I've been in the market for a laptop for the past couple of weeks, and doing some research, I stumbled upon some articles that claimed to have the world's smallest laptop. But doing even more research, I discovered that some of the so called smallest laptops were actually PDA's and some were actual legitimate laptops. Not only that, but doing even more research, I began to get results for cell phones with tiny, integrated keyboards, that could do virtually all the same tasks that a computer can do. I don't know if I've been out of the technological loop for too long, but it seems to me that the lines of technology are all starting to blend together. But out of everything I've seen, the world's smallest laptop that's actually a true laptop is the Hewlett Packard Jornada.

Having not bought a laptop in a really long time, and being generally out of the technological loop, it's difficult for me to tell what's what these days. Phones can now do basically everything that laptops do, and PDA's seem like they've been nearly equivalent to laptops for the better part of this decade. And laptops are continuing to get smaller, and are beginning to take on more functions. In my research, I even saw some laptops that came with integrated cameras, much like cell phones. This Hewlett Packard Jornada weighs only a pound! It seems to me that the day is almost here in which we'll have one device that functions to meet all our electronic needs. Maybe I'm just behind the times.

I'm still skeptical that there will ever be a device that can truly meet all the electronic demands that the average American has these days. It seems that the biggest benefits to smaller devices are also the biggest drawbacks. For one thing, the more portability a device has, the less user-friendly it seems to be to get things done quickly. Have you ever tried typing on the touch screen of a Iphone? I'd go crazy. The lighter and more portable an item gets, usually the less efficient it is in terms of getting work done on it. So how does one combine portability and efficiency? I leave that question to the technical engineers. For one thing, roll out keyboards are definitely quite an invention. These little keyboards, like the one pictured above, can be folded up and carried around with ease, enhancing the efficiency of many handheld devices by many times and cost only a handful of dollars. It's pretty incredible when you stop to think about it. Maybe that's the best solution we have for now. We'll have to wait and see.

I know that bug business is definitely hammering the idea of creating that one perfect device, the catch all of electronics that can do whatever its user wants it to do at an efficiency equal to the traditional systems. I'm very eager to see what science and engineering are going to come up with. It may be a long way off, but it's coming.