James, do you intend to get that iPag 200 to play with — er, study? Doesn’t that have the same CPU as the HTC Advantage? Too bad I can’t find price!

Going to put on the Great Karnak’s turban (how’s that for placing ones-self on the mobile device timeline?) for a second and pontificate uselessly;

The lineup looks good – assuming this was what the earlier post regarding feedback concerned?

For some reason though, a quote from a rather famous business leader concerning the great unwashed never needing anymore RAM than what he was willing to design for and offer popped into my head.

I did not find any mention of A/V out in the specs on the units – oversight on my part?
With such small screen/pixel real estate, the inability to drive larger displays seems like a deliberate repeat of that arrogance.

On top of that, WMP 6, more capable than ever, is still companion software for more significant offerings than a true stand-alone open self replicating OS.

The echoes from some important muckity muck making the following pronouncement pops into my head:

“Who would ever want a simple, elegant, expandable interface Phone/GPS/Camera/Long battery life/WiFi enabled Computer/Storage device that would be a true PDA that drives larger low-cost terminal solutions when they could have what we’re offering?”

The real reason still and yet for the slow (relatively) rise of the truly personal computer would continue to be cost and market share dog-fighting.

Whoever successfully pierces that paradigm veil without the curse of the first (bankruptcy, lack of sustainable, enduring popular and historical credit) is going to own a huge portion of tech real estate for some time to come.

What this release of contenders appears to be is simply more safe jockeying amongst manufactures who each hold a piece of the market puzzle for a seat at the table than an outright attempt to take over the chairman’s position.

Going out on a limb here but some of the DIY e-book reader developer kits quietly making the rounds are turning up interesting results that may yield up boutique solutions for individuals.
Making the leap from the hackers bench to widely available popular products still follows the same rules of chance that govern the genetic evolution of superior sports but it does happen so hope springs eternal in the breast of this consumer/tinkerer.

On the one hand, I really like that there is a pure PDA in there, with VGA no less. I figured that segment of the market was pretty much dead. Then on the other hand, I’m depressed that the more connected devices are all dragged down by QVGA.

The darn GPS gets the best screen, when that could easily have gotten by with QVGA (albeit probably not as prettily.)

I’m left wanting a combination of all those… a communicator with the 800×480 screen, a slide-out keyboard and built-in GPS.

Hang on, that’s the HTC Omni, assuming it will match the rumors. Hmmm.