Hello, my name is Doug and I’m a technoholic. It’s been oh, about two days since I purchased my last techno-toy.

Yeah, I admit it. I’m a technoholic. I always have to have the latest and greatest technology both for my profession and personal life.

I switched to digital photography well ahead of most photographers and began shooting digital video when others claimed it wasn’t a “real” format. I put my first web site on the ‘Net in 1994 when only geeks surfed the Web. I had the first VCR on the block, the first projection TV, the first cell phone and the first personal digital assistant (PDA). I went through an Apple Newton, several Palm Pilots, a Blackberry and a slew of Windows-based PDAs in search of the perfect wireless phone/PDA/portable email device.

Last year, in a 12-step show of defiance, I threw away my Blackberry to prove I didn’t need to be tethered to a device that gave me real-time email 24/7. But, as a hedge, I kept a Samsung i700 Windows-based PDA phone that allowed me to check email when I wanted to and surf the web on those many days when I’m sitting somewhere waiting for Amy to return from her latest shopping adventure.

The Samsung was a compromise at best. Using it as a phone required a stylus. It didn’t have a keyboard like the Blackberry but it did offer reasonable access to the Web. I could sit in a coffee shop and read the news while my wife depleted our available resources at the latest and greatest sale.

But the Samsung joined the Blackberry, the Newton, the Palm Pilots, the Windows PDAs and a couple of old Nextel phones in the drawer last week, replaced by Palm’s latest and greatest – the Treo 700W, a compact little goodie that matches the efficiency of a Treo with the Mobile Windows platform.

The Treo is smaller than the Samsung or a Blackberry, but allows one-handed use not only for placing calls but also for checking email or accessing the web. Using the two-thumb typing technique that one must master when owning a Blackberry, you can reply to email, type out a Word document and enter information into an Excel spreadsheet. Even better, Windows Mobile 5 allows import and viewing of PowerPoint documents on screen and sports a PDF viewer as well. As a bonus, the 700W runs on Verizon’s EVDO high-speed wireless network (where available).

The 1.3 megapixel camera takes acceptable photos for web use and even shoots short videos. I also can stick a video on an SD card, stick it in the Treo and view it on screen.

As a confirmed Mac snob who uses a G5 for photo and video editing, I’ve always considered Windows a second-class citizen in the world of computing but I have to admit the 700W gives me what I need for mobile use and interfaces smoothly with my office Windows machine that I use for correspondence, web maintenance and bookkeeping.

And it satisfies the techno-junkie in me. What more could a technoholic want?