So I have decided to retire my Sprint PPC 6700, a device that runs Windows Mobile 5.0 and has simultaneous access to voice networks, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Sprint's broadband (EVDO). I frequently used this phone as a wireless modem and connected my laptop to the internet on the train. This phone is quite possibly one of the coolest devices I've ever owned.

So, if it's so cool, then why would I retire it? Well, the bottom line is that this phone is a swiss army knife. Sure, it has a phone in it, but the audio quality sucks and the dialing experience is really bad. Plus, having my cheek resting against a sensitive touch screen during a phone call is just begging for trouble. It runs Windows Mobile 5.0, which means my phone regularly crashes, slows down, or freezes up. Any idea how much I hate having to reboot my phone?? Because it is running Windows Mobile 5.0 on the same battery as my phone, it basically sucks battery like mad.

In addition, when not making poor quality calls using this device, 99% of the rest of the time I was using the device as a broadband modem for my laptop. This heated the phone up and sucked it's battery dry - about 30 minutes of use as a modem and the device is pretty much empty.

So... I decided that I would have the best of both worlds. I bought a Sierra broadband card (gets about 700 kbs with just 1 bar of signal!!) and I now use that for my internet access and I bought a Katana, which I use for my phone. Why?

The Katana is a kick-ass phone and the Sierra is a kick-ass mobile broadband card and the mobile broadband card also works on Mac OS X, so I can use it with either laptop! In short I wanted a phone that was good at being a phone, and an internet device that was good at being an internet device.

I am fantastically pleased that I no longer have to carry a 400 pound brick on my waist (the PPC 6700) just to use as the occasional-use phone and frequent-use overheating internet modem. I now have a really slim phone that is a really good phone, and a really lightweight little doohickey that I plug into my laptop for really fast mobile internet access.

The reason I'm blogging about this is simple: I am seeing a progression right now towards devices that do everything. Mobile phones that give you TV and web surfing and internet via modem, etc. I am sick of choosing a single device that provides a relatively poor experience for all of its intended uses when I can get the best of breed performance by choosing the right tool for the job.

This idea of choosing the best of class for providing the best experience carries over into other things, such as choosing the right development language, the right compiler, and the right operating system.

tags: sprint  ppc6700  katana  phones  broadband
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