The Ultimate gadget

Well, for my first post to the blog, it's about a gadget.

I love my electronic gadgets. I have enough of them to do just about anything that I can think of. But I'm really hoping for more digital convergence because of the load I'm toting around. With that in mind, I started thinking about the best features of multiple devices on the market and how I would want them integrated into a single device. I want a PDA-Phone-MP3-GPS device. I want it to connect easily and seamlessly to my everyday life. And I don’t think it's that far off. Here are the components I would integrate to make the "One" device.

PDA Interface – Sony UX-50. I love just about everything about this PDA – the screen, camera, Bluetooth, wi-fi, keyboard, memorystick. I would start with this device as my platform to integrate the other devices into. I wouldn't drop ANYTHING that the UX-50 does, just add to it.

Phone – PalmOne Treo. I love how the phone function works – and how it integrates seamlessly to the Palm OS. Again, I like the UX-50 size of the keyboard better, maybe with slightly better keys like the Treo has. I don't expect to ever use it as a headset, because my device would come with a Bluetooth headset. The device would be used for all phone functions except the microphone and earpiece. As backup, I'd have a standard 2.5mm jack. I guess to allow for phone use without peripherals, I'd allow the UX50 to use it's speaker and microphone as a phone. I just don't like taking a touch-sensitive screen and placing it to my ear while talking. Had one too many issues with my Treo 180 doing that. And while we're at it, make the phone not drop my call and reset if a misbehaving palm app causes the palm device to reset. That was the biggest gripe I had with the Treo – playing nice with other palm apps.

MP3 – Apple iPod. From the iPod, I'd take the hard drive. I like the smooth nature of the iPod, but I prefer the UX-50 interface for all it can do. But I need that hard drive and it's shock resistance for my device. I also love the completely intuitive way the buttons work on the iPod, so maybe I'd try to figure out a way to replace the jog-dial with the touch keys. I'd keep iTunes as my music store though.

GPS – Garmin iQue. Really, it's only the GPS function that I want from the Garmin device. With the hard drive, I can store all the DVD map info on the device.

Camera – Upgrade the 0.3 megapixel camera (that's 640x480 folks) in the UX50 to at least a 2 MP unit (1600x1200). Shouldn't be too hard to do. At leqast not compared to everything else I'm asking for…

Connectivity – BlueTooth and WiFi are already integrated into the UX50, so this is already covered. I just need a car stereo that can connect to it via either standard.

With all these functions, I'd have the ONE device that I would carry around. I want it to stay in the same form factor that the UX50 has right now – larger is not better. Now which company is going to be the one to grant me my wish???