There has been research on this, such as IBM's "Personal Area Net". Bluetooth has also been used for the purpose. But experience indicates that there's less actual need for continuous connectivity than may appear at first glance.
I look at all the handheld clutter. But at the same time I can't see one size fitting all. Some folks have big hands, others small one. Some want keyboards, others stylus, others voice recognition. What we need is a universal handheld bus. The outside that keeps all the gadgets together can vary, the inside stuff, PDA, cellular, remote, calculator, mp3, radio, camera, can all fit the user's needs. But ther's no way one manufacturer can combine everything the way one person wants them. C'mon someone's got to have designed something like this by now? no? I know, we have a hard enough time getting power adaptors that match. That's the "Japanese way of doing business" we adopted in the mid80s when we abandoned the old USA backwards compatible requirements.
- = - Vasos-Peter John Panagiotopoulos II, Columbia'81+, Bio$trategist BachMozart ReaganQuayle EvrytanoKastorian ---{Nothing herein constitutes advice. Everything fully disclaimed.}--- Pataki+JebBush in 2008!
As regards connectivity, Palm moved to USB with the introduction of the Tungsten 5 if I recall correctly. They have broken Universal Bus compati- bility, thus deterring any upgrades that makes long-accumulated peripher- als useless.
The USB (maybe USB2 yet to come) move was probably a strategic move. Whether it's to do with Linux kernel handling of USB ports, I don't know. In the long run, it appears as if more and more vendors see the value of interoperability (Open Source software particularly) and hardware stan- dardisation.
Roy
As regards connectivity, Palm moved to USB with the introduction of the Tungsten 5 if I recall correctly. They have broken Universal Bus compati- bility, thus deterring any upgrades that makes long-accumulated peripher- als useless.
The USB (maybe USB2 yet to come) move was probably a strategic move. Whether it's to do with Linux kernel handling of USB ports, I don't know. In the long run, it appears as if more and more vendors see the value of interoperability (Open Source software particularly) and hardware stan- dardisation.
Roy
Look at the realities of a handheld device. There's a HUGE number of compromises that have to be made in order to get it working AT ALL. Price, power, durability, heat, etc. Couple that with the simple fact that underlying standards basically didn't exist.
Fast-forward to now and we see things like a Blackberry having only ONE connector, mini USB, for both sync and power. A number of other devices also do this. Tie that in with the host PC providing enough wattage and it really helps most users. That's a pretty good sign of progress. Now, this doesn't work for everyone, especially if you want something a desk cradle, but it would appear most users don't.
It's not perfect but it's getting a lot "less worse" than a decade ago.
-Bill Kearney
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