Beyond the Palm

Having blogged about Vista quite a lot recently, I have decided to revisit the subject of cloud computing. I have still not got syncing between Vista / Outlook 2007, Palm and Yahoo! working, but Palm have released a beta of their new Palm Desktop for Vista software. I'll be giving it a try soon, but the T3 isn't on the officially supported list.

It appears that Palm are continuing to throw away their market. I've been a Palm user since the original Pilot Professional, upgrading to an M500 and then to the T3. The PIM applications have been the main reason why I've stuck with Palm (and I hate the Windows Mobile interface!). But by not supporting the T3 - a model that isn't *that* old - I'm forced to look at other options.

So my criteria is:

1. Decent PIM applications
2. PIM synchronisation with Outlook 2007
3. Web browser - ideally something like Opera
4. Some form of Internet connectivity - wireless / bluetooth / ???
5. Keyboard

Synchronising with Outlook will get my cloud experiment back on track, and I like the ability to browse the internet when out and about. The keyboard is a bit contentious, but ultimately, I'm faster on a keyboard that writing and handwriting recognition struggles to interpret my scrawls.

I'm guessing I'm looking at some form of mobile phone / smartphone. The OS News review of the Nokia E90 looks quite good, so that'll do on the list of potentials. I'm still a fan of Sony Ericsson phones, so will look at their offerings.

iPhone? Maybe, but it doesn't have a keyboard (perhaps not a showstopper depending on how good the virtual keyboard is) and I'm not sure what it's PIM capabilities are.