[karajorma]

I've always wanted a mobile. I've just never had any interest in making calls or sending texts on it.

And I found it hard to justify having one otherwise.

[IceFire]

I've always wanted a mobile. I've just never had any interest in making calls or sending texts on it.

And I found it hard to justify having one otherwise.

I was like you last year about this time... and then I got one and then I started using it incessantly   Damn cellphones

Actually it has been really hand to have in a few difficult times.  People got lost a few times and using the cell I was able to get everyone to where they needed to be. Good in times like that or emergencies.

[Hippo]

G1 (HTC Dream)

[S-99]

Zipit z2 is what i have.

$50, full qwerty back lit keyboard, sd mini slot, headphone jack, speaker, 320x240 screen, wireless G (not just B like the stupid psp), and can be flashed to run debian linux with whatever programs you want that'll run on it.

After you flash the device and put linux on there, the list of things you can do with it increases magnanimously.

I can emulate a lot of consoles with it, play other games, browse the web, watch dvd quality videos, listen to  music, and with finch instant messenger i do facebook, myspace, msn, yahoo, aim, and icq. It's also great for just using as a terminal for downloading stuff (uses a lot less power than a honking desktop or laptop for doing nothing than downloading one big file). There's a lot more stuff you can do with it too. But, it's essentially a $50 general purpose laptop that can fit in your pocket.

EDIT: It sure is no phone though.

[Mongoose]

Yeah, I'd love to see you try to hold that up to your ear.

[Colonol Dekker]

Fifty yank Pounds? That seems reasonable.
 
 
Give it bluetooth handsfree and i'll get one myself.

[QuantumDelta]

yank pounds 

[Nuclear1]

Yank pounds?

Is that where you put all the US expats in Britain?

[S-99]

I wanted a mobile device for a good price without any kind of phone or data plan or even a service required. This thing just uses wireless hotspots for internet.

And yeah, like i said, it's not a phone. Being able to find a mobile computer (palmtop) that's not a phone and does work with wireless hotspots and is also cheap was not too easy. There's a lot of people out there who have legitimate uses for a smartphones other capabilities than phonecalls and texting and don't want to pay $100 or more for it. Some people in this thread have expressed this. I expressed this during christmas to my brother

Zipit z2 is really awesome. Check out the hunterdavis website to know a little more.

[JGZinv]

If you have audio jacks or a USB support, you can get a microphone and probably run
VOIP off it via the Wifi.

So you could "make" it into a phone...

[S-99]

It does have a little docking station thing in the back (maybe future usb). It'd be cool if eventually some accessories get made for this thing. For the mean time it only has one headphone jack which is line out. But, you can use software to switch line out into either line in or mic.

So, using it for voip i'd say is plausible.
The only real problem i have with the device is that i can't use the aircrack-ng suite of wifi auditing tools with it because the wireless firmware for the thing doesn't support monitor mode.

[Demitri]

Same as Dekker, waiting on the SE X10 as there is not a chance in sunny hell that i will get an iphone in this lifetime!

[Colonol Dekker]

A man of discerncale taste.

[headdie]

Nokia 6500 Slide, a definite downgrade in reception compared to my previous Sony K800I on the same network, due for upgrade soon so i'll see whats going

[Demitri]

A man of discerncale taste.

I do try

[S-99]

The reason why i'm so big about putting linux on small devices like these is that you get rid of what apps are allowed and what aren't. I'll stay far away from an iphone because constantly jailbreaking it or whatever for not only switching over to a different service provider, but also to run homebrew apps that apple doesn't allow to be run on the damn thing.

Nokia sells some pretty cool smartphones and palm top computers. They run debian linux, and it has an awesome gui that nokia devs designed for it utilizing gtk. You're not restricted from being able to use the console if you want to use it, and putting something like pidgin on it from the repositories is totally possible.