"Jay Honeck" wrote in message
news:1F0Sj.89684$TT4.28062@attbi_s22...
My old cell phone was on its last legs. I had twice given my "free
upgrades" to my kids so they could get the "latest-greatest" music-enabled
whiz phones, so my old phone was...just a phone. It looked like a hockey
puck after a full season on the ice, with hardly any paint left on it, and
the sound quality was starting to go.

So, when my "free upgrade" came up again, off to the Verizon store I went.
I wanted something with a built-in planner, something WITHOUT a touch
screen (my son's experience with his "Chocolate" taught me that lesson),
and a decent built-in camera. The LG EnV was the one I settled on.

The EnV has all the features of their top-of-the-line "Voyager", but
without the problematic touch screen. The feature list is quite
impressive, but the ones that are most pertinent to aviators a

[clip]

I just upgraded and was about to order the LG EnV when I realized that the
LG Voyager had *real* internet access and not the Mobile Web 2.0. In other
words, you can see most HTM-based web pages in a usable (albeit slow)
manner. The touch screen is pretty good and compares closer to the iPhone
than the Chocolate. CNET compared the iPhone and Voyager and the Voyager
edged-out the iPhone overall but lost in the touch screen category.

I personally refuse to pay $10 a month for the GPS--especially when I, like
you, put out the cash for the Garmin 496. I've used the 496 in automotive
mode a number of times during both aviation and non-aviation trips and it
definitely does the job. I would feel like I wasted some of the extra $$ I
spent on the 496 over the 396 if I didn't use it for auto guidance during
aviation trips.

Back to the Voyager though. With the HTML web access (which is $9 more a
month than the Mobile Web 2.0 access, is unlimited, and includes the vCast
package) you can get access to many more weather sites (except ADDS'
java-based applications). I still have the airwx.com as my favorite but
having the others as a cross-check is excellent.

I also can get to my job's Outlook Webmail (dodging the Blackberry bullet).

I'm really happy with my Voyager (so far).

Marco