Well - "Broke down" isn't exactly the right term. With the new position I need to be on-call, spend significant time (often 40 hours or more a week) on conference calls and the company offered to pay the monthly bill.
So I did some research and ended up with the HTC Touch Pro from Sprint. Windows Mobile 6.1 (I've been a pocket PC fan for years) and Sprint's unlimited data plan. Adding a 16 Gig MicroSD card means that this little bugger now replaces my aged PocketPC, my crappy pay-as-you-go phone and my Sansa Media player while also giving me wireless networking, a decent (for a phone) camera (3.2mp) and a full-featured GPS. So far I love it. The phone has a slide out QWERTY keyboard (which is remarkably usable) so it's thicker than many, but it's smaller (heightxwidth) than many as well - only slightly larger, in fact, than my crappy pay-as-you virgin mobile phone. The screen is smaller than my old Pocket PC but the higher resolution (640x480 compared to 320x240) means that it's absolutely crystal clear even at absurdly small text sizes. Battery life is meh... you definitely need to charge daily. But running Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and EVDO at the same time on such a small device (with a correspondingly small battery) will do that. I'm loving have persistent IM, automated email and RSS pushes on my phone so charging daily seems a small price to pay. The unlimited data plan really makes a difference - and even here in Scranton performance is good. I can stream TV shows/video (using the "Sprint TV" app), music, podcasts, etc all day if I want and no bullshit. Sprint's plans are actually pretty reasonable as well - unlimited data and 450 minutes of talk (with free nights starting at 7pm and free weekends) is $70/month. My company gets a 20% discount off of that so even if they weren't paying the bill I'd still consider it reasonable. As per my usual I spent the first few days removing all the crap - HTC puts a very attractive, but (to me) ultimately annoying veneer over their phones called "TouchFlo 3D". It's more chrome than steel and although it does (mostly) work I took an instant disliking to it. I prefer the boring, but IMHO much more usable native Windows Mobile interace. There are few things I can't figure out how to ditch (yet) like the HTC camera application and input selection screen, but nearly everything is stock WinMo now. The screen (like all touch Windows Mobile devices) is resistive - which means no fancy multi-touch but which also means you CAN use a stylus (which I prefer). Truth be told the primary use my handhelds get is doing crossword puzzles and a stylus (and decent handwriting recognition, which this has) is essential. It's nicely responsive to both touch and stylus and, as I said, absolutely gorgeous. The default setting adjusts the screen for ambient light and works brilliantly (I was happily able to use the device in direct sunlight). Of course the on-board stylus, like all others, is crap but useful when you're in a hurry. One annoyance is that the device only has one port - an "extended" mini-usb port. Although you can use standard mini-usb cables to charge and sync the device extended plugs/devices (which add a few extra pins) allow you to use headphones/wired headsets, etc. Although it comes with a decent set of headphones with the special plug you need an adapter to use a standard set or to do more than one function at a time. The device comes with a small (about the size of a largish thumb drive) "hub" which plugs in and gives you a sync port, a charge port and two headphone/headset jacks... but it's not really "pocket comfortable". Of course it supports stereo Bluetooth so, once those come down in price, I'll probably wander in that direction anyway. The phone quality is clear and loud although the device is a little uncomfortable to hold against your head - although once I get a wireless headset that won't matter much. Overall I love the phone and REALLY love carrying one thing in my pocket as opposed to three. Jim Davis ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;207172674;29440083;f Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:292486 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
