The Ultimate Phone/PDA?

P800guy writes "Psion Place has a review of the SonyEricsson P800 available in Q3, this looks to be the best PDA/phone combined in the world. Running Symbian OS v7.0, 208x320 color touchscreen, triple-band GSM compatible, Multimedia Messaging (MMS), Bluetooth, GPRS always-on internet connection, built-in digital camera, support for HTML, xHTML, Java, iMode, WAP, Word, Excel, PPT. Check out the pictures, open, closed. In the US it'll work on Voicestream, ATT Wireless, and Cingular just don't expect it to be offically supported from day 1 of release." Getting closer- now if it just had a few gigs of memory for MP3s ;)

oy

[Apreche]

I dont' understand the people who design this stuff. We have the technology, we just don't use it properly. I want a cell-phone sized device that is also a PDA, mp3 player, and digital camera. take a cell phone, replace the numbered buttons with a GameBoyAdvance style LCD screen. Use an IBM microdrive. Companies keep making all of these things seperately very well, but they can't seem to combine them correctly. I'm not going to buy one until they have what I want.

Re:Symbian OS: glorious past, uncertain future

[Troed]

Note: I started as an Epoc programmer for Ericsson Mobile in -98, worked for Symbian for two years between -99 and -01, and I'm currently an Epoc (Symbian OS) Software development consultant for BlueLabs [bluelabs.se] - my views are maybe a bit biased ;)

The advantage of Symbian OS over PalmOS is that it's a real OS ;) The advantage over PocketPC is that the programming model (Symbian uses their own version of C++ you could say) aids a lot in preventing memory leaks.

There's of course a lot more to say than this, but Symbian OS is a really good OS you definitely want instead of PocketPC or PalmOS :) Promise. It's a pain to program for - it takes a while to get into.

Re:Why merge the two?

[pauljlucas]

Why are people so intent on merging PDA/Phones?

Because, IMHO, it's just plain dumb:

1. to have phone numbers duplicated and eventually get out of sync between those in a PDA and those in a phone;
2. to carry two things around rather than one.

They are not very size compatible.

If I'm going to carry a PDA around anyway, which is larger than most cell phones, adding cell-phone functionality to it doesn't make it any/much larger than the PDA.

I also don't understand my so many people want microscopic-sized phones. Sure, they're kind of cute; but the buttons and screens are so damned small. Also, one's home/land-line phone is "normal phone sized" so why insist on much smaller cell phones?

I take my HandSpring Visor with me to school, but I just stuff it in my backpack and use it in class, but my phone I take *everywhere*.

I take my Kyocera QCP-6035 with me everywhere and use it more as a PDA than a phone. I use it in the supermarket (HandyShopper), the gym (thinkDB2), and other places.

But those times when either I need to make a call or the select few people who have my cell number need to get a hold of me, it's great. In the Address Book app, I also keep store hours so I can know if they're open before I bother to call.

The phone even does a number look-up in the Address Book app for the caller's name when no caller-ID information is transmitted. Nice touch.

They serve two distinct purposes ...

Not when it comes to the Address Book app where there is lots of overlap. The Speed Dial app also links to the numbers in the Address Book. Again, nice touch.

... and I refuse to merge them.

Fine: that's your choice. Nobody is putting a gun to your head.