Handhelds/PDAs - Palm vs Zaurus vs others - Opinions? Experiences?

[brk]

On Mar 20, 2007, at 6:30 PM, Ben Scott wrote:
>
>  ~sigh~  Yes, yes.  That's the way it would be, in an ideal world.
> But wireless carriers universally see any cell phone, and all the data
> on it, as *their* property.  They don't sell you a phone, they let you
> use their phone, maybe, for a little while, so long as you keep up on
> your protection payments.  My thoughts on that policy are best not
> uttered aloud, for fear of waking the elder gods.
>

Well, this is just tinfoil hat logic.  Before my current Blackberry,  
I had the same phone as travis, Treo 650.
My Treo sits here in the drawer next to me, still 100% functional  
(other than the fact it can't make a phone call).  I can still use it  
as a PDA, I can still sync with my MBP, and so on.

If you get one of those horrible Sidekicks, then yeah, T-Mobile owns/ 
controls your data.  With the Treo, 99% of whats on it never goes  
over the carriers network.  I can pull my pics off the Treo, or email  
them for free to anyone I like (free because I had the unlimited data  
plan, with a lesser plan, you can email lesser amounts of stuff for  
free).

Although you don't want to hear it, I too prefer 1 single device.  I  
don't want to walk around with this "geek belt" of crap on my waist.

I've looked a lot at the Zarus models, they suck (IMO).  It's nice  
that they run linux and have the potential for all this uber-cool  
extended functionality.  But all I want/need in a PIM is the basic  
functions done well and reliably.  I like my Blackberry a little  
better than the Treo, but either option is (IMO) the best choice out  
there.

>  I also don't want to have to switch PDAs just because I switched
> wireless carriers.

Get something that uses a SIM card.