My wife's PDA (an ancient Palm m515) has finally gone to heaven and
her RAZR v 3 phone is showing signs of senility. She is considering
replacement with a "smart phone" of some type, and I might just go
along as well (I use a RAZR and a Palm Tungsten C PDA which is still
working OK).

We have looked at several units and nothing appears to be "just
right". Our impressions to date:

1. The Treo phones (using the Palm OS) are somewhat long in the tooth.
The future for the Palm OS is also questionable. We like the Palm OS,
but it seems to be "moving on".

2. The units running the Windows Mobile system, I am told, are slow
and kludgy.

3. The Blackberry units are difficult to type on, and again, there is
an OS problem. Are the operating systems interchangeable (for example,
if we buy something other than a Palm-based unit, will we be able to
synch all of our present Palm data onto the new unit)?

4. The Apple iPhone appears to be a nice piece of equipment, but it
has several shortcomings, including having to work through iTunes,
battery replacement problems, a "mediocre" phone (by report), not
compatible with 3G service (I use ATT's Laptop Connect service); and
it remains relatively pricey.

Any thoughts from this Group?


Many thanks,

Bob

Robert A. Fink, M. D., FACS, P. C.
Neurological Surgery
2500 Milvia Street Suite 222
Berkeley, CA 94704-2636 USA
510-849-2555

"Ex Tristitia Virtus"