The Pda , the digital sidearm of the mobile cyber citizen. Always dangling down from the wiastbelt or tucked away in the sagging breast pocket. Its always around. So is mine. Coming to think of it : I've owned mine for over a year now. A year (in gadgetyears) is a long time ! Since the average geek like me switches cellphones / pda's every three months a product must realy be worth while to stick around long enough to even show the signs of wear and tare. The tender love of being used over and over again, not even polished up to make it all shiny .. no no grim and grime smeared over its display as if they where battlescars in the conquest of everyday life.
I'm refering to my treo 650. I bought it second hand in october of last year. It was the first PDA to incorporate both my organiser, my phone and my GPRS connection to the outside world. A true all-in-one device that I have used and loved over the past year. But instead of going overboard on software, tweaks, add-ons and crap, i'm actually not using the device to its full potential just yet. I use it as my phone, have my contacts on there , keep my calendar on it and for the biggest part : Use it to check my emails. Occasionaly I snap of a picture or shoot a little video , but that is mostly it. Coming to think of it . I haven't even taken the effort of shoving a memorycard in the device so i can drag around some extra stuff.
The amazing part ? Even 'per default" the Treo 650 is a fantastic device. True , I haven't used it to its full potential but still it feeds the geeky needs of my life just fine. Ok , when it comes to sound quality it isn't the best cellphone I ever had , and it sure as hell is not very compact but .. its very sturdy and even comes with enough functionality to keep me satisfied right out of the box.
But I have been unfaithfull. Leering at competiters all around. Thinking it was time for a change. Not so much because the Treo was getting obsolete, but because I was looking for something new. So browsing around the net several cool possible replacements struck my eye.
There is of course the Qtec 9100 with its slide out keyboard and the magnificent though utterly useless Blackberry 8700. The latter has been in my hands, had infatuated me with its lightness , ease of use and fantastic screen.. But lacks any of the multimedia functionalities the treo Has. The Qtec 9100 promises Wifi connectivity but weighs down due to its bulky size and sharp price. So for the last few day's i've been mulling it over and over in my mind. Trying to decide what would be a good replacement, what device would have all the options i wanted .. What clipper could cut the cake and make the finals of my geeky pda-padgent. The requirements ?
- Keyboard
- GPRS
- GSM/Phone
- syncable with Mac
- compact.
Ok , i know the Qtec can probaly do all of these things to , but the fact of the matter is : Its too pricy for me. I'm not going to spend THAT amount of cash on a windows PDA. Ok , the embedded wifi would give me skype connectivity around the house. But the thing is still too bulky. Measuring up all the factors an unexpected winner takes to the stage : My own Treo 650 !
So i've decided i'll do a relaunch on the little baby. Polish it up , Give it sparkly new firmware, finally install some of the cool applications that came with it and wire it up to my current macbook so calendar and contacts are always in sync. I'll probably feed it a 1 gigabyte memory card and stuff that full of the craps geeks need on line. Cause with built in phone, pda, gprs, camera and keyboard, the treo 650 still takes the cake. Ok , it doesn't have wifi connectivity. But you can't win em all.