As my 3 year old cell-phone continues to cough and sputter its last ounces of battery life, I find myself vaguely in the market for a new one. Sure, I could probably make do with it for another year or so, or even buy an expensive battery replacement. But why spend $100+ on a new battery (the actual cost since my phone is discontinued) when I can spend $200 on a completely new phone that not only handles phone calls and voice mail, but email, web surfing, digital pictures, and games. I actually have new distinct directions I can go in. First, and I have PA to thank for this, I could get a HipTop from Danger Inc. It’s slick, it’s cool, it looks like a blackberry with more features AND I could even update my website with it. That would be cool. The service providers have yet to be determined however which makes me a little leary.

My other option is Sprints new service PCS Vision, a service which is almost exactly the same thing as the HipTop. The upside of the sprint deal would be that since I already have a sprint service agreement, I’d only need to upgrade the phone. I think the service charge difference is approx $4.99 and their customer service department is usually good about deals. I called to add minutes to my plan last year and they moved me up to the next service bracket for less than the service should have costed, all to “keep me as a valued customer” since my contract was going to expire.

At any rate, we may finally be getting cell phones as cool as our overseas counterparts. The phone markets in places like the UK and Japan are years ahead of the US and have been since we so geniusly deregulated the whole cellphone/digital infastructure. Sure, it creates competition, but companies are more worried about getting subscribers than giving us the newest technology to play with. Take the UK for example. I think they have 2 (maybe) service providers. So, it’s becomes a question of “which company has the coolest features and phones” instead of “will my service work here” or “whats this companies rate structure.” Then again, I’m probably the only one that want to play pac-man on his phone anyways.

Later.