Naturally, as time progresses, personal interest and taste change; replaced with new interest(s). Despite my own attempts to persuade myself to ignore the urge, I rarely follow through with my intention(s) to resist falling for the next latest & [purportedly] greatest gadget. Call it a pricey hobby, an infatuation, a crazy lust for all things shiny and electronic. There are very few items that manage to hold my attention and interest long enough to die a slow and natural death of overuse, abuse, and accidental breakage.

The most difficult urge? Mobile phones. As revisions and updates surface, cellphones become more and more advanced packing a more powerful "punch" than preceding handsets. Try as hard as I might – even going as far as ignoring tech sites and forums whose sole purpose is to focus on mobile phones – a small glimpse of a thumbnail is enough to send me careening for more information and a means to acquire a handset for my own use. It seems like only yesterday the amazing Nokia N95 was all I could think about, then the Apple iPhone dropped on to the scene, now… The HTC TyTN II Kaiser.

Deciding to give the HTC TyTN II Kaiser a proper break-in and thorough use before reviewing, I thought it might be interesting to recall my first, second, third – and all the way up to my current mobile handset [in chronological order].

• Motorola V8160 – This was my first and probably the smallest flip phone that I have ever or will ever own.
• Nokia 8290 – I think everyone had one of these phones at some point in their life. Nearly bombproof, the 8290 was a true warrior of a handset.
• Nokia 8390 – My favorite mini candy bar handset from Nokia; that white backlit display was just perfect.
• Sony Ericsson T68i – My first color screen handset. Nice to look at [for its time] but incredibly slow.
• Nokia 7250i – My first decent camera phone. The T68i didn’t count because it required an external camera.
• Siemens SL56 – A tiny slider that didn’t last too long. The cramped keyboard was too small for heavy SMS messaging.
• NEC 525 – Large vibrant screen but cumbersome phone software.
• SideKick (color) – Sometimes you just end up with a sour lemon.
• SideKick II – I assumed the 2nd generation SideKick was going to be better. *cough*
• Treo 650 – My first experience with Palm. Juggling multiple applications was great.
• Samsung A920 – A complimentary handset from Sprint. Samsung made a solid flip phone that doubled as an EVDO modem for tethering.
• Treo 700p – An updated case and OS provided an even better Palm experience than the Treo 680. No other threaded SMS app comes close, unless you count the iPhone.
• Samsung Upstage – A complimentary handset from Sprint. The two LCD screen design is more inconvenient than convenient.
• BlackBerry 8703e – A solid BlackBerry device.
• BlackBerry 8100 Pearl – The slim form factor was great, the keyboard layout, not high on my list of favorites.
• Nokia N95 – A true power packed Nokia candybar slider. 5MP camera, 30 fps recording, GPS, Symbian.. Nearly perfect. Well actually, now that the 3G US version is out… It just might be.
• BlackBerry 8300 Curve – The slim form factor of the Pearl, but a full-size keyboard reminiscent of my first BlackBerry the 8703e.
• Apple iPhone – The easiest phone to open, charge, and start using. A high resolution touch screen that still has its faults.
• HTC TyTN ii Kaiser – My first Windows Mobile (6) device. I’ll share my thoughts regarding my feeling of switching from the iPhone to the Kaiser.

* There were a few other handsets between the first and current handsets but their names have slipped my mind.

The list will go on. But for now, I’m overwhelmed with the HTC TyTN ii Kaiser. Check back for an update which will share my experiences switching from Apple’s all touch-screen iPhone to a Windows powered Smartphone. That Apple iPhone could never be labeled a true Smartphone anyway… right? What handsets did you own, and which among them was your favorite?