Trivergent
Other people’s devices might be converging, but mine are proliferating.
For years I’ve been dependent on my (el cheapo) Palm device for tracking expenditures, ideas, making lists, keeping contacts, and so on. Never leave the house without it.
Since I work at home I hardly ever do that. Leave the house, that is. So while I did break down and get a cell phone a few years back, I rarely make or receive calls. Hence, the only plan that makes sense for me is the bare-bonesiest prepaid plan available in my mobile-benighted country. (I take yet another phone to affordably roam for me when traveling to the US.)
In an uncharacteristic spasm of early adoption, I just pooled some gift money and, after extensive rationalizing, succumbed to Iphone fever. Except not the phone part, since the average Canadian Iphone user spends a total of $2500 including data charges over a two-year period. I went for the Ipod Touch instead. The whole never leaving the house thing makes it okay to rely on the wifi setting only.
And oh, is it ever an alluring, wonderful toy. Makes the Palm look like a fusty old aunt.
At first I was frustrated that a handheld computer as sophisticated as the Touch can’t fully replace the functions of a Palm. The most notable example of intentional crippling is the lack of a basic Notes program that truly syncs with your desktop. Maybe I’ll get defter at it, but the touch keyboard is even slower than the Palm’s input-even though my lowly Zire 21 has such a long lag time with letter entry that I’m mostly forced to use its virtual keyboard.
So ridiculously, I am now going out carrying a phone, a very fancy music player, and a PDA.
Now that I’ve learned about the short lives of Ipod batteries, I’ve come around on the Touch’s refusal to perform simple Palm tasks. It's warning me not to rely on it.