Best cell phone service, best PDA for Central Austin (Round Rock: sales, movies)

[yogacalmday]

This thread was discussed over the past year, but wanted to start it again. I need to upgrade to a PDA and wondered which works best in Austin (all over town) and which service is the best...sounds like Verizon and Sprint are the best in the area from previous threads.

What is optimum in terms of PDA email/phone/calendar features and in terms of cell phone communication ie Verizon or Sprint?

I'm in sales and drive all over the city...and to Dripping, Buda, Kyle, Lakeway, Bee Caves, Downtown and Round Rock.

I have had Sprint for over 10 years and find it drops calls at a place on 360, on Bee Caves and on the tollway. I now have a Sanyo Katana phone and (ok, I've DROPPED it on the ground a bunch) but am often told that people can't hear me.

Am thinking about a Blackberry to replace it but wanted a phone with good email, good calendar and good phone capabilities. What PDA is optimum in terms of those features and in terms of cell phone communication?

[TexasHorseLady]

Verizon hands down in terms of not dropping calls (I've had both, and I drive all over the place - Sprint has the same "black holes" as everyone else, Verizon doesn't, in my experience).

I don't have a PDA but have been contemplating getting one, so I'll be interested to see the responses to this one.

[taivan]

I've had verizon and now I'm w/ sbcglobal. Neither has dropped any of my phone calls w/in greater austin.

I'm currently using the iphone 3g and I have to say this is one pda you don't want to overlook. THe GPS is fantastic! I'll never be w/out GPS ever again. email syncs with photos & contacts so you can shoot a pic and email to anyone within 10 secs tops. I attended my son's school play, took several shots, and emailed them to my wife at work while the play was still going on.

Needless to say, internet access while being mobile really puts the world at my fingertips. I routinely log onto austingasprices.com for the cheapest pump price anywhere in town, and gasbuddy.com when I road trip.

I have downloaded 7 gigs of music, 2 gigs of movies, 1 gig of pics, several games, and the array of dirt cheap to free software available through itunes constantly amazes me. When in use, the music/videos mutes to a stop when the phone is about to be used, like when a call comes in, or when you want to call someone, and it automatically resumes in the same spot again when you hang up. Neat stuff!

My iphone currently syncs to 4 of my pop email accounts, and I can set it to push or pull the emails into the phone. The emails come through as html so pics and attachments are just like what you'll see on any computer.

Lots of features for the price.

The bad...this PDA will drain down w/in a day if you are listening to music throughout the day and/or watching several movies. But just as a phone, email, and accessing the internet, I'm getting two days of battery life before a recharge.