After working exclusively online for the past 13 years, I recently chose to work for a company that makes enterprise IT software for handheld devices because I see it as the cutting-edge of where society is headed in mobile computing.

FYI, we are part of a movement called “Every Laptop Left Behind” which is an alliance of people and companies who believe that every laptop will eventually be left behind in favor of a mobile device.

http://everylaptopleftbehind.com

A good read for those of you looking for mobile software that can help you in your productivity.

I now have a Blackberry Pearl and I couldn’t be happier. This is my first smartphone and I am getting a LOT of mileage out of it. I always keep a small pen and paper handy for quick notes, and then immediately transfer it to my phone and throw away the paper. I take pictures of serial number plates while on site at work and email it to my work email. I am even getting on GasBuddy and getting the cheapest gas around my area.

I’ve gotten so much use out of Pearl to the point that I was able to take dictation on my phone when a paper wasnt available. I find that taking time to sort through the auto text helped me out a lot, on my idle time on the throne or walking the dog or waiting for oil to heat up on the stove.

Now if only Google would backup my contacts like their calendar, I’d be golden.

I have been using Palm devices for .. 10 years of so. I even have a LifeDrive.

First thing I missed was the keyboard from my Treo90 days.

I used the LifeDrive a fair amount, but it became more of an online/ebook reader than a PDA. Mostly because of it’s size I think. It just became too much to carry along with my phone and other stuff. (I still use it to do light surfing and reading on the couch, in bed, etc).

When I got my Centro just after they first came to Sprint… my use as a PDA exploded again. I think PDAs are basically dead, but a smart-phone, that’s a different story. I do use my Centro a LOT more than I would use a DayTimer I think. Yes, there are times where I jot notes in a meeting and such on paper, but then I end up transferring items to my Centro for my ToDo list and other apps, like maybe a summary of a meeting to memos for future reference and such.

Oh, just for laughs, I took the typing test using just my right hand… 32 seconds. That is one thing I like about the size of the Centro, I can do one-handed entry of items, or look up of things pretty easily.

I know Palm isn’t as flashy as the iPhone… but it does what I need it to do, and lots more.

I just did your typing test 3 times on the iPhone and got times of (in seconds); 20,15,13.

Before the iPhone I had the BlackBerry 8830 through Verizon and I could not type that fast on it. I am a terrible speller and have fatter than average fingers, the iPhone’s predictive typing really helps me out.

I thought the BlackBerry 8830 was great until I got the iPhone, I have no regrets making the switch.

With the Blackberry I know I use my fingers to “find” keys by feel so I don’t have to watch the keyboard as much — just like using a regular keyboard. I think this would be difficult to do with the iPhone.

I would like to try an iPhone some time to see what I’d think after a week of using it. If the iPod touch comes out with more memory, I might consider getting it to do development with.

The quick brown fox thing takes me 15 to 17 seconds to type on my blackberry. Average time is around 16.5 seconds. It might get faster if I tried it more than 4 times, but then it just starts becoming kinetic memory instead of giving a true idea of the typing speed.

The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy hound.

and tell me how long it takes you on the iPhone? Try it a few times and tell me the average.

Don’t discount its interface. And certainly don’t discount how much better email, web and voicemail are either. Of course we all have our opinions.