I’m willing to admit that I’m addicted to the Internet and gadgets. I *need* to always have some type of computing gadget on me or near me at all times. You never know when you have to look up an arcane movie reference or find the true definition of a word in order to win a bet. The aid to my addition has been my cellular phone.
Palm Treo Then and Now
My first real “smart phone” was the Palm Treo 600. Back in 2003 Palm was the leader with this cutting edge phone. It sported the 5.2.1 version of the Palm OS, played MP3s & videos, had a digital camera, a touch screen (to be used with a stylus), MMS, SMS and Copy/Paste 
. It helped me to stay up to date with my contacts, appointments, passwords, to-do lists and tons more.
In 2004, I was able to upgrade to the Treo 650 and two years later to the Treo 700p. Each of these upgrades saw an improvement in hardware but little to no improvement in Palm’s OS. (The 700p used Palm OS 5.4.9) Palm’s future looked pretty bleak, especially after their failed spin-off of the software division only to bring them back into the fold later. Even though I had been a loyal Palm user and loved the OS for what it had enabled me to do, I needed something new and Palm wasn’t going to make it.
I set out to find a phone that would satisfy my mobile itch. I evaluated various carriers and found that for the price Sprint’s plans for service and unlimited data was the best way to go. I’ve been a customer since 2000 and have never had any issues with service, quality or support. Looking at Sprint’s handset selection the Blackberry 8830 caught my eye. I was familiar with RIM’s reputation and knew that it could handle my PIM requirements. The functionality it had over my Treo was GPS and better quality media player. However, it did not have a camera and Palm’s extensive list of free and open applications.
I’ve been using the 8830 since 2007. At first, I didn’t think I would mind not having a camera phone but after not having it, I realized that I used my old one quite a bit more than I remembered. Other than that, Blackberry proved why they are #1 for corporate usage. It’s extremely reliable. Up to date access to email fed my addition for always being connected. Unfortunately, the fun was dampened by the 64 MB of RAM used for applications and onboard data. I couldn’t have many apps installed and with memory leaks in the OS, the device had to be rebooted almost daily (if it didn’t reboot on its own).
Time for an upgrade and this time around, Sprint doesn’t have much to choose from. The Palm Pre just came out on June 6, 2009. I couldn’t really see myself to going back to another Palm device. Especially, since this is the their hail mary to become relevant again in the smart phone market. I’m not very interested in trying a brand new OS for a device that I have to rely on. I did consider it in the back of my mind though. When I tested it the store it seemed like a solid device and the OS worked surprisingly well. I wasn’t happy with the keyboard by any means. My big man thumbs just didn’t feel comfortable on the tiny keyboard.
There had been rumors about the Blackberry Tour for months. Release dates had leaked out and we soon knew that Verizon would be releasing it July 12, 2009. What about Sprint? No word. Rumors said maybe Sprint would release later in the month or even in August or September. Fortunately they decided to release at the same time as Verizon. Although, Sprint only allowed orders via online and telesales. Even though I was worried about this process, I received my new ‘Berry the day after I ordered it and have been in complete bliss since.
So, what are my thoughts about the Tour? You’ll have to wait till my next post for the details.
