Goodbye Treo, Howdy Kaiser!!!

First, in follow up to my last couple of posts... After commuting to & from London for 6 weeks, I have officially decided that...

Chivalry is indeed Dead for the Modern Commuter!

Sad, but true... Oh well. At least I can give my seat over to old people, pregnant women, etc...

Ok. On to the exciting bit of the day. I have pulled the trigger today and embarked on the process of switching from my trusted line of Palm OS PDA phones to a new and fancy Windows Mobile phone. The new beast, a shiny new HTC TyTn II (codenamed Kaiser), is on order and should arrive at my company's office by 1 PM tomorrow afternoon. Woohoo!

For those that are not aware, I have been a huge fan and loyal consumer of Palm OS products for probably going on a decade now. A quick run of my device history

1. Visor (oh yes, a Visor)
2. Samsung i300
3. Samsung i330 (ok, for only a week or so)
   
4. Samsung i500
5. Treo 700p
   
6. Treo 680 (moved to the UK, needed a GSM phone)

And so after what seems like forever using Palms, why give up now? Well, in short, I can really only point to mild and often aesthetic improvements to the device between the usage of the Samsung i300 and current Treo 680. The physical and software interface got prettier. I got a SatNav (TomTom) with my Treo 680, but that wasn't really to do with the Treo itself. Other then that, it is really the same device in new packaging.

Now, my new Tytn II, what does it have?

From the software side of things, I am looking forward to a truly multi-threading OS (aghast, I never would have expected to brag about a Windows OS for THAT!). And I am looking forward to a real internet browser - the Palm browser really actually sucks.

From the hardware side of things, let's start with a GPS that is built-in. That is a feature that the Treo 680 should have had, but well, no. And the TyTn also gives me high speed internet over the phone, WiFi acces, a camera that will actually take GOOD quality pictures, and more.

But most of all, I can't wait to enjoy that slide out keyboard. The device is about the same size, even maybe smaller, then my Treo 680. But they have managed to cram in a keyboard that is much more useful for texting, etc. I don't know why someone didn't think of this 10 years ago, but I love it.

Anyhow, stay tuned for more details on what I think about the device. Perhaps I will even get all corny and post an unboxing video. :)

Before I go, here are a couple links to Duke Carico's website. Duke explains in more detail exactly the sorts of reasoning behind why I was a Treo fan and why I am now jumping ship.

• Treo Frustrations
• Time for a Change
• First Impressions
• TyTn II vs Treo

Hopefully I will be as satisfied as the Duke.