Or have they already? I’m thinking we have to be very close.
I’m thinking all in one including:
phone
camera
PDA
MP3 player
GPS (via sat or cell towers)
video game (a la Gameboy Advance)
What have I missed?
A PDA with different attachments for phone, GPS, etc doesn’t count.
You’re right - we are very close a year or two at the most, I reckon.
I’d add Dictaphone to the list (although this is a standard function of many PDAs)
You’ve got all of the above in Sony Ericsson P800/P900 apart from GPS.
A Palm Zire 71 with a GPS SD card (I think they exist…) is all of those except a phone.
To recap:
Functions
[ul][li]people connectivity - phone, instant messaging, paging[/li][li]data connectivity - high speed web-enabled; wi-fi, bluetooth, and infrared connection to other units/computers; GPS (via sat or cell towers)[/li][li]camera - Make that still and video camera. (Which the current Sony Clies have.)[/li][li]PDA [/li][li]Entertainment - MP3 player, video game (a la Gameboy Advance)[/ul][/li]
Features
[ul][li]It’ll have to have a keyboard to replace all the Blackberrys out there.[/li][li]Pager buzzing/silent alarm[/li][li]Speakers for broadcast/speaker phone[/li][li]Retractable ear buds and phone mic; or, an all-in-one earpiece with mouth mic that pulls out and is wi-fi or bluetooth linked to the unit.[/li][li]voice recognition.[/ul][/li]
I’d give it one more year for a large and bulky all-in-one that only Geeknerds could love.
Two more years for a reasonably sized one.
Three more years for a reasonably sized affordable one.
Ten years for a subdermal unit.
Peace.
The Treo 600 just came out from Handspring. It’s got all of that except for GPS, which can be added on through SD cards, I believe, and certainly through the expansion port.
It’s not really a gamedeck like GameBoy Advance or N-Gage. I don’t think it has bluetooth. Also, it doesn’t have a high def screen like the new Sonys do.
And, to add to the perfect all-in-one list: It’s not a radio.
Peace.
What functions would it need to have to qualify as a PDA? Because most of the other functions (plus web browsing) are pretty much standard on cell phones in Japan.
I have a Motorola A920. It does all of those things, and then some. Its got a touch screen, and handwriting recognition. It is an all in one handset.
they are called laptops 
they are called laptops
Yeah, but can you use a laptop to make a phonecall? And does the laptop fit handily into your purse?
The only problems I have at the moment with mine is that it is very battery intensive. Oh, and the software’s a touch unstable. I’d wait till the 2nd generation of these things…
The Nokia 7600 is getting close. By spring 2004 the 7700 will be out and we’ll be even closer.Still no GPS, though, but a 640x320 px screen with an Opera browser seems very nice.
Regarding GPS, at least, expect any CDMA phone released 2004 and later (and even some already out now) to include a Qualcomm chipset with onboard GPS (any 6000 series chipset, as well as the 5500). The hardware is THERE, but the function has to be software-enabled (handset manufacturer has to shell out a few more bucks to Qualcomm for that)
There are already CDMA-based handsets that include a Palm-Pilot. This Kyocera model as an example. As soon as one of them has GPS enabled - which is practically a given within a year- you have an extensible platform (PalmOS) with phone and GPS - in other words, just about whatever you want to put on it.
(sorry for the commercial links. I have nothing to do with either company, just examples).
Dani
PDA: calculator, calendar with alarm; phone and address database; lists and note pad; email and instant messaging. Additionally, it should include an operating system (Palm, Windows CE) for third party specialty apps.
All this sync-able with one’s desktop (via blue tooth, wi-fi, or infrared).
Not to mention touch screen and all-over hand writing recognition.
Peace.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Angua *
**Yeah, but can you use a laptop to make a phonecall?QUOTE]
You can now with VoIP:
It has to be supported on the network side, too. My phone has GPS, but it’s useless because none of the towers here support GPS.
Unfortunately, the Palm OS phones I’ve seen (including that one) are Palm OS 4 devices, with a weak 33 MHz processor that isn’t much good for games. I think a Pocket PC phone would be a better candidate - this Samsung model has a built-in camera.
calculator: check
calendar: check
alarm: check
phone/address database:
note pad: check
email/messaging: check
3rd-party apps: some
sync-able with desktop: not yet, although there may be some models that do.
touchscreen & handwriting: not yet, and currently no industry interest is evident.
NTT DoCoMo’s 505iS Series
(site is in Japanese, but lots of photos)
http://www.zdnet.co.jp/mobile/0310/21/n_is.html
There’s also a model out with real-time videophone capabilities.
Motorola A920:
Calculator
Calendar and alarm
Phone and address database
lists and notepad
email
Symbian OS
Bluetooth, IrDA and USB connectivity
Touchscreen
Handwriting recognition
Camera (stills and video)
Internet connectivity, etc etc.
Does that measure up then?
A lot of the links here are to devices with really slow processors and limited memory.
I think at a very minimum it would need one of those handy-dandy 400Mhz Intel processors and 128MB of RAM, as well as everything else already said.