Rix Bits

Rumor has it that we're just days away from the official Sprint update of my phone, the HTC Mogul. This will be update #2 for this year.

I'm trying to be patient and wait for Sprint (even tho they've already missed two advertised delivery dates for this update). Otherwise, I can always download the official unofficial leaked version of the ROM. It's amazing how talented folks are out there - there are some super-techies out there developing software for my phone and hacking the existing ROM - and they do a better job of it than Sprint and HTC do!

The strong connection these days between manufacturers and their educated consumers is pretty impressive, especially when compared to, say, 10 years ago. As I surf the Net, I see unprecedented levels of community involvement in the development and QA of software and electronics. I believe most companies nowadays have a policy of putting out betas or leaked versions for the specific purpose of allowing the community to test and tweak their products (w/o paying them of course).

That makes me both excited and uneasy at the same time. It used to be that you could depend on manufacturers to make high-quality stuff that you can depend on. Now it seems like they throw 'whatever' over the fence, and let us figure out how to fix it. Somewhere around version 3.x the product is usually good enough to use. :-) Hmmm, interesting...