> gadgets and phones

Tuesday, 29 April 2008

more than a phone

I've come to rely on my phone for much more than just calls. It is my morning alarm clock. I take pictures with it all the time. It is my wristwatch and calendar. It is my modem when I have no ethernet/wifi.

So that I am still carrying an original RAZR makes me feel just a bit crippled. I do get along OK with it, but the VGA camera is killing me, the lack of even EDGE for data use sucks, and bluetooth on this thing drives me fucking nuts (want to use bluetooth headset? might as well reboot first since 4/5 times it won't work otherwise. Want to send 20 pics via bluetooth? You have to select the recipient device before sending each one --UGH). So I'm thinking it's time for a new phone.

I had been kicking around the idea of a smartphone for a while but I've been really unexcited by everything out there. I've defiantly kept my PDA (Palm TX) and phone separate all this time but I think I'm prepared to relent, if I can only find the right device. The truth is my Palm is dying. Maybe it has cancer of the touchscreen, I don't know; but what's clear is that it is getting less reliable and less usable all the time. On the bottom half of the screen, my pen touches register about 1 mm above or below where they really are. This throws off my graffiti at times, and makes using the onscreen keyboard nigh-impossible. Then there are the crashes. I didn't used to experience them much, but now they happen all the time. Blazer is the biggest culprit but earlier I simply ticked an option in the system prefs and it abruptly reset on me.

My mind made up, now I just need to find this mythical device that will combine and improve upon the capabilities of my RAZR and TX.

Uh oh. It doesn't seem to exist. I wouldn't consider windows mobile anything unless I were to first get a lobotomy, so that's out. I want to like the Treos, but this is 2008 and I can't bring myself to buy a NEW phone running Palm OS 5. The iPhone is cool, but is more or less incompatible with my Linux desktop/PIM. Anything else I've found (which isn't much) just doesn't move me. At this point I think there is only one hope.

Android. I am watching and waiting, with great anticipation, for the first Android-powered phones. I don't know if they will fulfill my every desire, but they certainly have the most potential, and I really hope they live up to the hype because they are pretty much my last hope.

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