[colug-432] seek linux-friendly phone that consolidates old Palm functions and phone

[Jonathan Hogue]

I've sampled a lot of the smart phones (android, iphone). Smart phones
make really lousy cell phones. (low battery life, poor volume, poor
sound quality.)
Plus, the Verizon plans are outrageous.
So, I decided to carry to devices, and I've been pretty happy. And
it's much cheaper.

For my phone, I have Motorola Barrage. Good sound quality, good
volume, and I literally can go about 2 weeks without charging it. It
amazes me.

Then, I carry a Samsung Galaxy. 7 inch tablet. Big enough to actually
use, small enough to actually carry. Pretty good battery life under
most conditions, and I can turn on the wifi sharing to use my laptop
on the road. (no extra cost). Android is unix'ish, and I use a lot of
google services, so I like the tight integration (to email, calendar,
google voice, google chat)

I pay about $35 for the phone and $35 for the tablet compared to $110
for a smart phone.

Also, I use google voice and only give out my google voice number, so
all my texts come to the galaxy tab.