Well, I've been delaying asking about this, because I felt like I should make at least a nominal effort to educate myself before hand, but then I realized that education is something I just finished, so I may as well just post.

Sprint Sucks. My Samsung phone Sucks. My Palm IIIc is old.

I need replacements.

Nominally, I want something that combines my cell phone and organizer into one device, because as I grow larger in the lethargy of unemployment, I no longer have the pocket space to fit multiple devices. I also want something that I can use for checking email, doing "web stuff", and in an ideal world being able to connect to the servers via SSH from...I don't think anything supports that yet..

I won't go back to Sprint, half the point of this is to stop giving them money. I'm also on my second Samsung phone to have really irritating breakage (the first one stopped allowing me to listen to the folks I was having conversations with, and the current one likes to fool me about whether its charged or not, so I often end up with a phone that has no battery after sitting on the charging stand for a few hours).

The three things I know of that have most of what I want are:

• Danger's Sidekick [danger.com]: this is cool, and probably what I'll get if I don't find something better. The two things I don't like about it are that Jon has one, and for redundancy (posting to the site-type) purposes, I think we should have separate service providers; and that it stores your organizer stuff in their machines, I like to keep that local. (integration with Apple's address book and iCal are a bonus.)
• Handspring's Treo [handspring.com]: I know almost nothing about these. I know they're more expensive and I could continue to use my existing Palm integration stuff. This is all good. Price seems to be....higher. They're also currently running an older version of Palm OS, and with Palm's purchase of Handspring purchase, I'm curious about what's going to happen with that...Maybe now is a bad time to buy one of these.
• Blackberry [blackberry.com]: I know virtually nothing about these, but figured I would include it for completeness.

So..suggestions, comments, places to look, etc?

Samsung I330 (newer version of the I300).....the I300 was the first color pda-phone....and the I330 is the natural extension of it. I have both and they are great. Only downside is that it is only for Sprint, but it does have 3G and it is a palm device. Or, if you can wait untill sometime this summer, the Samsung I500 will be coming out, which will be a smaller clamshell style phone/pda (much smaller than the treo). Personally, I like having a big screen for the palm, and having the buttons be on the display isn't really a problem, especially since i can just scroll through the palm address book and hit the button on the side of the device to dial someone.

Wait six months for the iPod/cell phone combo?

No, it's not announced.

Yes, it's gonna be coming SOME time.

No, I don't know that. It's just obvious.

In Response to zamphir (#6174):

Does the iPod currently have any Palm sort of features? I don't recall any such thing from the last time I looked, but it has been a while since I drooled over an iPod ("I'm cute dammit. I'm functional").

In Response to Oedipa_Maas (#6179):

The iPod is ever so slowly moving toward the PDA level of electronic evolution in as much that you can now play solitaire on it and have some contact/calandar information , but i think phillip will have used at least 2 other devices before that's an available option.

Part of my job is interfacing to cell phones for test equipment, and I totally agree that Sprint Sucks. In every market I've visited, Verizon seems to be the best provider for kicking ass in terms of reliability and data throughput.

Now, I'm not a New Yorker, but I know that Verizon offers service up there. It may be worth your while to check them out. I'm anti-"Pocket PC", but they offer the Samsung SPH-i700, which is a little all-in-one device like the Audiovox Thera (which was, by the way, a great pocket PC but a total hunk of crap as a phone). They also offer the Kyocera 7135, which is a Palm OS-based machine that is still very phone-sized. It's cute. I've not yet really played with either beyond the "oh, here's the phone, make it talk," stage, so I can't claim either is reliable or useful. Both are, of course, 1x RTT capable (i.e. high-speed data).

I wasn't taken by the original Blackberry devices (they seemed only useful for email), and the Treo was pretty cool but you can only get it on Sprint's network if you want actual useful data rates -- GSM/GPRS (i.e. Cingular/T-Mobile) data throughputs have been quite miserable in all the markets I've seen, and the technology limits them to miserable throughputs. Stick with CDMA.

If you want the skinny on any of the underlying technologies, what the real data throughputs are (both forward- and reverse-link), or just have mobile phone technology questions in general, feel free to email me.

In Response to introp (#6182):

On the other hand, Verizon has crappy customer service.

But I suppose that's true of all phone companies these days.

In Response to introp (#6182):

What is it everyone hates about Sprint? I always hear people say "Sprint sucks", but only in vague terms and without clarifications. Why not just take it the next step and replace the S with a dollar sign and start flame wars on slashdot?

Personally, I kind of like Sprint. Mostly because so far they're the only company I've used that hasn't screwed up my account, drastically raised their rates, messed up my bill, or murdered my family. Plus, they're not Verizon -- guilty of at least three of the four preceding problems. MCI and AT&T also had similar problems, but not the sheer incompetence level I've found with Verizon.

I'm also thinking about upgrading, my PCS phone is getting already three years old and only in monochrome; I feel pretty emasculated these days. Of all the choices out there, I'd probably go to Sprint first...but that's just because they haven't fucked me yet.

In Response to misere (#6187):

ok...while I have limited (read "no") experience with other companies...

I dislike Sprint because:

• They have screwed up my billing more than once, and I have had to spend (multiple hours of) my time on hold to finally find someone who claimed to fix it. For the most irritating of the times i've had to deal with this, the first three times I called, they said it was fixed, but apparently lied. Their lies were not apparent until the same problem would show up on the next month's bill. Four months later (after I had apprently showed my mettle) they stopped trying to stiff me and I was refunded the money. I feel sorry for those who gave up, and Sprint was able to claim their money as profit for that quarter...yay shareholders. Although I'm oh-so-sure that it was all a misunderstanding.....
• There is a Sprint store down the block from me. They (admitted by the people who work there) use amplifiers within the store to increase reception. Outside my building, about a tenth of a mile (only one avenue) away I'm lucky to get my Sprint signal at all.
• Referring to the first complaint, why did I have to spend so much time on hold? Am I the customer? If so, look after me. If not, don't pretend. I don't have to support this crap.
• When you walk into that store, there are usually 3 or 4 sales people milling about with nothing to do. There are, simultaneously, a minimum of 20 people (this is not an exaggeration) waiting to get help for problems they are having with Sprint Apparently the salespeople don't notice that sales might be decreased when there are that many angry customers in the store...who knows why they act so useless. I would appreciate it if those of us already giving money to Spring were given some respect instead of just the potential new customers (who sometimes actually leave because the store looks so crowded from the existing customers).

In summary. Sprint displays all the characteristics of a company which hates their existing customers, and looks solely to new customers, who don't know better yet, to offset those who inevitably leave.

P.S.: I have to say, that reading this from the development version of our new forums interface is significantly nicer than what's live now.....I'm really looking forward to getting this out to the rest of you.

In Response to phillip (#6191):

Aha, that billing story sounds like the problems I was having with Verizon. We wouldn't receive bills until several days after they were due, and then when we tried to pay them anyway they claimed it took twenty days for mail to reach thir site and be processed...at which point our next bill would be due and we'd get even more late fees added. It took us about 6 months to for them to properly mail us bills that we could pay without involving time travel, and longer to get refunds for the unjust charges.

FWIW, My Sprint reception was terrible when I first got my phone about three years ago, but they dramatically increased coverage shortly thereafter. I really don't have any problems getting a signal now, unless I'm very deep inside a concrete building or travelling in rural parts of the country. I don't live among the skyscrapers of New York, but Pittsburgh is a very hilly region.

In Response to phillip (#6191):

From my experience, sprint has been great. The pricing was definately the cheapest for my voice plan, and now only $10 for unlimited data. Reception is great, after my first phone (an older samsung) there hasn't been anywhere in LA where I dont get digital signal, and standing next to people with ATT or Verizon having problems. I even get reception in the basement of a solid concrete building, where most people don't even get signal standing next to a window.

If you've had a bad experience w/ sprint.....don't expect it to be any better with anyone else....megacorps dont give a rats ass about their individual consumers as long as the overall numbers are always getting better