I think I started with something called a Velo by Philips. It was a little pocket pc, running a version of windows. It came with a very expensive modem which could connect at tiny speeds. But I loved it. I had two of those (they had quite a short lifespan) and an HP PDA of some sort. It enabled me to collect email when I wasn’t at home, to carry the odd document, and to keep a synched diary on the desktop.

Then came my first real ‘converged’ device: a treo600 running palmOS. It was my first experience of Palm, and I can understand the love for it. I was bowled over by what it could do – Bible, book reader, music player, diary, email, I had a programme that told me what the lectionary was and somewhere to make notes on thoughts if I had a moment to spare somewhere. I had programmes for prayer and a whole host of things. I joined a community (My Treo.net) who were all as excited as I was, got to know some of the developers, and even spent a bit of time as a moderator there. I still have the T shirt (literally!) Sadly, my Treo died. The Treo600 didn’t have a removable battery, so when the battery stopped holding charge out of sheer over-use, it was time to give it a decent burial. I deeply regretted that – and would never buy a device without a replaceable battery as a result.

The Treo died at an inconvenient moment, leaving me little choice but to rush into the nearest orange store and get a phone, quick. I walked out with a Sony Ericsson k750i. Compared with the Treo, it was a helpless creature. I managed to squeeze a bible on to it (using java) and my shopping list (Smart Shopper). I could sync my diary with outlook, but that tended to goof, so I used a little programme called My Sony Ericsson, from the people at Kyocera.

What I DID gain from it was a decent camera. The k750i boasted a 2mp camera – which for a phone was quite some beast at the time. And it was a cracking little camera. I found myself taking photos in the oddest places. Living in Cornwall, it was not at all unknown for me to pull up the car, leap out and grab a photo. I took to posting them on my blog. I guess that’s the nearest I got to a truly ‘theological’ use of the device. I live in a glorious part of the creation, and I have no-one with whom to share the beauty around me. By always carrying a decent camera phone, I can share the loveliness with friends online. That’s important to me: the thankfulness I feel is seldom put into words, but think people realise why I keep taking photos. And people seem to follow my blog for the pics among other things, because it makes them smile.

This is a reader submitted post; well, more like a person I asked about their experience with mobile devices and this was the result. Part one anyways. Stay tuned for part two. To submit your story, use the Contact page.