The Wrong Time

My cellphone is dying. It's a Palm Treo 700P that is, erm, coming up on 3.5 years old now, which is quite a lifetime for a phone these days. Service is with Sprint, which is (a) extremely cheap -- $33/month for 500 minutes and unlimited data and text, where unlimited is defined as "we don't tell you when we think you're going overboard, but you can't shove more than a gigabyte or so a month through that thing anyway". The battery has had it, the physical jack for recharging is worn to the point where it takes 2+ minutes of fiddling in order to get a connection, and the four buttons I use the most are becoming unresponsive.

Sprint notes that I am costing them money on this plan (see price) and do not wish to renew it. The new cost for similar service will be $80/month.

Options:

Windows Mobile something.
iPorn.
Blackberry something.

Scratch all of those.

Palm Pre
Nokia N900
Android Things

The Palm Pre seems a little woogy. Not enough battery. No memory card expansion. Ringer volume is said to be low. Also, first generation device. No can buy.

The Nokia N900 is not yet available. Might it be available November 1, when T-Mobile comes out of the closet with a $50/month everything plan and also pie? Who knows. But if I can hold on 2 weeks, I might find out.

The second generation of Android devices are coming out. The top-of-the-line one, which might work very well, is the Motorola Tao. It's an awful lot like an N900 in terms of hardware. Con: Verizon is expensive, and I expect they will have an exclusive arrangement for a long time. Sprint says the Samsung Moment will be available November 1, and that's not as shiny as the Tao but might do. Faster CPU.

Anyone have thoughts?

The Wrong Time

My cellphone is dying. It's a Palm Treo 700P that is, erm, coming up on 3.5 years old now, which is quite a lifetime for a phone these days. Service is with Sprint, which is (a) extremely cheap -- $33/month for 500 minutes and unlimited data and text, where unlimited is defined as "we don't tell you when we think you're going overboard, but you can't shove more than a gigabyte or so a month through that thing anyway". The battery has had it, the physical jack for recharging is worn to the point where it takes 2+ minutes of fiddling in order to get a connection, and the four buttons I use the most are becoming unresponsive.

Sprint notes that I am costing them money on this plan (see price) and do not wish to renew it. The new cost for similar service will be $80/month.

Options:

Windows Mobile something.
iPorn.
Blackberry something.

Scratch all of those.

Palm Pre
Nokia N900
Android Things

The Palm Pre seems a little woogy. Not enough battery. No memory card expansion. Ringer volume is said to be low. Also, first generation device. No can buy.

The Nokia N900 is not yet available. Might it be available November 1, when T-Mobile comes out of the closet with a $50/month everything plan and also pie? Who knows. But if I can hold on 2 weeks, I might find out.

The second generation of Android devices are coming out. The top-of-the-line one, which might work very well, is the Motorola Tao. It's an awful lot like an N900 in terms of hardware. Con: Verizon is expensive, and I expect they will have an exclusive arrangement for a long time. Sprint says the Samsung Moment will be available November 1, and that's not as shiny as the Tao but might do. Faster CPU.

Anyone have thoughts?

Everybody talks about the weather

First snow of the season, here. Well... snain. It's about 80% rain and 20% snow. Nothing sticking to the ground.

Everybody talks about the weather

First snow of the season, here. Well... snain. It's about 80% rain and 20% snow. Nothing sticking to the ground.

Another one in SF becomes reality

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8310277.stm

British cops will all be issued Blackberries next year.

In Charlie Stross's _Halting Space_ (what, you haven't read it yet?) this is the norm. It's a book very much set in the all-smartphone future, which is to say, about 2015-2018 at this rate.

Another one in SF becomes reality

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8310277.stm

British cops will all be issued Blackberries next year.

In Charlie Stross's _Halting Space_ (what, you haven't read it yet?) this is the norm. It's a book very much set in the all-smartphone future, which is to say, about 2015-2018 at this rate.