After almost a year of being a "segregated" cell phone user (I used Virgin Mobile no contract plan) basically waiting for something to catch my eye, finally took the plunge and got myself into an evil 2-year contract with t-mobile, the phone? the HTC myTouch (Also known as HTC Magic).

I couldn't be happier, the beast is using Linux 2.6.27, heck I am using 2.6.29 in my "bleeding-edge" Fedora 11 desktop PC (which I am writing this blog entry right now), it uses Google's Android OS (A pseudo-bastardized version of Java as a development platform -- Why didn't they used Python for it :) ?), the Phone is a tad thicker than the iPhone 3GS but provides roughly the same functionality, and best of all, it costs about $30.00 cheaper than the comparable iPhone plans.

Don't get me wrong, I love the iPhone, I just passed on my benevolent iPod Touch (1st Gen) to my wife and after some complains (from her) about needing to learn a new device etc, she agreed to use it, now she has all the Twilight books in it, her calendar, she can now read her email at her bed, etc. etc. She's a Mac user so there was no learning process involved ;)

My only complaint for the apple product is that they purposely don't market iPhones or iPod Touch devices as "PDAs", If you remember when the iPhone/iPod Touch came out in the market, there was no notes app, the basic block of a PIM/PDA app, they reluctantly added it after bitching and begging from users they decided to add it, even today it sucks. The app store mitigates this a bit but I want someone to tell me in the trillions of apps in the apple store one, just one app that mimics the old-ages Palm's Memo application..

If you are a google "user" (google docs, gmail, voice, etc), you will not be disappointed in this phone, it has everything you need and best of all, it has Linux inside, 3G, WiFi, 2G (failover for 3G) and the android market (a marketplace to get your mostly-free apps) which assures your geek-satisfaction for years to come.