After a lot of soul searching, I came to the conclusion that while I could not afford to buy an AT&T Fuze on a financial basis, I also discovered that I could not afford to keep my original HP iPAQ h5555 and put-off buying the AT&T Fuze until later.
The HP iPAQ h5555 has outlived it’s usefulness for me. It has WM2003 as the OS (putting me five versions behind the current OS), 128Megs of memory, no VGA, no Phone (so I have to carry a separate cell phone), no GPS (so I have to carry a separate GPS receiver), no slide-out keyboard, and no data plan to be able to surf the Internet from anywhere.
For example, I most certainly need a newer mobile device in order to continue to be able to provide useable technical support to users in the Windows Mobile Total Access forums. Almost all of the new users in those forums have a newer device with Windows Mobile 5, or the newer WM6 and WM6.1, so it becomes infinitely harder to provide technical support when you don’t have the benefit of owning a newer device yourself.
Yet again, I most certainly need a newer mobile device in order to be able to provide technical support to users in the GPS Tuner forums. This device, like a lot of other devices that GPS Tuner users own, provides users with a built-in GPS radio, so that I can use 3rd party GPS Navigation software right on the device. GPS Tuner also makes use of various online maps (Google Maps, Topo Maps, etc), so having a device that is capable of using an Internet data plan will go a long ways towards helping me troubleshoot additional capabilities of the program.
As a Microsoft MVP for Mobile Devices, it helps to have a newer mobile device in order to compare notes and professional opinions on the very same newer devices that my peers own and use on a daily basis.
As a Product Reviewer and Writer at MobilitySite, it helps to have a more recent mobile device in order to properly evaluate 3rd party programs and software, since most of the newer programs won’t even install on older PDAs.
And finally, as a Mobile Technology Enthusiast, Professional Writer, and Independent Consultant, it helps to have all the best tools available in order to help you perform your job, no matter where you might find yourself.
So, I bought the AT&T Fuze, and I’m ever so happy that I did! I expect to continue delving into this device for at least the next month or so, as this is my first modern day device in the last 5 years.
More to come in the following days (presuming I remember to come up for air).