My cellphone, my life

We aren’t there yet. Despite the technical advances, my cellphone/PDA won’t allow me to run my life. It does a nice job of helping me manage things. I can do email, which untethers me from my desk. I can take, send, watch and listen to movies and audio. All very nice.

It’s the next generation or two that excite me and make me very, very curious.

Here is what I expected from my next PDA/Phone beyond what I can buy today.

1. At least 1gb of storage via flash memory, or 5gbs through a miniature drive

2. A standard USB port so thatI can copy any standardized files to or from an external storage device

3. The ability to recognize that storage device as a drive accessible to my phone apps.

4. The ability to call a number or us bluetooth to replace my credit or debit cards and automatically record the transaction in a money management program

5. The ability to watch videos in Mpeg4/VC1/Divx format. I’ts going to come in handy when my car manual is in the glove compartment on a USB flashdrive and I can just watch the video on how to fix what breaks. I want to be able to use my phone to watch directions on whatever complex operationsI may come in touch with.

5a. This can also come in handy when I’m looking at buying a present for my wife. Particularly something that works in the kitchen that I don’t fully understand. Let me plug into the USB or via bluetooth, see a demo of it on my phone while imin the store.

5b. Of course, being able to Froogle it for pricing based on the bar code would help as well, as would knowing if they have it in stock without having to get a clerk, placing my order and picking it up or having it shipped to my house.

Naturally, storing all my receipts in the phone in case there is a problem

6. I want to be able to save and store my IMs and Text Messages

7. I want to be able to download tickets to events and just let them scan my phone rather than having a ticket.

I may call it my phone, but in reality, it’s my portable transaction device. Anything I can collect, create, transact or transmit digitally, I want the ability to do through my phone.

It’s a digital world, why not?

Same applies to being able to plug in the USB wire hanging from the ATM terminal with instructions.