This is what I managed to output from a Treo handheld: <p>This is the third attempt at posting from a handheld.</p> (I also managed to post the title). Forensic examination has not yet determined what actual characters were inserted, since they weren't standard angle brackets.

The first attempt was using a Dell AXIM X30. After battling through the connection to wireless and our VPN, I finally logged in to Blogger only to have the compact IE browser crash as soon as I clicked the 'create post' button. Tried again, same result. No dice. Give up on the AXIM.

The second attempt was on a PalmOne Treo 650 connected to a networked PC workstation (no wireless this time). I was doing well, except for the fact I couldn't post until it finished downloading the entire page (include graphics and script). Then somehow I accentally closed the browser, or something. Lost the pecked-out post. Spend a few minutes lost in the hell of the Treo operating system, wondering how the hell you get out of any given screen (there's no close button, on screen or physical; no obvious way of finding out what's running...).

Eventually just click the browser icon again (Blazer I think it was called). The Blogger page reappears, but it's reloading everything. Somehow the post title came back, but the post was lost. Infuriated, I tap out a one-sentence post. Laboriously inserted what I thought were HTML tags, after stumbling onto keyboard help and figuring out how to insert angle brackets. Post... it works.

Load up this page.... discover the angle brackets weren't angle brackets, so to speak. Too peeved to bugfix. Log into my workstation and have the edit screen up in a matter of seconds.

My wrist hurts from tapping at the Treo keys and I'm glad I didn't pay for a handheld. I have come to the conclusion that handhelds are currently tools for making a six-hour airport layover feel like ten minutes, since all you can do in six hours is type one email that would take ten minutes on a laptop. I could definitely SMS faster on my trusty Nokia 3310, using Predictive Text Input and the number pad. That may have a lot to do with practice; but both of the handhelds reproduce a keyboard in micro scale, so you're tapping tiny buttons with a stylus or pecking at miniscule keys rammed up against each other.

The operating systems for handhelds look Windows-ish, but behave differently. For example the lack of 'minimise' or 'close' buttons, depending on the browser. Input is painful as all hell and you can't mask usernames and passwords properly.

Handhelds? Fuggeddit. Lug that laptop around, at least it has a keyboard and you won't get sued for accidentally killing someone when you hurl that stupid stylus away in frustration.

Perhaps in time you can work out the weirdness well enough to be able to do something useful with a handheld; but it's no good for serious interaction (eg. posting to a blog). As far as web content is concerned, you want to click and not much else. You even want to avoid entering URLs if you possibly can because it is so painfull slow.

There is still some attraction of having a net-capable device that small, but you wouldn't want to rely on it.