My Next PDA

Wow u read my mind

I agree. I would also like a larger screen and, as long as we're making the screen bigger, those little keys can be annoying, what with missing the right key etc. So lets just make the keyboard bigger and . . .
Oops! I've already got a laptop. ;)
/ducks and runs for cover

Smartphone… almost… bar the integrated camera. Works like a dream for me

Give me a keyboard, damnit! I can't write real letters much less a OS can interpet.

I think those all-in-one solutions are crap. If one part of those all-in-one solutions stops working, then you're screwed. Personally, I like frankensteining my own solution.

I hope the Axim X7 well be released over here soon. At least it'll have Bluetooth and WiFi on board…

I'd be happy if I had a reason to leave my desk and *need* a wireless device like this ;-)

Your PDA doesn't exist for the simple reason that, if one *did* have all the items you requested, it would be rather difficult to get you to buy the keyboard, the bluetooth card, the WiFi card, and the camera module separately. Hello-o-o-o-o… However, they *should* come with WiFi. Coming with everything else would just make the homeless children who are building the peripherals in factories in third-world countries even more, well, homeless.

if there's somebody who wants to try to make me understand what Rory said, i'll be an happyman

I hear ya man…this is getting close (just needs the built in camera), and apparently the technology has been available to license for a few months now…surely a production version can't be far off:
http://www.infosyncworld.com/news/n/3265.html

Sure. Rory will try to help you understand: What Rory said, in very simple, easy to understand words, was this: There is a lot of money to be made in selling peripherals. There is also a lot of money to be made in coming out with new PDAs every few months with added features. Chris basically wants what would be the “ultimate” PDA of the moment. If a company were to produce this PDA, then that would mean trouble for peripherals producers, as well as other PDA manufacturers. It would raise the bar, meaning other PDA manufacturers would have to put out *their* versions of the PDA that Chris wants. If they all did this, then what would they do a few months from now? Innovate? That's too expensive. Naw – They're going to milk the novelty of PDAs and their peripherals for as long as they can. If a PDA *does* come out like the one Chris mentioned, then it'd be really expensive, anyway. You know, these comments would be easier to read if carriage-returns weren't stripped. Oh, well.

so, oh well thank you, Rory

The average Joe (which makes up the vast majority) doesn't have a need for them nor are they interested (even if they did have a need.)
PDA's are awkward. We all know that if something isn't easy, people won't use it. I submit that even the most “usable” PDA wouldn't be useful enough to warrant the expense. Cell phones and notebooks do the job just fine – much better, actually.

Mike – I'd agree with you, except that you would have a hard time running your enterprise-medical-data-app thingamajig on a cell phone, and a notebook would just be too bulky. What I'm saying is that there are many business applications for PDAs where PDAs are, currently, the best tool for the job. They've been marginalized a little by tablets, but still have their place. At the consumer level, though, you're right. You mentioned that you'd rather use your cell phone than a PDA. What you might not have realized, though, is that cell phones are *becoming* PDAs. When all is said and done, they'll be merged into one unit (already are, but the current designs are a bit hackish for my tastes). The calendar, the address book, the games, and the note taking apps in your cell phone – These are all really just PDA apps running on a smaller device.

How do you spell planned obsolescence? Of course everything you want COULD be built into a single unit, but then the companies selling the gadgets couldn't milk the public for ten times the money as they are now doing.

http://www.handspring.com/treo600/index.jhtml
OK, It's Palm based, and I'm not sure about Bluetooth (does SD but not CF), but hey it's a phone too!

I not sure I see the importance of 'built-in'. All the functions required can be done with the Zaurus – you only have to swap a CF card. Since SD is supported as well, you use that (and the internal storage) for your data. In fact (if I remember correctly) there's bluetooth support that plugs into the 'sync' data port, so you would only have to swap out the CF camera and the CF wireless card. Unless you can live with just the internal storage – then you could put a SD wireless card in and have all three (bluetooth, wireless, camera) at the same time. I see this as a viable solution – but perhaps I am missing something?

I'm still waiting to be able to buy a couple of new droids from Jawas in a Sandcrawler to help with my moisture farm…

Well I just bought a Palm a week ago, and if anyone can recommend some good sites with free software or anything else cool about PDA's…Let me know. thanks

Yeah, Rory, I've seen the hybrids. I tried to like them but I just don't. Almost all of them are way too bulky. (As small as regular cell phones are these days, the hybrid must feel like you're talking on a TV remote control or something.) I'm sure there are folks out there making good use of PDA's, but everything I personally would use a PDA for is better served in other ways. As for someone successfully executing a PDA with the features Chris is looking for, I'm sure Apple is the only company that could pull it off (well) and they've voiced their lack of interest in PDA/tablets, etc. Contrary to what the geeks may think, there just ain't that much interest.

I love my Tungsten C with built in wi-fi and SD card slot.

one other thing, in my opinion pocket pc sucks.

I hear ya on that! i dont know about the built in camera thing. i thought the Tungsten C was gonna be my next PDA. the fact it has no built in mic really turned me off (i would like to record memos n such) and the fact that the Tungsten T has bluetooth and the C doesnt, thats just obsurd.

You should look at the Sharp Zaurus. It's got everything you listed up to Bluetooth. There's no CF card for that yet, I don't believe. It doesn't have a built in camera, but there is a CF one you can get. Otherwise, it's got everything else.
I first read about it in your own Lockergnome Linux e-mail! I love mine!

Basically Chris wants one of these:
http://www.swissarmy.com/webstore/moreinfo.cfm?product_id=2155&category=39
in a PDA. Soon, somebody will get it right.

Why not add a GPS locator while you're at it, Chris? :) Then you could automatically log the location of those open hot spots.
The Sony Ericsson P800 is coming close minus the Wi-Fi and keyboard – and of course it has the Sony memory schtick instead of a REAL memory card.
As a lot of the other posts are indicating, we are getting to a real paradox point between something that is really small and portable and yet has everything a user wants including a keyboard and a decent sized screen.
It will be interesting to see how this plays out – where the technology ends up converging and diverging.
Those flexible, pull-out screens like in the movie Red Planet might be part of an answer. After that – implants? Can't wait to have to apply regular patches to my body firmware. :)

http://www.royville.com/mt/archives/000161.php
I just blogged about this too! LOL

I'm literally throwing away my pocket pc because it's broken, again, past its warranty this time. My tastes are very simple, all I need is for all the features to work. I'm shifting my focus to technology that is “fully baked.” The dick tracy thing is too hard for engineers, too hard to maintain, and involves a new purchase every year anyway.

Chris – go to http://www.brighthand.com and you will find that Hitachi and Samsung are listening to you. No wireless yet, but you get the keyboard and camera at least.

I personally had high hopes for the danger sidekick but I ended up with a useless hockey puck that sucks as a phone and leaves a lot to be desired as a pda. The basic ability to synch your data with your pc is not there and they still seem to be figuring out how to allow you to write much less install applications for the thing. It was a year late in arriving and it my opinion it still hasn't arrived. But I could go on for days on the subject. Oh well on to the next frankestein creation.