Closer to the ultimate device



So, having used the magic of bluetooth for a couple weeks now, I've got some thoughts about where we're at on my path to the Ultimate Pocket Device(tm).

First off, I still think the Ultimate Device is about 3 years off. Maybe a little less, maybe a little more, but I don't think there is too much play in either direction.

Where we're at / Where we're going:
Bluetooth is still in infancy. My phone is, for example, Siemens' first attempt at a bluetooth phone. The only manufacturer on their second generation is Sony-Ericsson, but their first gen devices (the t68i for example) was so lacking as an actual phone ... well I think it's safe to say they're still figuring stuff out. My phone still has bugs relating to bluetooth, requiring a reboot every couple days and such. Anyways, it'll be another gen or two to get the functionality completely stabilized. The computer side of things work beautifully - I haven't had any trouble syncing with iSync/iCal.

Hand in hand with bluetooth is PDA integration. I think the S55 has pretty decent organizer features. I could come very close to totally replacing my palm with just my phone. T9 text input does a great job 90% of the time. I think the next step is what I'll call "adaptive T9" - I want the phone to learn what combinations I use more frequently, especially in the case of names and things that it doesn't have stored. I shouldn't have to teach it, it should learn based on my input patterns. I doubt this is very far away. Once it's implemented, I think we can say goodbye to Graffiti on the palm. The calendar display on the S55 could be a little cleaner, but in some ways it's actually better than the palm calendar. To do lists and address book stuff are fine. Voice memos replace the memopad on the palm.

Obviously phone-PDA integration will be the first to reach near perfection. The next step is to get the rest of the digital devices in there.

MP3 player / digital camera will come together. I don't mean the craptastic VGA only digicams that phones like mine have. I mean a 4+ megapixel camera with a realish lense that can take a decent number of shots. At the same time I want iPod functionality. I think putting a 20gig (or thereabouts) harddrive in the phone will be the solution. Store mp3s and digital phones on there. I don't think that's too unreasonable to expect, but it would also be possible to do a few gigs of solid state storage.

My concern then is how to sync large files. Bluetooth is sloooow - it's designed to be slow though. 802.11 is better, but still nowhere near firewire. Eventually we'll probably reach something like a very short-range wireless firewire. Not in the near future though. It'll probably mean we end up having to plug in the phone over firewire / USB2 to sync mp3s and digital photos, with the option to use bluetooth if you have the patience. That way you could do the iTunes/iPod style sync when you needed to update music (every few weeks for me) and stick to bluetooth for swapping a single song / picture.

GPS integration is obvious and we're pretty much there already with some phone handsets. Addition of a harddrive / large SSS will mean better mapping.

Are there other devices? Sure. I'd love to be able to record DV quality video, but that's just silly to expect at this point. Give it another 10 years. Thoughts?

Posted: Wed - October 8, 2003 at 02:00 AM          

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