DEAR LAZYWEB

[substitute]

1. What phone headset should I get? I do not yet have bluetooth. My phones, both cordless on landline and wireless, have 1.5mm plugs. Previous headsets have been flimsy and had such bad sound quality that everyone insisted I stop using them. Suggestions?
   
   
2. I may need to dump my Sidekick and get a new PDA. My needs are: a terminal program that does ssh; a web browser, however small; a decent email program. I'm looking at Blackbery and Treo and some other smart phones but would be interested in hearing about what you think.
   
   
3. I know the blood runs hot when defending technologies, so don't flame each other or I'll give you such a PINCH.

Comments

[brianenigma.livejournal.com]

I have to say that the Treo (with PalmOS... I don't know about the Windows CE version of the Treo) does everything you want it to:
* The built-in browser, Treo, is great but sometimes chokes on large pages, pages with lots of images, or pages with large images.
* Xiino is a 3rd party browser that goes through a proxy that automagically zips up text and resizes images. They don't have to be resized in the browser, so take less memory/CPU, and the file transfers are smaller so less bandwidth. It would be a perfect browser, except some of the JavaScript capability is broken and because the proxy is in Japan, lots of sites (including Google) think you want the Japanese version, until you find the "switch to English" link.
* TuSSH is a great SSH client, but if you want 80x24, expect something as readable as a 3 point font. If you're just using command-line stuff, you can comfortably use a readable font, but if you are using a full-screen curses application, prepare to get the magnifying glass.
* Email--I don't know. It comes with VersaMail, which is adequate for sending. I don't ever check the mail on the Treo, but understand that it works decently. It doesn't do push email like the Blackberry, though. (I'd bet there was probably a 3rd party app that does push email, but don't know what it is.)
* IM--I know you didn't mention IM, but VeriChat does a wonderful job of AIM and Yahoo (and I think ICQ and MSN), and works using a push model, so you don't have to be running the application. Unfortunately, it does not handle Jabber (GTalk and LiveJournal.)
* upIRC is an awesome Palm IRC application. 'nuff said.
* Google Maps in the Treo is a beautiful application. With the other handheld platforms, they used a clunky Java runtime, the Treo app is native and is FAST and EASY!
* GSM EDGE + Treo + Bluetooth + PowerBook = Crazy Delicious. Internet from anywhere. Admittedly, it's only about 128k, so you're effectively on a wireless ISDN, but it's better than nothing when there are no open WiFi access points. And it's perfectly fine for ssh'ing into a machine from a *real* terminal.