A long time ago, in a different technological age (around 8-9 years ago)  I owned a Palm PDA that allowed me to get my email just about anywhere I went.  At the time, I didn’t own a cell phone, so I carried the Palm device just about everywhere I went. It used Palm’s own ISP service and I even had the Web, and various Apps such as CNN news and ESPN.  I was very happy that I downloaded a CarFax app that allowed me to get a CarFax report while in a dealer’s lot.

The cost of this service was $9.99 per month.  It was not fast, but it worked 90% of the time around the NYC area, even in the subways.  I had it for 2 years, then the service disappeared when Palm went with a major carrier.  Then I got a cell phone but I couldn’t get my email.  I still can’t get my email unless I am carrying my laptop and I am near a WiFi hotspot.  I would say this is 30-50% of the time that I am outside my house or my office.  So 50-70% of the time that I am traveling I have no access to my email.  The only problem I find with this is if I cannot get my email for one day, I have to spend about two hours going over the messages, returning messages or making phone calls regarding the ones I received during that day.  But I can live with that.

What I can’t live with is people who assume because I work in a technology-related field that I automatically check my email every few minutes.  Here is what I mean:

1. Someone at work sets up a meeting at 2:30 in the afternoon at the office while I am out of the office at a meeting with no access to email.  Yes, the Outlook calendar will send me an email notifying me of the meeting, but I only see it when I get back to the office at 3:00 PM.

2. A friend sends me an email to my personal email account at 3:15 pm on  a Saturday about a get together with other friends at 11:00 am on Sunday. My last reading of personal email at home was at 2:45 on Saturday.  I see this new email at 2:15 on Sunday.

This is what I want- A single device similar to an iPhone whereby I can  make cell phone calls based on a per-call, pay-as-you-go plan and also have Web, text, email for a reasonable monthly or per-use cost.

OK.  I rest my case.