardreset und then a softreset, when the setup shows up. Now I only installed the stuff I really needed out of the extended rom data. When I was finally done I installed PointUI and instantly loved it. This replacement goes much further than just the ordinary replacement of the home screen of Windows Mobile. What I also like about it is, that it’s not a rip-off of the iPhone design and it’s functionalities. Sorry to say, but replacing the standard graphical user interface of a smartphone with a fake iPhone design is for lamers. But back to the point. The PointUI application runs flawlessly, is easy to use with one finger (and without stylus) and the design and menu animations are well done. As I also use the Magician at work for listening to music, I slowly got stressed by the bad design of the Windows Media Player 10 Mobile and started to do a skin for it that fits PointUI’s blue theme and also is easy to use with just one finger. I only finished the portrait mode of the skin up to now but I’m quite satisfied with it. You can download the beta version of it through the PointUI forum if you want to give it a shot. Yesterday I decided the O2 and XDA-II-mini logos on the case of my Magician have to vanish. So I bought some sugar cubes. Sugar cubes are perfect for getting rid of printed case brandings, as the sugar crystals are not that solid and their shape is more of a ball. Result: Perfect. No more branding on the case. I left the PocketPC logo as it didn’t bother me. Fine. The whole pda phone feels like a whole new device. I love it.
