Typing this will make me late for work.

But, uh, jesus duh, you want a computer in your pocket. (Possibly merged with a cellphone, but something like Vonage nixes that requirement if they'd offer a software client and you can find some 802.11 wherever.)

The problem with PDAs is that they've all tried to be PDAs (read: overblown organizers). And the Newton was the only PDA that was even halfassedly good as a PDA. (Seriously, that piece of crap impressed me, still does. Just too expensive.)

My current candidates for "not suck enough to be useful:"

-IBM PC110 or anything more recent in the x86 palmtop category. Boring, but you know what you're gonna get.

-Zaurus - Featureset is at least close. Comes in clamshell now, sorta. Lack of USB host controller(?) in early models is something of a joykill, and the CPU isn't really that great.

-Kaii - Waiting for this for a while, because SuperH seems to have proven relatively nippy via Dreamcast, and comes in 300MHz+ variants. They got the USB host controller right in the specs, the business model is sort of sexy, but the whole thing seems rather vaporous.

-Anything else in the OpenPDA aka "can probably compile *NIX software for it without pain" category (AMD Alchemy reference design) - good enough, presuming that the right USB functionality is in there. WANT TINY COMPUTER, NOT OVERPRICED CALENDAR 'PERIPHERAL.' (Want to be able to dock tiny computer to things like keyboards, cameras, display apparati, external hard drives, network adapters, and so on. For you hipsters, the ability to bung a USB flash keyfob onto one should be enough of a selling point for the host-controlling feature.)

-iPaq: About as crappy as the Zaurus, but cheaper off eBay because MS hands out so many for free, and Familiar seems kinda okay. Tablet form-factor sucks for someone whose main applications are IRC and mail, but once a roll-up/fold-up *Bluetooth* keyboard hits the market, it'll be tolerable. ("Unfolding keyboard, typing" good enough. "Unfolding keyboard, fumbling with docking cradle, cord, discovering train ride/plane flight/OSHA-mandated break is over" not good enough.)

Want $150 device that can run some sort of marginally compliant browser and play MP3s at the same time. Don't mind if I have to spend another $300+ on storage for it if I can defer/delay said spending; do want to not be hobbled by over-limited and unexpandable system RAM, though.

USB hostnes allows for smaertness re: "Okay, I'll put all my MP3s on a big cheap USB hard drive and leave it in the car," "Okay I'll put 256MB Flash in the device itself, that should hold a good number of apps and documents." Something Palm has conspicuously lacked entirely, what with the proprietary buses.