It’s slightly tragic, and some how supports the age old stereotype of tech nerds, that a great contest over at Gear Diary, has more comments in the contest post from the Gear Diary team than competitors for this great prize!

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[This is a joint review between Doug Goldring of JAMM and Judie Lipsett ofGear Diary; it will appear simultaneously on both sites. Doug's comments are in black, and Judie's are blue italics]

The last time I used a non-touch screen version of Windows Mobile was the Motorola Q.  It ran Windows Mobile 5, and I quickly learned that the interface was nothing short of terrible.  That phone lasted about a week before I declared the phone completely unusable and gave it away to a friend.  That was then.  This is now: Windows Mobile 6.1.  And a lot has changed.

I’ve been using the operating system formerly known as Smartphone for years, starting with the HTC  Tornado (I-Mate SP5m) in 2005. That was followed by the Motorola Q, the HTC STR TRK, the  HTC 710 (Vox), the Samsung Blackjack, the Motorola Q9, the Samsung SGH-i620 , the Samsung Blackjack II, the Treo 500v, the  HTC S740 – AKA Rose, and more recently the Pantech Matrix Pro.

I have never felt that even the earliest Smartphone interface was terrible, in fact I generally found Smartphone to be a rock solid OS when compared to Pocket PC, as it required far fewer restarts. Over the years I have enjoyed watching the Smartphone (now called Standard) platform mature. With that said, I think that your bad experience with Smartphone was due to the Motorola Q being such a dog.

So, right off the bat, you can see that Judie and I are coming at this from completely different perspectives.  Anyway, I decided the time had come to give a non-touch screen device another try.  And what better device to check out than the HTC S740?

I agree that for anyone unsure of whether a non-touch Windows Mobile phone would work for them, the S740 is a great place to start.

Let’s take a look.

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If you are a frequent reader of Gear Diary, you may have noticed a few problems today reading one of our favorite sites.  No need to be alarmed.  There is no trouble.  I got an email today from Judie, the owner of Gear Diary, telling us that they are in the midst of upgrading their servers.  Once they are finished, the site should be faster than ever.  Until then, they may have some intermittent down time, so please be patient and bear with them.  Gear diary should be up and running by the end of the weekend, if not sooner.

[Note: This is a joint review by Doug Goldring, Judie Lipsett, Dan Cohen, andKerry Woo.  It is being simultaneously posted on Just Another Mobile Monday and Gear Diary. If you haven't already, then take a look at Doug'sThe Kindle 2: First Look and Unboxing and Judie's Unboxing the Amazon Kindle 2.]

Doug: One thing about sites like Gear Diary and Just Another Mobile Monday, we love our gadgets (I know, shocking!) We love playing with them almost as much as we love writing and telling you about them.  Rarely does a week go by when one of us doesn’t have something new and exciting.  Sometimes we purchase these devices just like anyone else, other times we are lucky enough to get the device loaned or sent to us for review.  Rarely has a device created as much buzz, however, as the Kindle 2.  Whether you love it or hate it, it has everyone around here talking. Not just one, but four of us waited impatiently for delivery of our Kindle 2’s.  So, now here we sit – Dan, Judie, Kerry and myself – each of us has used a variety of eBook readers in the past, whether it be a program on Windows Mobile or the iPhone; the Kindle Classic (like Wayne Schultz uses); Tapwave Zodiac and/or Palm OS based devices such as the Treo 650 or the Sony Reader.  With all of this eBook reading experience behind us (not to mention years of reading actual books), we all agreed that the Kindle 2 is the best eBook reader any of us have used.  So, it should come as no surprise that we will all be keeping this awesome gadget.

Here’s why…

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Most of you would know, as would the world, just not tech aficionados that the new Kindle2 has just been released and is shipping as we speak. There’s been a lot of pacing and sitting by mail boxes as the tracking system seems to have not been able to cope with the mass distribution of this updated eReader from Amazon. Some are non plussed by the device

http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=218392&title=jeff-bezos   Hit the link for a humorous look at the new device.

Some are well pleased to have it, Doug posted a childlike, joyous, Christmas morning with great presents sort of look at his new book, and today a somewhat frustrated at waiting, un-boxing over at Gear Diary from Judie, also gives us a quick look at the new Kindle.

Judie posts good impressions and a great gallery of images of the  new Kindle that you might want to take a look at.

Keep an eye out for a three pronged review of the new Kindle penned by Dan, Doug and Judie, as they share their thoughts with each other and you on this updated device!

UnBoxing the Kindle2 at GearDiary