T-Mobile Sidekick II
What it is: Net access device/PDA/sub-sub-subnotebook/alarm clock/game machine/ emergency phone
Vendor: T-Mobile USA Inc., www.t-mobile.com/shop/phones
Why we like it: What doesn't my Sidekick do? The alarm function goes off, and I glance at the weather and Google News while I'm waking up (not sad little mobile-phone versions of the sites, either; the Sidekick's browser can handle almost any regular page you throw at it). I can also use it to log onto AIM and check two e-mail accounts.
During the day, I'm checking its address book for contacts and adding and subtracting items from my to-do and shopping lists. At night, I'm probably playing a game or updating my list of the books I've read over the past five years, which I imported from my last PDA through the Web interface. I've used it in stores to do Web research about stuff I was thinking of buying. And once or twice I've used it as a phone when I was in a pinch.