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Windows Mobile 6.1 had copy/cut/paste, but I agree with the rest of what you're saying there. http://community.htc.com/na/htc-forums/windows-phone/f/23/t/564.aspx

The Evo is not the first 4G phone to be ever released. HTC released a WiMAX phone for Russian market back in 2008. http://www.htc.com/www/product/max4g/specification.html

I don't believe HTC wouldn't have a formal contract in place with Google over the use of Android - they're not only a massive partner with a whole range of Android phones of their own, they even produce Google's physical phone product for them.

I understand your reasoning and you may very well be right, but given that the Android software is available on Free and Open Source Software terms, I wanted to give Google the benefit of the doubt. Letting down a formal licensee would be even worse than letting down independent parties using the software on open-source terms, although (as I said) Google will at some point have to consider whether it can successfully initiate and promote open-source projects if it stays on the sidelines when patent issues come up. By doing so forever (so far, we don't know yet what they'll do), Google would actually give a major strategic advantage to proprietary competitors.

I don't believe HTC wouldn't have a formal contract in place with Google over the use of Android - they're not only a massive partner with a whole range of Android phones of their own, they even produce Google's physical phone product for them.

Give it up already Google, no one wants your piece of shit web-tablet. They want magic.

- Steve

Yep, real Magic.

I'm interested in the sensors of the iPhone See where it has bullet points for * Accelerometer * Proximity sensor * Ambient light sensor Details, Apple. You do not have them.

Uh-hum. Let's compare to others:

• Nokia (after wading through Flash) N 900: the only sensor is a "CMOS sensor" under "Camera" - so either none of those the iPhone has, or even less detail.

• RIM: (again, lots of Flash) BlackBerry® Bold: "Light sensing screen", no other sensors.

• HTC (again needs Flash to access) Hero: again, no sensors mentioned.

So Apple actually has better details then Nokia, RIM and HTC, and I doubt the most smartphone or computer makers will actually fare any better. But I'm sure you will try to claim victory by pointing to some obscure maker or some info available via secret handshake.

The HTC Desire:
http://www.htc.com/nl/product/desire/overview.html

It's fast as hell, has a good (looking) multi-touch interface and is cheaper than the Nexus One. Battery life is the only issue I can think of but that's a problem with all similar devices. And I can also confirm that Flash does indeed suck the life out of the battery and Apple was right to exclude it.

From a HTC press release

Adobe Systems Incorporated (Nasdaq:ADBE) and HTC, a global designer of mobile phones, today announced that the new HTC Hero is the first Android phone to ship with support for Adobe® Flash® Platform technology.

My HTC Desire plays most flash content (but not Shockwave), and I think the HTC Legend does, too. I have it disabled most of the time, though, most flash content on the web consists of annoying ads stealing my battery juice.

Some Android Phones already have an embedded Flash player, for example the HTC Hero. I think that flash player 10.1 for Android devices will be the version installable on other devices and not factory installed

no, the Magic is made by HTC, not Apple

actually, nobody even cares about microsoft phones. They were (and still are) featureless and generally crappy. At this point MS would be smarter to just let that market go.

The best they have done is trying to make a phone look exactly like an android phone which shows how crappy winmo is.

I second everything that Tubmleweed mentioned since it's dead-on accurate. The real debate is between Verizon (great coverage) versus Sprint (great 3G speed), with AT&T and T-Mobile being runners up.

Be aware that if you plan to "tether" (connect your phone to your computer to let your computer have wireless Internet access over your phone) then Sprint will allow you to do that for free as long as you have an existing unlimited data plan ($15 for base plans or included in new plans), but Verizon will try to charge you per-megabyte costing you hundreds of dollars a month once they find out. Also be aware that Sprint also includes "Any Mobile-to-Mobile" add-on in many of their plans calling any of your friends on any mobile network completely free.

The iPhone is no longer a booster to AT&T's service since there are other alternative phones out or about to come out this year to rival the iPhone. T-Mobile is a company that has changed names three times already always hiding from a bad rep but trying to make money on we-cut-our-own-throat prices.

Some HTC phones that are are out already for Sprint and Verizon networks (both CDMA based) and are also GSM six-band phones so you have international usage, or additionally if they are Hard-SPL flashed, Secure Unlocked, and flashed with a custom WU World Unlocked Radio they can use US mobile carrier SIM cards letting you use AT&T, T-Mobile, or other carriers with regular or pre-paid SIM cards. You simply let the phone choose the network automatically by availability or manually by switching between CDMA and GSM only modes on the phone.

This CDMA & GSM access makes these phones almost universal in usage since they are carrier independent. On top of this you can flash them with tons of custom ROMs giving you access to all versions of Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.1 and 6.5 already including tons of custom applications written for these operating systems. You can even build your own custom ROMs from "kitchens" customizing the settings, drivers, and software available on these phones. They sell for $325-350 on eBay and can be activated with either carrier without a contract. Be sure to only by the Sprint or Verizon (CDMA & GSM enabled) HTC Touch Pro 2 phones and not the AT&T or T-Mobile (GSM only) since you won't have access to both wireless network types and the GSM only phones have a slower processor.

HTC Touch Pro 2 (aka RhodiumW) - 2 x CDMA, 6 x GSM, 480x800, 528MHz, 288/512 MB
Sprint - HTC Touch Pro 2
Verizon - HTC Touch Pro 2

Websites that you must visit.

XDA-Developers.com
PPCGeeks

If you can wait a bit longer and wish to spend $750 or more then you can consider this phone.

HTC HD2 or wait for the predicted but not confirmed HTC HD2 Pro (with keyboard and CDMA later this year).

More importantly history has demonstrated what happens to M$ partners. They are either left to wither on the vine as the core of their operations is mined out and absorbed into M$ or 'hmm', it was a pointless partnership that proved no benefit to M$ and is let go. To partner with M$ is a virtual admittance of defeat. Cool never partners with lame, unless they also want to appear as lame.

The reality is that with M$ gone apple has a far larger market to play in, a market that would be many, many multiples larger than what it current has. Google is big on search but tends to struggle else where, as for their phone, that is nothing more than a marketing momentum artifice for their OS, in fact it is quite clearly labelled as being someone else's phone http://www.htc.com/us/, so it is only a semi-branded google phone and is definitely still a HTC product http://www.htc.com/www/support/nexusone/.

The current line of marketing bull out of Redmond is nothing more than a sign of real fear and paranoia, they know in an open and competitive market they lose. The sad thing is, that failure all stems from an overly aggressive, narcissistic managerial dysfunction (tends to stifle creativity and integrity) and nothing to to with the bulk of the staffs efforts but they will be the ones to pay the price.

More importantly history has demonstrated what happens to M$ partners. They are either left to wither on the vine as the core of their operations is mined out and absorbed into M$ or 'hmm', it was a pointless partnership that proved no benefit to M$ and is let go. To partner with M$ is a virtual admittance of defeat. Cool never partners with lame, unless they also want to appear as lame.

The reality is that with M$ gone apple has a far larger market to play in, a market that would be many, many multiples larger than what it current has. Google is big on search but tends to struggle else where, as for their phone, that is nothing more than a marketing momentum artifice for their OS, in fact it is quite clearly labelled as being someone else's phone http://www.htc.com/us/, so it is only a semi-branded google phone and is definitely still a HTC product http://www.htc.com/www/support/nexusone/.

The current line of marketing bull out of Redmond is nothing more than a sign of real fear and paranoia, they know in an open and competitive market they lose. The sad thing is, that failure all stems from an overly aggressive, narcissistic managerial dysfunction (tends to stifle creativity and integrity) and nothing to to with the bulk of the staffs efforts but they will be the ones to pay the price.

Those smart people who actually read the fine print will not have this problem, because they'll head to HTC to confirm the level of support they'll be getting (that is to say, exactly 0), and will hold off on purchasing the device until better support is introduced. It's not that hard really, just go to http://www.htc.com/us/support where the Nexus One is obviously missing from the drop down menu. To make matters worst, HTC decided it would be funny to make a link titled "Google Nexus One Support Information" which links to a functionally useless page on Google.

Which leads via the help center to http://www.htc.com/www/support/nexusone/

According to Google's fine prints, yes, HTC should be providing support.

On http://www.htc.com/us/support, HTC's support comes in the form of a http link titled "Google Nexus One Support Information" and it links stright to Google.

I think these two companies managed to form an infinite loop.

And here I was thinking that infinite loop is Apple's specialty.

Warranties; Disclaimer of Warranties

You agree that Google is not the manufacturer, but the seller, of the Device. You acknowledge that HTC is the manufacturer of the Device and provides the Limited Warranty for repairs and service of the Device. Please refer to http://www.google.com/support/android/bin/answer.py?answer=166519 or the warranty card in the Device package for details on the HTC Limited Warranty terms and how to make a claim under the HTC Limited Warranty. If you are a purchaser of the Device in the EU, you are entitled to a two-year warranty for parts, labor, and service. If you are a purchaser of the Device outside of the EU, you are entitled to a one-year warranty for parts, labor, and service. These warranties are in addition to and do not affect your legal rights as a consumer.

OTHER THAN THE ABOVE AND TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, GOOGLE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, REGARDING ANY DEVICES, INCLUDING ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, OR NON-INFRINGEMENT.

Unlike traditional electronics companies, Google is delegating all warranty and customer service support to the ODM. And people do not understand this, since it's completely different from what they're used to. Since no one bothers reading the fine prints, they go and seek help in the wrong place.

Legally speaking, Google is not at fault here. With the above disclaimer, they have successfully disclaimed all their responsibility of providing service and customer care.

To the average folk who received customer support on their electronics for their entire life however, Google's stance is completely unacceptable.

Those smart people who actually read the fine print will not have this problem, because they'll head to HTC to confirm the level of support they'll be getting (that is to say, exactly 0), and will hold off on purchasing the device until better support is introduced. It's not that hard really, just go to http://www.htc.com/us/support where the Nexus One is obviously missing from the drop down menu. To make matters worst, HTC decided it would be funny to make a link titled "Google Nexus One Support Information" which links to a functionally useless page on Google.

Of course HTC is smart for not providing support since it's Google's reputation getting damaged here (see /. article title for example), not HTC's. This is the perfect method for silently eliminating an potential competitor in the mobiles market.

Obligatory car analogy: Bob sells me a used car and claims that Alice can repair it if anything goes wrong within a year. The car breaks down within a week but Alice is charging an outrageous amount for the repair fee. I get mad at Bob because he deceived me.

In the end:I get stuck with a broken car.
Bob's reputation is damaged.
But Alice lost nothing.

Your inability to cope with four letter words aside, I really don't know what the fuck you're talking about. To install my updates I put the .zip on the drive and pushed the buttons it told me to. Easiest firmware update I think I've ever done.

Yes, the fw upgrades are easy, one can see that Android was made to be upgraded easily and often. I didn't write that it's impossible to upgrade.

We're talking fw upgrades using the SDK (adp push, fastboot etc) and zip files that we get from others than HTC. My post was about HTC supplied firmware updates, since they are the phone manufacturer and I bought my phone directly from them.

On http://www.htc.com/europe/supportdownloadlist.aspx?p_id=267&act=sd&cat=all I see that the last update was in october-2009 and it's a 1.5 release. Did you get your updates to 1.6 or 2.0 from HTC? In that case the support HTC is giving their customers is much better in your area than mine. One can expect, I think, some updates for a phone running Android, from the guys making the phone.

OK so what's your fucking problem then? You complained because they didn't give you the firmware, and now you point out that the firmware is on their site. Were you talking about before 1.6 was released? You know HTC doesn't design the firmware either right? You know who the fuck MAKES Android, right?

Just read what I originally wrote. 1.6 was never released by HTC for the Magic's bought from them.

That means that, even if it's possible to run, there's no supported way to get a newer Android release on your phone without voiding warranty. Ah well, I guess you just don't WANT to read what I'm on about and instead just continue to shout out your "knowledge" about Android and the English (American?) language.

Want some more friendly 'advise'? Take some more goddamn English classes.

Grown up advise, thanks.

I see only kernel source here: http://developer.htc.com/ so it looks like they released only the part they had too.

Why should these companies choose a different strategy for Android-based phones than they do for any other phones? A very quick glance at their websites reveals the total number of mobile phone products they produce:

Samsung: 166
HTC: 39
Motorola: 107

So, in answer to your question of "why", these companies are doing the same thing with Android that they do with other mobile platforms. Is it a good idea to make a huge number of different phones? I think Steve Jobs would agree with you that it isn't. However, HTC, Samsung, and Motorola are not doing anything new. This is their "tried and true" business model. In fact, it would be strange to expect them to do something different just because their new mobile OS of choice is Android.

You seem to be confusing RAM and internal flash storage.

i don't think so, but i could be mistaken.

the specs are 192 MB RAM and 256 MB EEPROM. i believe that the eeprom holds the firmware loader and static OS elements, while the RAM is used for active operating memory and varying elements of the internal-phone filesystem, including apk storage, data caches for things like gmail and the browser, and so on.

i can tell you that the space available for the .apks starts at something like 75 MB total. that's quickly consumed (with some substantial apps taking several MB apiece), and i experienced awful performance problems even though i left 12 to 17 MB (depending on how recently i cleared the caches).

Wow, on my HTC Fuze (AT&T, free with contract), I just select the damn mp3.

Want just a clip? There's an app for that.

wake up! you have overslept by more than a two years

Shake the phone to pick a new random song, rotate to landscape to change the view to view by album art.

Try remapping those features to different inputs. This is where the Iphone falls down, it has to be hacked just to allow the user to create a custom wall paper. Android allows the entire UI to be replaced, not just having a new skin put on but all the inputs changed as well. This is what HTC is doing with Sense (project named Rosie) on the HTC Hero.

The Iphone may be the favoured tool of today but a popularity contest is a fickle mistress and will turn on all in the end. The iphone cannot compete on function with Symbian or Android as they are, both are improving platforms. WinMo is slowly dying IMO and it should be. The image of the iphone will not keep it alive in the long run.

The HTC Dream and HTC Magic are faster then the iphone in all tests, what the iphone does is replaces transitions with animations, this is why it appeared faster. to get android to open a web page or even a text file is faster then on the iphone.

Yes you can buy a dev kit and that is as close as your going to get, because mobile carriers do not want you flashing your own device.

They don't get a say in it. There are already several community Android ROMs which are completely outside the control of telco's. I prefer to use JesusFreke's ADP ROM, mundanes will prefer the US or UK localised variants but I like the tools provided in the ADP version. Telco's in Australia (where I live) and Europe are not permitted to tell users what they can and cant do with their phones.

However, I demo'd a bunch of phones, including the G1, then decided on the iPhone. In my opinion it is simply the best device out there, and with the jailbreak, its nears perfection. The HTC Dream is a step in the right direction but the it is clunkier, has worse battery life (not "close to" the iPhone by any means) and the screen is plastic. The glass iPhone screen feels so great to the hand. It's so hard to go back. I read the reviews on the new Android phone coming out July/August, and they said the on-screen keyboard felt tacky and wasn't as nice as Apples due the the plastic screen. The latest Google device will have no pull out keyboard. Also, the G1 is slower, and I feel was rushed to market. It design is not as elegant.

This is why I believe you to be a fanboy. Sorry but you lay too much lavish praise on the iphone and don't appear to have any experience with other devices. You rely on feelings and definitions like "clunkier" rather then debate the actual merits. BTW, the other Android phone from HTC (called the "Magic", but the "T-Mobile MyTouch 3G" for the yanks) has been out in Europe and Australia for over a month now, it has superior battery life to the iphone due to HTC using a larger battery (the one in the dream is tiny, this I admit).

I'm not a HTC/Android fanboy, the Dream's battery life is terrible but with a few useful tricks (keeping WiFi turned off until I use it, switching to 2G when I don't need data, turning down the screen brightness) it outlasts the iphone's default settings. Android 1.5 increased its default battery life by 20%.

There's the HTC Magic that's out in some countries. This is the phone that Google gave to all the attendees at their recent I/O conference.

They did, but that is not at all what you did. You tried to say the microcode running on the radio is part of all the software. When people say that, they don't mean microcode. Not on the radio, and not in the CPU core.

Right. But the OP specifically said that it had recompiled its OS and had verified that none of it was sending data to unauthorised sources. But the OP hadn't checked the radio, and wouldn't be able to, because the radio is a binary blob. Which means that it could have been sending data anywhere, for all the OP knew; the radio sees all data going over the air, knows exactly where you are, and has access to big chunks of the device's physical memory (which means it could probably, if it wanted to, snoop the application processor's workspace). If I were the DHS and wanted to know where every citizen was at all times, that's where I'd put my code.

'Microcode' is a misnomer; the G1 radio processor runs a twenty megabyte operating system image. It's not a small or simple thing. Anything could be happening in there.

(Usually these things are encrypted to prevent people from looking inside; the G1's isn't, though, and running strings on it shows that it seems to be the OKL4 variant of the Pistachio L4 OS. That's unusual --- things like VxWorks or Nucleus are more common. If you're interested in these things it's actually worth a look; there are a lot of interesting comments in there.)

My point is that being able to audit the obvious source code gives you nothing. Computers these days aren't simple CPUs attached to memory any more. If you're going to trust T-Mobile's radio stack you might as well trust the main OS as well. Auditing the main OS (which is, in itself, a task beyond most humans) without also auditing the radio stack gains you nothing.

I've never owned an iPhone, personally I'm saving up for the HTC Touch HD. I just use to sell cellphones and have always been annoyed at people who whine about why they can't get the $200 discount 6 months into their 2 year agreement.

I remember the rumors last year that HTC had a prototype for the G2 with a high resolution screen that was supposed to launch in January of 2009. When it didn't, HTC said the hardware was ready, but Google's software was holding it up, and we'd see a launch in April of 2009. My cell contract is up, and I really need to switch, but I'm holding out for a decent Android phone. When can I honestly expect to see one?

And given that HTC does make a phone with a high resolution screen, and all the rumors LAST YEAR were that both the new G-phone and iPhone would use higher resolution OLED screens, how come we're not seeing them?

http://www.htc.com/www/product/touchhd/overview.html

I've talked to reps from AT&T, Verizon and Sprint and all have said they have zero idea when they might get Android phones. If I have to wait another six months or more, I might suck it up and go with the Blackberry Storm because I need to replace my damned phone.

My personal suspicion is that Apple planned the next iPod Touch to be called the Touch HD, Microsoft got wind of it, and decided to pre-announce to "reserve" the name in the public's mind.

*cough* http://www.htc.com/www/product/touchhd/overview.html *cough*

Captive touchscreen aside, the HTC Touch Pro does most of that, though it does require a dongle for the headphone jack.

here you are.

As we discussed recently, OnLive is trying to change that by moving a big portion of the hardware requirements to the cloud. Of course, many doubt that such a task can be accomplished in a way that doesn't severely degrade gameplay, but it now appears that Sony is working on something similar as well.

This model is already proven in the case of my Win Mobile phone. See, IE mobile takes suck to whole new levels. There's Opera, which does much better, but is still slow as sin, even with a dual-core 400 Mhz ARM chip powering the unit. It honestly feels like Navigator 4 back on my Windows 95 Pentium 90 way back when...

Enter Sky Fire. They have a Linux rendering farm of (get this!) instances of the Mozilla rendering engine that pre-render websites for you, and you download the rendered result, much like Google Maps - in square sections, ajaxy-style.

It's fast enough for me to watch YT and Hulu video meaningfully if I'm connected via a decent Wifi. Now, it's not FPS games, but if it's good enough for a video, it's probably good enough for pre-rendering and/or AI computation.

Not to mention that WM can also function as a 3G->WiFi router with a little tweaking or a 3rd party app. Just today the DSL line in my office was down for a bit over an hour, so I whipped out my S730 and set up a hotspot for our little office so that people could get their mail or whatever it is that they do while pretending to work. It wasn't very fast since the area only has EDGE coverage, but everbody was nevertheless overjoyed.

I picked up a G1 last weekend, but ended up taking it back yesterday. On the software side, it was absolutely beautiful. But the hardware left a lot to be desired (mainly the form factor/weight). I'm hoping T-Mobile gets access to the HTC Magic sometime later in the year, in which case I'll go ahead and switch back.

As for the apps, the open source nature of the Android really showed (in more ways than one). On the one hand, there were some very interesting and innovative apps in the marketplace (and elsewhere on the web). For instance, there were several cyclocomputer apps that take advantage of the GPS and mapping abilities of the device. I didn't get a chance to try any of them out, but depending on the quality, I could see an Android phone replacing a $300-$800 dedicated GPS cyclocomputer (hell, there's probably even a way to tie a cadence monitor into the Android). OTOH, there were also a whole ton of crap programs in the marketplace. But I think the ratings and reviews are doing a decent job of weeding those out.

Overall, I do have the feeling that the Android will become a pretty major player in the coming months/years.

If HTC were to release a version of the Touch Pro2 running android, it would make it all worth while. I might even upgrade from my Trinity.

I still use my Asus A600 for reading ebooks, so I'd suggest getting another PDA. While I like e-ink for its display properties as well as power consumption, and I'm not totally opposed to the Amazon and Sony devices, they don't quite do it for me yet. Having to mess around with their software/online services just to get your file to display certainly doesn't help, and they're a bit pricey for single purpose devices.

Since you've used a Palm for this purpose already, you'll know that pretty much any PDA fills all of your criteria. So as for a specific suggestion, maybe the HTC Touch HD? It's got an excellent 3.8" 480x800 screen and if you don't use 3G constantly (or even turn off the GSM/CDMA reciever), the battery life should be good too as the talk time is around 8 hours. Obviously, it will also support any file format there's software available for WM, which is most of them. With a screen that large, even PDFs should be quite readable without screwing aroud with reflow.

Well I gave it a try on my HTC S730 because I have nothing else to do at work. The camera is a pretty shitty 2 megapixel with no autofocus, but it seems to work quite well. The tags are 15mm across once printed and are reliably detected from about 15cm away in rather average lighting (diffuse sunlight, the paper is in the shadow behind some equipment). Doesn't have to be straight down either, something like 45 degrees usually works fine too. Oh, scanning them from the monitor works too, but I thought that won't be a very realistic usage scenario.

Despite the usual "HURRR M$" sentiment, I think this could be pretty useful, and the implementation is already rather decent. Some people mentioned that color is a drawback, but I don't think so. Most advertising and packaging material I come across nowadays is in color, the only exceptions are perhaps the crappy flyers people try to stick in my face in public places, and I don't care about what's on them anyway.

your wish will come true very soon

That did happen, and it didn't lead to the iPhone failing:

http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx?id=356

Released a couple months prior to the iPhone.

There are already iPhone knockoffs (Sprint's Instinct, the HTC Touch)

I'm not claiming the HTC Touch is superior to the iPhone (or vice versa), but...

• HTC Touch: launched June 5, 2007 and reviewed by CNET on June 7.
• iPhone: launched July 29, 2007.

I guess HTC designed and released their Touch in the 5 months after the iPhone's January Macworld announcement. Or maybe HTC breached Apple's legendary secrecy and started designing their "knockoff" before the iPhone announcement.

Or maybe Apple wasn't the first to make phones with touchscreens (especially outside the USA). Maybe HTC's TouchFLO interface, which is designed with one-handed operation in mind, isn't so similar to the iPhone and wouldn't be considered a "knockoff" even if it was released after the iPhone (and it wasn't).

Both the Boy Genius Report and Engadget are fairly skeptical that this is the "final" Dream, mostly because the phone in this video isn't nearly as attractive as HTC's other recent phones.

I hope it's not final. Why would HTC release something that looks like the generic phone in this video for their first android handset when the company is perfectly capable of making something as attractive as the Touch Diamond?

Also, I know that Youtube comments are generally about as useful as catshit, but the uploader claims in the comments below his video, "i Think Semi-final but not Sure. And there is a black one. i'll upload the live demo of it."

Thankfully, this niche isn't completely dead. HTC has two gadgets which more or less fit: the Shift and Advantage. There are probably others, but I'm familiar with HTC's since I was researching my HTC smartphone (s730). Speaking of smartphones, one could of course use one of them for browsing, email, and ssh.

Anyway, the Shift might be a little over(priced|powered), since it is actually a full x86 computer which can run Vista or whatever flavor of Linux while also running WM6 on a separate ARM processor. Apparently it should last for several days of use if the x86 half is not running, and a few hours if it is. The keyboard appears to be pretty good for the size too.

The Advantage appears to be a more ordinary PDA type device with a 5" screen and a detachable qwerty keyboard. I'm not sure about battery life, but the official numbers are 300 hours standbuy and around 6 talk, so it should probably last about 10 hours if wifi or 3G isn't constantly in use.

Neither of these are exactly cheap (which is a shame since I'd like one), but at least they exist.

Thankfully, this niche isn't completely dead. HTC has two gadgets which more or less fit: the Shift and Advantage. There are probably others, but I'm familiar with HTC's since I was researching my HTC smartphone (s730). Speaking of smartphones, one could of course use one of them for browsing, email, and ssh.

Anyway, the Shift might be a little over(priced|powered), since it is actually a full x86 computer which can run Vista or whatever flavor of Linux while also running WM6 on a separate ARM processor. Apparently it should last for several days of use if the x86 half is not running, and a few hours if it is. The keyboard appears to be pretty good for the size too.

The Advantage appears to be a more ordinary PDA type device with a 5" screen and a detachable qwerty keyboard. I'm not sure about battery life, but the official numbers are 300 hours standbuy and around 6 talk, so it should probably last about 10 hours if wifi or 3G isn't constantly in use.

Neither of these are exactly cheap (which is a shame since I'd like one), but at least they exist.

The HTC shift is essentially an eee pc with GSM. See here for actual specs: http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx?id=600

Here are the actual specs (it does have GSM/HSDPA): http://www.htc.com/www/product.aspx?id=600

Add a bluetooth headset and you are set.

A Windows Mobile device, such as the HTC TyTN II.

Chuck Opera on it and you have a good web browser. Windows Media Player for your MP3 & videos.

Don't have your Palm apps, but I would guess most would have WM versions.

I was going to recommend something like this basically.

If you drop the DVD-R requirement, any PDA or smartphone should do the trick, really. I recently got an HTC S730. The slide-out keyboard is actually pretty good for emails and notes, but I could imagine it'd get old pretty fast if your writing style approaches Neal Stephenson's levels of verbosity. As the parent suggests, this could solved with a bluetooth keyboard, although I'm yet to try that. Unlike the Nokia tablet however, this thing not only is a functional GSM phone, but also looks like one too. This means less attention to yourself since phones are much more common in 3rd world countries than shiny gadgets with huge touchscreens.

Still, if I were doing something like that, I'd probably also consider something more powerful. Like maybe a TyTN II, or better yet, something with a VGA screen. It's quite a bit more expensive than an S730, but also much more capable due to the tilting* touchscreen. I still have my old Asus A600 PDA, and there are things at which it's still much better than the S730. You could write your rants in a full office environment with something like SoftMaker Office, resize and edit the photos from your camera in PocketArtist before uploading them, etc.

I hope this doesn't sound like an ad, I've actually happily used all this stuff (except for the TyTN), and while I'm not sure if this would be my final choice for a trip like that, I'd certainly think about this solution.

PS. Looking at the HTC product listing, they also have some sort of weird laptop/tablet/PDA hybrid thingie called Shift which seems pretty small and light (7", 800g).

*The tilt feature could be useful if you put the device on the table while typing on the BT keyboard.