March 11, 2002
Feeping Creaturism!
That's the expression I usually hear when someone takes a design that was initially simple and slowly adds so much functionality to it that it soon has everything but the kitchen sink. (Origin: think "Creeping Featurism") This new release from Sony has so much feeping creaturism that I'm amazed it doesn't melt in your hand! Large color screen, twice the usual memory, twice the processor speed, dedicated MP3 playing hardware, digital camera, keyboard, and yes... options for wireless via Bluetooth. You can read more about it here and here. For those times when you just want to hold it like a traditional PDA (ala no keyboard) the upper half of this clamshell design pivots in such a way that you only see the screen and the keyboard is hidden out of view. If you've ever seen the swing-out, pivoting screen of a digital camcorder, you can envision what I mean. I know Palm is concerned about competition from Microsoft PocketPCs but it looks like they could have some killer competition on their own PalmOS turf!
Despite what you might think, no, I don't want one. In my experience bleeding edge designs that try to integrate it all usually do the individual functions poorly. To me connectivity and interoperability between devices is more important than integration. Your mileage may vary...