Is it a political problem? Or just lack of market? (About the data plan side, IDK. You've heard the sum total of my knowledge of T-mobile's data options, which is the closest I know of; it fits your criteria if you can get it with no device or with a BT modem only.)

But on the device side, there's a number of very similar devices available; they differ only in using USB vs. BT. The BT is substantially better than USB with precisely three devices I'm aware of: Nokia 770, Nokia N800, Nokia N810. Everything else that wants high-speed data either lacks Bluetooth (e.g. iPod Touch), has USB (i.e. Eee701, netbooks, UMPCs, etc.) or has it built-in (smartphones). Wikipedia suggests a single Zaurus model (probably with less market penetration than the Nokias) that could use it, but that's all I know of.

Not to mention there's a lot more room for politics on the network/plan side anyhow; anyone can produce GSM hardware, and if they see a market, somebody will.

You could conclude that there are political barriers to these few devices, and not to the whole world of netbooks, laptops, and UMPCs; you could also conclude that the market is small enough it's not they don't realize it's profitable to develop the hardware.

Of course, I am still looking for such a device too, but the (painful) absence is, IMHO, a simple result of the small market for a BT modem.

Yes, Benson. That's what I meant. I was just trying to say that human factors are the problem, not the technology, but you're right, "politically" isn't the right word... "capitalistically?"

Thesandlord, I kno u d'int say:

"Qole is talking about the "perfect convergence device," the topic of this"

This is not to topic of this thread.

I started this thread so I should know what the topic is and you don't.

Perfect or future is crap, pie in the sky and I did not start this thread to discuss qoles perspective on a convergence device.

I just wanted to say the N95 8G is cost effective, small, and available right now. It is not perfect though.

qoles ideal device, if he ran Nokia, would drive the company into the poor house cause his idea of a convergence device will never happen for almost a decade.

In todays market, no one would buy qoles device.

They would be sitting on the store shelves.

btw, anyone know of a bluetooth heart monitor device that works with my Symbian N95 8G.

Hmmm... topic of this thread:

Found perfect convergence device. Its not a N8XX.

Oh, I get it; the real topic of this thread:

A troll and his money would be soon parted if he had to pay 1¢ / view.

Oh, BTW, forum threads aren't IRC channels; funny how that works.

I didnt mean

perfect as in "perfect".
I meant
"perfect" as in perfect

Huge difference

What do you mean?

Hou R thei diffrent??

I'm not talking about towns. I'm talking about "no more than 2 or 3 houses in that nook and cranny". And they're all luddites. And, yeah, those exist. Even less than 40 miles from the center of Silicon Valley.

Yet, the device you're talking about is essentially a thin-client. Which doesn't mean "lower CPU power" it means "little to no local state". There are plenty of thin client devices out there that have currently moderate consumer device CPU speeds. They just don't have local storage (the better ones give you a card slot, or support for USB drives, though).

Technologically, not very hard at all, if you're willing to go slightly larger. Look up the CradlePoint routers. One of them has an internal battery and will work with USB dongles. Another one has an ExpressCard slot (but not an internal battery). My problem with them is that they don't give you support for the voice and messaging aspects of the (current) WWAN environment. I'd like to see them add a small SIP server and Jabber server, for the reasons I outlined previously. And add a model to the lineup that has a battery AND an express card slot.

Oh, and they're 3G only (HSPA or EVDO, they disconnect when you're in an EDGE or 1x area). That's the other thing I'd like to see them fix.

The hard part is probably the $40/mo. But that's not technology nor politics. That's sales. But the current price from the carriers isn't TOO much more than that ($10-$20/mo more).