An anonymous reader writes: I am choosing a smartphone for work, moving up from a long history of just-a-phone phones. This coincides with moving into an environment where I will have a desktop machine in my office, rather using my laptop — so I'll VPN in from home, and am looking forward to not trucking my laptop around everywhere. BUT ... this means I now won't have my laptop all the time. I have gotten used to scripting various little things that make my life easier, and would like to carry that over to the phone. For example, periodically check that a certain machine is online and backing things up the way it is supposed to; if the lab monitoring system sends me an email that the -80 freezer is up to -50, play a sound and run the vibrate system in a specific, arbitrarily chosen pattern; when I press this button, record an MP3, when I release it prep an email with it attached, that sort of thing. I assume this limits me to Android?
Other features I'm looking for are:
*Screen big enough to read & reply to emails, also skim through pdf files looking for a key point — I don't want an ereader, but I'll often be in a seminar and want to look something up quickly.
*Ability to use WiFi instead of data plan, and smart enough to use it when one of my preferred networks is available without me telling it to.
*can tether my laptop if needed via either wifi or bluetooth
*Can fit in a reasonable size mens pants pocket, and is robust enough that the screen won't crack when I sit down (had an iPaq do this once). I am open to using a holster, but I worry about snagging on things and also exposure to the elements when biking to work.
*decent battery life
*GPS would be nice while travelling on conferences but not essential, ditto a decent camera
*full on web browser that can handle things like TiddlyWiki would be very useful as well
Does such a beast exist? Has anyone used one and if so what do you think? Bonus points if you know if I can use it with Rogers (Canadian wireless provider used by my workplace).
