Light, powerful PDA phone
In an episode of "The Simpsons" titled "King-Size Homer," Homer deliberately gains even more weight in order to qualify for disability benefits. But when Homer tries in vain to make an emergency call from his home, he gets a recording: "The fingers you have used to dial, are too fat. To obtain a special dialing wand, please mash the keypad with your palm now."
I often expect to hear the same recording when I'm trying to punch out a number on most PDA phones and smartphones. Take the Samsung Blackjack "smart device" from Cingular: Each key on the gadget's "fully integrated" QWERTY keyboard is 1/8 -inch wide, a quarter that of a key on a full-size PC keyboard.
Like other PDA phones, the Blackjack also packs multiple characters onto the keys. It does help that, on the Blackjack, the keys with numbers on them are grey, so they stand out on its black-on-black keyboard. (The phone has a cool, matte-black finish.)
But for creating documents and writing lengthy e-mails? Forget it. Think about it: How often do you receive e-mails from mobile users that are more than a sentence long (and more than a little ambiguous)? It's simply too cumbersome.
Once you get past the keyboard nuisance, however, there is a lot to like about the Blackjack. For a lightweight device (less than 4 ounces), it is an attractive, powerful Windows 5.0 Mobile machine, good for reading e-mail in Pocket Outlook and Cingular Xpress. The Blackjack has a thumbwheel on the side, making it easy to quickly browse Windows docs and PDFs, as well as news and sports headlines on the Web.
The Blackjack also connects to Cingular Music and videos and pictures look great on its 2 1/4- inch screen. One bummer is that it has a proprietary headphone jack, so you can't easily use your favorite cans.
The phone's rechargeable lithium-ion battery is good for 5 1/2 hours of talk time and 11 days of standby time. The price for the Blackjack is about $200, with a rebate and a two-year contract with Cingular.
The SPH101 comes pre loaded with Skype software, stores up to 200 of your contacts, and shows their online statuses on the phone's color display screen. The phone connects to the Internet via Wi Fi, bypassing the need for a PC altogether.
Calls to other Skypers are free, of course. The SPH101 also supports calls via SkypOut to traditional land and cell numbers, for prices far lower than what you'd be paying in roaming charges on your cell.
Wi Fi phones can be great if you know where the free hotspots are , but you'd better bring your cell along when exploring new territory. If you find a wireless network, it has to be the kind that requires no login, as the SPH101 does not have Web browser.
Talk time for the SPH101 is only two hours. Standby time is 20 hours.
A minicam for those who can't wait
Skypers can also buy webcams to take advantage of its video chat feature. The USR9640 USR mini cam with headset captures video at 30 frames per second. It also has a digital zoom feature and sharp 1.3-megapixel still images.
Another plus, at least for me, is the price: about $40, when the USR9640 becomes available in January. (My $100-plus webcam is only gathering dust, since so few of the adults I know use video.)
The USR9640 automatically adjusts to low-light conditions, and has brightness, saturation, contrast, and other image controls. It also has face-tracking auto-focus and a 70-degree viewing angle in case you are the type who gets animated while talking in front of the camera.
