The buttons and directional keys are a little too close together for comfortable action gaming, unfortunately, so Mario, Ninja Gaiden, Metroid, Punch Out, even Metroid don't work too well. But menu-based games like FF1-3 and Dragon Warrior 1-4 work perfectly, and that's a lot of fun gaming.

I'm getting a pay as you go phone and it looks like Virgin Mobile is everyone's choice.

Now I just need to figure out which phone to get.

This is the one Brenda and I have: [link]

That's cool but it's more phone than I need.

So, Sidekick (or possibly SidekickID(?) which is coming out soon and is just without camera and bluetooth, which I dont' need), or Blackberry Pearl?

Does the sidekick have calendar/notes kinda things? Does the Pearl surf the web OK? (Or at least, buffistas and LJ)?

What meara said/asked.

I need more of a PDA than a gameboy; being able to take notes on it during meetings would be a plus.

What I really need is a tablet PC that's smaller and much much cheaper.

Sidekick does have calendar, notes, IM, etc.

Raq, if a UMPC is out of the running for you, I'd go with a Blackberry Pearl of meara's two choices.

The blackberry pearl doesn't have a true qwerty keyboard, though, which makes it a little less convenient for taking notes. It has two letters per key, and uses predictive text to figure out which one you meant. I understand it works quite well, but isn't as good as a full-on QWERTY pad.

Actually, Raq, I'd recommend either one of the larger Blackberries with the big comfortable keyboard, a Treo, or one of the many Windows Mobile phones with a keyboard (like the Samsung Blackjack or the Motorola Q) if you really want something that's got "PDA" in mind. The Pearl and Sidekick are both communication devices first, PDAs a distant second.

The cheapest way to surf the web that i've found, by the way, is with an unlocked Treo and T-Mobile. It's possible to get full, fast, unlimited web access using their T-Zones service, which is only $6.95 a month. Blackberries and sidekicks have their own special plans that are a bit more expensive.

What is the sweet spot these days in terms of price/performance with intel processors in wintel machines?

Also for a machine which will be used for graphics heavy apps, but not used often (and graphics heavy refers mainly to photos and DTP not videos, though I suspect she will eventually play with those too) is 2 Gig enough memory?

Is it possible that my Macafee Security stuff is preventing gmail from loading properly on my computer?

I mean, it says it's loading but it hangs and hangs and hangs.

Alternatively, could it be my dial-up connection that's doing this?