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- PDA [palm OS 5.0]
- Cell phone
- Keyboard
- High speed internet access with flat rate data plan
- Color screen
- MP3 player
- Memory expansion [ie Memory Stick, SD, etc]
- Be able to clip to my belt

We are so close. The Kyocera 7135 is almost there, but lacks a mini keyboard. The Treo 300 is close too, but lacks an MP3 player and memory expansion slot.

I have been holding off on buying an MP3 player, one of those new phones that comes with games and even a snazzy new color pda. Unless I find everything all in one, I know it will just collect dust after the first month.

Why hasn't anyone mentioned the PDA/Phones combinations? I personally have the Kyocera Smartphone and find it extremely useful. With only one gadget, I get a date book/calendar, calculator, address book, note book, (limited) web browser, e-mail client, and e-book reader. There's even a VNC client out there for the Smartphone.

Why haven't the phone/PDA combos taken off more? size? price?

Go here:
USENET post on Google groups

This will take care of the software config. As for the cable, does Linux recognize the 2235 as a modem? As far as I know, the usb cable is just a usb->serial interface, so does it present a serial device you can access in Linux? If not, just buy the serial cable from Kyocera for the phone. They have a store in their website.

Any chance of getting the Kyocera 7135 upgraded to this before it comes out?

o 256 Color screen

It's cute but without features like Sync, it's just a novelty. And I don't really find tiny keyboards any more practical than phone keypads. The kids will love it.

I'm dreaming of the Kyocera Smartphone 7135. Full color screen, Palm OS, expansion slot, 3G, and it's barely larger than my Startac. NICE!

Ok, I had to see what you meant. The Kyocera 7135 does indeed look pretty cool.

I think they are the _first_ people to get a formfactor for a phone/PDS that I think might really be useable. I am a bit worried about the interoperability of the phone/PDA though. I'd have to try it out.

Of course, what I really wish is that the Sony Clie NR70 had a cellphone too. I mean they have the form factor right (if a bit large for a phone)!

Just don't ever ask me to use a PocketPC-based phone or PDA. Isn't ever gonna happen.

Kyocera Wireless had the first 3G (CDMA2000 1X) phone launched over a year ago. The 2200 Series have sold in excess of 3 million units at Verizon, Sprint, and Virgin Mobile USA. Nokia really isn't doing anything special here.

3G is out before it is ever in...

Personally, I feel excited about the form factor of the new Kyocera 7135 I like Graffiti, but I feel a number keypad is very necessary. It seems like this Kyocera might finally get it right. (Although many people are complaining that it doesn't have the new features of PalmOS 5)

I just bought the (palm-powered) Kyocera 6035 smart phone off of EBay for $150. At first, I was no fan, since it is kinda huge and the controls take some getting used to, but now i am very happy with it. I can carry a French Dictionary to class, play a solid backgammon program, read classical literature, all on its albeit somewhat small screen. My two complaints are that it is just a little bulky looking, although it is still entirely portable, and that it runs the pam OS a bit slowly. Plenty of space for programs and whatnot, but also now space for additional memory card or bluetooth or whatever. Beats the hell out of that Tungsten-W which I suspect is faked anyhow. The Ericsson smart phone cited below looks snazzy, but it is not nearly as affordable, and i can just buy a new phone in a year or so at the price i paid for this one, should a K-razy sweet phone emerge.

Of course, a truly persistent person or corporation can find a way to tap into any technology, given time and money.

Depends on your definition of "major" I guess. Kyocera's 6035 is Palm OS-based and its incredible. The Treo as well from Handspring.

you mean like this one?

or maybe these?

The complete spec from the Kyocera web site.

You remember that a company called Qualcomm made a palm/phone combination. A few years ago they went bankrupt, and their great idea of a PDA mixed with phone was sold to Kyocera, a Japanese company. What's nice about the newer models is that they upgraded the PalmOS to take advantage of the marriage, and fixed some physical issues with the 1.0 release of the phone.

Let me first elaborate on the design. It is a rather wide flip-phone. It's got a numeric keypad that flips open to reveal a full palm screen. There's an extendable antenna, and a nice jog dial on the side to scroll down large pages. It comes with a docking cradle/charger. There is a nice manual showing all the features, as well as a Palm Desktop CD (Windows only?)

First off, it's a black and white screen. Eh, no big deal, except that its competitor, the Handspring Treo has a color screen. The Treo also has about 3 good calls in it before it needs a recharge, I hear, while the Smartphone so far is great. Plus, the Smartphone is way cheaper.

The phone works as a phone when the flip is closed. Only the top half of the Palm screen is used, the time is displayed, and you can use the jog dial to navigate your address book, take a voice memo, or check e-mail, send an SMS text, etc. When you open it, the full screen comes into use, and the palm can run. Interetingly enough, you can run the palm, with the phone part set to On or Off. That's nice, as you can therefore use the Palm apps on a plane, unless the stewardess on board accuses you of lying/sabotage and confiscates it.

It's digital, can run palm apps, including Palm Clipping apps that connect to the 'Net. There's WAP support, though the WAP browser is really bad. It feels slow, and clumsy interface IMO.

A nice feature is that it can plug into a laptop and become a wireless fax/modem, both with a serial cable or IR port. You can download a Palm remote control app, meaning you can change the channel with your phone.

There is no bluetooth support yet, but the salesman told me that in a few months there will be an add-on to the phone's cradle port allowing it. Meanwhile, you have a headset jack, a speakerphone that lets you hear the conversation (but makes you yell to be heard on the other end), IR, and the wireless web.

The Wireless Web differs from carrier to carrier, but with Verizon I was able to send e-mails without dialing up (using a digital network) and use the pager service (for Verizon's network at least).

Kyocera's site is over at www.Kyocera-wireless.com Check it out to see the newest Smartphones, the latest model as of Summer 2002 is the QCP-6035. 8MB of RAM

I use the Kyocera QCP-6035, and find that it does everything I want it to. It's basically just a Palm 3 with cell phone capability. Sprint has them for like $150 right now, and I hear they can be had for cheaper.

However I decided to wait for now for two reasons. One is that Handspring recently announced that they will be supporting CDMA (logical considering Qualcomm just invested $10 Million in them). Thus I expect a CDMA Treo will come out some time this year.

The other reason I am waiting is that Sprint PCS is about to roll out their new 3G Network this summer. Among other things, this will offer data speeds up to 10 times faster than the current network can. In fact, Wired is running a story today on the demo roadshow that Sprint is running right now to show off applications of their new network.

Sprint isn't showing any new handsets for it yet, but one will presume they are forthcoming. In fact, I'm guessing thats why the price on the QCP-6035 has dropped so preciptously (from like $300 to $100 or so) in the last couple of months---I'm guessing Kyocera has a successor model waiting in the wings.

Hence I wait.

I picked up a Kyocera QCP6035 phone for CHEAP ($100 at Best Buy) a month ago. They're discontinued now, I think, but CompUSA still has em for $150, and they're practically free with a new account with all the rebates they throw at you. It's an 8MB PalmOS 3.5 PDA and SprintPCS phone combo, and it's BEAUTIFUL. Great battery life (for now), great reception over my older Samsung and Sanyo Sprint phones, and the best part: the built in net connection.

The phone comes with Sprint's dialup service built in, and doesn't cost any more than normal airtime. For a poor college kid like me the cost is silly low and I can do AIM, SSH, VNC, web/email, IRC, and never have to go into the office ever again :)

The IRsync capability as well as being able to use it as a modem is nice. Biggest downside is the serial cradle it comes with, but I think they have a USB one you can buy now.

Unless you're looking for incoming mail notification, you would probably be best served with a Kyocera Smartphone (running PalmOS) and either the included Eudora mail client, or any other of your choosing.

Note, however, that this solution will require you to check your e-mail manually, which might be undesirable for you. But it does guarantee (as much as you can trust your SMTP server) that your mail will go out.

I got one to, here's the site. Have you figured out how to disconnect from the internet yet? I got online exactly once and got hit with a one hour charge. Other than that, I absolutely love mine. I came damn close to buying a Treo, but I really like this form better. Now, all I need to do is find an mp3 player for it.

For those who have tried both, how does the Treo compare to, say, the Kyocera series of PalmOS-based smartphones, or even the old Qualcomm pdQ series?

(BTW, I think the Kyocera is your only option currently if you want Palm + phone in one unit and you are on a CDMA-based wireless network, such as Sprint or Verizon.)

For those who have tried both, how does the Treo compare to, say, the Kyocera series of PalmOS-based smartphones, or even the old Qualcomm pdQ series?

(BTW, I think the Kyocera is your only option currently if you want Palm + phone in one unit and you are on a CDMA-based wireless network, such as Sprint or Verizon.)

I don't think it's too unreasonable that a combination GPS, PDA, and phone could be made available at $100/pop within the next 6 years.

You fool that POS from handspring was put out in responce to this. Which was produced in cooperation with Palm.

My wife has become quite the geekess. Last month she decided the ethernet cable in her laptop bag was the wrong size, so she got out our spool of Cat5e and crimped a new one. Damn, I love her.

Anyways, she's tired of carrying her phone and her Palm and her pager. So we found the Treo, SmartPhone, and I300. Anyone have hands-on tales about them?

Do any of them really work as well as the separate components do? I've heard some of them are like a complete Palm with a crappy phone strapped on, while others are a decent phone with a weak PDA wedged inside. And do any of them have good synergy across the features?

Kycera 6035. It's a PalmOS 3.5 based dude. The sweet part is that it can function as a full wireless modem for itself standing alone or for another computer connected via serial cable to it's palm cradle. Verison let's you use CDMA calling at not extra fee (your minuets are used like it's a normal call). Plus, since it's a PalmOS based device, you don't have to deal with watered down, propriatarily controlled HDML sites..you have a full HTML browser (well, as full as it is on the Palm V) with an independent modem link to whatever dialup ISP you have.

Cons are that you now have a cell phone that is prone to crashes and it's a tad bulky (yet smaller than a full-sized Palm Pilot).

http://www.kyocera-wireless.com/kysmart/kysmart_fa q.htm

You mean like these?

(Sorry about that third ASP link)

• Symbol Technologies licenses the Palm and creates several units which can do RF, 802.11, and include a barcode scanner (high-output LED)
• Handspring invents the Springboard slot and implements pseudo-USB support for connecting the devices.
• Sony mimics that with the MemoryStick, but adds VFS support, and takes Handspring's USB protocol, changes one function, and makes their own spin on it.
• Handera, formerly TRG builds upon that with a sliding graffiti area (thanks for incorporating my idea from #palmchat back in 1998 on that one), and adds CF and SD slot architectures (still serially connected storage though, can't "run apps" from each card concurrently)
• Palm comes out with the replacement to the Vx, called the m505, and includes the Sony VFS extensions, the Handspring hardware port design (internally) and the Handspring USB modifications, but changes it enough to make yet a third fork of this pseudo-USB protocol. They also make sure to make every single thing about this new device completely incompatible with every single other thing available for their devices, even down to a 2mm change in the stylus length (I have a more detailed enumeration of those changes found here).

Why does Palm think they're about to, in any way, create a new hardware device that they think will surpass these existing innovative devices? Palm is ALWAYS behind the curve on hardware advances in this area. We're not even talking about comparing them to the iPAQ, VTech Helio, Agenda, Yopy, and the other dozens of non-PalmOS, non-WinCE handheld PDA devices.

Currently, Palm's OEMs for the PalmOS® software include:

• Sony
• Handspring
• Handera (formerly TRG)
• Qualcomm (bought out by Kyocera)
• Kyocera
• Symbol Technologies
• ...and others.

They get licensing from each and every one of these OEMs. Their hardware is the last thing to ever be updated. It is without a doubt, the least innovative portion of their business.. and they're choosing to keep it?!

I don't quite understand the motive behind this decision on their part. I suppose I'll find out at Palmsource in February.

The Treo is the innovative product the Palm community has been expecting from Handsping, and I believe it will be a huge success. Here, in no particular order, is why:
1) Size. Have there been other smartphones? Yes. Like this? No. This is neither a clunky phone-grafted-onto-an-organizer nor a strange organizer-grafted-onto-a-phone. This is a truly integrated product. It is small enough that I will finally be able to ditch my Palm/OmniSky and Nokia for one pocketable device.
2) Keyboard. Even though I've used Graffiti for several years, I have to admit that it is still a pain. Some may disagree, but the fact is that the vast majority of users will be able to enter text faster and more accurately with a QWERTY keyboard--even a thumb keyboard. If you think such keyboards are too small, just look at the success of the RIM Blackberry to see how much people love them.
3) Software. Handspring has done a great job integrating the Palm OS with the phone. They didn't just include a "Dial" app, they've included Blazer (their wonderful browser), Messaging (SMS), Phone Book (a Palm Address Book upgrade that has dialing capabilities), a POP3 client, etc. Out of the box, this will be a true Internet phone.
4) GSM. My fellow Americans may question this (since GSM has relatively limited coverage in the U.S.), but GSM was the right choice for Handspring. When GPRS rolls out (in the U.S. Voicestream has already started), you will be able to upgrade your Treo to support an "always on" wireless connection. Always on is much better than dial-up, even Sprint's "Quick Network Connect" dial-up (which basically just means that Sprint PCS is your ISP). Other, more popular U.S. mobile standards (CDMA, TDMA) are not moving to always on as quickly as GSM (although I've heard reports AT&T is upgrading to GPRS), and a true smart phone needs an always on connection. The other (obvious) advantage of GSM is that Handspring can sell the Treo in Europe and Asia.
Anyway, I will certainly buy a Treo when it comes out, and I think many others will too. The real question is how the Treo will stack up to competitors like the Danger Hiptop.

This device has been around for a while. As a bonus it's cellular therefore is available where GSM is not.

I use a Kyocera Smartphone combination cell phone and palm pilot, and love it. I only carry one device instead of two, and can use all of the Palm tools (e.g. jpilot and the like) to edit the data for both the phone and the palm.

I've owned one for about 3 weeks. It supports .pqas, as well as apps that access other things directly, like web browsing, POP/IMAP email, NNTP, etc. It has a screen similar to the Palm 105 (smallish, B&W), but I find it's not any worse than other Palm screens.

Service is available through Verizon and Sprint at the moment and the phone costs around $500.

Some of my dislikes:

• Backlight button is on the top of the phone. So, when I put the phone in its case, I sometimes hit it and wake the phone up.
• Screen gets greasy when I talk on the phone. (I solved that one though w/ a small piece of plastic.)
• If I load a bad piece of software on it, my phone can reboot!
• Serial synchronization

Things I like:

• Speakerphone and headset
• One touch voice dialing w/ unlimited # of entries
• Internet access on my phone.
• Good battery life
• Don't have to carry two devices around.
• Voice memos (although I don't use it too much)
• If you have a headset plugged in, and get an incoming call, it asks you, "Incoming call, accept?", which is just cool.
• It's not that much bigger than my old Palm IIIx.

Todd

It rocks. The screen is smaller than my old PalmV, but the integration is excellent. Since I've gotten it, I've replaced my phone, my pager, and my PalmV with this single device.

Now my pants stay on!

I recommend it highly. Not an employee, just a satisfied customer.

The BDUs are great, but what is the long term effect of any transmitter down around the groin area? The cell phone isn't putting out near the power of, say, a radar gun, but what if my children come out Socialists? Can I live with that?

I've got that Kyocera QCP 6035 Smart Phone, which I use predominantly with a hands-free gadget. It's not the destination, but it's a step that way.

Brain'll probably be a cantaloupe by the time I cash in, anyway. The price of the Information Age life.

So for me:

• Start with the Kyocera Smartphone - phone and PDA in one not-obscenely-large device;
• The ability to play mp3s and support for some kind of optional larger-capacity storage (e.g. CompactFlash);
• A good-quality, well-lit color screen;
• Easy expandability, using something like the Visor Springboard;
• 10-12 hours of battery life no matter what I'm doing (playing mp3s while surfing the net, interspersed with longish phone calls);
• Reasonably fast (solid 56K-plus) web/e-mail access, through a regular ISP (I don't want to be forced to use Palm's approved providers and/or websites or however they do it)
• Finally, I'd like to sync reasonably quickly with my home/office PC wirelessly, and thus either save new info, or get back to where I was if I have a crash that wipes out data while I'm on the road.

For me, until I can get all/most of this in one device that clips onto my belt, I don't feel a strong need to upgrade from the IIIx and a Nokia 5165.

(I'll add here the caveat that I have comparatively little experience with advanced PDAs/phones/mp3 players, so some of what I want may be available, or may not be available for 20 years.)

To my thinking, the power and flexibility I'd want in a mobile device is pretty much proportional to the richness of interaction I can have with it. Cracking the rich-interaction problem on small mobile devices, it seems to me, is going to be a much tougher job than cramming in software and CPU power that used to only be available on the desktop.

Kyocera is the company that bought out (or was born from, whatever) Qualcomm. If you notice, all of the old Qualcomm phones are now Kyocera phones. And yah, you can buy that phone for Sprint PCS service in the US. I was in the SprintPCS store the other day and the sales guy was trying to sell me one. It runs the Palm OS and has 8mb of ram, but like every other Palm device, it didn't impress me enough.

Here is some good info on the phone...

You mean something like this? I remembered hearing something about it so I did a little digging around and found the QCP 6035 by Kyocera. I don't recognized the name of the manufacturer, but from what little I did find out I think it's being rebranded and may even be available in the US if you're a Sprint PCS customer.

It's at least 2 out of the 3 items you mentioned. :)

I noticed that the Samsung SPH-I300 (review) hadn't been linked here yet. It blows away the Kyocera QCP 6035 (review) in my mind, but it will run on Sprint's network. The Kyocera is only on Verizon's network in my area (Washington DC.) Meanwhile, I haven't seen anything about the Magcom Mobile Phone here in the US.

There are Palms and Handsprings available in the $149 range, but they come with 2M of user accessible memory. That is just slightly more than a floppy disk, making the device as a whole slightly more usable than a calculator and an address book.

Bullshit. My pdqSmartphone / Palm has only 2MB and I have Avantgo (870K including cache), pdqSuite (real html browser and pop3 mail 140K), base converter (6K), a very full calendar (17K), 321 addresses (50K), Diddlebug (free form stickynotes 46K), IP calculator (14K), couple of hacks (17K), telnet (29K), WhatzUp (appointments and todo list at-a-glance 20K), some stuff for the phone functions (15K), clock / alarm replacement (41K). With additional system overhead, etc. I still have 521K to play with. I've thought about upgrading to the new version, but what's the point? This one does everything that I need.

Over the past months, I've seen Linux PDAs drooled over and I just shake my head and ask "why?". The sort of folks that hang out on /. generally value efficiency and elegance of code, but the Palm seems to be overlooked. I don't know of another platform that does so much with so little. Plus there is a *bunch* of open source software for Palm. I'm heartened to see that many of the posters for this story seem to get it.

Kyocera Wireless acquired that part of Qualcomm... _NICE_ phones by what I saw...

"Titanic was 3hr and 17min long. They could have lost 3hr and 17min from that."

I was actually interested in posting a similar article today, but I knew it wasn't much of a post...I'm x-mas geek shopping and a cell phone with pda features is at the top of my list. Unfortunately it looks I'm going to be out of luck for x-mas. I've ruled out the handspring phone as being too expensive and too bulky. Plus as mentioned before it's not going to be available across the country. I think CDMA is a better option in the US at least for now.

Here's what I'm interested in: the Kyocera Smartphone Series - QCP 6035 that is supposed to be available early next year. It's CDMA with palm 3.5 with 8 mb.

Here are some articles about it:

News article about it here and here (with some pics) and here.

Here's what they filed with the FCC here. The FCC has some nice pics of the guts of the pda phone. (Side note: I figured all you hardware geeks would like this)

Ok, here's what I want: a cell phone with PDA, pager features, 8 mb of ram for under 600 bucks and is small.

I'm not going to get that with the handspring phone. It's going to cost me 800 plus after taxes to get that and Kyocera says they are going to be selling theirs for under 800 and it's going to be smaller.

If you don't know about Kyocera, they bought Qualcomm CDMA phone business which included the out of date PDQ phone. Here's a link to their site

Ok...that's all I know....does anyone on /. know of a palm OS cell phone deal that is or is going to be better?

Qualcomm has one, it has a Palm in it...

http://www.kyocera-wireless.com/pdq/ index.html

I want one...

I don't need an extra modem: my Palm IIIx connects seamlessly by IR to my GSM mobile (a Nokia 8210, really tiny great thing). OK, it's 9600bps but I can get my mail in the train.

Browsing is slow, although I can access WAP sites that are a little bit faster but scarce in content. And GSM mobiles work almost everywhere in the world, except in the USA of course :( OK, I know there's tri-band mobiles that work everywhere available from Motorola, but that's another story.

Considering the power and memory available on Palm PDAs, I think 9600bps (or 14.400 in rare cases) are quite enough to send or receive email. If you need more, get a laptop. It'll still work with the mobile phone as a modem and there's great chances you'll have a regular modem in it. Or just wait for the 3G phones, it'll be 2MB/s...

Now, I'd love to see those Palm/phone hybrids from Kyocera that are on the US market only 'cause they don't do GSM (only CDMA) OTOH, I like having the choice between having a tiny mobile (79g only) that fits anywhere and the full geek gear (a Palm III is quite bulky, can't wait getting a Vx!).

In other words, why would somebody want a *real* modem in a Palm, when usually you got the mobile ready for the task, with no cable/hassle with it? OK, here everyone has a mobile and all Palm owners I know also have a mobile, since they pretty much fit together in a standard geek logic.

.max

I'm going to have to agree with the other posters that I'd rather have several small flexible tools than one monolithic one, integrate them with BlueTooth and keep them simple.

...of mainstream devices for a while, at least. It's because of size and convenience factors. I can go out and use a variety of best-of-breed tools today to accomplish my needs, or look for a big honkin' everything device, but I think the discrete device approach is better. Here's why.

Merging the PDA and the cellphone works, to a point. But numberic keypads are a horribly inefficient text entry method, and keyboards go against the grain of the smaller phones in the market nowadays. Want to see a merged PDA/cellphone? The PDQ phone from Kyocera (formerly Qualcomm) works pretty well, despite it's size. It combines a CDMA cellphone with a Palm III.

2-way pagers and e-mail devices are also probably going to merge into the PDA in the future. The Motorola devices (sold by SkyTel) and Blackberry don't stand that well on their own when compared to a PDA with wireless capability. If the coverage associated with devices like GoAmerica's Minstrel for the Palm V series can be solved (the Minstrel for the Palm V uses CDPD, mostly available on the East Coast except for Atlanta), then a PDA with wireless will blow away the 2-way paging market.

On my belt, at any given time, you can find one or more of the following:

Motorola PageWriter 2000X (SkyTel 2-way paging)
Palm Vx
Motorola StarTac CDMA
Leatherman Wave

And that's just on my belt or in my pockets. When I carry a briefcase, it has either my iBook or a Dell Inspiron 7500 in it, along with connectivity gear, chargers, etc. I take a healhty back satchel with me to trade shows, meetings, and so forth that I use to carry my GoType and any paperwork I need, too.

Now, let's take a look at what can be replaced or combined:

I could get the GoAmerica service for my Palm Vx and dump the SkyTel pager. But the pager will receive pages virtually anywhere in the US, and send in many places, unlike the Minstrel which relies on the CDPD network. I live north of Boston, where CDPD coverage is good, but the BellSouth wireless and ARDIS coverage (what RIM's devices use) sucks. So a Blackberry is out. I go to Atlanta a couple of times a year, so that's a strike against the Minstrel - Atlanta is the only major East Coast metro area with no CDPD. And I spend a lot of leisure time on the Vineyard, where CDPD works in some locations but not others, and none of the other services work at all - but I can get pages.

So I'm stuck with the pager for now, until something better is more built out.

The Palm is something you'd have to rip from my cold dead fingers. I use it everywhere, for reading, storing technical reference material, and organizing my life. I also sync a huge load of content with AvantGo whenever I'm plugged in. As I said above, I'd take it wireless, but there's a lot of coverage issues for me. I also have a GoType keyboard that I use sometimes to make it a laptop substitute. The Palm stays.

The cellphone stays because it's tri-band (800 MHz AMPS, 800 MHz CDMA, 1900 PCS), tiny, and it works anywhere I've ever been. I can tuck it in a pocket or a glove compartment, it's relatively cheap to feed ($35/month), and there are times you have to talk to someone by voice. I prefer using the pager, though, when possible. I don't give people my cellular number, but I do give them my e-mail address.

The Leatherman stays because it's mondo cool. I have a Micra on my keychain though, making it the first thing I dump from my belt. I also keep a PST in my car.

The problem is that all these devices are small, but together they're large. The only thing I can really see combining are the Palm and the pager, though. If the cellphone were bigger I'd probably leave it at home - like I did the Qualcomm 820 I used to have.

Each one performs a discrete function and can be ditched if I need to. The Palm would be the last one to go, I think, since too much of my brain is outsourced to it. I think that's why I prefer to have several smaller devices each performing a given function than to make it monolithic. If any one device is not functioning or not available I can use the others. If I'm going to put all my eggs in one basket, it needs to be a heck of a basket, and I don't think that level of integration, miniaturization, reliability, and low cost will be practical anytime soon.

But whoever designs a 2-way pager, PDA, and cell phone that takes up the space of a Palm V, plays MP3's, gets me e-mail and web content, and runs on a battery charge for a couple of days straight, please drop me an e-mail and I'll come buy it. Maybe.

- -Josh Turiel