All the communication devices I ever had was basic. My mobile phone was just a phone and nothing more. The last few weeks my wireless service was switched from Sprint to AT&T (formerly Cingular Wireless). It was time for me to get a better mobile phone with an embedded operating system like Microsoft Windows Mobile, Apple OS X, or Open Source Linux (Ubuntu). Having an “actual” operating system enable more freedom of control and information, and the ease of synchronization to your laptop or desktop computer. The one thing that is so troublesome when switching cellular phones is transferring many contacts. The smartphone is a personal data assistant (PDA) and holding more information than just contacts, such as appointments, tasks, notes, emails, addresses, birthdays, photos, music, and so on.
As an application developer point of view, having a standard platform, a popular operating system, to develop and to hack (modify) it makes it so much fun to create small applications. There is a wide range of applications out there to put on your smartphone for getting things done or for leisure. My initial smartphone, to be an all-in-one phone and freedom of information, is the Samsung Blackjack (SGH-i607). One more thing, I have my eyes set on my next ultimate smartphone the Apple iPhone (the second generation) or the alternative, HTC P4550 Kaiser.
My two summer college courses are doing okay. At my job, the UCF Assessment (OEAS) project is taking much of my time and dedication out of the other two projects, FINDER and SCINET.
William Chang 