EPKPhoto's Tidbits

For those of you who haven't seen the news, Palm introduced a revolutionary new device and platform at CES on January 10th.  They call the device the Palm Pre, and the platform webOS.  This announcement is easily the most groundbreaking and exciting news that Palm has made since I have followed the company.  For those who don't know, I have been a Palm addict for the past 7 or so years.  I owned three different models in the Tungsten line, and enjoyed (and felt limited) using a Treo 700p for two years before I bought an iPhone 3G this past fall.  I never succumbed to owning a PocketPC or Windows Mobile device, but kept faithful to the true Palm OS.  This certainly was not easy as Palm faced hard times over the past few years.  Innovation at the company was stifled by mergers, reorganization, and promises of a brighter future.  Well, friends, that future has come.  The webOS looks like it is well worth the wait.  As an iPhone owner, I find myself drooling at the design of the new operating system.  Palm has always been the best at balancing openness with style and simplicity.  I really can't explain how cool and functional the new device looks.  I encourage you to check it out yourself by watching (or skimming) the Palm Pre launch video on Palm's website.  Now I just have to wait for the device to come to AT&T (Sprint is the launch partner…serves me right for switching).

Normally when I approach a technology purchase, I am able to look at the available options, weigh the benefits of each product, and make a decision that will serve my needs for an acceptable amount of time.  Now that my family's Sprint contract has expired, however, I am having difficulty deciding on the best option for a new phone.  Looking back at my past purchases, the Canon EOS 20D was an excellent buy that is still serving my photography needs today.  I have not had any regrets about my Mac Pro and MacBook Air.  The problem with the current phone market is that no device really fits all my needs.  The iPhone 3G comes mighty close.  The thing I am scared of, though, is that Google's Android platform may come closer…and be more "open," to boot.  So far I have been looking at Apple's latest iPhone and the Openmoko Neo FreeRunner.  One is slick and capable, and the other is extremely open with lots of future potential.  Phones running Android will be both!  Now if I didn't have the sticky problem of that whole 2 year contract thing, I would go for the iPhone today.

In the end, I'm predicting that Android will see some slight delays and worries over a rocky first release, I'll break down and buy an iPhone (and succumb to a 2yr AT&T contract for my family), the Android will still be 6 or so months away from its release, it will take over a year to get the platform capable enough to make me drool, and by that time our AT&T contract will be nearing expiration again, and Apple, Google, AND PALM will have fascinating options to choose from for the next great phone down the line.  Whew, that was a long sentence.  By the way, notice I did mention Palm there…I still haven't given up hope that Palm will be competitive again with a Linux-based OS one of these days.  They'll probably stay in the arena of less expensive phones, though, since they have had such great luck with the Centro.

After a couple hours of politely arguing with multiple Sprint representatives a couple weeks ago, I was able to correct an error that extended my family's Sprint wireless contract for another year.  So, our current family plan will expire on our three phones by the end of this month.  That may mean I will be in the market for a new phone shortly.  Thanks to my impeccable technology purchase timing, it just so happens that a newly revised iPhone (the iPhone 3G) will be available in just under than a month from now.  Unfortunately, that would require my family to switch from Sprint to AT&T…so we'll see what happens.