I have "lost" one of my SPhones (I found it 2 weeks later) and washed one. These experiences taught me to have a back up plan for my phone addiction.
So I now have a pattern that has kept me out of the worst of the trouble I cause myself. I keep a SPhone around that is 2 or even 3 generations behind my primary device. The goal is to meet my BASIC needs: my Contacts (all 2500 of them!), my Calendar (Synced locally with Outlook), access to my email accounts (all 9 of them
), and the ability to do at least limited, goal-directed use of the Internet (ie I don't have to have a lovely big screen, 'just the Facts Ma'am!').
So when I traded up my CrackJack (as opposed to my MPx220, which I called my Crashberry
) for a CrackJack II, I sold the old beauty on ebay (got back half of the upgrade price for my CrackJack II
) and kept my StarTrek as my backup device.
I've used it twice: once when I 'lost' my CrackJack II for 2 weeks, and another time when I was going into a dangerous environment (if I told you, I'd have to kill you
).
I'm thinking of upgrading in the next 6 months, maybe even jumping ship to the HTC HD or iPhone when the 'HD' becomes available on AT&T (or at least an unlocked version is available that uses the AT&T 3G spectrum, or when the iPhone is updated so it can sync with LOCAL Outlook accounts).
When that happens I will probably sell the CrackJack II on ebay to offset the new purchase, and keep relying on the 'old' StarTrek since it still meets my minimum requirements. With any luck I can offset a chunk of the purchase price again
BTW, if I were you, I would have asked the Manager to pay for replacing my phone - his employee broke it after all!
I agree that there is very little on the US market now that's not on Sprint - who are obviously trying to save themselves by becoming a presence in the SPhone market. IMHO the only reason AT&T supported the WM6.1 upgrade for the CrackJack II was to keep us all quiet while they ignored all the excellent new SPhones on the market elsewhere in their desperate attempt to make their loony deal with Apple pay off
!
Best of luck Rocco - it's a dry season out there. You might consider a Re-furb CrackJack II as a transitional device while you wait for either your AT&T contract or run out or for the influx of great new phones to reach our backward shores!
MadSci