I want a new phone. My aging Palm Treo 700p is acceptable, but I'm growing tired of some of its limitations.

I want a smartphone, there's no doubt about that. I want to be able to access my email from my phone, and general internet connectivity is also something I'll use. I don't want to carry a phone and a separate internet appliance if I can avoid it. I don't particularly need a camera, but I'm sure I'll use it if it's provided.

The biggest wishlist item I have for a phone is WiFi capability. Being able to check my email over my phone's cellular connection is acceptable, but as WiFi gets more and more ubiquitous, I'd prefer to use it if possible. I'd love a phone that supports unlicensed mobile access, such that I could use a WiFi connection to place and receive calls when available without consuming cellular minutes, as well as to roam between WiFi and cellular.

I am, however, more than a little picky, and the restrictions I place on selecting a new phone severely limit my options. First, I refuse to purchase any device running Windows Mobile. I would prefer a Palm-powered device, but there are no WiFi-capable Palm-powered cell phones, only PDAs. I'm open to all other non-Windows mobile operating systems. Second, I would prefer to stay on my current provider (Sprint), so that my family can continue to benefit from the plan to which we're all subscribed. (This alone is what most limits the selection of devices available to me: Sprint doesn't offer a phone that gives me what I want.) Yes, I know Sprint stinks. Frankly, I am of the opinion that all cellular providers stink.

My boss has a Blackberry Curve, which has WiFi and UMA. It looks like it offers almost everything I would want, except that I would be required to switch to either AT&T or T-Mobile. And, although it provides WiFi internet access, I'm not sure how well of a general-purpose web device it is: I admit, the iPhone has me wanting YouTube on my phone.

Speaking of which, I previously detailed my complaints against the iPhone. The iPhone is very close to what I would like from a smartphone, save that it doesn't support UMA. I could live with that limitation, I think. The largest impediment to me pursuing an iPhone is the iTunes Music Store lock-in. I do not want to be required to use ITMS to manage my phone. I don't want to be locked in to anything, if I can help it.

I'm keeping an eye on the openmoko products, though they're (still) too immature for a user like me. I'm also hopeful that Google's Android project liberates phones in more meaningful ways.

As I mentioned above, I would prefer not to have a cellphone and an internet device. I've been growing frustrated with the limitations in the Nokia 770 I acquired, and have been casually exploring the Nokia 800 and 810 models. I don't really want to carry around two devices, and unfortunately WiFi isn't quite as ubiquitous as I would like, so I do want to be able to fall back to cellular data access when needed.

I suspect I'll end up with a Palm Treo 755p, one step up from where I am now. Carina has one, and she likes it well enough. It's the familiar old Palm, and even though it doesn't do WiFi the transition to using it will be almost negligible.

A coworker purchased a Nokia 770 Internet tablet some moons ago, and I thought it was a pretty clever little device when he let me play with it. For him, it was a good option for reasonably mobile email access, since a Blackberry or Palm Treo was too small and too complicated and too expensive to use. He could take the 770 with him to and from work, and access email, the web, and internet radio from anywhere he could get a WiFi signal.

Time passed, and he slowly stopped using the device. I hadn't thought about it at all since I first played with it, but for some reason I asked him if he still had it. He confirmed this, and asked whether I was interested in it -- he was willing to sell it for cheap since it wasn't doing him any real good.

I picked up the unit from him today and spent some time on and off through the day playing with it. I still think it's a clever little gadget, but my interest has cooled a bit after using it. First of all, too much screen space is consumed by the built-in interface. Web pages are too small to read comfortably on the space left over for applications. The system is slow, but I wasn't expecting any kind of blazing performance. The default software load is pretty modest, but there are plenty of Internet tablet applications available for installation.

The really attractive thing about the Nokia 770 is its support for Google Chat and Google Talk, allowing for IM and VoIP communications. To my surprise, there's also a Gizmo client available! I got my dad and sister using Gizmo over Skype, so I'm happy to see that supported on the Nokia. Using the Nokia 770, I can (theoretically) engage in VoIP conversations with anyone using Google Talk or Gizmo.

While it's not terribly useful as a general purpose internet device, the idea of using it as a portable communications device does have a lot of appeal. I'm strongly considering taking this with me on my trip abroad next month, so that I can keep in touch with $work without having to dig out and boot up my laptop. All I'll need is an open WiFi connection somewhere, which ought not be too hard to find (famous last words...)

This certainly won't replace my Palm Treo smartphone, which affords me the ability to check my email in the absence of a WiFi signal. I deeply wish that my Treo could use a WiFi connection were it available. My boss recently got a T-Mobile Blackberry 8320, which supports both cellular and VoIP calling, and I'm insanely envious. When in range of a WiFi connection, his phone will use that to initiate a VoIP call, which uses none of his plan's minutes. When no WiFi signal is available, it'll use the cellular network. I keep hoping that Sprint (my cellular provider) will come out with a cell/WiFi phone soon, but realistically I don't expect to see any such device in the near future. The combination of Treo + Nokia 770 rudely approximates the features, but falls far short in terms of size and convenience.