Don't Call Me Crazy ... Just Call Me

For a person who hates to be on the telephone, I sure love technology so I can be "connected." On my belt, "Gonzo Geek" here carries a Motorola Startac phone, a Talkabout pager, and RIM's Blackberry 957. (The Startac is reliable; the Blackberry remains an emailer's joy; and the service for the Talkabout is near-worthless but CBS makes me shlep it anyway.)

In my side pocket, I carry Toshiba's Pocket PC e740 (with WiFi 802.11b) to websurf and synchronize contacts, appointments, and emails. In my shirt pocket, I carry the Casio Exilim credit-card digital camera to take quick photos to email. And I haven't even mentioned the IBM X30 laptop, the Palm m515, and a dozen spare batteries, the iPod MP3 player, power cords, and attachments I also must take everywhere. So it should come as no surprise that I go for physical therapy once a week just to relieve the pain in my spine I deserve to get for carrying all that crap.

The Holy Grail of gizmos is a phone that does it all: synchronizes addresses; takes and transfers pictures; allows high-speed Web surfing; plays a huge MP3 music collection; etc.; and has all of that on a single device that comfortably fits into a pants pocket. The bad news: we haven't found that Grail yet. The good news: Kyocera, Motorola, Handspring, and others are getting dangerously close. And for me, a light-weight do-everything-device means no more heating pads for my aching back!

Kyocera 7135 Smart Phone
The first thing you notice is that this smart phone has a large and brightly lit ( 64,000+ colors) touch screen. Using the Palm OS, the Kyocera 7135 has every feature most handheld organizers possess, but here's where one-upsmanship begins. Built into the phone is 16 Meg of memory plus an expansion port so you can add MP3 files to play music while you are checking your calendar. The clamshell design is just slightly chubby, but completely forgivable because it works as a phone without apology. The "trimode" service basically works everywhere and the 3G technology lets you wirelessly web-surf at about 10 times the speed of older cell phones. Complete with a rich-media player that works on a variety of photo and video formats. (There's even a GPS locator option available in some service areas.) I found that I still preferred carrying my own MP3 player because it's not practical to store lots of music on the wimpy memory cards that fit the Kyocera. It's not certain exactly how much you'll pay (about $600) for this excellent hybrid because service providers are only just beginning to sell this astounding super-phone.

Handspring Treo 300
This is the high-speed version of the previously reviewed Treo series. While we showed the lower-end black & white model at the beginning of the year, this one comes with a color screen and also features Sprint's high-speed wireless technology. Like the Kyocera, above, it allows you to surf the web and get/send email quickly. The form factor is still a favorite, and while the screen is not the highest resolution for handheld organizers, it certainly comes as close to the Kyocera as an all-in-one wireless solution. (Many fellow geeks I've spoken with actually prefer the thinner and boxier Handspring Treo to the Kyocera. Who am I to argue?) For about $500, plus service, if you want to get and stay connected without carrying a cell phone, pager, laptop for web browsing and email this is a good choice.

Sony Ericsson t68i
The Sony Ericsson t68i phone is the antidote to boxy. Sony and Ericsson teamed up to bring a super-lightweight and tiny cell phone that seems to have an infinite battery-life. While it's isn't a full-featured organizer and data input isn't easy, it is a joy to synchronize your schedule and contacts to this phone using infrared or the built-in Bluetooth wireless. Other devices, like handheld organizers or computers, can use the Bluetooth enabled phone to go online wirelessly. For the very high-tech, you can get a Bluetooth headset so you can look even more bizarre as you seemingly talk to yourself while using the phone walking down the street. I love the "Fun & Games" you can play using the color screen. Perhaps the coolest feature is the optional camera that attaches to the base of the phone. You can easily take pictures (and less easily) attach theses pictures to your contacts so you can literally place a name to the face when you make a call.

Motorola's v70
Available from Cingular: This is just so darn cute, I have to show it and if you get a v70 you will show it too. A single flick of the thumb spins open the miniscule phone revealing a backlit glowing keypad as the earpiece swings into place. The phone uses the new GPRS system for relatively high-speed wireless internet and messaging. The black screen with white type is surprisingly easy to read and it features a "micro-browser" which seems "micro-useful" but is still cool to look at anyway. Right now, the v70 is available from Cingular in only a few locations, but I predict this very hot phone will be in almost everybody's hand shortly.

Novatel Merlin C201 PCS Connection Card
Available by Sprint. You'll cruise the Internet at 50 to 70 kbps, with peak speeds of up to 144 kbps. We like the high-speed wireless connection of the "1x" network (which is actually considered part of the 2.5G wireless generation). You'll cruise the net wirelessly from just about anywhere as quickly, or even quicker, than you do on a 56k modem. We've seen this before… Verizon Wireless announced its service a few months ago, and actually, we like their use of the Sierra Wireless 555 card better, if for no reason other than it allows you to plug in a headphone and talk like you're on a cell phone… because you ARE! Installation for laptop PCs and Pocket PC 2002 is a snap.

Roomba
Okay. I know I've lost it. There's no good reason to show a vacuum cleaner in the midst of a phone segment. But I'm so crazy about iRobot's new Roomba robotic cleaner I just have to show it NOW. Hammacher Schlemmer and other "gizmo chic" companies are selling these Frisbee-sized floor sweepers for only $200. That may seem a heck of a lot more than your ordinary Dustbuster, but can you leave a Dustbuster running on a dirty floor to return later with the mess cleaned up by itself? Roomba does a great job… and frankly, it's worth $200 just to sit there and watch its sophisticated robotics. Ah, to just sit there as it rotates, bumps, and sweeps wildly and thoroughly around the room again and again.

- by Dan Dubno