New Phone
I got tired of the Windows Mobile experience and decided to shop around for a new phone. The Blackjack was a decent enough phone, but I was paying quite a premium for a lot of features I wasn't really using. Windows Mobile phones are really best suited for corporate users who are connecting to an Exchange server and who manage all of their contacts, appointments, etc. in Outlook. Bleh. Not to mention, Cingular (well, AT&T now, I guess) charges twice as much for their unlimited data plan if your phone falls into the PDA or Smartphone category. Lame. On top of that, I run a lot of Google mobile apps these days, and they just don't run well on Windows Mobile, for one reason or another. Google Maps has a Windows Mobile version, but even that one gives me errors often, especially when panning quickly. I realize that's not Microsoft's problem, although I do blame them for the poor Java support. I've rarely had an issue with running Google mobile apps on my Blackberry.
I shopped around a bit and decided to go with the Helio Fin. This phone pretty much has everything I want, and I am going to cut my monthly bill by *more* than half. Not that money was the primary issue, but it doesn't hurt. It has a 3 MP camera, which is pretty sweet, and GPS, which is a feature I have been wanting very badly. So now Google Maps will show me my location as I drive around. It also geocodes any photos you take, which is a really cool feature. I'm looking forward to playing around with it. About the only thing I think I'll miss is the QWERTY keyboard. I guess I could have gotten an Ocean, but I've read mixed reviews about that phone. I'll probably do a little mini-review on the Fin (not that anyone cares, but it is a relatively new phone) once I've used it for a few days.