The Perfect Gadget?

I know this isn’t going to get me your pity, but I’ve been suffering recently. As I work in the Mobile and Embedded Devices Division, I’ve access to several rather cool gadgets that I need in order to write and test code, and use to impress members of the opposite sex by scattering them all over a table as I use my laptop in Starbucks (only joking about that last part).

Anyway, until yesterday I was torn between using my Pocket PC Phone or the Audiovox 5600 Smartphone. Both are excellent devices, but while I loved the larger screen of the Pocket PC device, and the built-in Pocket Office applications, I really found the size of the Smartphone conducive to actually carrying it around with me. I didn’t want to carry two devices around, and in the end I went for the Smartphone.

So imagine (unless it pains you too much) my delight when I found an iMate JAM waiting for me on my desk. This Pocket PC Phone is much smaller than the average Pocket PC, and yet retains the same 320 by 240 screen resolution. It’s just smaller, and so looks extremely sharp. It’s also a pretty decent phone, and the entire thing feels wonderfully solid in the hand. It’s also small enough to carry around clipped to a belt without feeling like a kangaroo. It has 64Mb of memory, a 1.3Mp camera, Windows Mobile 2003SE, SDIO/MMC slot and built-in Bluetooth.

Is this my ideal device? Very nearly. Built-in WiFi would have been wonderful, but I don’t want to look a gift gadget in the specs, and if it is that important I can add an SDIO card later. My concerns are more with the user interface aspect of the Pocket PC Phone – I’m not a huge fan of stabbing the LCD screen with my greasy fingers in order to make a call, so I’m working on some Today Screen plug-ins that will get it working more to my liking. In the meantime, check out the pictures on the link above – but take note of the measurements. In the images it looks like an ordinary sized device, but it’s about 2/3s or ½ the size of what you might expect.