One reason I’m glad I didn’t already upgrade my Treo
Apple unveiled its new iPhone today.
At some point in past 6 years, my primary tool went from being a computer to being my smartphone. I don’t have any one computer I’m hooked to all day — I have two different laptops at my office, a desktop at my home office, access to Lex’s G5 upstairs if need be, and when I’m at USC I can drop in at the library or the writing center and sit down to a Mac there as well. But my smartphone — a Treo 650 — is my constant companion. I use it to make phone calls, to check email, to browse the web, to get myself unlost using Google Maps (important when your friend lives on Indian Cabin Road in Mullica Township where there are more burnt offerings than street signs), and when I’m really stuck for something to do I play Minesweep or some other game. Something else I like about this phone: I get a signal everywhere. Elevators, parking garages, you name it. If my wife was sitting atop a cell tower she couldn’t get a signal with her phone.
What I haven’t liked, though, is having to use Palm OS when everything else I use is on the Mac platform. Sure, there are conversion applications, but as the smartphone has gotten smarter the conversion has gotten dumber. Last time I had to call in three different techs to get the phone to synch correctly with the laptops here (yes, it’s 2 a.m. and I’m still at my office; don’t ask) and with the desktop at home. Until the last upgrade (about nine months ago) finally got resolved, the bad synching had left me four of each appointment on all my systems. I don’t need my schedule to look any more complicated than it already is.
There’s already plenty of press about the iPhone on the web, but here’s a link to MSNBC.com’s story, where you can also see a video. I’ve stayed away from Windows; now if this new smartphone can help me get out of Palm OS I’ll be happy to switch. And oh yeah — the phone looks good, too. (And has no buttons. I’ve got to try that out.)
January 10th, 2007 at 4:29 pm
I have to admit the iPhone looks good, but at the price listed in the MSNBC article I will not be rushing out to but one.
Paul
January 10th, 2007 at 5:14 pm
The price will come down, of course. (After what I’m sure will be an immediate buying frenzy at full markup.) And even at this level, it’s less than I paid for my current Treo.
January 18th, 2007 at 6:18 am
The only burnt offering on THIS part of “THE ICR” (said as “The 405” or “The 10”), is the toast from my ultra-cheap Black and Decker toaster oven. Otherwise, I’ve seen nothing of a spiritual nor KKKish taint in these here parts. If anything transpires, I’ll let you all know.
March 22nd, 2007 at 12:57 am
[…] I don’t think of myself as a true gizmo hound (although I did have a home computer in 1980, and was on the Internet very early, and was an early adopter of first the Handspring Visor, then the Visorphone, then the Treo). No, it’s that I like useful gizmos that help me with information exchange (communication), because that underlies every single bit of what I do, professionally and personally. I am scheduled to the max, and my Treo helps me handle that. My wireless card (and/or Treo) allow me to get email most places I need to. Synching to .Mac allows me, potentially, to access backups from anywhere in the world. Could I have survived without these things even 10 years ago, let alone in Chaucer’s time? Sure. But now I don’t have to. As I shared here previously, I greatly covet the iPhone. The Treo was state of the art; now, by comparison, the iPhone is a Lamborghini and the Treo is a Chevy Aveo. But the Treo does get the job done, at least for the moment. So maybe what I really want first is: […]