Rampant Gadget Temptation

Now that I am in the midst of a long-term payment plan to eradicate all of my debt there is not much leisure room for my daily spending...actually there is hardly any at all. Every dollar spent must be for necessities and remain within a reasonable scope of responsibility...and I am hating this to no end! Although this plan is the best for my financial future, I still find myself from time to time being tempted by more tech toys that I cannot afford. All I can say is that at this point it is a great thing that I have rid myself of all credit card spending to avoid digging myself into a deeper hole. What makes this whole experience so very frustrating is that no matter how hard I attempt to be content with my Nokia E71-2 device the temptation for newer items still lingers like a haunting spirit. At one point I did go through a period of an addiction when I did use my credit for the wrong reason of obtaining new gadgets and then returning them when I grew tired of them within the 15 or 30 day period. There were a number of factors that led to my need to satisfy my urge for that brand new unboxing of a new device and I am glad that I have addressed them all, but I am human nonetheless. As I sit here in the early hours of the morning and type on this wonderful E71-2 that is so amazingly reliable in numerous ways, there are some new toys that grab my attention at this time. I have found a healthy way to deal with these temptations such as my business partnership with Nokia WonWorld that sponsors trial periods with review units, and I am looking to create the same with other companies as well. If I can still reap the benefit of playing with new toys for review purposes without having to pay for it, then I can garner the best of both worlds. Either way I am still extremely happy to have settled for my E71-2 since it has seamlessly become an intricate part of my personal network, even though my eyes do tend to wander often.

Two phone models that currently peak my curiosity are the Palm Treo Pro and HTC Touch Pro, but more so the Treo Pro. After a most unimpressive experience with the TouchFlo interface of a friend's Touch Diamond for a day I cannot say that the Touch Pro slide qwerty will automatically win marks of high interest from me right off the bat (especially without AT&T 3G). I guess the only intriguing factor of this new HTC is the qwerty keypad with its new layout, but everything else appears to be run-of-the-mill Windows Mobile fare as far as the OS is concerned. Overall there really isn't much of a reason to spend top dollar for this when its features don't seem to be worthwhile. After watching an online video account from pocketnow.com I found that the build quality may not be totally foolproof and reliable, which is MORE worse considering the retail price of this thing ($900 approximately)! From the track record of previous Windows Mobile devices I have owned I am almost willing to bet money that the multimedia features will be the usual standard of mediocrity. While the Touch Pro does have a minor part of my interest, I think that the price for right now should go down further before people start to go for a new qwerty layout, a new interface, a reworked front face and a slimmer form factor from the previous TyTN 2.

The Treo Pro has caught my attention since the other day that Palm had announced it on their official website...and it's a darn shame I stopped using Missing Sync for Windows Mobile on my Mac! To this day I feel that my Treo 750 is a most reliable and portable model for the Windows Mobile platform, but it can never compete with the Nokia E71-2 in design and build quality. It wasn't until this new Treo incarnation appeared that I seriously felt that my Nokia E71-2 really has a potential contender in the smartphone world. The new addition of wifi and GPS, a flush screen display, a new Centro-inspired qwerty keypad and slimmer dimensions really make this Palm version stand out as a worthwhile upgrade from the 750. But despite all the physical enhancements I am equally assuming that its multimedia capabilities will be just as lacklustered as the Touch Pro from HTC. Being that I recently read a story that HTC is the manufacturer of this product, there is a chance that the build quality could be compromised as well.

I will in the meantime keep eyes open for any new reviews on either one of these models for more information,

TRENT
Sent from my Nokia E71-2