Here, have some mood music.

Now, the first thing you've got to do with a new smartphone is set it up for your own accounts, something I'd already done with a review Blackberry Z10 with very few problems. Having decided to spend a month using the Z10 as my day to day phone (go ahead and read last week's column if that has you scratching your head) I set to getting my usual accounts up and running. I knew there would be one bottleneck, in that I use 1Password to store all my complex passwords, and there's no Blackberry client for that, but that's at least a one-time problem, as I'd only have to enter each password once. Or so I thought.

Twitter and Facebook were set up easily, but my own email was much more problematic, which, based on my previous experience with all things Blackberry was an oddity indeed. If there's one thing that Blackberry does well, it's email, right?

Not always. On the review model, all I'd had to do was punch in my email address and password, but that didn't work with the unit I'm holding right now. It insisted on the advanced setup, but then baulked at actually saving the settings. Not once, not twice… not even a dozen times, despite all the settings being correct. Yes, I'm really that stubborn. The error messages seemed to suggest that the relevant ports on my email server weren't accessible, and that I should try again later, but testing from other devices on the same network showed that this wasn't so.

I did finally crack onto a solution, dropping it temporarily onto 3G data -- more expensive than my office Wi-Fi -- and watching it go through then. That was enough for it to save the settings, at which point it finally started to pull down my actual mail after more than fifteen setup attempts, and more than a small amount of stress. What's weird there is that putting it back on Wi-Fi didn't bring the problem back; it was just in initial setup and saving that it chucked a hissy fit.

I'm still admittedly getting used to the Blackberry being relatively slow on my email; every other time I've tested a Blackberry handset it's been via Blackberry's own excellent mail servers. You'd pay a fee for that (although that typically also allowed for unlimited browsing via RIM's own supplied browser), but it was always much faster than anything else around it. Now, the Z10 is just part of the gang; sometimes it gets a message first, and sometimes it gets a message after it's pinged through multiple tablets, other review phones and even my desktop PC. I'm not one of the hardcore Blackberry faithful, but I'm left pondering whether those that are find that an improvement; I can't help but feel that one of the things that used to make Blackberry truly exceptional seems to have been lost in the shift to Blackberry OS 10.

Apologies upfront for the lack of a Carry column last week; a personal matter made it all but impossible for me to write one.

A couple of years back, I wrote five columns over the space of a month, covering the experience of switching from iOS to Android for the purposes of longer-term discovery. I like to think of myself as a decent reviewer, but there is a difference between the period given for a review and living with a device day in, day out for longer periods, and at the time I was interested to cover off those differences. If you're curious, the intro column is here, the second, covering differences is here, the third, covering free apps is here, the fourth covering games is here and the conclusion is here.

Since that time, I've flipped around operating systems as needs suited, although most recently I've been using a Motorola RAZR M as my day to day handset.

Anyway, I recently reviewed the Blackberry Z10 for a number of outlets, as well as penning a column wondering whether Blackberry actually "got" consumers any more for Gizmodo. The review phone went back, and then Blackberry offered me another review Z10 for long term loan. That's not an unusual thing to have happen -- and from a comparison standpoint it's quite useful to have easy access to major platforms -- but it also opened up the opportunity for me to try that experiment again.

I think it's fair to say that that other Kidman chap is a big Blackberry fan, but while I've reviewed Blackberry handsets as they've come and gone, I've never had one as my absolute day to day phone. So for the next month, that's what I'm going to do, reporting back here each week with my ongoing observations.

That's not a review per se; more a personal log of the things that work for me -- and, lest anyone think that I'm suddenly on Blackberry's payroll, all the things that I'm less than impressed with. As a side note, I continue to test and use other platforms in the meantime, so if you do see tweets or other material from other operating systems, don't be confused. I haven't suddenly turned into an easily confused Alicia Keys or anything.

At least, I don't think so. Maybe after a month all that will have changed.

I'm going to suggest something slightly radical to you. The wearing of pants is optional, depending on your comfort level, but this is a step that may transgress conventional comfort levels in any case.

Take your smartphone (or tablet, or similar app-enabled device). Back up your personal data -- contacts, emails, photos (bearing in mind that if you take photos with your tablet, I will be around shortly to punch you in the back of the head*) and the like. That stuff is important.

What about everything else -- by which I mean the apps, widgets and wotsits that take up the precious space on your mobile device?

Kill it all. Wipe it clean and start again.

This happened to me a couple of weeks back with my iPad, a process I wrote up elsewhere, wherein my restored iPad lost all of its data and all of its apps.

At the time, I was a little bit ticked off, because I'd set up that iPad just so, with plenty of complex folders for various types of apps, based on frequency of use and need. What I expected I'd do was recreate that as closely as possible.

That didn't happen.

Not because I couldn't; Apple makes it relatively simple to download apps afresh to new iOS devices (and Google's the same on the Android side of the fence, although Microsoft's ridiculous 5-device Windows Phone limit still annoys me), but simply because forcing myself to recreate the device meant I had to assess whether every app I had on there actually needed to be there.

Now, I'm undoubtedly an outlier example when it comes to apps, because I review so many, and some get installed simply for the purpose of a quick explanatory screenshot or two, but I reckon the principle is sound. I've since applied it to my other portable gadgets, and not only is it a space saving in terms of content, it's also a blessed simplification. A mobile gadget with only the key apps you really, truly need on it is a happy gadget.

So go forth. Slay all the apps. Remember to smile while you're doing so.

*This is a lie. I am actually a relatively peaceful soul. For the sake of expediency, I'm simply going to ask you to punch yourself in the back of the head instead.

Image: ExpertInfantry

One of the more unusual devices on show at last week's Mobile World Congress was Asus' Fonepad. The Taiwanese manufacturer also showed off the next generation of the Padfone, the Padfone Infinity, but that at least has the good grace to actually have a phone in the back of it -- although it does mean here in Australia that we're now two generations behind. In any case, the Fonepad looks for all intents and purposes like the Nexus 7, which is no great shock given Asus builds both devices.
The big difference between the Nexus 7 and the Fonepad is in that whole 'Fone' bit. As you might guess, the Fonepad isn't just a pad. It's also a phone.

A seven inch phone.

Having spent some serious time recently using the Galaxy Note II as my only smartphone, I get the utility of a bit more screen space when it comes to general smartphone applications, but it's a slight bodge even at that size for taking actual phone calls.

The success of the Note and Note II has seen plenty of other manufacturers start to produce larger screened phones, but isn't there a sensible limit to this kind of thing? Does anyone need a phone with a seven inch screen for regular use? You could pair it to a Bluetooth headset, but there's still a general reluctance to use those because many feel that you look like a plonker wearing one. Still, if people keep buying them, the sizes will shrink upwards.

Perhaps I should develop a phone/tablet hybrid the size of a Plasma TV.

Anyone want to buy a 42" AlexPlasmaPadPhone? Pre-order now, and I'll throw in some magical(™) inspirational(™) retina-grade(™) pixie dust!

As I write this, Mobile World Congress is in full swing, with announcements on new platforms, chipsets, smartphones, tablets and anything else that can reasonably be called "Mobile" coming through thick and fast. Although, as has become increasingly common in recent years, a lot of companies have opted to frame their announcements around MWC rather than at MWC; some jumped the gun early last week, while others (such as Samsung) have announced when they'll announce new products during MWC, but not the products themselves. Because hype and prediction are fun, kids!

There is some nice stuff coming out of MWC if you're a portable gadget fiend, although I'm yet to see anything that's truly knocked my socks off. Nice designs, good power under the hood, but it really appears so far to be a case of mobile evolution rather than revolution. That may not matter much for regular Australian consumers in any case.

The thing is, while there's a whole lot of hype around the new devices, even the very cheap ones, there's not a whole lot of detail about Australian availability for them. Undeniably, there'll be an import market for those who are fanatical enough about a particular design or manufacturer to snap up compatible handsets once they launch in Europe or Asia, but that's a tiny fragment of the market.

It's well worth bearing this in mind when reading MWC coverage, because that shiny new handset that's being shown off in Barcelona that has you drooling all over your keyboard? It may be months before it makes its Australian debut -- if at all.