Greetings All,

New here, so hope I'm not being redundant.

I'm a mac user, and that's certainly not changing. But, I'm also a Treo700p user, and that might change. I neither hate it nor love it. Have been using a treo of some flavor for a bit over two years now, but (I'm sure) not to its potential. Life Balance, I suspect, could change that. But, before I roll up my sleeves and start setting up the ap, I need to make some decisions about my handheld.

First, I suspect that my current phone will fail soon (recently out of warranty and already making inexplicable chirping and beeping sounds). Second, I just moved and now also find myself in the market for an internet provider. One of the candidates is a smart phone much like my treo, which I'll use as a broadband modem to port in connectivity to my laptop. Actually, I currently use my treo in this way, and it is serviceable, but not particularly zippy. I've read that Sprint's network is speedier than Verizon's (my current provider). Switching would entail getting a new phone, and the HTC Touch has caught my eye (a Windows Mobile gizmo).

Also a candidate for home connectivity is an aircard. But, since I recently moved from a MBP to a MB, it would have to be the USB modem, which is presumably slower than the ExpressCard version. Thus, my first question is which internet setup would be the better value. If the aircard isn't that much zippier than the tethered phone, then I'd probably go with the phone. I welcome comments on this, though this isn't really my central question or why I'm on this board.

As a hardcore mac junkie, I simply can't think about a new handheld without considering the iPhone. But--and it pains me to say this--I'm not sure that it isn't more "toy" than "potential life organizer." Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that it's an OS X phone. iCal rocks beyond measure. (Safari is so-so.) To be frank, I don't really need youtube, facebook, and such on my phone. I occasionally text and very rarely chat. In fact, the internet on my treo is so sluggish and cumbersome on the tiny screen that it's a deterrent to surfing (optimized mode yields the least intuitive presentation of a webpage imaginable and wide mode is akin to walking across town while viewing the world through a microscope--I simply can't take in enough at a time to find my way). So, I'm not really sure that full-on web-browsing is something I'm likely to use, even on an iPhone. I'd probably ditch data altogether, except that I've grown attached to email on the go (and have GPS-in-my-hand aspirations).

Now you see why I'm here: the time line for getting an iPhone version of Life Balance might feature quite centrally in my decision. Are we talking months? Single or double digits? Years? Surely it is a massive undertaking. But, my commitment to a new provider is likely to be two years. And, buying a gizmo with Life Balance as part of the justification for the purchase is how, in part, I'll prod myself into actually setting it up and giving it a serious whirl.

Compare the iPhone option with the HTC Touch alternative: the Touch is Life Balance ready, right out of the box. And, it promises a zippier internet connection, with built-in DUN capabilities (not cobbled in the way that Verizon is notorious for doing to such hardware capabilities). On the down side, it's windows driven. I'd likely use a third party sync ap (which I use now, anyway). And, the iPhone is $150 more than the Touch at a whopping $400 (as compared to the Touch's $250 price tag). As a final point, AT&T's coverage in my area--about an hour and a half north of NYC--is mediocre, when compared to the solid coverage of Verizon and the comparable (if not identical) coverage of Sprint. Not sure how they compare in other areas, but I only travel 5 or 6 times a year and then for only a few days at a time.

Of course, I could sit tight with my current set-up and see how things go, though I'm likely paying for slower service than I'd be getting for the same money, perhaps even a bit less, through Sprint.

Any thoughts on the handheld choice? Comments on using a Windows Mobile device with a Mac? Thoughts about iPhone prospects, things I might have overlooked?

Cheers!