My introduction to Joshua Topolsky: 'I went back to my old, ugly, totally awesome Treo 650'

Posted by Chris Ziegler on December 3, 2012 05:46 pm 20

Treo-650

I was just reflecting today on AdAge's well-deserved selection of my boss as Editor of the Year, going back through my emails to figure out exactly how I met the guy who would go on to have a big impact on my professional life.

It was 2007 — we were both contributing editors at Engadget, and the original iPhone had just launched. About a week had passed since retail availability, as I recall, and I wanted to do a roundup from our editors to get some thoughts from those who'd taken the plunge: why were they using iPhones now? Why had Josh returned his?

So I sent out an email to the team. Here's Josh's fantastic reply:

Chris - my reasons are thus:

I returned the phone because I couldn't find a way to justify spending $600 on what amounts to a closed system. It's like buying a laptop you can't tweak or put software on. Also, I was highly annoyed with the keyboard. And EDGE (although the iPhone's implimentation seems faster than my Treo).

I went back to my old, ugly, totally awesome Treo 650, which I can happily do anything I want with and to!

Hope this helps. ;)

Josh

These days, many of you may not remember that Josh came to Engadget as a huge Palm fanboy, and his points were fair — the original iPhone was absurdly expensive on contract and didn't support third-party apps until the following year. And EDGE? Screw that. 3G was where the action was at in '07.

Don't get me wrong, I thought (and still think) he was insane for having preferred the Treo 650. But hey, I kept that opinion to myself, and I got to keep my job when he later became editor-in-chief of Engadget. That's a win in my book.