Mr. Watson, Come Here, I Have Your E-Mail

I don��t know about you, but I find the world of new cell phones and other wireless gadgets at once exhilarating and overwhelming. Even here at these offices, where people are supposed to know their tech, I hear questions in the hallways: ��You gonna get that new Handspring Treo?�� ��Anyone know if the Nokia does e-mail?�� ��Do you have to buy a new plan for that model, or can you use the old service?�� ��Does it really surf the Web, or just a few sites?�� ��What do you mean, this phone downloads games?�� ��Should I sign a contract now or wait for 3G?�� ��What the hell is 3G?��

When I launched this monthly magazine six years ago, I would often say that ours was a platform-independent magazine. That bit of marketing-speak meant we were not dependent on the PC, or the Mac, or the PDA. We were about the Web��s content and its culture and community. It makes no difference if you get to the Web from a desktop or a laptop or a handheld��we cover all of them.

But did I think the telephone��the thing itself��would become another ��platform�� for the Web? I wrote an op-ed piece in 1997 for The New York Times as a response to all the scare stories that tried to blame the Web for society��s ills. In it, I imagined a series of news reports from the 1890s lambasting the newfangled telephone apparatus as the devil��s work, suggesting that it be monitored and held responsible for teen idleness, unsavory encounters, and the rest. But while I had no problem reenvisioning telephones past, I had no idea that while riding in a taxi in 2002, I��d be reading my e-mail and sports scores on a tiny handheld, which I could then put to my ear to talk to my wife. Of course, it��s still slow and glitchy, but what else is new with what��s new?

And this is just the beginning, as users of far more advanced technology in Japan and Europe can attest. To give you a picture of what��s here and what��s coming up, technology editor Don Willmott assembled our cover story, ��Your Next Cell Phone.�� We��ve tried to make this overly complicated arena a little less so, as well as suggest ways you can use the Web to make your choices even more informed. Take your time. Your minutes are all free in this magazine.

The other major topic of interest this month is online auctions. If you haven��t dipped your toe into eBay or Yahoo! Auctions yet, it��s a safe bet you know someone who has. We assigned a true eBay expert��actually he��s something of a fanatic��to pull together all his battle-tested advice into a crash course for beginners and veterans alike. In ��Become a Zen Master of eBay,�� Paul Somerson, the award-winning editor and columnist, tells you everything you need to know about how to buy, sell, and not get taken.

Finally, a note about the ongoing attempts to restrict free access to the Internet: They��re all around us��in Congress, in China, at your office��but the idea that Web content accessed in public libraries had to be bowdlerized by blocking software, as it has been in many communities, struck me as particularly repugnant. Filtering software, as we��ve often reported here, is inadequate and arbitrary. The Supreme Court��s decision to strike down that legislation is welcome. (I do believe, however, that young children should be steered to kid-friendly computers in libraries, just as they are steered to kid-friendly sections of the print shelves.) I just hope that the justices will be as progressive when some of the privacy-related cases now in the system reach their desks.

Copyright © 2002 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Yahoo! Internet Life.