Palm Pre Plus, now free from Verizon 20

I more or less asked that exact question about my long-discontinued Palm 700p back in April (which actually did have some problems, but was not yet unusable). Assurion said they had a 700p to send me if I wanted to make a warranty claim.

That was a minor bummer, since that's how I got my 700p in the first place - my old Kyocera 7135 (PalmOS 3.5) developed a problem with the microphone, and the Assurion insurance replaced it with the 700p.

When I called Verizon though it turned out I could get a Pre Plus for the grand sum of $0, plus the state sales tax on the $599.99 full retail price of the phone (F U CA!!!!) which worked out to be just over $50.

Hmmm... I said.... $50 deductible to Assurion for another 700p, or ~$50 tax to CA for a new Pre Plus? which do I choose?

So now I have a Pre Plus and have dropped the Assurion insurance. The Verizon rep explained that since my wife doesn't want to replace her phone, yet is eligible for an upgrade, her phone essentially becomes my insurance - if I lose my phone I just use her "New Every Two" to get my phone replaced.

VZ wouldnt (and probably couldnt) sell bottled water to a dying man in the center of the Sahara. If its not in a recent TV ad, moops cant differentiate it from all the other free phones. And VZ reps work a strict script that always leads to the droid-of-the-week. Anybody that might want WebOS, already knows a state-of-the-art device is scarily close, so no point committing two years of wireless life to a phone that is already 18 month old hardware. HP will have to clear VZ's shelves.