I have been very happy with the service and pricing of T-Mobile over the past year, as well as with the functionality of my Treo 600. Nevertheless, I was considering moving to Verizon when Palm announced the Treo 700w (and here) that would access their 3G high-speed wireless data network. The problem with such a move was that the phone plan was more expensive ($70 vs $50 a month for 2 lines) and the data plan was much more expensive ($45 vs. $20 per month for unlimited data). And unlike T-Mobile which is GSM, Verizon does not work in many countries. I have used my Treo for email and web browsing extensively in Europe and recently in Singapore, so having a "world phone" comes in handy for me. And I have never had a practical problem with T-Mobile's national phone coverage.

A few weeks ago, however, I happened to discover that T-Mobile had already rolled out its EDGE network that renders much higher speed Internet than before. (While it does get between 100-150kbs, the bursts are sometimes interrupted, so the net speed is slower.) Though this is still slower than Verizon (which promises up to 300kbs), it seemed like it might be fast enough for me, but I needed an EDGE capable PDA. When I discovered that the Treo 650 GSM version was EDGE capable, I had an excellent reason finally to upgrade to what is a much refined PDA in several respects, e.g. better keyboard, much better screen resolution, and faster processor.

So far I am very happy with the Internet speed one gets from EDGE. It is great for surfing blogs. Where once I had to avoid any graphics intensive blogs, I can now go pretty much anywhere I like. I highly recommend this option. The only downside is the cost. T-Mobile does not sell subsidized Treo's and an unlocked one from Palm cost me $550. (I bought it at the Airport Wireless store in Logan.) On the other hand, T-Mobile is not charging any extra for access to its EDGE network so, at $20 per month for its Internet access, the service is cheap. And T-Mobile's national coverage for its EDGE network is far more extensive than Verizon's high speed data network, which is confined to major metropolitan areas.

I now want to start blogging from my Treo 650 but am not sure which client I should buy. This article reviews several clients (mo:Blog, HBlogger, Plogit, and Vagablog), but it is over a year old. Powerblogs uses the metaweblog API, so any client must be compatible. Does anyone have any recommendations? I know I can always download them and try them out for myself, but I thought I would see if any readers has working experience with these applications.