Ok, so it's been a while ...

[binidj]

... in my defence, life has been, well, somewhat disjointed of late. Nothing hugely dramatic, just minor health stuff, minor domestic stuff and the occasional threat of nervous breakdown. We hope to resume normal service as soon as possible etc. etc.

Anyway, this is absolutely not intended to be an(other) emo post ... therefore please keep sympathy replies to yourselves, they are not what I need right now, nor do I need hugs, fluffy animals or anything to "make me feel better". And yes, this applies to you.

So what I actually want is some advice. My poor old Palm E2 has seen better days and I'm starting to get an inferiority complex every time I get my mobile phone out, so I'm looking for, yes you guessed it, a smartphone. Now this is where you come in, listed below are what I see as my current choices with attendant dilemmas attached to them. I'd appreciate any advice you can offer regarding these dilemmas. With a bit of luck, between us, I will soon be sporting a smartphone that will be the envy of all of Christendom.

• Android
  Currently my favourite, Google's open source OS ticks a number of boxes and promises both longevity and an expanding range of apps. Also these phones seem to be the only ones with slots for memory cards. Downsides are that I'm struggling to find any unlimited data contracts for these phones, also many of the phone manufacturers are unknown to me and I fear the unknown.


• Palm Pré
  I recently heard that Palm were in quite a bit of trouble and likely to go bankrupt in the very near future. Although the Pré looks like it's a fantastic phone, I don't want to get saddled with something that will receive no support in the future. Also I'm a little concerned that the range of apps might be a little limited. I want a balance of fun and practical apps and I can't see me wanting very many but I shall be quite miffed if the ones I want aren't there.


• Apple iPhone 3GS
  I've seen iPhones and they are, indeed, pretty; also they have more apps available than I've had hot dinners. However I am very worried about the proprietary nature of the machine; most particularly, if I want to play music, I don't want to go via iTunes ... this seems symptomatic of the Apple mindset, "if you want it, you can have it, but on our terms" ... frankly I want no part of this.

To be honest, despite it being my least favoured option, I can see me ending up with the iPhone ... this makes me a sad panda.

In other news, come to Odyssey it will be amazing. Of course it will be even more amazing if certain members of the story team get off their well-upholstered arses and start writing ... but as I said above, that's a work in progress.

Comments

[invisible-al.livejournal.com]

I don't have any complaints about my iPhone 3GS, it just works and has enough usability twiddles to make most things easy to do. You're also not locked into using iTunes to buy tracks, amazon make it very easy with their downloader and anything else it's just a few clicks. Also I'm pretty sure westernind uses an alternative to iTunes, so hopefully she'll pop up.

Android wise I'm hearing good things about the HTC Hero off a few geek lists I'm on, that appears to be the current darling with 'people who don't fancy an iPhone'. Worth looking into, anyone we know have one?

[jfs.livejournal.com]

She does, but not for an iPhone - it's possible to use other software to get music onto an iPod (which is basically just a hard drive when it comes down to it) but you can't do the same with the iPhone without Jailbreaking (and therefore potentially Bricking) it.

[swiftblade.livejournal.com]

That wasn't the issue though was it? The way I read the issue was not having to buy your music on iTunes as I understood it? I could be wrong though.

You don't need to buy music on iTunes, I have have tons of MP3s from other sources and they are all on my iPhone and work fine.

The iPhone has some issues, the propriety nature being the worst (how dare you delete stuff off MY phone?) but for overall ease of use and access to apps I've seen nothing better.

By the way, I'm not an apple fan boy, quite the opposite in fact. Also, I have a tendency to want to buck the trend, but I've been very happy with my iPhone and Sharon liked stealing it so much she got herself one too :)