So lately i've managed to attend a couple of geek-conferences (Kiwicon late last year, LCA2010 this year) and the appeal of smartphones is starting to wear me down.

I've steered away from the smartphone world, mainly because I was able to get away with a very basic handset and still have access to it while at work.

The rules have changed, I'm basically not allowed my mobile on me at all times now @ work, so that side of things is now moot; i'm left considering my situation when i'm not at work.

Thus i'm currently rocking the Motorola K3:

Which being a Motorola Flip, is fairly reliable. It has 3G, which means i can actually surf the web from it (no javascript support!) and send/receive email (if you can be bothered with using a number pad data entry style). Unfortunately it's not much good for either in any great volume.

It does have a 2MP Camera; it does Bluetooth. And those are the main things I do with it, aside from SMS and Telephony. I also have one of these...

... being the Palm Z22, as my 'current generation' Palm Pilot (i've had PalmOS devices since my Handspring Visor...) - the Z22 basically is a diary and phonebook for the stuff I can't do on my phone. I'm also not meant to have the Z22 at work, either...

(I have a work-issued Blackberry from which I use the calendar (because it tracks my professional appointments as well as the relatively small number of personal ones I use) and because it's permitted to carry it on me in more places - but I rarely use the work phone for personal reasons (I have to refund the cost of doing so) and my personal cell number has been with me a lot longer than my current job.)

So what I'd really like, then...

.. Is a Bigger Screen,
A more flexible web browsing experience via 3G or Wifi,
A QWERTY Keyboard,
The ability to replace my Z22.
The ability to replace (in some cases at least) the Netbook + 3G Dongle combination I wind up using for very basic (ssh, web, IM, twitter) functionality.

The Geeks around me seem to have love affairs with variously the Android powered Smartphones (HTC) and the Apple iPhone.

I refuse the iPhone on principle... so I'm left with coveting the other players - the phones produced by HTC, Nokia and so-on.

With the above basic criteria in mind, news of the recent launch got me thinking - was put onto that thanks to Twitter and some very good Online Reviews - and I was able to bounce a coupla Q's off the interviewer via Tweets. The Maemo OS it runs is based on a Linux kernel, which is attractive. Others that've come to mind are the HTC Touch Pro 2 (running Windows Mobile), the HTC Dream (running Android) or the Motorola Droid (running Android).

A lot depends, then, on how much I trust Google. There's some issues of Privacy coming up in some forums. There's a wider issue of exactly how much you trust Google in the wider sense (google search? gmail? google docs? the cloud?) but on your cellphone too?!

The alternatives running Windows are obviously not my preference, but i'm not closed to them if the phone offers the apps, reliability, features, and security that I prefer. But I like the idea of linux-based goodness. A shame the OpenMoko line hasn't gotten further.

Of course, I don't have the $1200-$1500 required for a decent smartphone anyway, so it's a bit moot right now. But i can dream, right?