I’m ready to chuck my Treo 650 across the room! I’m on my third one, having had two replacements due to the audio jack breaking–and the bloody thing just broke again. Incredibly poor design. I’ve been waiting for Palm to get their act together and release a new smartphone with an updated PalmOS platform, but it seems they never will. So it’s time for me to bid adieu to Palm and look for something else, and that (unfortunately) seems to mean Windows Mobile. Ick.

What’s that you say? Don’t I work for the largest manufacturer of mobile phones in the world? Yes, yes I do. But I don’t want to leave Sprint, and Nokia makes exactly one phone for Sprint: the 6165i, an itty bitty flip phone that’s not exactly a valid replacement for a Treo.

My requirements:

• Bluetooth 2.0 with A2DP.
• WiFi.
• Java-capable (I believe any Windows Mobile device can run Java).
• Full QWERTY keyboard.
• Ability to tether to my laptop for modem use.
• Touch-screen.
• Sync with PC for contacts and calendar.

Browsing Sprint’s smartphone selection, I’m drawn to the HTC Mogul. It seems to cover all my requirements.

Any Sprint people out there with smartphone recommendations? Anyone used the HTC Mogul, either on Sprint or another carrier?

The Dilbert Blog: How to Get Elected President:

If I ran for president, I’d have to get past the country’s distaste for atheists. That’s a big problem. I would handle it by manipulating the media with a sound bite so catchy the pundits would have no choice but to repeat it until it started to sound sensible. I’d hold a press conference and say that ONLY an atheist should be president, in the same way you want a eunuch to guard your harem. (That’s the sound bite. It’s like catnip for pundits.)

I would suggest that a truly religious president might try to convert your children to his religion, either overtly or by example. In this election alone, you have a Mormon, a Baptist or two, and if Bloomberg enters, a Jew. Moreover, a scary percentage of the South believes Obama is a Muslim. I’d play the fear card.

I’d vote for him. The only problem would be that we’d be deprived of more Dilbert, because even the truly ideal President wouldn’t have time to be a cartoonist as well.

Star Trek XI teaser trailer beams onto web:

A teaser trailer for much-anticipated new Star Trek film has finally found its way onto the web.

Directed by JJ Abrams – the man behind Lost and more recently, the mysterious and virally marketed Cloverfield – Star Trek XI will detail the early days of James T Kirk and his crew and will chronologically sit after the TV series Enterprise, starring Scott ‘oh boy’ Bakula.

Due for release in December of this year, the cast includes Winona Ryder as a young Spock’s mum (she’s responsible for his human half) the little-known Chris Pine as James T Kirk and Simon Pegg to play the young Engineer Montgomery Scott.

Click through to the article to view the teaser trailer.

I may have teared up just a little bit watching it. Okay, not maybe.

Dilbert creator Scott Adams posted about a new “Daily Dilbert” widget, still in beta testing, that anyone can use to show Dilbert strips on their Web sites. I’ve added it to my sidebar (over there —–> ) so take a look and see if you like it. Click the middle of the widget to get started, then use the buttons inside the widget to see each panel and move forward and back to other strips.

Somehow I missed noticing and commenting on this at the time. As of yesterday, January 20, 2008, it was one year to the day until Inauguration Day. The campaigns are ugly and brutal, the candidates are racing each other to the bottom, but the fact is that none of them–certainly none of the leaders, from either party–could possibly be as bad as the fool we have at present.

To the current occupant: Enjoy your last year in office. I know I’ll be counting the days until your preposterous claims of executive privilege are swept away like spilled cat litter and your crimes are exposed.