I hear ya. When are they going to get off their asses and get the xulrunner version of Thunderbird done? I'd love to have the 'Bird on my tablet.

A convergence device would always be on-line, and therefore the concept of syncing becomes irrelevant; just store your addresses, bookmarks and calendar online and consult it from both home and device. Sync is a kludgy workaround for a problem that will go away soon, I hope. I hope soon we'll all be wondering why anyone wanted sync.

I disagree. Well, I want a phone in my IT (preferrably several phones, that's what convergence is all about, no?), but only via VoIP. See my lengthy rants above.

Hm, again, I think an always-online convergence device shouldn't have any (unique) data actually stored on-device, or anything stored on it should be easily transferred to the Internet. Therefore, any old terminal in any old place should do the job to get you big-screen access to your data. My question is: if you already have a KVM, monitor, keyboard, etc, etc, why wouldn't you have a computer? And if you have the computer, why would you use your handheld instead?

Video-out to watch movies or play games on a hotel-room TV, or make a spur-of-the-moment presentation in a random boardroom, on the other hand, would be nice.

Same time as Hell.

I started this thread. I have no idea where its going now. It has been funny and I must say, its been civil.

At the same time I dont agree with freezing or censorship.

Look I just want the last freaking word. I think thread starters should always have that right.

Therefore I propose everyone post to their hears delight in this thread about any crap that they want however at 3PM Friday 8/29/2008, I will come in and get my last word in okay. Cant say what that last word will be however everyone should agree to not post behind me. My last word may be as simple as "Last Word". Or, it could be a cut/past of the New Testament.

However, no admin should come in and give me a false sense that I got my last word and freeze this post at 3:01PM.

Additionally, no admin should freeze this thread before 3PM.

Its obvious that I have a lot of time on my hands here right ?

Imagine the amount of free time johnkzin has for him to have been able to type all the stuff he typed.

Is that about the same time when there's nothing left but the rats, the cockroaches and Keith Richards? No...wait...that's a heating event.

What will you do then? Oh, I know, you'll be with Keith back in the stone age...

Thank you. I'll be here all year. Tip your waiters and try the browser.

Oh, my last word could also be, "N95 8G roooooooooooooccccccccks".

I think quoting Russell Hammond would be more appropriate.

I saw that before.
lol.
hehe.

There is a Hell, Michigan (go ahead, look it up). And, being in Michigan, it is prone to freezing over in winter.

Nothing is _always_ on-line. Even my DSL line (or someone's cable modem, or my work's multiple T-3's) goes down. There are cellular dead spots and areas outside of cellular coverage, etc.. If I'm in a dead spot, and want to call someone on a landline, it'd be nice to be able to look in my addressbook to do so, but your concept wouldn't allow me to do that. Devices that depend upon being online are "part-time paper wieghts", and I sincerely do not want to _ever_ own such a device. That's not what convergence means to me. Convergence means "brings together the functions of multiple devices", not "becomes braindead because of an over-dependence upon the unreliable features of one of those multiple devices".

Or what if netvouz is down, and I want to find that bookmarked but not quite remembered site? (don't say "use google bookmarks or delicoius" -- folderless/tag-only bookmarking systems suck posterior orifices; but even setting that aside, it IS conceivable that google could go offline, same with delicious) Even if they don't crash, it's nice to know that I have my own copy in case I switch online services, or one goes out of business, etc.

From there, it would be nice to know that all of my addressbooks (and calendars, and to-do lists, and bookmarks) are in sync with each other, so that there aren't confusing conflicts (or omissions) between different pieces of data.

OR.. what if I decide to let my data plan lapse, and just have voice/SMS/MMS for a while and just do wifi for data? It'd be pretty annoying to not have a local copy of my addressbook just because I'm outside of a wifi hotspot.

Even you say "anything stored on it should be easily transferred to the Internet" which says "I need a way to sync the convergence device to some other thing", whether that other device is a desktop or a cloud service. And, what about those cloud services that are inadequate or undesirable to the individual? There is going to be data I want to put on my handheld and not on an online service (non debatable). And I want those files to be backed up, in case the handheld dies.

As for "if I have a keyboard, monitor, and mouse, why wouldn't I have a computer, and why wouldn't I use that instead of my handheld device". Well, for one, if my handheld device is up to the task of processing/storing everything I need for email, IM/SMS/MMS, web browsing, and ssh keys, and things like that, why would I need to offload that to a desktop computer? When I want a bigger/faster _input_ method, what I need is not "a bloated piece of sand, plastic and metal that does a great imitation of a space heater" ... what I need is a bigger screen, a bigger keyboard, and maybe a different pointing device. Why not attach those to the handheld? It's already up to doing that job just fine, it just needs a bigger screen and faster keyboard for a little while. Shutting down the handheld and moving over the desktop is pointless (and has an annoying side effect of leaving around multiple out-of-sync chat logs and multiple devices, for the case of IMs).

That doesn't mean I wont also have a desktop or laptop, for those tasks that really can't be done on the handheld (long term personal/private/sensitive file storage, backing up the handheld, CAD work, rendering, home email server, home media server, etc.). Which is why I mention the KVM (why not re-use the same monitor, keyboard, pointing device that I'm using there already?).

For 69 Euros / Months .... hum ... i don't want that !

I use it mainly in the train and subway ... where network coverage is not so good.