My Sprint phone from work can’t seem to get any coverage at the new house, so I sent it back and ordered a new Audiovox Thera from Verizon. I’m a big fan of Verizon: I’ve had an account with them since around 2001, their coverage can’t be beat, and their customer service deserves kudos.

Anyway, I picked up the Thera because it’s darned cheap for a Pocket PC phone. It’s being gradually discontinued, and replaced with new $500-$600 models. I don’t know about you, but I ain’t spending that kind of money on a phone, even if it’s a combination phone and PDA. A Thera is around $100 with a 2-year agreement, which is entirely do-able.

The Thera has one serious drawback: it has an internal battery that can’t be easily popped out and swapped, and that battery’s life is around 3-4 hours of talk time. That’s not an issue for me, because most of the time, I use my cell phone in close proximity to electricity, whether it’s an outlet or a car charger. I just wanted the Thera because it’s got real Outlook on there, so I can do serious work on the road. I hate responding to emails on normal phones, whereas the Thera has a nice big screen and handwriting recognition. It’ll get delivered early next week, and I’ll promptly take it on a road trip to Dallas, so it’ll get baptism by fire.

I’m up in DC at the moment visiting Mom and Phil for Thanksgiving. I’ve got my digital camera, but I forgot to bring the little reader for it, so I can’t post my photos yet. Well, also I haven’t taken any yet. Minor thing there.