That's a pretty good article, Murph. I agree with the author.
The Palm Pre certainly has a lot of hoopla going for it. I used to love Palm's, but their lack of innovation turned me off to them. The Pre's all-new though, so it should hold promise. The major problem with it (for me) is that the only carrier for it is Sprint. I had Sprint for a while a few years back, the customer service was so lousy that I do not intend to ever go back.
The G1 is a pretty slick device too, and T-Mobile's customer service is top notch. Better than AT&T. Again, from my experience. The problem with TM is (for me!) the coverage area. In several places where I needed a phone, T-Mobile had no service and no roaming agreements - so zero phone service, which is pretty much unacceptable. Still, if I had to give up my iPhone, the G1 is where I'd be. Even if I had to buy one unlocked for use on AT&T's network.
I've used a lot of these devices. From the Sharp Zaurus ZR-5000 back in Junior High (yeah, really... I didn't get many dates...), an old Apple Newton, to a couple of Psion's in High School, to an original Palm Pilot as I went through college, to standing in line at my local Best Buy for a Compaq iPaq, then a whole torrent of devices as I've "grown up". WindowsMobile PDA's, Blackberries, Treo's, Linux Sharp Zaurii, etc. I haven't used every one of them, but I've used enough to know what works and what doesn't (again, of course, for me). Yes, I have a PDA problem.
For me, the iPhone is the best one yet. It "just works". It's the first device of it's kind I've ever had that didn't leave me with a, "yeah, but it can't do X" feeling. It does not really feel like a 'compromise' device, like every other PDA I've ever used has. And I am not an Apple fanboy, really, I'm not. But I have to give Apple credit on the iPhone - they did a nice job.
Voice quality is on par with anything else, the email works well, and the web browsing is far superior to anything else I've ever used. That's the holy trinity for me. The app store and the integration with iTunes is just icing on the cake. It's not even that expensive, compared to the $500+ that I have spent on other devices.
It's not perfect. For email and text messaging, Blackberries are still king. I don't mind the on-screen keyboard of the iPhone, but if you've really got to bang-out an email, a Blackberry is superior. Push email is still kludgy on the iPhone, where it's darn-near perfect on a BB.
And Google integration is far superior on the G1. Push GMail is probably the one feature that the iPhone lacks that is an irritation for me.
Good luck!!!
