Being a Houston native I have long admired the Houston Chronicle and the way they have approached online tech coverage and blogging. Dwight Silverman has been with the Chronicle for a long time and always offers sage advice and fair reviews of technology products. He has recently reviewed the Palm Treo 700w and in typical fashion offers a very impartial and thorough overview of the Treo. Recommended reading if you are still on the fence about the Windows Mobile-based Treo.
The Treo 700w almost gets me there, and if it weren’t so expensive, I’d consider biting the bullet for my next phone upgrade. (The $549 price is with a one-year Verizon contract; a two-year contract drops the price to $499.)
Dwight also takes a look at the Kyocera KPC650 PC Card as used on the Verizon BroadbandAccess EVDO network.
I was very impressed with this service, but not the price. Even the cheapest plan is a lot more expensive than most WiFi subscription services, such as the $20-a-month charge to use T-Mobile Hotspots around the country. And given the growth of free WiFi in hotels and low- or no-cost municipal WiFi in many cities, Verizon isn’t going to be able to charge this rate and stay competitive for much longer.
Unfortunately, as I recently reported Verizon executives are hinting at a tiered pricing plan that may be introduced in the future. In this plan heavy users of bandwidth can expect to pay higher prices than ever for Verizon mobile broadband.
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