My dream gadget

So there I was, life in the fast line of ICT journalism, going from highway to highway, interview to press conference to interview, armed only with my trusty laptop, notebook, umpteen pens and the inevitable cellphone.

It hit me as I was simultaneously trying to dodge another inane driver, press the voicemail key and hang on to the vestiges of my sanity; one shredded nerve away from giving it all up and becoming a beachbum. The device. The one, the only, the everything I could ever need in one device that would answer my frantic, and futile, prayers.

This device would be the size of a cellphone. It would have all the functionality of a cellphone, but with better hands-free (all those cables, or dodgy headsets have to go). And my dream gadget would, needless to say, have a couple of interesting tricks up its sleeve.

I want to be able to push a button, read a name and a message, and have the device work out that I want to send this message, to this person, via the most efficient route possible. To do this, it would work out whether my recipient was on e-mail, IM, Skype, Facebook, telephone, cellphone or none of the above. It would then deliver an appropriate text or voice message to the correct location.

I'd like to use this same functionality to post notes to my Facebook profile, leave messages for myself (I can never remember what I need from the shops unless its 3am and I need whatever it was), send e-mail to colleagues, fire off two-word responses to voicemails and send soppy notes to my other half, birthday wishes to my mother, and "go away I'm not available" responses to everyone wanting to offer me another credit card.

I want to be able to push a button, read a name and a message, and have the device work out that I want to send this message, to this person, via the most efficient route possible.

Samantha Perry, features editor, ITWeb

I also want this device to be able to plug into all of my points of information storage - my e-mail, documents, Web sites - and bring me back the specific thing I need, in the format I need it. So, while I'm in the car, running late, and, being blonde, not having a contact number at hand, I could ask the device to search my e-mail on my laptop (in my boot), bring back the number and place the call.

Not only would it do all this, but it would be able to read documents back to me so that in between meetings I don't have to frantically scan briefing documents in parking lots while attracting odd stares from security guards. Rather, I could save briefing documents to a folder before I leave the office, and it could read the relevant one to me while I'm en route. Or, if I forget, I can get it to hunt down the document wherever in the ether it is, and read it thereafter.

Of course, this device would, ideally, wake me up in the way I prefer (very, very slowly) and make my perfect cuppa to boot, but let me not get totally sidetracked into the realms of fantasy. All the devices we have are supposed to make our lives easier, but all we have is one more thing to check, and one more way to be reached when we're really trying to be unreachable. I think it's high time somebody invented something that really works for me, rather than me working for it. What do you think?

Comments, feedback and abuse can be sent to the usual address.