Put off away for a minute for the World Cup 2006 coverage. Just would like to share the ‘high’ and ‘low’ of my digital life the last one week:

The High:

I’m halfway to fulfill my gadget wishlist! During my trip to Singapore last week, I bought myself a long-awaited Treo 650. Well, for those who are quite close to me, you may say, “it’s about time”. See my old handphone, and you instantly know why. The backlight had been inactive for the past 6 months, leaving me relying on my PDA to access phone numbers and SMS when no sufficient lighting was available.

Now the ‘dark’ era is over. I purchased the Treo 650 Black Tie edition. It is produced by Palm to commemorate its 10th anniversary. I’ve been a great fan of Palm operating system, and has never been persuaded in taking the Windows mobile smartphones.

And I guess it’s a wise choice.

What I like most from the Treo is its one-handed operation feature. Using its 5-way directional pad, I can access almost all application menus single handedly. I can organize my calendars & contacts, send, receive emails, surf the net, and do a little online chat using the D-pad and its excellent thumb board.

Unlike the usual mass-production Treo, this ‘Black Tie’ edition is dressed in black, ready to ‘kill’. It also comes in beautiful black package, and include the similarly-elegant black hard case.  Great stuff.

The Low:

Well, while the Treo adds spice to my digital life, my other gadget, the iPod gave me the headache.

Yesterday, it ceased to operate. After I (admittedly, rushingly) disconnect the iPod from the notebook, the screen is frozen, and my notebook can’t connect and access it anymore. I can’t play any more songs or videos. My iPod hard-drive seems to be corrupted.

Having used the iPod as my ‘backup’, I potentially lost some precious digital assets. All of songs that I purchased over the internet were gone. As well as some email databases which I kept from 4 years.

Luckily, most of my work files are backed up in my notebook. It soothe the disaster. Now I’m looking for ways to recover those missing files.

But this taught me an important lesson. Never trust your digital partner. When you rely half of your life with them, they can act nuts, and disconnect your trust. Backup, backup, backup.