Sony's New Prototype PDA Form Factor "The unit, only seen for a few seconds by most is a departure from the standard handheld form factor, sporting a vertically aligned clamshell design, a thumb keyboard, and a large rectangular display. Looking closely at the photos from ascii24.com, you can see the CLIE logo, 5 hardware buttons, a thumb keyboard made up of very small keys, a digital camera, and a screen which looks like it could run 240x320, 320x480 or similar resolutions which fit into this ratio. The most compelling aspect of this device in my opinion is the ability to see the screen when the device is both open and closed." [PDABuzz.com]

Still more innovation in handhelds. It looks like PDA makers are finally starting to think out of the monolithic block. Why wouldn't they put the buttons on the outside, though? Then you wouldn't have to open it for basic functionality. What would you be able to see and do with the screen closed?

Also from infoSync is a screenshot of the Space Taxi pinball game mentioned in the Have Cell Phone, Will Shoot post from a few days ago . It only runs on the Nokia 9210 and Nokia 9290 phones, but my oh my is it purty. Now that's the kind of service that would make me switch cell phones and carriers, but of course it's not available in the U.S. The game is written in Java, so I can only imagine what we'll start seeing as screen resolutions, processors, and battery life improve.

BTW Meryl, these phones are supposed to be better for deaf users (as well as the rest of us) because of the larger keyboard and the bigger screen.

In today's "too damn cool" department, we have an announcement from tDevice about a new case/keyboard for Palm Vx and Handspring PDAs called a "Q-Pad." "Designed into approximately a 3"x5"x0.9" dimension, the new Q-Pad for Handspring VisorEdge and Palm Vx packs the solid protection of an internally framed leather case, an integrated 60 key QWERTY keyboard with dedicated numeric keypad, and an ergonomic PDA viewing stand. The Q-Pad brings back the promise of PDA's 'virtually anytime, anywhere computing' by allowing the true mobility of a PDA, a keyboard and PDA protection in a single, easy-to-use package." [via infoSync]

And it supposedly costs less than $70.  Shazam!  I wouldn't want to use this for taking notes in meetings, but it's a hell of an advance for wireless typing. If they make this available for the Palm i705 soon, I think it may really take off. Of course, I'd rather they made one for my Clie first, but since I don't use it with wireless access yet, I guess I can wait. I am constantly amazed at the new approaches for input that we're seeing these days. This could be one option for a librarian working in the stacks.