At 07 Apr 2008 14:12:28 -0400 (PeteCresswell) wrote:

> >No, Android phones will be typical cellphones with the Android OS.
> > IIRC, AT&T and T-Mo have already committed to carrying a few
> > when released.
>
> Seems to me like if I'm not in a hurry to combine my PDA, and
> cell phone I should wait for Android bco the open-ness of the
> system.


Perhaps. Choice is good. I'm not sure the "openness" will matter much to
the end user- Blackberries, Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile, while not
open source, have thousands of apps available, which give them a head-start
over Android, if only because of Android's newness. Most, if not all, of
the existing Smartphone OSes offer free SDKs to their developers, so,
again, I'm not sure "open source" offers much of a practical advantage.

But if you're in no hurry, it certainly can't hurt to wait and see.

> That way, there's at least a chance that somebody will come out
> with a device that incorporates a hard drive too - enabling me to
> fold my iPod into the mix.


I wouldn't hold my breath- hard-disk-based MP3 players are selling in
lesser quantities as flash memory capacities increase, so I doubt cell
phone makers are rushing to embrace a less-popular technology with larger
power demands.


> Also, it will avoid a repetition of my current dilemma, which is
> having a whole lot of stuff in a proprietary hierarchical list DB
> called "Brain Forest" on my Palm. Somebody, somewhere, will
> come up with a functional analog and once I migrate my data I
> should be good for many successive migrations to different
> Linux/Android-based devices.


Perhaps. As Google Desktop search has taught us, however, as computing
power incrases, we all become lazier about intelligent filing and let
search tools do the work. I have several hundred "notes" files all living
in a single folder on my WinMo phone, and just let the device's search
function have at the whole kit and kaboodle if I need a particular piece of
info retrieved.

> Does this sound rational to the technically-savvy?


Sure, but it presupposes that 3rd-party developers embrace the platform,
which is often a cart/horse thing- developers are loathe to build apps for
a platform no one uses, and no one (except perhaps iPhone users!) wants to
buy an OS without a good number of useful apps available.