[geeks] what's the best pda?

[Jon Gilbert]

Alright I haven't used a PDA since the Palm IIIxe, which I hated  
because the memory would be erased after 5 minutes of no batteries,  
or if you put the batteries in backwards. But I liked its durable  
construction with the folding door that flipped over the screen (a  
feature which the Apple Newton also had). But the memory being erased  
twice on me was too much, so I switched back to good ol' paper pads  
with Pilot G2 pens.

But now it's been 5 years since I've had a PDA and I feel like  
testing the PDA waters again. Surely with the pace of technology,  
there is something now in the PDA market that has memory which can't  
be erased so easily, and which is at least as durable as a Newton or  
IIIxe. So here are my requirements.

The device should have:
* a decent LCD with a plastic or metal door that closes over it which  
is built into the device (i.e. I want it to be durable enough to  
survive in my pocket without any extra case).
* relatively thin and compact.
* prefer Li-Ion replaceable battery, though AAA's would be OK i guess.
* prefer true handwriting recognition (but could live with graffiti).
* has bluetooth and wifi.
* supports MacOS X.
* accepts SD cards.
* comes with a USB (hopefully 2.0) dock for syncing.
* a decently loud speaker for alarms.
* headset/mic port for VOIP would be cool (not sure if they have this  
yet).

I don't care so much about it doubling as a cell phone or having a  
QWERTY keyboard (if it's bluetooth I can just get an external  
keyboard for those times when I need such functionality). I don't  
care about it being a music player in any way. I would rather it had  
really good handwriting recognition than QWERTY, since I have very  
good handwriting and I'm fast with that.

If there is no device that matches most of these basic criteria, then  
what kind of crack are the hardware developers smoking? Thanks.

-
Jon Gilbert
PGP fingerprint: 7FA9 B168 73CA A698 DD9E  2DF2 EE1A 3E73 3119 741F