As the tide rolls out from the Beach I see another item of interest. The HTC Shift is now available in the states, and while HTC is probably best known for their Windows Mobile Devices (Pocket PCs), this is a nice fit between that and a standard laptop. The Shift runs Vista Business, but it also offers HTC's exclusive Snapvue, which offers access to email, SMS messages and more without requiring Vista to boot up. From a screenshot on the HTC site (www.htc.com), Snapvue reminds me very strongly of the HTC Touch Mobile screen, which is very concise and informative.
The price is not too cheap at $1499, but it does include a fingerprint reader, camera, 40g hard drive, mousepad with buttons and bluetooth and USB 2.0 connections. The data is handled by CDMAEVDO, and Sprint is supporting the device. The bigger screen could be a good option to the mobile crowd who find a typical convergence device with a small screen hard to read. With its 8x5x1 footprint carrying the Shift should be not be a problem, and it weighs less than 2 lbs. All things considered, this would be a very handy traveling companion.
Aloha from the Beach,
greg
