my Palm died. my (is "old" the right word?) little handheld... :-(
i've had one since Dad gave me the Palm 3 in the mid-nineties, with periodic upgrades and replacements. i've lived with it as my surrogate memory. (my brain damage is even more pronounced than most of my acquaintances might realize.) since the arrival of the mobile web, i've used it a lot less for "office"-type stuff, but it's still perfect for reading books (and yes, i'm accustomed to reading on it, and prefer it. :-P ), browsing the web (via WiFi), and very occasionally listening to mp3s or looking at pictures or videos.
now i've got to replace it, but they don't really sell handhelds anymore, do they? there are phones, of course, but i'm not interested in spending five hundred dollars (about $500 over my budget) for the reward of then paying, like, a hundred dollars a month (about $60 more than i'm paying now, and $100 over my budget) for the ability to look at the web and read books. i won't pay any more than $0.00 a month, to read, listen to, and look at the shit i already have. the way-cool bit about a Palm is: it doesn't cost anything to use. once i bought it, it became mine, fee-less. radical concept. the e-book readers do look cool, but
they can't run zillions of available (freeware) programs to do whatever i want them to.
i guess i'll carry the calculator, calendar, several books and photo albums and CDs, and my "boom box" in my shoulder bag, until i find a solution... probably an Android tablet...
:-(