sackanutz

So a relative newbie to the whole "owning" smartphone thing... I've been following the tech info for years. I picked up my T-Mobile Shadow in November 2007 after finding out my work would only let us have the Treo 700xw as a smartphone. I wanted something a little less bulky and the Shadow was a good fit.

A year and a bit later it's running WM6.1 (thanks to all the people spending their time to make things like that possible) and it has been an awesome resource for work and killing time (internet, nintendo roms, Duke Nukem 3D). Paired with a set of stereo BT headphones (moto s7) and it's taken the role of my primary MP3 player at the gym as well. Gotta love the funny looks as I'm "talking to myself" when on the phone on the treadmil...

Now i'm looking to move up in the smartphone ranks and I'd like something with a bit more horsepower and capability. Not surprisingly, the Fuze was at the top of my list, followed closely by the Xperia. Though I think the Fuze would better satisfy that inner gadget-a-holic, lol...

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and thanks for always making this one of the best places to feed my mobile-tech information addiction! There's a reason why this RSS is first on my iGoogle Tech tab!!

-CB

roakleyhall

From Palm III & IIIc, to Handspring Visor Deluxe & Prism, Sony Clie' 665 & TH55, Palm T5 & TX, Treo 680.

JakeRich

HP Jornada, Casio Cassiopiea (several models), Axim X5, X50v (2 of them), X51v, Glofiish X610. That's the history. I upgraded one x50V and the X51v to 128MB memory and installed WM6.1 on the X51v. I still have two X50v's in service, plus the X51v I use every day. The Glofiish is my cell phone, but I don't really use it as a smartphone because I love my X51v screen so much.

TechAddict

i started with the wizard after moving from t-mobile (USA) without any prior knowledge of the WM platform, and i am hooked. it's been almost two years now and I am always updating my tilt (kaiser) and it is always great to have such a powerful device in my pocket!

captainmicahp

When I left for college (in 1995) my father bought me a Palm Vx (which was the new hotness at the time), but I never really used it for school, and primarily played games on it in class. After that first semester, I gave it back to my dad, and he continued to use it until 2004 when he replaced it with a Garmin iQue 3200, but this is about my PDA history not his.

After the aborted attempt with the Palm Vx I went without a PDA of any kind until 2002 when I bought a super cheap Sony Clie SJ22 on a Best Buy Black Friday Special. I used that for about a year and a half when I first gave Blackberry a try. It was the 7100g, the first Blackberry with the Suretype keyboard. I really loved the easy of input, but found the lack of features a real limit to the usefulness of the device. I got the Blackberry in May, and by November I was already looking for something that had the business capabilities of the Blackberry, but also some of the media capabilities of the newest feature phones.

It was around this time that I first became aware of the Audiovox SMT 5600, the first truly useful Windows Mobile smartphones, and to this day one of the nicest bits of hardware that I have ever used (though the early WinMO Smartphone yearsw were rough). This device only whetted my appetite for the ultimate converged device. That was the first chapter in my whirlwind search for the perfect device.

Next up came the Imate SP-5, which was a great step up from the SMT5600, with WinMo 5, but it had a bothersome 5 way joystick, and the standard keypad has never been Ideal for text entry (for me, I know some people love T9). Next up came the Nokia N70, which had an amazing camera and really nice mulitmedia capabilities, it was the first phone I ever watched a movie on, it lacked the business sense of Windows Mobile). I traded that phone with a guy in Ohio for an unlocked T-moblie MDA. At last, I felt like I was in love, and I was really happy with that device I could easily overlook its girth, because it felt like the minicomputers I dreamed of when i was a boy, I was walking around with the future in my pocket.

But a man with a wondering eye can never stay happy at home and I needed a new toy, so I decided to try the T-Mobile Dash, which was a beautiful device, thin and sexy, it looked so much better in person than it did in pictures. I found I missed the touch screen and the slide out keyboard too much, so as soon as 3G was available in my neighborhood, I upgraded to the AT&T 8525. This was the best phone I have ever had. The Keyboard was near perfect, and all the hardware buttons meant that I never had to use the stylus. I found myself going back to the 8525 time and time again.

It was around this time that I decided to try some other PDA's maybe some more exotic devices. I had still had my Dash, and I traded it for a Sony Ericsson M600i, that was neat phone, with some innovative features, but it was missing a camera, and more importantly it didnt have a 5 way button on the front, plus becuase I was enjoying the 8525 so much I didnt have time to learn the UIQ operating system. So I traded that phone for a Samsung Blackjack. That was a beatiful phone, but Windows Mobile without a touchscreen would no longer cut it for me, besides I found the Keyboard too stiff, and uncomfortable to type on.

Over all I was still happy with the 8525, when I began to feel the familiar tug, the desire that could only be quenched by some new device. I went for the iPhone, even with its lack of a physical input, and lack of MMS, or video recording. I really liked the UI, and after it was jailbroken it provided enough hackability to keep me busy for a while. But that was back in the days of iPhone 1.0 and I really needed exchange mail, and a I missed the keyboard, so back I went to the 8525.

Then on a cold early March day on a business trip to Boston I left the 8525 in the back of a cab, never to be heard from again. So i began using the Iphone again, and that lasted for about 4 days after my return from Boston, when the iPhone decided it wanted to take a swim in the toilet. This was a serious emotional blow, happening so soon after the Boston fiasco. I didnt even have time to consider my options, I had to get a new Iphone, so within a few hours I was back to using Cupertino's best mobile phone.

That was the state of affairs for about 9 months, and the iPhone 2.0 update really helped with the added exchange support and the app store, but I really missed the side sliding form factor. Even though the devices were getting more and more advanced, it felt like I was sliding back to present, I needed something futuristic and new. I tried a device called the Eten Glofiish M800. on paper it had everything you could want in a phone Windows Mobile phone, a VGA touchscreen, GPS, lots of hardware buttons, and a pretty nice slide out Keyboard, but after using the iPhone, a device that size wouldn't cut it, it also had a problem with some of the capacitive touch buttons on the front not really working right, but the biggest problem was the recessed screen. I dont know what it is about that design, but after using a flush screen device, you just can't go back to using that bezeled design.

I was closely following the Windows Mobile News, and when I heard about the Touch Pro, I knew I had found my next device. Those 4 months between the anouncement, and when the Fuze was realeased, was among my most trying times (electronicly speaking of course).

You might assume that was the end of this story, but of course it is not. I found the web browsing on the Fuze to be seriously lacking, and the resistive touch screen just couldn't cut, so with great sadness and a heavy heart, I returned it. I was back with the iPhone, but I was just too restless after using the iPhone on and off for more than a year and a half, plus I just really need a qwerty input. So here comes the happy ending to this tale. Last week I bought a Nokia E71. It had been more than 2 years since my first furtive steps with S60; it was so long ago that it was still called Symbian Series 60 back then. I am happy to report that I really like this phone, it has a couple of drawbacks, but overall it totally suits my needs, until the N97 comes out of course.

That is my journey, I left out a couple sidetracks that never went anywhere, The Blackberry curve I bought but never really used, the Japanese Phone I thought would be cool, but I couldn't figure out, because the menus were in Japanese, and a few others.

jlstooge

Can't live without my PDA's

Had a Dell Axim X50 as my first.
Asus MyPal A626 was my second but was tired of carrying phone seperate so..
Currently am using HTC PPC 6800 with Altell as carrier. Would love a Fuze so I can give the 6800 to my oldest daughter. Bricked the Axim but still find the Asus used by the family for video and music player during trips.

bkbroil

My PDA History goes waaaay back:

1. Casio Cassiopeia E-11 - My first introduction to the PPC platform.
2. Compaq iPAQ 3835 - My first color PDA
3. Toshiba e805 - Love the scroll wheel!
4. HP hx4705(Lost this beauty on a plane trip) - Why oh why couldn't I have kept this one on my person...
5. Dell Axim X3i (still in use as my GPS for my car) - Fast and still reliable.
6. Cingular 8525 - First converged device and still rockin' with it.

vovillamor

My pda history is as follows:
HP Jornada 545
HP Jornada 565
Dell Axim X3
Cingular 8125
AT&T 8925 (Tilt)

Rotten Ray

Palm Vx
HP ipaq 2210
Axim x50v - died, replaced by
Axim x51v - still sitting beside my computer...
HTC x7501 Advantage

Loved all of them for different reasons...

VIKI

Dell Axim X30h
And it was the BEST!:approve:

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rkistler

A LONG time ago actually had a couple of HHCs: Hand Held Computers. One by Sharp and a second by Panasonic - in fact, the Pan is still sitting in a drawer in the basement, along with an attached Thermal Printer (!).

But although called "HHCs" there was little "hand held" about them - think Small Box Of Chocolates size, or imagine your keyboard shrunk by 2/3rds - and neither would fit into any decently sized pants pocket (Cargo Pants for the Sharp - perhaps). Both featured "full" keyboards, with a long, thin lcd screen at the top: useful only for showing prompts for input and then the final result of some computation.

My first real PPC was a Handspring Visor Platinum, a wonderful device for its time, even if limited to a gray-scale display. Might (!) still be using it had it not fallen out of a pocket & then got itself caught in a folding chair at church (think movie-theater type seating) which resulted in a Cracked screen. Was able to copy off the final day or two of input, but replacing the screen proved cost-prohibitive. (If anyone needs extra styli, fancy keyboard case, Memory expansion & etc for a VISOR..... )

The Visor was replaced by a Dell Axim X3 Mid (Wifi, Bluetooth, & IR) and this device is still in daily use, although am in the (s l o w) process of phasing it out. The Dell has also been a wonderful device, great for both Real Productivity and Relaxation, and having ever increasing access to WiFi hotspots has proved a boon. Was extremely sad when Dell decided to drop the Axim from their lineup - really had hopes to move to a 51v at some point (or newer, had a newer model ever arrived).

Am currently 'breaking in' an AT&T Fuze, and early impressions are that it is yet another Excellent Choice in the PPC field, although its Dual Nature (PPC and Phone - Tri-Nature if you include Camera...) makes the unit harder to Grasp (literally and figuratively!) than a Single Purpose device would be.

OTOH, if it lasts as long as the Axim has, both in terms of Physical Existence as well as Productivity Competence, the time spent 'mastering' it will be well worthwhile, and can already see that my wife will be pushing to replace HER Axim in the not-too-distant future. (Made the mistake of buying her a Sharp Wizard - which I actually thought was a nice machine even if "purse" and not "pocket" sized... However, it wasn't long before I was shopping for a Second Axim:exc:)

Merry Christmas!

gilbertm

My pda history is very simple: Dell Axim x51v and it's still the one I use!
I have had no smartphones.

lje67

Wow, only a few old-schoolers here, but I think I might have the record for oldest PDA: a Palm IIIe. I still remember the love-it-or-leave-it attitude towards the graffiti input method. Follow that up with these PDAs/Smartphones, in order:

2. iPAQ 3000 series (don't remember the exact model, but it was the one with the sleeves, I did have a CF sleeve, but didn't geek completely out for the dual-CF sleeve, though it was tempting. Screen broke twice, then I decided to move on, BTW, I strongly recommend PPCTechs.com for this kind of repair work if it ever becomes necessary, heaven forbid.)

3. iPAQ 4355 (loved the idea of a built in thumb-board at the time, but the device was huge, this one is still living a second life with my father-in-law)

4. Dell Axim x51v (mmm, VGA..., also still alive gathering dust in my gadget drawer)

5. AT&T 8525 (my primary device at the moment, but shares time with the next one...)

6. Motorola Q9h (nice slim form factor, GPS, 3G, but no wi-fi, hence the time share with the 8525, plus I can't seem to break away from the touch screen)

I'd love to upgrade to a Fuze. Saw one in the AT&T store the other day and couldn't believe how small it was compared to my trusty 8525. Would have picked it up at the time, but I'm not elegible for an upgrade yet. Sigh!

Hudra

Well my history is a bit simple.

I started out with the first Palm Pilot that was created, Pilot 5000 which I bought for a dollar at a yard sale. It was made by US Robotics which doesn't exist now but it does in iRobot.

Then Palm IIIxE which was a major improvement but it was still black and white.

Then I had the Zire 31 which was color screen and i actually used it for things :o.

After that I moved on to Axim X30 which broke twice :-(.

Now I have Axim X51. I thought it be as good as X51v but its too far of a gap between the two models.

Its funny that most people had the best technology all the way. I, on the other hand, came from the worst to the best PDA.

vietbodian85

I currently have the Tilt. It is my first PDA. I've had the Tilt for almost a year. Before that I was using flip phones. I fell for the Tilt and have been into PDAs ever since. Hopefully my next phone will be the Fuze...after my name is drawn :)