I finally lost my patience with my old mobile provider last week & decided it was time for a change.  While I was changing, I decided that maybe it was time for a Smartphone...



Wow.  It definitely isn't perfect yet, but this is by far the best mobile device that I've ever used.  Having instant connectivity (unlimited, at that, so I don't have to worry about usage) definitely increases the usability -- I automatically get e-mail from three accounts (including a POP3 account that I setup just for the phone so that my partner can e-mail me grocery lists & such easily...).  I can check weather or news or whatever I need instantly.  I sync podcasts to it and use Windows Media Player 10 to listen to them on my way to work and on my way home. 

For fun, I even put all of Casablanca on the 256MB miniSD card I got for it (took ~140MB, so I could probably still squeeze another movie on there if I felt the need).  Believe it or not, it's actually quite watchable...I can see using it to watch stuff recorded on Media Center, if I ever decide to go that route at home.

More thoughts for the phone:

• Can't wait for Voice Command to come out for the Smartphone.  This would be a real blessing, particularly with a Bluetooth headset.
• I want to spend some time to see if I can get streaming radio to work on the phone.  I haven't really had a chance to try it yet.
• I'd love to have some basic network test tools on the phone -- ping, nslookup, and similar.  I might have to see if I can do some of this myself.