more on convergent devices

Every time I think about this I get stuck in a rut for two or three days thinking about it. The underlying problem is that the average person does not want to walk around with a Batman-style utility belt to carry all his gadgets, so it's really hard to get someone to adopt a second device (after the cell phone, which is so revolutionary it changes our perceptions of what constitutes a suspenseful story line).

As a first cut, here are the devices I currently use but would like to combine:

• BlackBerry Curve (phone, email, web browser, text messages, camera)
• Digital camera (8Gb card, reasonable zoom, etc.)
• GPS (Garmin eTrex, no Bluetooth or USB port)
• iPod (60Gb)
• iPod (8Gb)
• Garmin Forerunner 301 (GPS, stopwatch, heart monitor)
• Nintendo DS (only stylus device in the bunch, soon to include the Korg DS-10)

I think what I really want is a device like the Curve but with real storage (100Gb to 250Gb) and a real camera, with battery life something like what I get for the Curve on standby: three to four days between charges, which should happen via a USB port. I want a real GPS, one that locks on like the Forerunner and will do real track and waypoint transport to and from the browser and other applications. I want dual screens, at least one of them stylus-sensitive, like the DS; I want to be able to manage files and controls via the sensitive one, again, like the DS. I don't want any cartridge ports.

I realize that most people think "driving directions" when they hear "GPS." I use Google Maps for that; I'm a geocacher, so my requirements are a little different. I want to run Google Earth with a "you are here" pointer and be able to pick layers with a stylus.

I don't necessarily need to hold this thing up against my head; I don't mind using a headphone jack when using it like a phone, but I'm not thrilled with the Curve's stereo headset; I like to be able to pick up ambient sound via my open ear while I'm on the phone in the car: a stereo headset is too immersive, and using it with just one earpiece is clumsy.

And that's just for starters; beyond that I really want a Gordon Bell data acquisition application with decent search on the fly. And I really want a health monitor that will read my vital signs on the fly and monitor my temperature, pulse, blood composition, etc. I want this device to be touch-sensitive all over. And it should be rugged and waterproof.

Yeah.

coincidental posts on convergent devices

My To Do list is becoming manageable again, and in spare moments I'm reading posts I had missed while catching up. Jordon Cooper is looking for the perfect PDA, and Mike Doughty has among other things purchased an iPhone after many years of using minimal cell phones.

Remember when they were called PDAs? Back then they were mostly digital organizers, and they acted like them: if you ever owned an Apple Newton you probably remember how you co-adapted to its peculiar handwriting recognition software, and if you did that successfully you may wax nostalgic for the Newton. Or even still use it.

Jordon is downwardly mobile in Saskatchewan, intentionally poor and working with homeless people professionally, but he's still trying to find a mobile email solution and fighting the urge to make do with a BlackBerry or an iPhone. I don't blame him for holding out: I'm a little nostalgic for my recently-deceased BlackBerry 8700, I'm disappointed with my BlackBerry Curve (the 8700 handled multiple email accounts more smoothly, the Curve tried and failed to fix some of the 8700's navigation problems, etc.), and it'll take a lot for me to drop more than $100 on an iPod (not to mention change cell phone companies) while they've got less than 100Gb of storage.

Doughty points out that the short battery life is still the iPhone's dirty little secret.

And while so much about the iPhone's navigation is cool, the touchscreen buttons are too small for my fat fingers and I dislike the two-fingered gestures. Apple seems to find innovative ways of doing things (stylus, clickwheel, gestures) and then overuse them; I swear one day we'll all look back on both the iPod and the iPhone the way we look back on the Newton now: a few of us with nostalgia, the rest wondering what they were thinking.

Would it be too much to say that the Newton is an ancestor of the Nintendo DS? I'd love to see some decent PDA software for that thing; I'm just not sure I'd want to use it to take notes or send text messages.

I don't think the Google Android is going to fix this, either. The picture that appeared in the Google Chrome introductory comic suggests to me that it will look like a BlackBerry/Treo/etc., which means that Google will do what it does best so far: offer small fast applications that transport data well and collect lots of personal information for Google.

All signs suggest that the second wave of PDAs/smartphones is over: they're no longer new, and they're just barely cool. We can only hope that some day there will be a device with storage, intuitive usage, battery life, and well-thought-out applications. It may not even need to be a phone first. Or at all for that matter.