I recently had the distinct misfortune to misplace my cell phone. Yup. I lost the darn thing. As I searched frantically to find it, one day gave way to two days, which gave way to a week. For those five days it seemed like I was unplugged, out of touch, dejected. It was awful. Getting a new one turned out to be quite a pain in the patootie as well, as I quickly learned that my wireless carrier’s customer service was apparently trained at the same place as my last accountant (the Proverbial School of Un-Accountability).

I had been contemplating upgrading to a more integrated device (my old phone was a plain vanilla phone, no extra functionality really), so I guess losing it made the decision a little easier. I’ll probably find the old one next week, but who cares! I have my new phone now! Nevertheless, I finally got my Treo 650 provisioned, loaded up, and running like a champ. My laptop may never leave my office again.

Here are the top 10 things I love about the Treo 650:

1. The ability to finally get my email on my handheld. This is a tremendous feature for me, as my email can be a bit voluminous. I currently have three difference email clients installed on the device: SnapperMail, Xpress Mail, and Versamail. I haven’t decided which one I’ll use in the long run, but they are all functional.
2. The ability to surf the web. This is a great ability to have when I’m on the go. If I need to hit Mapquest, Google, or Yahoo!, I can do so quickly and easily.
3. The ability to work over Telnet/SSH connections. The other night I was on my way to a networking event here in Atlanta and I had some time to kill. I sat in the lobby of a nearby Starbuck’s and used the Treo to log into one of our Linux servers via SSH. I then proceeded to download, compile, install, and configure the latest build of the Postfix MTA server - all on a little 320 x 320 pixel display. Yes, I may love the business side of things these days, but I’m still a geek at heart. After all, doesn’t everyone sit around in coffee shops compiling fresh builds of SMTP servers via their cell phone? Man, that’s convergence for you.
4. Bluetooth! I love being able to use my Bluetooth portable keyboard, as well as my wireless headset, although I wish I could use both at the same time. No biggie, though.
5. This is going to sound stupid, but I love the speaker phone. My last phone had this feature as well, and I found myself using it quite a bit, especially in the car or in ad hoc conference call situations. They make external Bluetooth speakerphone add-ons as well, but I haven’t actually tried one yet.
6. I love not having to carry a separate Palm Pilot around, in addition to my phone! Having the integrated PDA is a nice perk. Plus, I can pull up someone in my contact database, and dial straight from there.
7. Since its a PDA, I can synch with Outlook at the office. A must!
8. I love being able to impress my friends (both of them) by opening up a PalmVNC session and manipulating my Windows XP desktop which is running back at the office. It usually takes people a few minutes to pick their jaws up off the ground after seeing it. A little slow, but functional.
9. I find that the ability to use the Xpress Mail client to access my remote files (the ones on my office PC) and actually email them to someone from the phone is a powerful tool in my mobile arsenal. Another jaw-dropper. The other evening I was attending a networking event, and emailed a technology whitepaper that was on my office hard drive to a guy standing right in front of me. His comment back to me? “Wow.”
10. I love the built-in keyboard - I find it to be fairly intuitive, and easy to use, even when composing messages that run a little long.

Of course, now I look like many of the people that I used to loath. I’ve got my Bluetooth headset on, my head is down, and I’m tap-tap-tapping my way around town.

And of course, this little article wouldn’t be complete without me mentioning that a week after buying the Treo 650, they rolled out the Treo 700. Blech!

Happy holidays to everyone, and best wishes for a very successful and rewarding 2006!

Cheers.
Scott