Electronic Woes

<---Here you see the Treo 680 and in a couple of days, there will be one in my gadget-lovin' hands. If you read back in the archives, you'll be reminded of the swap of my LifeDrive for a Treo 650. I've enjoyed the 650 but it's recently gone berzerk. After weeks of trying to fix the problem, I've resolved myself to the fact that it is truly and without a doubt.... possessed.

I've really done some soul searching about the device that should replace my 650 and have finally ordered the 680. My cell company was cool enough to let me try out a couple of phones and I'm currently fondling the HTC s621, aka the T-Mobile Dash. When I say 'fondle', I'm not kidding. I love the form factor of this phone. It's the perfect size, shape and weight for what I want. Make it do all the stuff that the Treo's do and I'll be all over it... but therein lies the rub. It doesn't even come close to what the Treo's can do. Packing the underwhelming wallop of Microsoft's Windows Mobile 5, the Dash is no match for the needs of this power user. It's the electro-cellular equivalent of a reach-around. It made me tingle but I need a little more.....err.....nevermind.

Now, I'm not sold out, hands down, head over heals crazy about getting the 680. I really liked my 650 and the 680 has promising improvements but make no bones about it, this is a lousy time to be buying anything from Palm. They've announced that we will finally see the new OS later this year. For those of you who have no idea why that's important, us diehard Palm cowboys have been waiting for this moment for several years. Palm giving us a new operating system has held the same hope as the Cubs winning the World Series......maybe next year.

So now here I am in need of a new phone and only have the old OS to work with. I like Garnet, it's a proven OS and, to me, stands head and shoulders above the onlooking wannabe's but I've waited years for Palm to introduce OSII and it looks like I'm going to have to wait a bit more.

There's also one other twist here and the Palm community has labeled it "The Hawk" after Jeff Hawkings, one of Palm founders. He's set to announce a new product soon and no one has a clue what it could be. My best guess is that it falls into the UMPC category but there are rumors our there that it might compete with Apple's iPhone. More on that later.

For now, I'm happy about the 680 and getting a chance to give it, as a good friend of my is fond of saying, a good fiddle. Gotta love those Brits and their shiny words.

Thanks for taking time to read,

Ken