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 ;)

Saw it in Action

[Teut]

On GDC (Game Developers Conference) I saw this thing demonstrated and had time to play with it.

Its small, smaller than the image suggests. Its fast, screen is awesome. The biggest worry "running time on one battery charge" couldn't be answered, the guys said the hardware wasn't final they had.
Also the flip cover with the keys simply presses the touchscreen below it. Advantage: saves hardware, disadvantage: flimsy plastic look on the back and the display has to be fully powered all the time.

They showed Lord of the Rings as MPG on it and demonstrated some PC-Phone connection stuff which looked pretty polished.

This is a phone for me, can't wait :)

Ericsson + Windows

[tka]

What ever happened to the 'ericsson adding windows to their phones' project? I guess they realized that symbian is pretty good (altough nothing can beat linux...).

I think that many mobile phones can be thought as somekind of pre-PDA thing. You can check email with them, use calendar etc. Do we really need very colourfull screen on PDA's & mobile phones because it uses lot of battery? For some people it's a good thing but, I wouldn't actually really want it now.

Just waiting for a new release of nokia communicator.. (it'll rock)

Needs a better keyboard

[mgkimsal2]

The new zaurus keyboard on their latest is, imo, much more useful. I realize this is a 'phone' with PDA capabilities second, but it seems that these things are converging more quickly and if someone would keep all capabilities equal (PDA v phone v whatever else) the ultimate handheld device would be the outcome.

Why merge the two?

[ajiva]

Why are people so intent on merging PDA/Phones? They are not very size compatible. Like for example, 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*. So I have to have a small phone (Nokia 8290). They serve two distinct purposes, and I refuse to merge them. I don't want a smaller PDA, its fine, and I don't want a larger phone, its fine.

Is this a phone I can program?

[bihoy]

I wonder what functions the API will provide access to? One of my peeves with 3G (or near 3G) devices is the inability to programatically control the telephony functions of the device. For example it would be very desirable to be able to filter incoming calls. Particularly all the phone spam that these devices are going to be magnets for. If this device would allow for this then that would be *very* cool. At any rate, I want one!

Re:Third Party Phones

[bihoy]

Yeah, I was reading about this in the paper a few days ago. Implementation of both cell phone and phone number portability have be dragged out for years by mobile phone companies. Apparently the companies want to minimize churn by holding their customers hostage. They seem to have focused more on this technique as opposed to improving service.

900lb gorrilla vs. Godzilla

[pubjames]

Fighting in the domestic entertainment appliance arena today are:

Microsoft:
XBox - success uncertain

Other attempts at (non-hardware) domestic entertainment products
MSN - dissapointing - not very profitable - failed to unseat AOL
Microsoft Bob - 'domestic OS' - laughable failure
Pocket PC operating system for phones and PDAs - moderate success, not a significant revenue generator yet
Various TV/cable ventures - moderate success or failure
Microsoft games - successful and profitable

Sony
TVs, music systems, VCRs, DVD players etc - very successful globally over many years
Sony Walkman, personal stereos, mini-disc players - very successful globablly over many years
PlayStation 1 and 2 - very successful worldwide
Mobile phones - increasingly successful collaboration with major service providers

Other domestic ventures (not hardware):
Sony entertainment products (movies, record lables), generally successful or very successful over many years.

Who would you bet on winning in the domestic appliance ring - the 900lb gorrilla or Godzilla?

As comps and phones collide, who's # Pad wins?

[SamIIs]

Look at the number pad on your keyboard, and then look at the number pad on your phone. They're opposite. The keyboard starts at the bottom and works it's way up, while the phone starts at the top and works down.

Each are standard in their own field; You'll never find a keyboard with a phone-style pad and you'll never find a phone with a keyboard-style pad, but they're opposite from eachother. When I finally get a computer/phone combination, what kind of pad will it have? And who was the monkey that allowed these standards to differ so drastically?

Sam

Re:As comps and phones collide, who's # Pad wins?

[pauljlucas]

And who was the monkey that allowed these standards to differ so drastically?

AFAIK, the reason why numeric pads, taken from calculators, and, before them, adding machines, are the way they are is arbitrary.

The reason phone pads are the way they are was a conscious decision by Bell Labs when moving away from rotary-dial phones to Touch-Tone. If you recall a rotary dial, the lower digits were on the top of the dial. To make the transition to Touch-Tone, they put the lower digits on the top of the pad.

Before you criticize Bell Labs for not following the defacto standard, remember that if Apple and others didn't break with the 8.3 filename convention, we would have been stuck with that for many more years.