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Why not list the iMate Jasjam device alongside those others? Frankly, is pisses all over the crackberry and that useless Nokia. (Both of which I tried out)

http://www.clubimate.com/t-DETAILS_JASJAM.aspx

I've been using this phone/PDA/computer/camera/MP3 player/video conference unit for about 3 months now, and at $1198 New Zealand (wholesale), it's a bargain, especially with a 2GB micro-SD card thrown in.

Sadly you're right, that that's one of its problems. I have one of these: http://www.clubimate.com/t-DETAILS_JAM.aspx. The form factor is great, and with a couple of 1GB memory chips, you can have enough mp3s to make it worthwhile. The OS though, sucks big ones.

Mostly its just dumb design decisions like burying the battery level indicator and screen brightness settings three menus deep, but it also locks up a few times each month. That's bad enough in a general purpose OS, but absolutely unacceptable in a phone. I've even had it crash hard enough to wipe all of my data, and the ActiveSync software is appallingly unhelpful for tasks like backing up phone data.

The thing is though, it could have been a great device. Even now, if I could replace the crappy OS/software, It'd potentially be a keeper, but as it is, I'll be replacing it with a more conventional phone as soon as I can find a buyer for it.

MS's marketing will be sure to push the first option, but common sense really makes the second pretty damn attractive.

You'd think so, but over here in Australia, I can't buy a Linux smartphone. I've looked around, phoned around and done everything short of getting on my knees and begging, but no-one will sell them.

I've ended up getting a Pocket PC phone - the iMate Jam. http://www.clubimate.com/t-DETAILS_JAM.aspx It's good as a phone, and compact enough not to get in the way. I'm a long-time Palm user, so the Pocket PC interface seems cramped and oddly inconsistent, but it's usable. I bought it as a development platform, but I can cross-compile my Palm apps, so there's nothing much to learn there.

I'd like to add a Linux smartphone to my list of supported platforms, but even if I tracked down one to develop on, my customers couldn't buy them here. Has anyone in Australia actually managed to persuade a vendor to part with one?

*COUGH* *COUGH* *COUGH*

I know it's MS but have you guys even looked at the I-Mate Jam. It's a PDA, a phone, has a 1.3 Meg Pixel camera, runs Window's Media player, ie you can play MP3's, view divx video's, or even develop your own apps on the Compact .NET framework. It takes SD ram so whilst it only comes with 128 Meg out of the box it can be expanded to over a gig.

Are you guys (and Steve Jobs) on the same planet ? You're a little slow... this phone has been available for a long time.

But unless you're in a real rush just wait for the new Windows Mobile 5.0 phones they will be even better.

Or the i-Mate PDA2K, which comes with GPRS, Bluetooth and WiFi.

Actually, even a P910 is pretty old news now...

I went with a iMate PDA2K (MS PocketPC 2003SE + GSM Cell phone + keyboard + builtin WiFi). It's a pretty amazing package... The only downside is that the VGA camera in it still sucks.

Other than that, it does everything I want... Including playing DIVX files from my PC. Can fit 3 or 4 full DVDs + lots of other files on my 1gb SD card in it.

For me, it's basically a laptop replacement.

N.

but the i-mate PDA2k is nicer. Unfortunately, no US operator is offering it just yet.

you can have a I-Mate PDA2K today.

I have to agree with you on most of your points. I carried a Treo 600 since it was released, until last week when I purchased the newest Pocket PC phone, the iMate PDA2k (aka XDA III) with the slide-out keyboard. The addition of higher-res screen, WiFi, and 128MB RAM gives it a big advantage over the Treo line in my book. Adjusting to the Windows Mobile platform from Palm is an adjustment as apps aren't quite as snappy. GPRS is also a bit slower than CDMA data, but having the ability to connect via WiFi automatically when it is available makes this moot for most of my day. This doesn't address your concern of expense however as this thing was even more expensive than the Treo. One of my biggest concerns was form factor, and it took about a day of carrying the slightly-larger (than Treo) PDA2k before it felt comfortable in my pocket.