Omega Point

With the US release of the iPhone permeating even Canadian news, I’m finding that my current smartphone solution just isn’t as desirable as that which I cannot buy. These days, I’m more than happy with my Treo 650, despite PalmOS showing its age. I expect a Linux-based Treo will follow the recent Palm Foleo by the end of the year. However, I don’t actually even use the data side of my smartphone.

That’s right, I have a smartphone with no web access at all. Why? Well, the 650’s wifi capabilities kind of suck, but it’s usable. However, if I want to use EDGE, I don’t have a lot of options.

Canada has three national mobile phone companies: Bell and Telus, which are both CDMA, and Rogers, which uses GSM. (It’s actually four national companies, if you include Fido, which is now owned by Rogers, and which uses the Rogers network, but has separate branding and billing plans, including things like per-second billing.)

Despite having an otherwise highly developed telecommunications network, there is a flaw: Canada’s cellular companies are gouging us on data fees. Observe. Sadly, at one point, Fido had a $20/month unlimited EDGE plan, as well as a $30/month unlimited incoming/outgoing calls plan. Needless to say, after their acquisition by Rogers, both of these were quietly canceled.

So right now, my want-to-buy device seems to be the Nokia N800 tablet. It’s a tiny 800×480, WiFi/Bluetooth web browsing, media-playing, handwriting-recognizing, 8GB-extensible Linux device. There’s no phone, but then again, I already have a phone.

So, who wants to buy me one?