I choose to live in my home state, South Dakota. It’s a wonderful place full of smart, courteous, hard working people that produce an economy that, compared to the rest of the US, is almost recession-proof. I have no complaints about my income-tax free home state but I do wish that AT&T would hurry and add primary coverage so we could get the Apple iPhone! I’ve seen it, often --- in fact, I actually own an iTouch, the cellular-less first cousin of the iPhone. But, alas, no iPhone for us.

But, as I tweeted two weeks ago I DO have a brand-new shiny Palm Pre that I’m pretty impressed with, so far. It’s been out only 15 days and has only a paltry 30 or so applications in its store. That said it’s interesting to note that Pre owners have downloaded over 750,000 applications in those 15 days. I know I certainly did my part!

Here’s my take on the Pre --- set up was an absolute breeze. I directed it to my Exchange server and was getting email in minutes. Full synch, utilizing Microsoft’s Active Sync, took a while, but then I have several thousand contacts and a crazy calendar. But it’s all there, in the “palm” of my hand. I love being able to run multiple applications but I have run into a “Unable to Launch Application -- Please Close Other Applications First” message a time or two. I’ve tried every way imaginable to crash this phone and I’ve yet to succeed.

Strong points:

• The camera is excellent (but I miss having a zoom lens).
• Video playback is stunning, but with the battery situation not of much value.
• Web browser is hands down the best I’ve seen on a mobile device.
• Location services are very impressive and turn-by-turn directions are accurate and snappy.
• Interface is super-intuitive.

Weak points:

• Battery life is horrible. I cannot make it thru a day. When traveling (and unable to charge) I’ve taken to turning the device completely OFF to conserve power.
• Screen size is a tad too small for my liking.
• Keyboard --- big kudos for BEING there, I just wish it were a bit larger.
• App store is laughable when compared to Apple’s --- however, it’s growing every day.

Bottom line: I’m keeping my Pre. I hate to say this, because I REALLY want these guys to succeed, but …… I can’t recommend it to you unless, like me, you’re geographically restricted from the iPhone. Maybe the Pre2?