[geeks] Looking for a Mobile Phone

[Jonathan Patschke]

I think it's time for me to switch phones (and phone companies).  Despite
my corporate discount from a previous employer, what Sprint (formerly
Nextel) charge me for the 100 minutes or so of voice I actually use plus
the occasional bit of time on the aircard is a bit silly.

iPhone seems an obvious choice: cool OS, can be tethered (if you upload a
new carrier config file), GSM, and a plethora of third-party software.
However, I despise Apple's nanny attitude towards the app store, and the
hoops I'd have to jump through to load any software I'd want to write
for my sole personal use are, IMO, unreasonable.

So, what phones are decent these days?  Where by "decent", I mean, in
decreasing order of importance:
     * Excellent audio quality.  It -is- an audio device, after all.
     * Some (even if text-only) web access so that I can read things while
       waiting about in places where a laptop would be rude.
     * Can be tethered.
     * A developer program that lets me build software and toss it on the
       phone without having to beg too hard.
     * GSM, and preferably sufficiently unencumbered that I only need to
       pop in a different SIM card when I'm outside the US.
     * Reasonable battery life.

I'm leaning towards something Blackberry-ish, since those handsets support
tethering and their SDK is refreshingly open (as is Nokia's).  However, I
have no idea what the audio quality on their phones is like.  There aren't
words harsh enough to describe my current[0] Motorola phone, so I don't
think I'll buy another one.

So, what's decent these days?  Also, what are your experiences with the
various carriers?  They all suck, but surely some are less suckful than
others, right?


[0] Which sadly replaced my bullet-proof, awesome, excellent, couldn't be
     improved[1] i90c.
[1] Aside from network coverage; it was iDEN-only.  This being the sole
     reason I replaced it; there's no iDEN service out at my farm.
-- 
Jonathan Patschke
Elgin, TX
USA