Opinion : Smartphones

While I am complaining about companies, I need to take on Ma Bell for a minute, although I admit that this is really not there fault. I have a new-phone credit on my AT&T wireless (or what ever they call themselves this month) account, so I have been shopping for a new cell phone. I love getting new electronic gadgets, and I was hopeful and excited, but I have to report that after studying the options, I am a little disappointed.

The iphone is certainly cool, but I don't like apple and would never pay over $300 for a phone so that is out of the question (the only thing special about it is the software anyways). I was hoping that the iphone would push traditional makers to come out with lots of new features and some cheap knockoffs as we progress toward the ultimate convergence (all in one) device. I have a Sony MP3/camera/video (I also use it as a key, light, alarm clock,radio, and calculator) phone that I got over 2 years ago and while it still works, I was hoping that the past 2 years has brought some advances. Unfortunately, I was not particularly impressed with any of the new phones offered by AT&T. The new version of my current phone is a little lighter and has a pedometer feature (cool but unnecessary) but has not addressed the main problems (lack of memory, SD slots) and costs more. Other mp3 phones also have surprisingly little memory (less than the 1 gig i get in the $20 jogging player I got for xmas). GPS phones are a nice touch, but they want you to pay a fee for the service which is ridiculous. (GPS is a free service of the US gov!) .

The Treo (palm) and even the windows mobile devices are cool but other than the telephone thing they don't really have any features that weren't in my 4yr. old palm pilot. especially noteworthy is how little internal memory they have. Even worse, the Wifi in my old palm was faster and much cheaper (ie free) than the internet on the new phones. After looking at all the phones, I decided the Samsung blackjack 2 was the best value, but I just couldn't bring myself to buy it. Looking at Verizon and Sprint yielded little in the way of better results, although I am interested in the Iphone knockoff being sold by Sprint (the Touch by HTC) Still, It is too expensive to be worth changing carriers. guess I will be waiting to get a new phone.