[geeks] HP Journada 720 - $75 (Refurbished, after rebate)

[velociraptor]

On 8/10/06, Geoffrey S. Mendelson <gsm at mendelson.com> wrote:
> Not another pocket device that does not do exactly what you want. While
> I'm focusing on gaming, how many devices can one person carry?
> As long as it is not built like a telephone I guess that's ok. Remeber
> the horribly designed Nokia N-Guage?

My "perfect" portable is not necessarily a "pocket" device--it's rare
that I go out with just what's in my pockets, so something to replace
phone+PDA+iPod+paper reading/writing materials would be an acceptable
alternative.  It's not a big deal to keep a cheap cellphone for when
you are running on just your pockets.

I want something about the size of a Flybook or slightly smaller
(including the rotating touch screen, or maybe it's just a slate) that
does EVDO/EDGE, GSM, Wifi, BT, and ethernet (might be wise to make
those upgradeable, ymmv).  And, a flash card reader of some type as
well--SD is a likely candidate, as most of the new smaller formats
have SD adaptors available.  It needs to have a USB port and mini-DVI
or mini-VGA so I can hook up an external monitor and keyboard if I
need to when I am travelling so I don't have to carry a full-blown
laptop.  I might even go so far as to say that an on-board keyboard
could be optional assuming it has an onscreen keyboard that will work
with thumbs (think: hold in portrait mode) and/or decent hand-writing
recognition (think: Newton/Inkwell).

And of course it needs to integrate well with a Mac to handle email,
calendar, and contacts in the native tools.  Obviously,  battery life
is the killer, here.   It's a pipe-dream, I know, to keep hoping Apple
enters the palmtop/UMP/ communicator market, but a geek has to dream.

I highly doubt I am the typical audience, though.  Basically what I
want is to give me a "mini" laptop that does everything that
PDA/Phone/PSP/DSLite/iPod do now.  It doesn't have to have a lot of
horsepower, it just has to be well-designed so switching between all
these activities is straight forward and simple.  I think the latter
is the big barrier to a merge of devices.

I've seen the Samsung slider phones, and while they are pretty cool,
it just seems that their interfaces are really overloaded.  Something
more like Front Row on the Mac makes more sense to me.

=Nadine=