In Search of the Perfectly Connected Web Gadget

Pictured above is my modest collection of gadgets that I've acquired over the years. It isn't close to as impressive as Russell Beattie's "form factor" collection but at least it's not bordering on hoarding. Furthermore, it's below the financial noise level so the wife doesn't notice.

Anyway, my first gadget the Sharp Zaurus SL-5500(pictured on the right) was my first exposure to mobile web browsing (of course excluding a WiFi enabled laptop). The gadget had a Compact Flash slot where you could drop in a WiFi card. The browser was from Opera. What I liked about the gadget is that it was one of the earlier gadgets with a Querty keyboard. I'm so much capable with a keyboard than having to use a stylus. But I digress, although the Opera browser was quite capable in rendering many websites the short coming of the gadgets was that the screen's limited horizontal space made reading extremely cumbersome.

My next attempt was the Palm Tungsten T3 (pictured at the upper left). The beauty of this gadget was that it was one of the first gadgets that allowed its display to render in portrait and landscape modes (320 x 480 pixels). The T3 bluetooth capability allowed it to be coupled to a bluetooth enabled phone and thus provided it's connectivity. I was thrilled when I could actually now walk out the driveway of my home and still browse the web. The browser was quite descent, but I didn't feel it was as good as one in the Zaurus.

I rarely play computer games, however when word came out that the PSP had a web browser, I just needed to get one. The PSP (pictured at the bottom left) is an incredible multimedia gadget. One look at it's high resolution screen (480 x 272 pixels) and you would be quite impressed. The PSP comes with WiFi support (unfortunately not bluetooth). Thus it's utility is confined either to your home or some hotspot. You also can't fail to notice how massive this gadget really is, making a real inconvenience to lug around. The other downside of the gadget is that only a hardcore gamer would love it's input mechanisms. No keyboard, no stylus, in fact any cell phone has better input that this gadget. My best use of this gadget is to provide either instant internet access at home, display family pictures or for extremly excruciating long trans-pacific flights.

My cell phone contract was up for renewal. I just came back from a vacation abroad and I felt the need to stick with a GSM phone. Cingular and T-mobile are the two GSM carriers is the U.S., since I was already with T-mobile and they had a much lower montly, a more liberal one year contract, I stuck with them. I had a choice of the blackberry or treo, I chose the treo since I didn't want to relearn yet another input mechanism (the blackberry has a half-querty keyboard). The Palm Treo 600 (pictured in the middle) is a nice multi-function phone, unfortunately it's completely useless for browsing and its VGA camera is completely worthless.

So I desperately needed to get out of my Treo dissapointment. It turns out, the way to get a decent phone in the U.S. is to bid for it on eBay. That's how I eventually got my hands on the Nokia 7710 (pictured in the middle left). I contemplated a while about acquiring the 6680/6681, however the form factor just didn't cut it for my needs. I've had the 7710 for just a couple hours and I'm extremely impressed. It makes the Treo look like a complete joke. Fortunately I still have 20-20 vision and I just love the screen resolution (640 x 320 pixels) of this gadget. The 7710 is loaded with almost everything except WiFi capability. However with $19.95 unlimited internet with T-Mobile and EDGE then maybe one doesn't need WiFi.

The one downside of the gadget, it's larger than the treo and the tungsten T3, so the verdict is still out if I can lug this around on an every day basis. I met my cousing with a Nokia 9500 and I just think that it's ridiculously huge. See the key to a mobile gadget is it's connected-ness. You don't realize this until you've immersed yourself in the cultures outside the U.S.. If a gadget is too big then it becomes inconvenient and therefore inconvenient to be connected. So the verdict is still out as to whether the Nokia 7710 would be my "always connected" gadget.

I'm also looking forward to the linux based Nokia 770 armed with an even more impressive display (800 x 600 pixels) and the freedom of Linux to boot. It's a little too big to bee convenient, however it has a lot of promise as a basis of an new platform.

This blog entry starkly reveals my intellectual blindspot with regards to mobile phones. It's best captured by this quote "Mobile phones are not just bad browsers on resource-constrained devices with crappy connectivity and non-free voice" by Janne Jalkanen. A majority of the U.S. IT professionals are accustomed more to being immersed on the web than being connected to a cell phone. However, when web activity becomes less of a passive affair and more of a social one, then the boundaries between web browsing and mobile connectivity begin to blur. The web is trending toward more social activities (i.e. blogging, social tagging, open source etc.). Mobile devices are by intrinsically social devices. One simply cannot avoid their eventual convergence and the massive ramifications of this.