His and Hers Centro's

Lidia has finally arrived in Geekdom, as she jumps from a plain jane cell phone to her first snazzy smartphone which is none other than the Palm Centro.

Red for her; Black for me.

Palm introduced the Centro to the smartphone market specifically targeted to first-time smartphone buyers like her. For long time Treo users like myself, coming from a Treo 755P, it's not a major upgrade, but the phone didn't fail to get quite a few ooh's and ahh's out of her as she discovered everything it can do.

So the Palm OS is almost 10 years old, blah, blah, blah... but there's no denying that it's easy to use, and with one of the biggest mobile software markets behind it, the phone really shines when it's loaded with useful third party apps. Her favorite so far? The music streaming abilities of Pocket Tunes and products by Splash Data including SplashID and SplashMoney.

As many of you know by reading my blog, I'm training to run the Chicago Marathon this year. And with that comes a lot of travel to Chicago to train with my running group, and to take advantage of the wonderful lakefront path. I'll be taking trains to the city almost every weekend, and I'll need a small, compact phone to take along with me on my runs for safety purposes.

My 755P is just too bulky to take along on a run when I need to tuck it in my jacket or strap it to my hydration belt (runners talk for a strap on belt with water bottles on it). The Centro seems like the perfect size and weight to accomplish this, and I have it filled up with all of the same software I've used on my 755P including Google Maps Mobile, my training schedule, PDF's of my running routes using Documents to Go, links to Metra schedules, important (and secured) personal info, and on and on.

Even with a great free software application like Where Am I, coupled with a portable bluetooth GPS receiver, and Google Maps on the Centro, I can find where I am if I get turned around at the push of a button.

I'll be training with it for the first time on my 8 mile run in the city tomorrow, and I'll post a little feedback soon!