Nerdy Dork

Last week I woke up one morning to find my cell phone dead. It just wouldn’t turn on. I’ve tried not to rely on a cell phone most of my life, but this week, with all that I had going on, was a bad week not to have a cell phone!
But I’m a glass is half full kind of guy. I’ve been considering integrating my cell phone and PDA into one unit, because, quite frankly I don’t seem to use my PDA so much anymore because I don’t like carrying the bulky thing around. I use it every week in church for my scriptures and manuals, but the calendar and task list was less than useful as I didn’t carry it with me enough to get the reminders I needed. I would like to make it a useful tool again.Since I generally take my cell phone with me I thought it might be more convenient to get an integrated device. So I set off on my quest to find the device I desired.

When searching for a smart phone, below are a few items that weighed on my mind in this decision.

Palm OS vs. Pocket PC

My first question was, do I want to go back to using Palm OS, or stick with Pocket PC. I started on the Palm and wrote applications for the Palm. It was very nice. But one day my work said they would no longer buy or support Palm OS for us and if I wanted to upgrade my PDA it would have to be a Pocket PC. So I got one. At first I really didn’t like it. It seems much less intuitive than the Palm. With each new release of the OS it has improved and I can now see definite advantages, such as new technologies, support, a multi-threaded OS, etc. Plus, for the past few years it is all I have used and I have registered application for it. So number one, it needs to be Pocket PC

How About an iPhone?

I didn’t mention this above, but what about an iPhone. It’s all the buzz right now and it crossed my mind. But the cons certainly outweighed the pros in my mind. Sure it would be cool to be one of the first to own it. But I’m not really into using my phone as a music and movie player. I have an iPod video and I don’t even use that often enough to justify the expense. And I’m sure the iPhone will be more expensive with the demand they are hyping up. I couldn’t wait a whole month without a phone and I’m not sure that it will be completely stable on its initial release anyway. Besides, whatever you can do with an iPhone, I’m sure you can do on a Pocket PC, and then some.

PDA Style

So I’ve decided on a Pocket PC (Windows Mobile platform). But now there are choices as to what brand and style. I knew that to keep the same feel as PDAs I’ve had in the past, I wanted a model with a stylus. And I decided I wanted a large screen. This is useful for reading, which I do a lot of on my PDA. With a larger screen you can scroll less often which is nice. So when I made this decision, this led me to compare two main models, the Cingular 8525 and the T-Mobile Wing.

T-Mobile Wing (a.k.a HTC Herald or PC4350)

This is one of the newest smartphones on the market. It replaces T-Mobile’s MDA. A friend of mine recently purchased the MDA and has been pretty happy with it. It looks and and best of all, it’s one of the first to come with the Windows Mobile 6. I’m already a current T-Mobile customer. I did have the options of getting this for $300 if I extended my contract 2 years whereas, if I were a new customer I could get an additional $100 off through LetsTalk.com. The positive side of not switching carriers is that I would not have to pay an activation fee. The main negative point with this device was the processor speed. I watch some C-NET videos and YouTube videos and it seemed a bit sluggish.

Cingular 8525 (a.k.a. HTC Hermes TyTN)

The Cingular 8525 (or the New AT&T 8525) was my other options. has a very similar design to the T-Mobile Wing. It’s been around longer and is a time-tested device. The processor in this device was about twice that of the T-Mobile Wing, yet it still runs Windows Mobile 5. This was where the dilemma was for me. Do I want the latest OS, or a faster processor. So now the question was, can I have my cake and eat it to? I set out to find upgrade options for the device and found that AT&T may provide an upgrade to WM6. If not, I found a site where I could download WM6 roms if I were brave enough to do so. That was what swung the decision. The other feature that seemed to be better was according to CNET, the 8525 took sharper photos than the T-Mobile Wing.

Of course when comparing, we can’t forget price. I always find the BEST deals on LetsTalk.com. The rebates for this model allowed me to get it for $200. I’m moving a family plan though and I was able to find a nice Sony Ericson phone for my wife that actually made us $100 after rebates, so it knocked the total price down to $100! Cha-ching!

My PDA/Phone should arrive today according to the UPS tracking number I was given by LetsTalk.com. That pretty impressive considering when I ordered last Thursday I was told both phones were backordered and estimated arriva date was this Thursday. I’m getting them 2 days early - Yay!

Last week my manager sent out a SuDoku puzzle along with our next meeting agenda. She said it was a moderate puzzle that they say takes about 20 minutes to solve. Well, I spend the next hour and a half working on it, and I printed about 5 copies before I got it right.

Well, that was the first time I’ve ever heard of SuDoku, but apparently it is becoming quite popular. I just happened upon this pocket pc version that kept me busy all night last night!

If you want to try it out, you can find the game here: Mastersoft SuDoku