enkidu's Journal: The more is better trend in handhelds.

I wrote this based on some thoughts and comments I had after reading these two slashdot articles. Updated (25-10-2003) after reading posts in this article.

I don't need a $600 Gameboy wanna be. I don't need a crippled ipod. I don't need a video player for munchkins. I don't need a uber machine that does 6 things badly (and that I need to upgrade all together). I want something that will store and process information for me. Not media, INFORMATION. Notes, meetings, phone numbers, addresses, ideas, sketches, references, URLS, passwords (encrypted natch). For me, this information is still B&W text and graphics. I want

• long battery life (~1 month)
• tack sharp 320x480 B&W screen, good for outdoor, indoor and in-dark use. 640x480 with anti-aliasing might be even better but would require more power.
• a compact size: Palm V would be ideal, but Anything upto Palm III/Handera would be great. Narrow bezel Palm V would be perfect.
• CF or at least dual SD slots.
• built in usb port (can be the microsize one).

I'd like

• flash/static ram backup (so running out of batteries won't lose (illiterate cretins, please note spelling of lose) all of my data).
• a thumb-keyboard (if it is removable or doesn't add bulk) with vim.
• cheap I-net access (cell, WiFi, GPRS, GSM, I don't care).
• maybe txt2speech capabilities, that would be cool.
• The only reason to have a camera would be if it combined OCI with it. That way, I could take a picture of a sign and have it type the characters into a note, and optionally translate it if I'm in Moscow or Istambul (thanks to Dr Cool for the translation idea from this post)
• If there were some way to swap core modules between my "carry PDA" and "work PDA", that would be cool. A work PDA would be a mini-tablet/superPDA sized PDA, perhaps a Newton size with a hi-rez screen (512x768 perhaps) that would be more useful in situations where portability isn't an issue and a large screen is possible. Thanks to ~b1t%20r0t for the idea of a "work PDA" from this post

I absolutely don't want

• battery draining color
• battery draining uber processors (my Mac IIsi had 20MHz and I ran Mathematica on it fer chrissake).
• an over-sized complex to use, battery draining phone.
• a un-ergonomic crappy lens digital camera (unless it has the OCI outlined above).
• half-assed MP3 playback
• half semi-assed audio recording (unless it has automatic transcription, but we ain't gonna see that for at least 5 years.)
• half semi-demi-assed video playback.

I don't care if it's running Palm, WinCE or Linux as long as it doesn't crash more than once a month and boots up in less than 3 seconds. The closest thing is STILL the Handera 330 and it came out 2 years ago (and is now no more). I don't see progress, I see bloated, mediocre products designed with the mantra of "features good, more features better".

The new Palm T3 is actually pretty close, except for the color screen and resultant atrocious battery life. The T3 is smaller than the 330 and has a higher resolution than the 330 and a nice form-factor. Bluetooth looks to be nice also. Unfortunately, it comes with all that crappy audio/video bullshit. I'd like a Palm E with T3-like full-screen better.