Ernest Lilley did a Route 66 roadtrip for Byte, testing out his gear’s ruggedness on the tough truckstop-and-motel-six circuit.

The Rim Blackberry replaced it. No, it couldn’t play my “Secret Agent Man” MP3 like the iPAQ, but it could show me what time the Johnny Rivers concert was (I timed my pass through Albuquerque to coincide), and I got to hear it by the original artist instead. I opted for the Model 850 in its beeper-style format because the keyboard is a tad wider (though no wider than the iPAQ) and because it runs for weeks on a single AA battery. I was out of e-mail range for days at a time, as the Motient network doesn’t reach many rural cities, and none of the desert, but when I pulled in range it buzzed cheerfully with mail from my gal in the Navy out at sea, missives from my Outlook Out of Office Assistant back at work, and other contacts from my world.

Link Discuss