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?

September 5th, Apple announces new iPod hardware – which iPod are you? Not surprising considering early rumors spoke of such updates weeks ago. What was not expected was the significant price-drop for the hottest selling smartphone last month [July 2007], the Apple iPhone. How significant of a price-drop? $200. As an early [iPhone] adopter, I was a little flustered with the news.

A few thoughts that came to mind after reading the news:

• As Apple’s hottest selling device, the iPod has never had as significant of a price-drop in a period less than 2 years, let alone 2 months.
• News of software / hardware SIM unlocking (confirmed by CNN) surely made at&t unhappy. Apple obviously does not "technically" condone such activities. However, 3rd party iPhone unlocking only translates into more money coming Apple’s way.
• Check here for the 4GB iPhone ($299) while supplies last. Otherwise, look for $299 [refurbished] Phone’s in the Apple Refurb store. Trust me, they’ll hit the refurb store within the new few weeks (or sooner). Check daily because as soon as they go up, they’ll all be spoken for by the end of the day.
• Umm, two months equals twice the storage – 8GB to 16GB? Come on Apple, admit it! These were ready at the end of June but the idea of making an extra $200 off of early adopters for an 8GB iPhone was too hard to resist.
• That iPhone Touch looks quite empty with 7 applications on the SpringBoard and 4 in the dock. *cough*. Better hurry up and get those 99 cent downloads to load Dashboard widgets on to the iPod Touch / iPhones.
• Speaking of 99 cent downloads… I can understand charging 99 cents for custom ringtones, but doing so for customers who have already purchased the song?! $1.98 + tax to purchase the complete song and have the matching ringtone? Psh, Ambrosia’s iToner is only $15 (alternatives below).
• Want to sell more of these handsets Apple? Hurry up and get Mobile iChat with support for AIM + Google Talk.

As difficult as it is to stomach the $200 price change, I’ll forgive you Apple. As long as you hurry up and bring MacBook Pro revisions with a model to replace the classic 12" PowerBook – give us a MacBook Pro Mini. If such hardware is released, I promise to be an early adopter again.

* Maybe send early iPhone adopters a free Bluetooth headset voucher eh?
** iPhone and soon to be iPod Touch users should check out some of the following alternatives to personalize their devices: Installer.app Beta, iFuntastic, and Shaun Inman’s An Easy SSH / SFTP iPhone Installer.

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