Everything Google? | the Little Projects of Shawn M. Jones

So, now that I’ve got everything on Google (and I mean everything), and have embraced cloud computing wholeheartedly, my Palm Treo 755p is no longer a sufficiently capable smartphone for my needs.

I’ve been getting frustrated with Palm over the past year.

Because the included web browser (Blazer) was so feature poor, I wanted to use Opera mini, but can’t. Palm no longer distributes IBM’s Java Virtual Machine for Palm OS, required to run Opera.

Because Palm offers no native way of synching calendar, tasks, and contacts with the Internet, I wanted to use Funambol, but can’t. Support for the Sync4j client on PalmOS is nonexistent, probably because the j in Sync4j stands for Java (see above note about the discontinued IBM JVM on Palm OS).

Palm, the once proud leader in mobile personal information managers has fallen far from grace.

So, of course, I’m looking for a replacement, and now Google Apps has put new requirements into my hands.

A year or more ago, I remember reading somewhere that Google was working on an environment for cell phones. So, I started checking up on Android, Google’s cell phone environment. T-Mobile offers the G1, but I hear it doesn’t have all of the kinks worked out and
I’m also a Sprint user.

A look at the Google Apps web site reveals an application called Sync which is designed to work with Blackberry smart phones. That indicates that Blackberry is also an option.

Switching to Verizon for an Android phone doesn’t seem to be an option, as Ars Technica reports they’ve ditched Android for LiMO.

So, I appear to have the following options so far:

Wait for Sprint to have a decent Android phone, which looks to be available from HTC sometime in the summer of 2009.
Get a nice existing Blackberry from Sprint.
Change to Verizon and get my hands on the Blackberry Storm, which I hear is the first touchscreen Blackberry and hence has bugs that RIM hasn’t worked out yet.

I’m attempting to make an informed decision and don’t want my impatience to get the best of me. Any suggestions?

More information:

Analysis: Google’s Android Phone and the Four Carriers – http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/gphone/analysis-the-android-google-phone-and-the-four-carriers-319127.php
Android Notebooks, Fact or Fiction – http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10130422-92.html
HTC G1 Hits T-Mobile in October, Android Phone for Sprint This Year – http://www.boygeniusreport.com/2008/09/17/htc-g1-hits-t-mobile-in-october-android-phone-for-sprint-this-year/
Sprint Getting an Android Phone This Year Too – http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/340/C16190/
Sprint says Android phone a matter of timing – http://www.electronista.com/articles/08/12/12/sprint.on.android.phone
Verizon picks Linux–but not Android–for mobile platform – http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080515-verizon-picks-linuxbut-not-androidfor-mobile-platform.html
Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Android

Dave Harris says:

01/11/2009 at 19:05

Depends on how much you like sprint. Verizon’s network is THE BEST despite the fact that they’re so pricey, especially for data plans (but that will change with the Verizon GSM switch whenever it occurs). Also depends on when your contract is up, you can get phones for cheap then. Or you can buy a crackberry now, switch to an Android sprint phone later, and sell the crackberry on craigslist (keep it in good condition!)