I’ve been looking for the right moment to upgrade my aging iPaq to be my “brain” (appointment calendar, contacts, etc).  I didn’t want to get another windows PDA, and even though palm has some nice smartphones out at the moment I didn’t want to be hampered by an aging OS.  A smartphone seemed to be the way to go, but most of those don’t sync with mac – except the iPhone 2.0, that is.

The iPhone seemed to be where I wanted to go.  It was elegant, synced with mac, and had a boat-load of features.  At $199, the prices was also right – except for the $30/month required for a data plan.  Now, I would have been willing to to $20/month no problem – it seemed reasonable considering what I was going to get in return for it.  Even at $30/month I was considering it – given the feature set and price point of the iPhone 2.0 – until I read the fine- print.  $199 is the new activation and “qualified upgrade price” for the new iPhone.  I don’t qualify for an upgrade at the moment, and with the iPhone you can’t just switch numbers between the pool of your family plan numbers.  So, I was out in the cold.  Bummer.

Instead, I picked up an iPod touch, and will be adding a data plan to my Razr (which is able to be used as a bluetooth modem with my mac).  I pay more up front ($299, compared to $199) – but the data plan is only $15/month.  When the new firmware comes out I’ll have full PDA capabilities, and access to the app store.  It seems like a good compromise.  I just wish the iPod touch had bluetooth built-in (and if they come out with a bluetooth version in the next couple of months I’m going to be a bit upset).