Portable this, portable that and portable this & thats, wow!

Windows CE handheld computers are exactly that - handheld lumps of plastic that try to be computers. If you want to carry a PC with you then laptops are light enough these days.

But if you want a personal companion why do you need a keyboard and all the other wizz-bang features and Win95 look and feel? I honestly don't know...

Technologies that we want with us the whole time need to be simple, functional, tough and yet quick and easy to use. When busy, in a hurry or frustrated one doesn't want to have to wrestle with seventeen hundred separate features at once.

I've been using a US Robotics Pilot for almost six months and I continue to think that its the best thing since sliced bread. It is so small I forget I'm carrying it - it lives in my shirt pocket. It is sturdy, reliable and incredibly easy to use. It only does the simple functions but it does those quickly and easily. It is expandable and people can program anything that you could dream of adding. Its batteries (two AAAs) last sixth months, the PC connection kit and software is all included and worked first time! There is no fiddly keyboard, just a simple stylus.

Another example is the watch. You forget you're carrying it, yet it always works when you need it (well usually!) and is very easy to use. Portable technologies for personal productivity should stop trying to solve all the problems. By concentrating on one problem and working hard to fix it technologies will become much more widespread and user-friendly.

Did you Newton designers hear that?

Jeep

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