I have been a faithful user of Palm devices since my 3COMM (before the PALM spinoff) IIIX from 1998. I can still remember laying in bed playing with the backlit monochrome LCD after Christmas that year. The wife, who was then a girlfriend, did a good job and bought the IIIx (fully accessorized) with foldable keyboard. I knew then that we were destined to be together for a long time. Any woman that will feed a geek’s addiction is a woman worth keeping.
I then went to a IIIc, which was the first color Palm that anyone on my street owned–and which was exorbitantly overpriced. Of course, when the wife, still girlfriend, realized the cost, we “decided to an alternative,” and I shamefully made to return (I was in college and a guy can only have Sallie Mae buy so many toys). There is nothing more humiliating in this world than having to admit that you lost all rationale when you saw the newest tech toy, but I made it.
Sometime around 2001 I bought the Kyocera 6035. The flip keypad was cool, the pull antenna was fashionable, the monochrome LCD was starting to date, and I held onto it until one of my friends asked me if I could pick up Russia on my “ham radio.” Shortly thereafter I sought the alternatives.
In 2003, I started law school, I heard the ham radio joke a few more times. Then I switched over to the “Handspring” Treo 600. WHAT A BRAVE NEW WORLD! I fell in love all over again with PALM. I kept that phone, switched over to the Treo 650 sometime later and anxiously awaited the EV-DO capability of the Treo 700.
At work, I tested the 700w days after it was released but found the OS cumbersome and difficult to use, so I dug in and waited for the 700p. Finally, last week I had my wish granted and received the 700p. I had the good fortune of receiving the phone early in the morning, and like any good geek, I carefully unboxed the equipment and reveled in my new kill. The transition from the 650 to the 700 was a breeze, and I was riding on cloud 9.
However, my happy affair with my new toy was not meant to be. On the way home that night, I called my wife.
“Honey, I can’t hear you very well,” she said.
“Well, your phone must be messed up,” I quipped.
She challenged, “No, I think your phone is messed up?!?”
How dare her insult my dear, dear phone? After we duked it out over my malfunctioning phone, I called four other friends who each concurred with her assessment. SAY IT AIN’T SO. The placement of the microphone on my Treo was poorly designed and despite my best wishes, I slowly came to grips with my situation. I had to make a change–either back to my trusty 650 or to another possible solution–the Moto Q.
- While it sounds like blasphemy, I have to admit that I received my Q today, and I am pleasantly surprised.
- The phone is half the size of a Treo. It is less than half of the weight.
- The layout is pretty intuitive.
- It has a scroll wheel.
- IT HAS A SCROLL WHEEL
- (don’t tell certain carriers) but you can BT DUN the EV-DO connection.
Most importantly, I called the wife. Lo and behold, she said that I sounded 100% better! Approved! Had she not been so involved with my love affair with gadgets, I would not care, but she is a pretty good companion for a strung out tech-geek.
