After switching from goofy Phone-o-saurus 8125 to my Samsung A737, my phone bill has dropped from $128 a month to $100.

Fuck yes.

This weekend was so fucking pretty I went outside and stayed out there until I got a sunburn. Tuned up the bikes some, bought a new Brooks Flyer for the Raleigh at Clever Cycles, which is easily one of the most awesome bike stores on the planet.

I leave you with this.

And this

Once upon a time, I worked at a school district doing computer support. I was doing a big deployment of PII machines with Justice and PetePete when we came upon the following story. Printed in bright red, on a sheet of paper ringed with poinsettia clip-art. Hanging on a wall of stories in a lab, under the word “Imagination”. Unable to resist, we all made copies, and Fargo found mine in the garage.

Because I am incapable of drawing up the concentration to write anything of merit, this will have to do.

The Man eating rabbit
By robert

A man eating rabbit was on the loose in a submarine. It was under there for a long time. Finally, the submarine came up. A man eating rabbit was on the loose in a submarine. It The rabbit jumped out, and ate everyone except me. I had a gun, so I shot it, but it didn’t get hurt. Then it jumped on me. It started eating my finger. I shot it again, this time in the forehead. Its brains went all over the place. It died, and everyone came alive, then I shot everyone !!!!!!!!!

THE END

This is a pretty accurate indictment of Windows Mobile devices. I say pretty accurate because Extremetech is not the finest tech journal out there, and also because I don’t really think that the iPhone is all that hot. Sure, it’s got a GREAT user interface, really game changing design. But the fact of the matter is it’s a last gen device, even at launch. EDGE data? Really? I had that on my HTC Wizard. It’s slow as balls.

So I found myself stuck with the choice of another Windows Mobile phone with 3G data, a Palm Centro (same problem as the iPhone, neat as a pin, but only EDGE), switching providers for something like a Sidekick (not gonna happen), or no smartphone options at all. Then I went over to my mom’s house and she was playing with her Samsung clamshell phone and we got to talking about battery life, she told me she usually has to charge it twice a week, maybe three times. This from a woman who talks on the phone probably 4 hours a day. To put this in perspective, with the Wizard, I had to charge it every day, even though I probably do less than four hours of talking a week. Granted, I used the bluetooth DUN for data on my laptop, but even disregarding that, if I let the phone go without a charge all weekend, Monday morning it was dead, whether I got a call or not.

In short, my whizbang all you can eat do it all 200mhz pocket computer from the future was suddenly being outshined in primary functionality by a free clamshell phone.

So I went to the AT&T store and looked around at the 3G smartphones, and the Centro, and the iPhone, and eventually I settled… on a regular slider phone with 3G data. It’s fucking amazing. The battery life is easily twice what the Wizard was for data tethering. The standby on the battery is ten times as long. And the 3G data? You know how they call things mobile broadband? This is what they mean. Edge is mobile.. internet. Ish. HSDPA is mobile broadband. 30-60Kbps downloads, snappy responsiveness. I no longer have to reconnect five or six times a day. It’s bliss. Samsung A737, if it weren’t for your funky nonstandard charger port, I’d say you were the perfect phone. As it is, you’re better than the alternatives.