Which all-in-one gizmo should I buy to replace my cellphone?

mp3s sound like ****, but if you don't care then buy one of those gadgets.

Wow, you think mp3s sound like ****? I think they sound good.

The thing I'd like to have doesn't exist just yet but it ought to; it's more a question of systems integration than making something new.

I'd like a pocket device incorporating a cell phone, gps system, and pda with Dragon voice recognition software on it, no typing required.

Dragon software first became useful with the 250 mh computers around 1997. PDAs today ought to have at least that much compute power.

I agree. The RIAA wouldn't be coming unglued over stuff which sounded like ****.

No typing? Yes, please. That's a very good idea. They'll get there someday, I guess...

Dragon software is good enough to pick up Brooklynese without difficulty. I've set it up for friends in NY and it's like having a personal secretary translating Brooklynese into English on the screen as they speak.

Quick note:

My bottom line is: get a quality cell phone.

The fidelity of MP3s is actually an issue for some people. there's hardly any bass and the treble is very tinny and the highest octave is just not there.

I wouldn't suggest buying one to anyone that asked me for advice or see spending any extra money for a cell phone that also has mp3 playing capability.

For example, I'm an audiophile and have heard sound systems that are very realistic and natural sounding. Be aware that some people in the "golden ears" set would even say that CDs sound like crap, so the merit of mp3s is relative to what ear and brain is doing the listening.

However, putting this aside, MP3 musical sound quality is compressed by the recording process...meaning the dynamics of the highest volume and lowest volume are pushed together. Also, the resolution is less. Resolution is the ability to pick out an instrument of one timbre as distinctly different from another while both are playing. This is far less than the CD format. It all mooshes together when playing mp3, with, let's say, classical or even rock music.

A small portable device such as a cell phone (or cell-phone-like device), in order to keep prices reasonable (say between laying out $50-$300) can't have much amplifying power, just by the nature of market-place economics, and just won't have a lot of fidelity. It'll be able to produce adequate musical sound as determined by a general audience. It'll be better than a ringtone, but certainly not CD level quality.

Dragon Naturally Speaking is great software for the home system, but if it was loaded on to a cellphone...how could you make the search convenient when needing to make the inevitable corrections ...without painfully having to scroll through loads of text. The small abbreviated operating system and keyboard are a bottleneck for this application.

Plus adding this Dragon NS software is costly and takes a while to train the software for your voice and to give it a decent enough vocabulary so you don't have to retrain it every time it runs into a new and strange word. BTW accents are irrelevant to the software. It creates the speech recognition and assigns it according to the consistantly spoken sound of that individuals voice print. When you speak in Hindi or French to it with or w/o accent ... and it'll type a representative word the exact way as you calibrated it to do at setup.

Yes, I think mp3s sound like **** for all the reasons ragman states. However, if you like the sound, fine. The other thing you need to think about is battery life. Listening to music uses a lot of battery power. Make sure you get a phone/mp3 player that has a long battery life or that you have quick access to a charger.

Palm Treo
FYI, here's some info on all-in-one PDA mobile communications device called a Palm Treo:

"The Palm Treo is a line of smartphones originally acquired and subsequently developed by Handspring. However, after Palm's purchase of Handspring, they are now manufactured and maintained by Palm, Inc.

The Treos are one of the most popular PDA mobile phones. They have a number of integrated features making it possible to check the calendar while talking on the phone, dial directly from contacts list, send emails, and recent models include software to use the built-in camera."

A secretary.

It looks like Apple will come out with a phone/iPod combo in the next year or so. I have an iPod. It allows you to use a lossless format that is very close to cd quality. The files are much larger, though so you need a few GB to have a decent collection.