Everyone's talking about building Palm pilots into cellphones, adding MP3 players into PDAs, digital do-everything cameras that will pick up your dry-cleaning and order concert tickets. I think we need to start a little simpler.

Maybe instead of joining two new-tech devices together we need to work more on establishing the links between new-tech and old-tech devices. The example of the web-enabled refrigerator is cliche, but 20 years ago we put so much effort into automating devices like coffee machines, VCRs, and alarm clocks, that it seems a shame to discount these efforts now, when they're still being used every day.

I've heard countless people yearn for a VCR (or ReplayTV, or TiVo, etc) that could be programmed remotely, ideally via the web, and yet other than a few hacks, nobody's done it. People joke about not being able to set the clock on their VCR because it's funnier than admitting they don't know how to program it to record a show in advance, or at least find it too troublesome.

But I digress. The reason I started this post is because I want an alarm clock with a Palm docking cradle. When I go to bed at night my palm, and consequently my alarm clock, would know when I need to wake up the next day (with a user-adjustable time buffer for showering, changing, getting breakfast and all that). That way I wouldn't have to worry about if it's Tuesday and I have an 8:00 class or if it's President's Day and I can sleep in. Pie in the sky is a net hookup that knows how much traffic there is on my commute route that day and can adjust accordingly. I don't know of a single traditional alarm clock that even knows the difference between a weekend and a weekday. Heck, my Zen Alarm Clock (which, by the way, I can't recommend highly enough as the only alarm I've ever seen that will wake you up gently) doesn't even know the difference between AM and PM. And yes, the palm has its own alarm clock built in, but that doesn't cut it, partly because it's tinny and tone-based, instead of music or whatever you like waking up to, and partly because, by design, it should be in its docking cradle at night, being recharged (okay, for those of us who have Palm Vs, Vxs, or other ones with reghargable batteries). Of course, this also brings up the issue of interface standardization. There are so many palm cradles out there that aren't interchangable with different Palm devices, and that would have to be addressed. as well.

Anyhow, half insight, half rant. It seems like when it comes to tech, we like to think that our everyday appliances aren't worthy of the new cool stuff like convergence and intercommunication, but we still use them every day, and would like to use them better, so aren't we only holding ourselves back?

Of course, maybe my ulterior motive in this is just to get AOLiza talking to my microwave oven...