So it’s the weekend. Taking a break from Marketing here’s the important stuff:

I got a new TV so the complaining can stop at my house. The old one is being repaired and it’s going on 3 weeks, we couldn’t take it any more. We got a good deal at the Sony outlet and so I was able to take the upgrade to Apple TV last night and subscribing to Flickr is awesome.

I had a question come in and thought it would be good to put it out there as a continuation of my travel series, as I’m packing my bags now.

“I think I remember a post or tweet of yours regarding your Palm Centro. I am in the market for a smartphone and I have been looking at it. I am a Sprint customer and I have narrowed my search to the Centro or the Pearl. I really wanted Windows Mobile over PalmOS but that is mostly because I haven’t used PalmOS in years.

Would you recommend the Centro? I would basically use it to browse the web with Opera and check Gmail with the Gmail app. Are you using these apps?”

Back in December I traded in my Treo 600 and my wife’s standard issue Sanyo flip phone for a pair of Centros. Now some will say that my opinion is moot because our previous phones were so crappy that anything would be an upgrade. Getting past that let me say that I am a die hard Palm fan. I have yet to find any version of Windows mobile on any device that matches the usability of the Palm OS. It’s just easier and faster to get to addresses, see the calendar, do the simple tasks.

Also note that getting off of Sprint for an iPhone is not an option. My wife talks to her family alot so I have 4 phones on my plan, that keeps 1,000 minutes on Sprint-to-Sprint and pays for itself, but again, no iPhone for me.

The killer App for me is PDANet, I’ve used it on my 600 and the version on my Centro gets decent speeds. This means I can browse the web, upload and download files on my laptop anywhere there’s Sprint cell coverage. No more looking for wireless, and I’ve used it at geek shows such as Gnomedex or Podcamp where the attendees often kick the conference center’s wireless service in the ding-ding.

I use it to check my Gmail via the browser - m.gmail.com and it works perfectly. I have been meaning to install Opera Mini but that is not a one click installation, you have to install some kind of java machine first and go from there. I’ve heard it’s possible but haven’t read about anyone who has done it on the Centro (755p is the newest I’ve seen that does run it). One of the other mailing apps ends up polling the system all the time and will wear your battery out, but I’m not using that.

I’ve also used JShopper for years as my shopping list and I’m not willing to give that up.