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?

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

AFAIK it shouldn't.

Do you have Javascript enabled? (I think you need to, right?)