THE OFFICIAL BLOG OF THE SBS "DIVA"

All kidding aside, despite what my IM conversation with Susan would suggest, I really like my Audiovox SMT 5600 on which that chat was done. I never intended or expected to do IM with it, but I have a couple of times when I was okay with that need.

I use the smartphone for:

- My cell phone. Fits in my jeans watch pocket. Rests comfortably in my shirt pocket, drop it into pocket in slacks, it makes less of a ripple than keys do. I can take it anywhere and not feel like I'm hauling cargo. It's my cell phone.

- Bluetooth data pump. If I have my laptop or HP PocketPC, I'm about 60 seconds away from using the web anywhere. Case in point, at the SMBTN conference last summer, the hotel had promised broadband Internet access was provided within the large meeting room space. They were right. It was a DSL line shared with a couple hundred of our closest friends in the entire hotel. Suffice to say that during the conference, there were two kinds of folks in the room: Those really annoyed by unusable WiFi via the hotel DLS....and those of us on GPRS. In fact, I cheated. I bought a package from Cingular that includes unlimited Internet and email, but not GPRS. They don't say this, but if you use this phone with bluetooth connection (not USB!), you can use the GPRS without paying for it, so long as you get the authentication details right. This saves me $75/mo.

- Outlook sync. Let's face it, I think most everyone understands by now that I've got people sending me emails from around the world for Swing support...and that's truly a 24/7 world. I love having the ability to WATCH my emails. I'm not as fascinated with replying the instant they come in unless I see that I really need to be doing that. Having this phone as a T9 device actually encourages me to keep an eye on things, but not go "back to work" 7 days a week. If I really need to work more efficiently, I have the option when in a work day situation to (a) use my desktop computer (b) use my laptop with GPRS or WiFi (c) use a computer near me like in a hotel, customer office or whatever to get to my RWW connection to my own desktop (d) use my HP PocketPC if I want to be pocket sized. All my emails can be handled at either end, but I don't really do that much email response from the smartphone unless it's pretty simple stuff. With that said, we could take a poll of my customers who have gotten Swing support while I was at dinner, or on a Sat night from a bar, or when I was on vacation in Key West and yet still sending emails everyday for critical stuff. There's something to be said for being able to listen, without the immediate need to reply.

- Calendar. I'm really gaining an appreciation for this, I can see my schedule without carrying a lot more stuff around.

- Companion to Pocket PC and Bluetooth Keyboard. Yes, I do have both. I will admit, I don't think most non-IT people would see the sense of having a desktop computer, a laptop (or 2), a smartphone, a pocket PC...and a bluetooth keyboard and headset to work with both the smartphone and the pocket PC that have small interfaces. I find it convenient to have the option. When it's the weekend or I'm wandering on vacation or for business, the ability to add _my choice_ of Pocket PC as a client to the smartphone as data pump to GPRS is really cool. I can go months without using my pocket pc, but when I need to have better than T9, but don't want to lug around a laptop, I grab the pocket PC and I'm all set. Yes, I could buy a Pocket PC instead of the smartphone to do the same thing, but then I have a $600 device as my cell phone, and it's 2x size and weight, and not a trivial thing in my pocket even if it's pocket sized. I can also get days of use on my smartphone as opposed to hours.

- Vacation. I know, it doesn't sound like vacation, but it's not bad when you consider that I have the option to work from wherever I am 365 days a year. I really can. The only time I am really limited is while in the air on a plane, or when I'm doing speaking engagements all day at a conference and not able to keep up with emails. But when I was in Key West for a week, since I don't have anyone else to do my support, I would spend an hour in the morning and an hour before dinner to return my emails using my laptop and the GPRS feature of my smartphone. My hotel in Key West had no web service, but I could sit by the pool on my balcony and answer email, sip my island drink and be with my family at the same time. Then when we went walking on Duval St., I could drop my smartphone in my pocket and keep up by cell with the family and email was still being watched. The day we went out on a boat to go diving, I took the HP Pocket PC, and also the day we spend walking the shops. At lunch or a break, I could still pull the pocketpc out of my wallet sized swimsuit pocket and I'm quite functional for using stylus for detailed work.

- Choosing my cell phone. I really like picking a cell phone for it's job, and the data device that suits my need for the next several hours. I wouldn't want to be forced to choose Sprint for my pocketpc, or Verizon for that pocketPC. I like picking the device for data independently of the GPRS connection.