Joining the 21st Century.

Well, my wife and I are finally smartphone and wireless internet users. After getting by for the longest time with PDA's, my wife and I now have "modern" smartphones. No we did not get iPhones, nor did we get Windows based phones. Instead, I have decided to go the Palm Pre route.

I can just hear you now: "Are you nuts?" Palm got bought out by HP...they are dead!"

Yes, Palm did just get purchased by HP, but Palm is far from dead. While I cannot say with any certainty what the future holds for the technology that HP now owns, I can be relatively sure the WebOS which powers the Palm Pre will live on. I also believe it would be in the best interest of HP to keep the Palm brand name alive. There are a diehard group of Palm fans who love the products and have stuck by Palm through the good times and the bad. I am one of them.

My love affair with Palm started with my first Palm, a Palm V. That device was a work of art and one of the most dependable tools I have ever used. I used it until I upgraded and got a IBM Workpad C3, which was just a rebranded Palm Vx, the upgrade to the Palm V. I used that for some time until my coworker sold me his Handspring Treo 90. This was my first color device and was competing with the new Windows Mobile/Windows CE devices.

Now that I had tried a color Palm device, I could not go back. After the Treo 90 started to fail (screen/pixel damage...the first failure I had suffered with a Palm device), I started looking at color devices. I settled on a Tungsten E which I liked quite a bit with the exception the battery life, which was pretty bad. The other thing that disappointed me was that Palm released the E2 just a few months after I bought the E. Wanted to upgrade but Palm would not give in. I could see their point. The E2 had bluetooth and a better battery though.

I used the Tungsten for a few years until I got tired of carrying a phone and a PDA. I managed to secure a Palm Centro from AT&T (before the mandatory data plan on smartphones) and used it until my contract expired...just about the time HP bought out Palm.

Up until this time, my wife had gotten my hand me downs. She got my IBM C3 and used it until the infamous digitizer issue got too bad to deal with. Then when I got my Centro, I gave her my Tungsten E. She used that one until the battery had to be charged at the end of each day, signaling the end of that device. She wanted another PDA but the prices on what few were so high, I just could not justify the cost. So last year I got her a Treo 680 smartphone and she really liked it. We were happy. Well, we were until AT&T mandated (like other carriers) a data fee for all smartphones. Arrggh. Well, now she was back to using her flip phone for calls and her Treo as a PDA...she was not overly happy . She wanted to use her Treo 680 full time but I could not justify the cost of data on a phone that had very limited data ability.

Well, my Centro was beginning to act pretty bad in humid environments. The screen would blank out and it was locking up at weird times. Of course this all started after I had accidentally dropped it in the dogs water bowl. While it appears to dry, it was not the same afterwards.

Now with our contract up with AT&T I was investigating other carriers. Sprint was looking good for the price, but the hardware they sold was pretty weak and expensive. AT&T had better hardware, but the prices for smartphones were still rather high (to me), and besides, the data prices are high as well.

Well, all this happens just about the time HP buys Palm and starts selling the Pre and the Pixi at really great prices. With the exception of shipping, they were free.

We just got the phones yesterday and I did not get a chance to start working with them until late last night. I was able to get all my wife's data moved over to the new phone and now all I need to do is to get her wallpaper and ringtones set. I hope to do that tonight.

What do I think of my Palm Pre Plus and the WebOS? I like it so far. It does not have as many apps as the iPhone or Android, but it is rather nice. I do hope to see more apps soon.

I plan on giving a full update after I have played with it for a while. One thing I can say...it is hard on batteries.

How's The Weather?

I tell you, this year the weather has been bizarre. We had a a cool, wet spring and during the last 2-3 weeks of it, it turned HOT and very dry. Well, it did for a while. While it is still hot (90's) it is not as bad as it could be. No, the oddity is the amount of rain we have gotten off and on. It seems like we have been forecast for thunderstorms every day for the past month or so. Mind you it has not rained every day, but it has rained quite a bit over the past 2-3 weeks.

Of course, all that rain makes it hard to keep the grass in check. I normally cut the grass on Tuesday so they bagged clippings can be picked up on Wednesday. We have the trash, recyclable materials, and yard waste picked up in that day. Well, I was unable to cut it on Tuesday last week so the yard waste had to sit until this week. I did not cut the grass on Tuesday this week due to some scheduling issues with my wife. I was able to get it cut yesterday, right before the storms rolled in. The good news is that all the yard waste should be picked up today since we are on a one day delay due to most people being off on Monday for Independence Day.

Yesterday made the second time in a row that I was able to just finish cutting grass before the storms hit. God was watching out for me.

Considering how much rain we have gotten so far this past few weeks, I wonder how the rest of the summer will be. We started off hot and dry and now are moving into a period of heavy precipitation. I wonder if we will end the year wet like last year or dry like we normally do.

The northeast has been hot and dry. I am scheduled to go visit family and friends in near the end of August, traditionally the hottest and driest time of the year there. I wonder what the weather will be like then?