After six years of browsing the Internet, I am bored with the entire concept. What I want the handheld world to do is focus less on wireless browsing and more on wireless tools. We don't need more new ways to view the content we are already ignoring. Let's face it, many content sites are dying because nobody cares anymore. To me, wireless browsing on a handheld is a big snore.

Let me illustrate my point with an example of one thing that wireless should be. With the Visor module I mentioned (the hypothetical one controlling your personal server), you could initiate a peer to peer file transfer between two people, with the handhelds initiating the transfer between two personal home servers. Not one bit of that file crosses their IR stream. The idea that I could transfer a 1GB file to someone across the table from me is real power. This makes Napster look like the telegraph. We have all this bandwidth coming into our homes and offices. Why not use our handheld to control and direct it? Let's not wait for wireless bandwidth to rival the current state of fiber optic cables. Minimal packets of data could move mountains, now!

Imagine that at every moment, your wireless Visor has a constant link to your home server. It is always in sync, always in touch with your world. We need to spend more time thinking of wireless and the handheld as a way to direct information, not just contain it. There are all these online hard-drive services giving you a whopping 25MB of storage for free (wow). I have 50GB at home I already paid for and I want direct access to that. I want to have a Baby Bell in my basement and I want my Visor to be the switchboard.

The Future is not Browsing the Internet on Your Fridge.

The current computing flavor of the week is the Internet Appliance. The marketing pitch they are pushing on us is building a better solution for Grandma. Most Internet Appliances are built with the premise of making e-mail and browsing easy for everyone. They are scaled down computers, with no hard drive and a 56k modem. These devices generally rely on application software often residing on a server somewhere out in the ether of the Internet. Some have a built in OS (Unix, BeOS, etc.) but limited applications. I see this as a misstep. Before you go spending $100 - $500 on an Internet Appliance, ask yourself some questions. Do you want to be at the mercy of the Internet Appliance manufacturer and their team of developers? Do you want them dictating what software you can run or have to wait for them to provide new services? Does your Internet Appliance communicate with your PC over a network? Will this device be useful in 12 months?

Recently 3Com threw their hat into the Internet Appliance market by releasing a shiny happy device called Audrey. For $500 you get a box shaped like a dust pan, that can browse the Internet (with 640x480 and other limitations) and do e-mail in any room. Of course you will require a very long phone cord. It currently isn't wireless, but does have a speedy 56k modem. Here is a surprise, the company that started the Palm revolution doesn't even run the Palm OS that you know and love (sorry Audrey, no Palm applications for you).

It can sync with up to two Palm devices via a serial port and your cradle, but has no IR support for hot-sync (what?). It was designed for the family on the go, but my kids (if I had any) would lose their fingers if they touched it. You want to see if $500 can bounce down the stairs and still boot? 3Com showed some promise with this device, but it was released to capitalize on the Internet Appliance market, and not to deliver on the future. Hey Handspring, here's your chance to do this right. I want an 800x600 Audrey-like device with wireless or ethernet support through a module. I want it to run a full version of the Palm OS so I can run my favorite applications. I want IR support so I can sync without a cradle. I want a rechargeable battery solution so it isn't tethered to the wall plug. Oh, and I want it for $500. Until it can be delivered for that price, I'll stick to my laptop and my Visor and spend the $500 on modules.