h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I don't have a smartphone, nor do I want one, at least not in their present form. I have a hard enough time keeping my PCs free from malware and my email accounts free from spam and phishing without adding another gadget that has to be safeguarded from the bad guys.

But one thing I always used to say, and this was before tablets, and even netbooks were all the rage, was that I don't want a phone that tries to be a portable computer, but the moment someone makes a portable computer that can make phone calls I'll be all over it like a rash.

So now that people are buying up tablets by the containerload, why hasn't anyone (as far as I know) added phone capability as standard and sold them as everything a smartphone is but with a keyboard you can actually use and a screen you can actually see? What's more, why haven't they (unless they already have) made that phone capable of going VOIP wherever possible, thus by passing the phone companies altogether when connected to wi-fi?

Or did the memo not reach my in-tray?

And yes, before you say it, I know a tablet would be a lot more inconvenient to hold up to your head than a smartphone But that just highlights another failing of smartphones - their terrible voice handling qualities (because the mic is so small and so far from the gob) and how much better phone calls would be with a headset plugged (or Bluetoothed) into a tablet.

I see no reason you couldn't add a blutooth headset to a netbook and skype with it.

Good point, I forgot about Skype, and if Vonage doesn't have an app for both smartphones and tablets they're missing a trick. I'm just wondering why tablets aren't being turned into and sold as bigger and better smartphones. Perhaps the companies think too many people are still expecting a phone to be something you can hold up to the side of your head.

Perhaps there's still just a feeling with phones that smaller is more advanced and better - although that is changing with people wanting larger screens for the various functions in smartphones. Maybe companies are cautious of marketing a phone-like tablet, in case it's just seen as a big clunky Eastern Bloc-esque cell phone.

Samsung has been having quite a bit of success with their new "phablet". A friend has one. He's a big guy so it fits him well.

Hmm, yeah, that's kind of getting there. What I'm looking for myself though is something that's a PC first and a phone second.

Carrying a headset and keyboard and tablet in your jacket pocket just isn't going to happen though?

they are coming Gosho look at S15 Android 4.1 Phone Tablet PC with 7 inch WVGA Screen MTK6515 Bluetooth at the cheap end of the market... give it a couple of years and they will have bigger "flash memory" or solid state drive built in. Been using skype for years, but lately its keeps cutting out, plus only good for skype to skype though now can call hotmail/msn address's now. Then there is "google play" google entering into both markets so wont be long before you phone is in your glasses using a cranial microphone ect..welcome to the machine ..lol

It'd be an onscreen keyboard Mina, like the one tablets and smartphones already have, but with a tablet having a bigger screen it'd be a whole lot easier to type on than a smartphone keyboard and the headset... well, you could use one of those bluetooth headsets that are small enough to wear all the time, although I'm not keen on those for a couple of reasons.

If you're already using the tablet to listen to music you'll have earbuds or headphones on so there's just the question of the mic, which could be in the tablet itself and able to pick up your voice from arm's length. That might not be good for noisy places or especially personal and private conversations though. I'd be okay with carrying something small that I could plug in when I need to make or receive a call but I know that'd be too much for some.

Might be okay for the house, but not mobile. I was thinking of gettting a tablet for at home when my kindle broke, but went with another kindle in the end. I need something for taking on holiday though, so would probably get a tablet when I go as my netbook is now not working either. I would want a plug in keyboard as I touch type (ish).

Gosho, they may still make wired headphones with a mic built in to the wire. I'm thinking I've seen some recently, but I can't remember where.

Now there's another thing I forgot about. I have a headset here at home that's the usual thing - headphones with a mic on a stick that can push out of the way, but the mic on the wire thing would be perfect for a phablet

Apple's iPhones and iPads come with a mike on the headphones wire. It also controls the iPod functions. Bose makes one, as well.

There are knockoffs available online.

Then I think we have a market-ready product that consumers will buy in the millions. Let's write a business proposal

I don't want this anywhere near my phone, whether it's a smartphone, a phablet or my crappy little flip-phone http://draftmag.com/beereditor/be-honest-do-you-need-this-glass/

And isn't there a flaw here? You still have to pick it up to drink the beer, thus allowing the phone's owner to start texting again, and you can't put your glass down again until they put the phone down. Good luck with that. Unless the people who make the glass also make a phone substitute that takes the place of the phone.

And then there's condensation running down the outside of the glass

More like DAFTmag.com.

And will this super-phone thingy fit into the little mobile phone pouch on my Ankh-Morpork Post Office bag?

TRiG.

Almost certainly... not

Someone must have been reading my journal
http://qz.com/253311/forget-phablets-asians-are-snapping-up-full-size-tablets-that-can-make-calls/

What, the hell, is that graphic trying to get across? Line/bar graph with TWO Y-axes that seem to correlate but don't actually at all.