Four and a half years ago, give or take, I answered an ad on HowardForums.com in search of someone to write phone reviews for a site called PhoneDog. Four and a half years later, this is my final post on the Dog.

The time that passed in between the day I answered that ad and today has been amazing. Absolutely amazing. When I signed up I was looking to transition from writing about laptops, which I'd been doing for a few years at a site called PowerBookCentral, to writing about cell phones. Phones just seemed like the next big thing in gadgets, like they were poised to explode in functionality and importance and coolness. Also, I was leaving my full-time teaching job and needed some gigs.

I really had no idea what was headed my way after PhoneDog wrote back saying they wanted me to submit a sample review. No idea at all.

My choice to leave PhoneDog was obviously a really tough one to make, but it's time. PhoneDog ain't goin' anywhere, and neither am I. A site that didn't even have a blog or news section has now grown into a family of sites covering the world of mobile, and my money says the PhoneDog Media family only gets bigger and better as time goes on. As for me, honestly it was just time for a change. I love the Dog, love the people I've been lucky enough to work with, and still love cool little gadgets that light up and blink and do insanely cool things you never imagined they could do. But I'm just ready to look at it all from a different angle. I've done a lot of things in my still-young work life, and I guess I need that variety to keep me charged up. So it's on to something new.

No, we didn't get bought out by AOL ;-P

Whatever I wind up doing, you can follow it on my little blog at http://nk126.com and on twitter at @noahkravitz. And rest assured that like you, I'll continue to follow the world of mobile through the unique eyes of the PhoneDog crew. Aaron, Adriana, David and John … and now Alex and Jon Q and Sydney and everyone else involved in the posts and videos and behind the scenes stuff … they just rock. Flat out. And who knows who might wind up as the next PhoneDog character you just can't get enough of.

I don't want to overdo this, but I do want to say a special thanks to Becca, better known to you as Rebecca Atwood, PhoneDog's Business Manager. From the first email I sent in applying for the job to the last details of my time here, she's been the master behind the curtain, keeping things moving, smoothing over rough spots, and generally making the company - and everyone in it - better and happier all the way around.

Laptops begat smartphones and smartphones may or may not be giving way to tablets (personally, I doubt it). And soon enough somebody will dream up some new amazing something that nobody could have thought of and everybody has to have. That's the amazing thing about this industry, if not this world (on its better days) - it just keeps evolving. Lucky for all of us we've got sites like PhoneDog to keep us entertained while we stay informed and try to figure out which of those five million new Android phones to buy next. Unless we go with iPhone. Or jump to WinPhone7. Or hold out for a new webOS device. Or MeeGo. Or …

Thanks for all of the support, and I'll see you around the comments - and on Twitter - and maybe even back on these pages one day. A collaboration down the road? A PhoneDog Reunion Special? A Tweed vs Bald best-of-seven Dogfight with Aaron sometime? You never know what might happen!

Cheers,

Noah