Cell Phones Attempting to be Computers, is it Time to Buy Yet?

Just about every “techie” has been waiting for the new generation of devices that will allow a person to carry only one device that would incorporate their cell phone and the pocket organizer and have access to the web and email. We want a device that is slim enough to carry in our shirt pocket yet large enough to actually see what is on the screen. Two new products attempt to do just that. T-Mobile has introduced their new product called the T-Mobile Pocket PC Phone Edition. This is the first truly integrated Pocket PC/phone combo based upon a Compaq IPAQ platform. Sprint has introduced the New Handspring Treo 300, which integrates a color Palm OS organizer, and their PCS phone into a very versatile productive tool. Both machines work on GSM networks, which allows use in European countries and with an additional add-on in Asia.

Both of these units provide two very different ways of accomplishing the same thing. The T-Mobile unit is designed with two convenient one-touch access buttons that are conveniently located at the base of the screen. One icon allows you to use the unit as a phone while another button allows you to use the unit as a record memo device. With the addition of Microsoft’s Pocket PC the phone accesses web and email functions integrating the units phone capabilities with ease. Sprints Treo 300 uses a thumb keyboard, along with a stylus pen for accessing functions. Unlike the T-Mobile model, where there are limited third party applications to choose from, the Treo allows you to install almost all color enabled applications to suit your very need with a simply push of a button.

The biggest negative to both machines and services is the access speed to the Internet; these units are still slower on a cell phone then a normal computer dial-up. Waiting for the information to come up while viewing such a small screen, I quickly lostinterest. Viewing email is also a problem. Skipping through spam mail to get to what you want to really read is again slow and cumbersome. Opening up attachments is either not available or again slow and hard to read. Personally, until voice recognition is introduced to these types of machines with higher speed access, I believe incorporating full use of the Internet in a device that you can carry on your “person” is not here yet.