The Ideal Smartphone

Not everyone will agree with me on this subject, but I find the new product releases from the major wireless carriers in the U.S. falling one or two features short. PalmOne and Sprint PCS have teamed up with the first release of the upgraded Treo 650. I have information on this 'smartphone' in another posting. Aside from the fact that the unit sports a camera, which in my opinion is of little utilitarian value, it has many nice features such as Palm OS integration and 'high speed' web browsing on Sprint's network.

T-Mobile offers the Sidekick II which has some of the following features, but again, falls a bit short.

My wish list consists of a few more features, some of which are not yet commercially available, but nonetheless are crucial to wider adoption. They are as follows:

• Higher capacity batteries, but without the bulk
• Excellent TFT-type displays for viewing in all lighting conditions; flexible screens
  
• Portrait and landscape mode displays
• Foldout or slideout QWERTY keyboards
• Better voice recognition software for voice dialing, tasks, etc.
• WiFi built-in as a standard (802.11g or faster)
  
• Global interchange capability to work on anyone's network or a SIM card
  
• Higher speed Bluetooth data transfer and IR
• 1GB flash memory as a standard, plus the SD card slot
• MP3 onboard
• USB 2.0 port
• Cases made of Lexan and a built-in high gain antenna
• Clamshell design okay, but with LCDs and visible CID displays
• Standard headphone/earpiece jack - no proprietary multipins
• An adaptor for the cupholder in my car
• Built-in GPS receiver and maps
• Under 6 ounces
  

If you have more suggestions, write me and I will post them.