Man has for ages been bound yet amazed by technology. From the wheel to the printing press to the electric nose hair trimmer we keep pushing the limits of what we know and apply the new knowledge in our daily lives. Once in a while something comes along that radically changes everything. Soon we see the latest example of this: the HTC Tytn II.
Why am I so excited about this phone? Well lets start from the beginning. My Treo 750 died in the line of fire...it met its fate one day as a bowl of soup unexpectedly opened up inside of my work bag and as I am loath to wear my phone on me, I left the phone inside the bag too. Needless to say it was a sticky situation. Immediately I set out to find a new phone and after much research found the HTC Kaiser now the HTC Tytn II.
The Treo 750 was a fine phone but it did have its limitations. The low resolution square screen, ridiculously short battery life, poor camera, no native Java support built-in (you can always download a third-party program but they always seemed buggy to me), and Palm's poor track record at fixing problems and providing software upgrades--perhaps this is a limitation due to its partnership with ATT/Cingular.
Will the Tytn II be a better phone than the Treo? Without the phone in my hand and no experience with it I can't say. However, on paper it does far exceed the Treo. A better screen, slightly larger battery, higher-resolution camera, JAVA support, GPS, TouchFlo interface (which is sort of a joke since it still relies on Windows Mobile to launch apps), WiFi, a front facing camera for video calls and loads of memory. I will be getting an unlocked phone so I won't be hamstrung by the limitations of ATT or any service provider. Alas, the front-facing camera on the phone used for video calling won't be supported by ATT so it looks like ATT gets the last laugh.
Speaking of the video calling feature, HTC needs to work on its marketing. I understand the phone (at least the original Tytn II and not the upcoming variant for ATT supposedly the called ATT Tilt) is meant for the European market. But the photo of the long-haired dude next to the small picture of the lady is totally wrong. I don't know what the market is like in Europe, but buyers of these phones are mostly dudes with cash aka ballahs in American parlance and a picture of a long-haired guy on the phone is unlikely to pique anyone's interest any further. If anything, the pictures should be reversed OR if that's too blatantly sexist, then I suggest a baby and a suit-wearing executive (i.e. male or female); take your pick on the larger photo, either works, it gets the same point across and everybody loves babies!!! I suggest HTC hire me on as a market consultant. (The genesis of the term ballah will be an issue taken up in a future post.)
So I shall wait patiently for this phone to arrive. I bought an unlocked RAZR to fulfill my communications needs(I know, the horror, the horror...) and anyone knows once you go PDA you never go back so it's been tough these last few weeks. It reminds me of one time when I lost my ethernet connection in my dorm room back in my freshman daze. Shizite that was painful, big dummies shut off my port because they for some reason saw two IP addresses from my port and didn't bother telling me about it. I didn't have two machines hooked up so I don't know how it happened, but it took forever to figure out it out. At least I still have internet access at home and work, but sometimes when you're out and about and you need to Google something, that PDA (with a full QWERTY keyboard) is so nice to have.
BTW, the LARA bars were delicious. As far as new flavors go, pistachio isn't so great but the Jocolat Mint is off the chain, if you like brownies with mint flavor and I do. I bought some pecan pie bars and have yet to try them. I used to make some mean pecan pies myself back in the day, from scratch mind you. Those were the days.
