Too bad in a way, because lots of folks were hoping that Apple might announce its arrival, albeit late, to the netbook party.

“Late” in this case is no huge drawback. The market for netbooks, defined here as ultraportable but still full-functioning personal computers, has barely moved out of infancy. The early models from industry leaders like Asus have been solid demonstrations of what’s coming, and for some uses they are just fine.

Jobs has famously said Apple (AAPL) can’t make a netbook that isn’t crap, at least at the price point the market currently supports. But Apple doesn’t sell its other computers at the prices PC makers charge in most cases. Its excellent software and reasonably solid hardware have always earned a premium.

Apple could and should take the netbook genre forward in ways that will make these devices utterly compelling. To see where the company should go, we only need to look back a decade–to Apple’s Message Pad, a.k.a. the Newton–and then extrapolate forward in fairly obvious ways.

The Newton was far, far ahead of its time: essentially a large-screen PDA that came bundled with useful applications and boasted handwriting recognition. Unfortunately, the early versions of the handwriting feature were so clumsy, sparking ridicule that included a hilarious send-up in the Doonesbury comic strip, that the device’s reputation scarcely improved even though the software did.

For reasons that remain mysterious, Apple killed the project in 1998. I suspect (with absolutely no proof) that this may have had something to do with the company’s rapprochement with Microsoft the previous year, when Microsoft helped save Apple by agreeing to keep selling its Office software for the Mac.

The Newton technology and its progeny were absorbed into Apple, and pieces have emerged in various ways over the years. But the fundamental idea of the Newton was a smart one, and today’s processing power, storage, connectivity and software give it more value than ever.

The rumor mill has Apple offering up a larger-screen iPod Touch sometime this year. If that’s all it is, then Apple will have missed a big opportunity.

What might an Apple netbook–let’s call it the NewBook (not the NewtBook, which would make people think of Newt Gingrich)–look like? And what might we do with it? The possibilities dazzle.

First on the basic hardware front, the Apple NewBook would use Intel’s Atom processor or one of the emerging competitors from AMD and other chip companies. It would come with enough RAM and flash memory to be a reasonably serious computer, running OS X, and would boast a real keyboard plus a variety of standard ports. A built-in still and video camera, plus a microphone, would be highly useful as well.

Second, the larger screen would offer more than the touch screen in the iPhone and newer Mac laptops. Beyond using finger-driven gestures to navigate, it would have tablet features, including handwriting recognition, annotation and much more. (Several PC makers are expected to announce tablet-netbooks at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.)

Third, given that that our data increasingly live in the cloud and on home and office servers, the NewBook would contain several radios: fast Wi-Fi, of course, but also GPS and one or more connections to high-speed 3G mobile networks. (Apple being its typical control-freak self, unfortunately, the 3G would likely be limited to one carrier.)

What could we (and Apple) do with such a device? Lots.

Beyond standard personal computing, Apple’s netbook could be an excellent e-book. I have an Amazon Kindle, which I like a great deal (disclosure: I’m an Amazon shareholder), but Apple is in a perfect position to grab a major share of this quickly growing market. The company could even sell books through the iTunes Music Store, something it could do now given that the iPhone and iPod Touch can be used as adequate (though the screen’s too small) e-books today.

The Apple NewBook could also emerge as an ideal personal entertainment system and solid gaming device. The iPhone is fine for watching some kinds of video on airplanes, but I’d welcome a somewhat larger screen. For gamers, the iPhone is already becoming an intriguing platform, but the NewBook’s larger size and processing power would undoubtedly spark an aftermarket for hardware controllers and other input tools as well as great software.

I’m describing the kind of machine I’d gladly carry on short trips in lieu of my MacBook Pro, which I use at home and at the office. But before I adopted it for that kind of use, I’d need dead-easy, robust and absolutely reliable synchronization with the 15-inch laptop and whatever data I choose to keep in the cloud. Given the mess Apple has made of Mobile Me, my money would be on third-party developers.

There’s one thing I’d hope Apple would not do: lock down the netbook the way it’s locked down the iPhone and iPod Touch. By all means, Apple could and should use the iTunes store to sell third-party applications. But by no means should it force customers to jump through hoops to jailbreak the devices so they can use what they bought the way they want to use it.

Apple was late to the MP3 party, but it beat everyone else with a system that changed the game. Could we see a similar breakthrough with its netbook?

Actually, although BoomTown is staying right around the corner from Buckingham Palace in Mayfair, I am in London on my way to the PICNIC conference in Amsterdam later this week, where I will be interviewing some digital leaders onstage.

We’re still working on rolling out a version of our D: All Things Digital conference in Europe next fall, so it’s important to get a sense of what is going on here in the digital sector and, of course, what is not.

I was here in summer 2007 and also last fall. This trip, I am slated to visit Mike Volpi of Joost to talk about what’s going on at that much-hyped online video site, which is in the midst of rejiggering itself after a rocky start.

I will also be paying a call on the fine folks over at the Guardian, including its PDA digital content blogger Jemima Kiss.

The Guardian Media Group, the newspaper’s parent company, is doing some really fast-forward things in the digital arena, including the recent purchase of the paidContent new media news site.

And tomorrow, I will be having yet another grilled kipper breakfast at the very tony Wolseley restaurant with Index Ventures’ Danny Rimer to talk about the start-up market here.

Videos, of course, to come.

On two different new computers, I’ve created Word files and they’re automatically saved with the extension “.docx.” What is that? When I send these files via email, no one can open them. Can you shed some light?

In the 2007 version of Microsoft Office for Windows, which you appear to have on your two new PCs, Microsoft introduced new default file formats whose extensions end in the letter “x”. The one for Word is “docx,” for Excel it’s “xlsx” and for PowerPoint it’s “pptx.” You are using Word 2007, and all of your files are thus automatically being saved in the “docx” format.

Your correspondents can’t open these files because they are using older versions of Office that don’t recognize the new formats. Microsoft has made available a free auto-conversion patch for the older Windows Office versions, but most people don’t have this patch. (It can be found at microsoft.com/downloads under “Microsoft Office Compatibility Pack for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007 File Formats.”)

There’s also a kludgy free stand-alone converter from Microsoft for the Mac versions of Word and PowerPoint, available at microsoft.com/mac under the name “Microsoft Office Open XML File Format Converter for Mac.”

Unless you can persuade all of your correspondents to install these workarounds, I suggest you change a setting in Word 2007 so that, henceforth, all of your files will be saved in the traditional “doc” format. That familiar format isn’t only compatible with older versions of Microsoft Office, but with many other programs, on both Windows and the Macintosh.

To make the change, first click on the round “Office Button” at the top left of Word 2007. Then, at the lower right of the window that appears, click on “Word Options.” In the next screen that comes up, click on “Save” in the column at the left. In the panel that appears at the right, you’ll notice an option called “Save Files in this format,” with a drop-down list of choices next to it. Display the list of choices by clicking on the arrow and select “Word 97-2003 Document (*.doc)”. Then, click OK at the bottom of the window.

Microsoft warns that some new features in Word 2007 won’t translate into the old format, but I believe that this will prove irrelevant in 99% of cases and is outweighed in any case by the incompatibility you have run into.

How can I transfer all my Outlook contacts from a Windows PC to a Macintosh contacts program?

There are a number of methods. You can use a PDA or smart phone that can synchronize the contacts with a Mac, after having first synchronized with Outlook on your PC. Or you can use a $10 program called O2M, which is specifically designed to move Outlook data to a variety of Mac programs. It can be downloaded at littlemachines.com.

Or you could get Apple to do it. The company offers a basic file transfer for free if you buy the Mac from an Apple retail store. But, if you want Apple to move Outlook contacts in just the way you want, you may have to purchase the company’s $99 a year ProCare service, which comes with a more complete transfer service.

I recently replaced an old Windows XP computer that was running very slowly. I want to continue to use it as the computer for our young kids, and I was thinking that if I format the hard drive and reinstall XP (which I bought to upgrade the machine a while back), it will probably improve its performance. Do you agree? And, can I reinstall my copy of XP, when I have already “activated” the software when I originally installed it?

I do agree that the computer will likely run faster after you wipe the hard drive and reinstall Windows. That is the usual outcome. And it should be possible to use it legally, as long as you haven’t made any major changes to the hardware, since Microsoft’s activation system typically allows Windows to be reinstalled on the same machine. If activation fails, you can call Microsoft and explain that it’s the same machine, and the company says it will usually OK activation in such cases.

You can find Mossberg’s Mailbox, and my other columns, online for free at the new All Things Digital Web site, http://walt.allthingsd.com.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com

Here are a few questions about computers I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability. This week my mailbox contained questions about PDAs, Microsoft Office 2003′s compatibility with Vista, and memory upgrades for a MacBook Pro.

My wife has requested that we get her first “PDA” and asked me for my advice on which product to buy. I am unfamiliar with the comparative features and function of BlackBerry and Treo. What would you suggest?

Well, first of all, both of these products are primarily communication devices — they make phone calls and fetch email, in addition to performing the functions of a Personal Digital Assistant. So, if she really just needs a PDA, I’d avoid both of them and get a cheaper Palm PDA that isn’t a phone or email device. The $99 Z22 would do the trick, and, unlike a phone, it requires no monthly fee. However, if she wants a phone-and-email device that is also a very good PDA, the Treo beats the BlackBerry hands down. The latter is first and foremost an email device and now has a decent phone. But its calendar, address book and other PDA functions are weak. The Treo, which evolved from the Palm PDAs, is much better at these tasks, in my opinion, especially for personal, as opposed to corporate, use.

Your columns helped me select a new laptop today that should be able to run Vista Ultimate. However, although two of your columns report that Microsoft Office 2003 should run on Vista, two salesmen at Dell said it wouldn’t. Who’s correct?

A: I am, and it’s sad and troubling that Dell personnel would give out such patently wrong information. One might even suspect they were trying to sell you the newer version of Office when you don’t need it. I have personally tested Office 2003 on a Vista computer, and it runs fine. But, just to make sure, I forwarded your question to a senior person at Microsoft and he replied that the Dell people you spoke to are: “misinformed at the least.” He confirmed that Vista supports both Office XP and Office 2003 (as long as they have been kept up to date with the latest service packs) as well as the new Office 2007. One possible explanation is that the Dell folks you spoke to misunderstood your question. Dell and other companies have ceased selling Office 2003, or will soon stop doing so. Therefore, it’s possible that they were under the impression that you were seeking to buy it, rather than merely to install and run a copy you already owned. But Office 2003 is compatible with Vista.

I own an Apple MacBook Pro laptop that came with 512 megabytes of memory. I am going to upgrade to either one gigabyte or two gigabytes. I am not a gamer. Do I really need two gigabytes for running applications or will one gigabyte suffice? The biggest application I use is Final Cut Studio.

In general, one gigabyte is all a MacBook Pro needs for doing common tasks such as email and Web browsing, word processing, music playback and simple photo and video editing with built-in programs like iPhoto and iMovie. However, Final Cut Studio is a massive video-production program meant for professionals, and it demands lots of memory. In fact, Apple’s Web site for the latest version of the product suggests between two gigabytes and four gigabytes, depending on the content you expect to edit and produce. So I would go with two gigabytes, or even more if your model of the MacBook Pro can handle it. In fact, if you are more of an amateur, I’d consider the lighter-duty Final Cut Express, which Apple says does fine with one gigabyte and can handle high-definition content with two gigabytes.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com

Here are a few questions about computers I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability. This week my mailbox contained questions about sending large files over the Internet, buying a combo PDA/cellphone, and sharing music on the same local area network.

Did you review a tool that would make it easier to send large files over the Internet? What was it?

Yes. It’s called Pando, and is a free download at www.pando.com. But there’s an even simpler service, which works right from within a Web browser and doesn’t require the download or installation of any software. It’s called YouSendIt and is at yousendit.com. Both work on the same general principle: Instead of emailing a huge file, you upload it to these services. They then send an email to your intended recipient that merely contains a link or tiny special attachment. When the recipient clicks on the link or special attachment, the file is downloaded to his or her computer, without having passed through his or her email inbox. Both services have free versions, and also paid versions which offer greater capacity and other features.

My Handspring Visor has expired. Since I have also have a vintage Nokia cellphone, would you recommend a combo PDA/cellphone with “useable” keyboard or should I buy a distinct replacement PDA and cellphone?

It all depends on your budget, and your tolerance for carrying two devices. But the stand-alone PDA is fading, and is harder and harder to find. If you bought a Palm Treo phone that uses the Palm operating system, such as the $199 Treo 680, you’d have a decent phone with a built-in PDA that works very much like your Visor, only with more speed and added features. On the other hand, if you’d like a change, there are many Windows Mobile phone/PDA combo devices that can cost even less, like the Samsung Blackjack.

If you’re content to keep the Nokia for phone calls, Palm still makes some standalone PDAs which work pretty much like your Visor, only better — like the $99 Z22.

I read your article on using iTunes to share music with others on the same local area network. Must both computers be turned on in order for this to work?

Yes, all the computers whose music you want to share must not only be turned on, but iTunes must be running on them.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com

But what about the other major function of a laptop-viewing and editing Microsoft Office documents? Well, it turns out you can do that, too, on these devices, at least to a point. Currently, you can read Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, as well as Adobe PDF files, on certain handhelds; you can even edit them and synchronize the changes back to a PC.

Here’s a look at how that’s possible, on the three most popular types of smart phones and PDAs in the U.S.: those powered by the Palm operating system, those powered by the Windows Mobile operating system (formerly known as Pocket PC), and the BlackBerry, which uses both hardware and software from RIM.

First, make sure your device has lots of storage capacity, either in internal memory or on a removable memory card, if your device can accept them. (The Treo, the iPAQ and most other devices running Windows Mobile software can; BlackBerry models cannot.) You will need that room to store your Office documents.

Second, I strongly advise those wanting to edit documents to buy a phone or PDA with a full keyboard, rather than one that relies solely on handwriting recognition or a phone keypad. The software for viewing and editing documents does work on devices without a keyboard, but unless you just want to read documents, the process is painful on these models.

You might think that the devices running Windows Mobile software would do the best job of handling Microsoft Office documents because both systems are made by Microsoft. Or you might imagine the BlackBerry was tops at this task because it is bought mostly by corporate computer departments, where Microsoft Office is the application software of choice. But in fact, the best devices for viewing and editing Office documents are those using the Palm operating system, such as the Palm Treo 650. That’s because of a helpful third-party program, Documents to Go, from DataViz, which is packaged with many Palm devices, including the Treo.

Next best are the Microsoft-powered phones and hand-helds, which come with built-in mobile versions of Word, Excel and PowerPoint. Bringing up the rear is the BlackBerry, which can display Word, Excel and PowerPoint files when sent as e-mail attachments, but doesn’t let you edit or synchronize them with a PC.

Palm OS devices. The best smart phone on the market is the Treo 650, produced by Palm and powered by the Palm operating system, which is made by a separate company called PalmSource. While the Palm software lacks the built-in capability to read or edit Office documents, the Treo comes bundled with Documents to Go, which can import and open Microsoft files in their native formats without downsizing them to some special “pocket” version. It also allows you to edit, or even create, these types of documents and synchronize your changes with versions on your PC.

You can get the documents into your Treo or other Palm device either by receiving them as e-mail attachments or via synchronization with your PC. Documents to Go includes a computer program that performs this document synchronization; I use it often on my Treo 650. It displays documents in their actual fonts, including colors and attributes like underlining, bold and italics. Indents and spacing are also preserved. The Treo 650 doesn’t support different font sizes, and it doesn’t include a spell checker. Documents can be opened from, or stored to, either the device’s internal memory or a memory card. You can also zoom the screen to show more or less of the document, especially important with spreadsheets, which often sprawl across the page and can be hard to read when resized to fit entirely on the small screen. PowerPoint files can be edited and synchronized only if you are using a Windows PC, though they can be viewed if you are using a Macintosh.

In my tests over the years, Documents to Go performed flawlessly, better than the built-in mobile Office programs on Windows-powered handhelds. In addition to being bundled with the Treo and some other Palm devices, Documents to Go is available for independent purchase, in several versions, for $30 to $90, depending on features. There are also versions for smart phones that use the Symbian operating system, including models from Nokia and Sony Ericsson. You can find information and purchase Documents to Go at www.dataviz.com [http://www.dataviz.com].

Windows Mobile devices. There are two kinds of devices powered by Microsoft’s Windows Mobile software. Some are confusingly named “smart phones,” though they generally lack keyboards and some key software capabilities, including the ability to edit Office documents. Others are full-featured handhelds, including some with keyboards, such as several of HP’s iPAQ models, the new Samsung i730 phone and the very latest and greatest Windows Mobile device, the Treo 700w.

The new Treo is the first device built by Palm to eschew the Palm operating system for Windows software. While it’s mainly aimed at the corporate market and, in my view, isn’t as good as the Treo 650, the 700w is probably the best Windows Mobile device. On the new Treo and others, you can read, edit and create Word and Excel files, and synchronize them with your PC. You can view PowerPoint files, but not edit or create them.

As with the Treo 650, you can get these documents into your device either by receiving them as email attachments or by copying them from a PC.

While the mobile Office programs on the Windows devices work okay, they aren’t quite as good as Documents to Go, in my experience. For instance, in a recent test I opened a simple Word document on two Treosa 650 running the Palm OS and Documents to Go, and a 700w running Windows Mobile and its built-in Office Mobile programs. Documents to Go opened the program perfectly in its Times New Roman font and sized it so the words were distinct, and the formatting was preserved. The Word Mobile program in Windows Mobile displayed the document in a different font and in a size that screwed up the formatting. And while Documents to Go allows you to create and edit PowerPoint files, Windows Mobile doesn’t.

BlackBerry. The BlackBerry can view Office documents when received as e-mail attachments, but the function is pretty primitive. You can’t directly import documents or synchronize them with a computer. And you can’t create or edit them, even though you have a full keyboard at your disposal.

There is a third-party program for the BlackBerry that claims to allow editing, creating and synchronizing of Word and Excel documents, but not PowerPoint files. It’s called eOffice, made by a company called DynoPlex, and it’s available in versions ranging from $120 to $200 at www.dynoplex.com [http://www.dynoplex.com].

I wouldn’t want to write a long report on a Treo. But in a pinch, I could have written this column on one. And editing a document like this is a breeze. So you really can leave that laptop at home, at least some of the time.

This year, however, Microsoft will up the ante with a new version of Windows called Vista. Due in the fall, in time for holiday computer shopping, Vista is an effort to make Windows truly secure from the ground up, while also making it easier to use and pretty enough to rival Apple’s current version of OS X, Tiger. (Apple is planning yet another new edition, called Leopard, due around the same time.)

Vista will be the most dramatic upgrade to Windows in more than a decade. But there will be a price for Vista’s improvements — most current PCs won’t be able to take advantage of all its features. To get full use out of the new system, you will very likely need to upgrade or replace your current computer. Vista will adapt to older or less powerful machines by disabling some of its features, but that’s likely to be unsatisfying for many users. Also, as of this writing, Microsoft is planning to sell Vista in as many as seven different configurations for different types of users. That will be not only confusing, but if you select the more capable configurations, probably expensive, too. (Microsoft hasn’t released pricing yet.)

So here’s a preliminary look at Vista’s major new features, as well as some guidance on hardware. Microsoft’s mantra for Vista is “Confident, Clear and Connected.” By “Confident,” the company means that it promises to clean up the security mess that has been the main headache for users of Windows. Microsoft says Vista will be much harder to hack into, and much less prone to viruses and spyware, than today’s Windows. For instance, Vista users will be asked for their user name and password anytime software is being installed –designed to prevent the surreptitious software installations that plant spy-ware on a PC. And Vista will have built-in systemwide parental controls, so you can limit what your child can see and do on the computer. Both features are already built into Apple’s Tiger and work well, so if they are executed properly on Vista, they should be a boon.

By “Clear,” Microsoft is referring to new ways of finding and visualizing your files. Vista will have rapid, modern, built-in desktop searching. And it will have something called “virtual folders” that capture all files meeting certain criteria you can set, no matter where you store them. For instance, you could set up a virtual folder to show all files and e-mails mentioning a certain person or topic. Again, both features are already in Apple’s operating system, where they have proved popular. Some editions of Vista will also incorporate the features of today’s Windows Media Center edition, including the ability to play and record TV programs.

The “Connected” promise from Microsoft includes a centralized synchronization feature, like the one already present on the Mac, that can keep data in sync on cell phones and PDAs. Vista will also look dramatically better — and more like Mac software — with 3D icons, transparent windows and tiny previews of file contents.

So what kind of hardware will you need for all this? Well, Vista won’t work well with the processors sold in today’s budget PCs. I suggest you consider a new computer with at least a midrange processor, and preferably a so-called dual-core processor, which packs two brains into its innards, though a single-core model will do. You might even look for a processor capable of handling future software called “64-bit,” though it’s not absolutely necessary.

Memory will also be crucial for Vista. I expect Microsoft to recommend 512 megabytes, but since the company tends to understate memory requirements, I suggest a full gigabyte, far more than what’s on the average PC today. You’ll also need a bigger hard disk, especially if you want to use the new TV-recording capabilities that will be built into some editions of Vista. I suggest at least 160 gigabytes. Luckily, large hard disks are now pretty inexpensive.

Likewise, video capability will be key to utilizing Vista’s new visual effects. Today’s PCs often use integrated graphics chips, which are pretty basic and drain memory. That won’t cut it for Vista, at least until integrated graphics chips are beefed up next fall. If you seek a Vista-capable machine before then, look for one with a separate graphics card with its own dedicated memory, preferably 128 megabytes, though 64 will do.

Vista will boost DVD recording — it will support the new, high-definition DVDs currently in development and make it easier to burn DVDs for both multimedia and file backup. You’ll need a high-end DVD-recording drive to reap the rewards.

I can’t say how good Vista will be until I test and review the final, or near final, product, in late summer. But from the demos I’ve seen, Vista has great promise — if you have the right hardware.

Here are a few questions about computers I’ve received recently from people like you, and my answers. I have edited and restated the questions a bit, for readability. This week my mailbox contained questions about service to convert home videos to DVDs, portable music players and cellphones with PDA features.

If you have a question, send it to me at mossberg@wsj.com, and I may select it to be answered here in Mossberg’s Mailbox.

Are there services that will take home video and burn it to a DVD that can be played anywhere? I know I can do this on my PC, but it takes too much time and I keep running into problems when I try it.

There are such services. One that I have tested and found to be good is called YesVideo (yesvideo.com). You bring your videos into a store that works with YesVideo — including CVS, Walgreen, Best Buy and Target — and they send the tapes to YesVideo, which converts them to a very nice DVD. You also can get the same service online, at Sony’s ImageStation site (www.imagestation.com). Sony calls its service Video2DVD, but it really is just the YesVideo service. My full review of the service is at: ptech.wsj.com/archive/solution-20040128.html.

Because YesVideo works through retailers, prices vary, but are usually around $25-$35 for a two-hour video. Each DVD is divided into chapters based on a YesVideo process that tries to detect scene changes in your videos. At the end, there are three 60-second music videos made from scenes on your videos. The company also will put your prints, slides and even old film onto DVD, but this costs more and is handled by fewer retailers. Details are at the YesVideo Web site.

I’ve been looking at the portable digital music players, but I’m not sure if any players would work with the media I would download, mainly free recordings of radio programs. Most of the files that interest me are in the Windows Media or Real audio formats, but I usually just see “MP3″ as the type of file the digital music players employ. Are there portable players that handle these formats?

Yes, indeed. All but one of the major portable digital music players on the market can play Windows Media audio files (known as WMA), as well as MP3 files. The exception, unfortunately, is the best and most popular line of players, Apple’s iPod. But you can choose from numerous players made by Creative, iRiver, Rio, Samsung, Dell and many others that play WMA files natively. There are far fewer portable devices that play back the Real audio format natively. Most are personal digital assistants and phones that use the Palm, PocketPC or Nokia operating systems.

Even if you prefer the iPod, you still can use WMA files, with one extra step. Apple’s iTunes software, which manages and transfers music to the iPod, can convert WMA files automatically into MP3 files, a format the iPod can handle — as long as the WMA files aren’t encrypted or copy-protected.

Is there an instrument in the market that is just a phone/PDA, without email and Internet access (which I don’t need)?

Most cellphones have some PDA features, such as a calendar and address book. The more robust “smart” phones, such as Palm’s Treo, the BlackBerry phone models and the phones powered by Microsoft operating systems include a raft of sophisticated PDA features, including the ability to synchronize calendar, contacts and other data with a PC.

However, all of these phones that I have tested also have Internet and email access, which is only natural, because they are communication devices. You certainly don’t need to use the Internet and email features, or pay for a plan that allows you to access them. You can buy a phone with the PDA features you want, and just ignore the email and Internet capabilities.

* * *

Because of the volume of e-mail I receive, I can’t routinely answer individual questions by e-mail, or consult on individual problems or purchasing decisions. I read all questions I receive and select three each week to answer in the column.

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com

Back in 2001, the iPod was the first widely sold product to use one of these little hard disks. With a diameter of just under 2 inches, it’s smaller than the hard drives used in most laptops, yet it can hold up to 60 gigabytes of data, or around 15,000 songs. The midsize iPod Mini uses an even smaller version, albeit with decreased capacity. It’s just an inch in diameter but holds up to 6 gigabytes of data, enough for around 1,500 songs. (The lowend iPod Shuffle doesn’t use a hard disk, and it holds relatively few songs in its memory chips.)

But now these little hard disks are migrating to other devices — including cellphones and personal digital assistants — made by other companies, giving these gadgets some of the iPod’s magical combination of diminutive size and expansive capacity. And since these devices can play music, along with the various other functions they perform, they could soon become a challenge to the iPod.

For example, two big cell phone makers, Samsung and Nokia, have designed music-playing phones with small internal hard disks that hold a few gigabytes of data. Samsung’s hard-disk model is sold so far only in Korea, but could make it to the U.S. by the end of this year. Nokia’s will be rolled out late this year, probably first in Europe.

By late 2006, I expect Americans to have numerous choices in hard-disk cell phones.

The first PDA with a hard disk to be offered in the U.S. came out in May. It’s the $499 PalmOne Life-Drive. PalmOne sells the LifeDrive — with its large color screen and 4GB hard disk — as a portable way to store and view or play back music, videos, photos and office documents. It also features the usual Palm calendar, contact and notes functions, and with its Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless networking, it can surf the Web and send and receive e-mail.

The LifeDrive is bulky — much larger and heavier than an iPod Mini with the same size hard disk. And it isn’t a great music player — it has touch-screen play, pause, fast forward and reverse rather than proper buttons, and it doesn’t come with headphones. But it could be the start of a trend for PDAs, since it should be possible to wedge a similar hard disk into a smaller device.

More likely, the bigger threat to the iPod will come from iPod-enabled cell phones. People have to carry their phones anyway, and some already offer music-control buttons and headphones. So if your phone can hold thousands of songs, why carry around a second, separate music player?

Of course, phonemakers still have to prove they can design music-playing phones that are as simple, elegant and cool as iPods. But that could happen.

Little hard disks could also revolutionize digital cameras, allowing photographers to store thousands of shots without lugging around a laptop, although I know of no camera to date that has a hard disk.

Another trend: Small hard disks will likely shrink even more. Already, there’s a company making one with a diameter smaller than an inch. But mini hard drives may also face a challenger of their own — high-capacity memory chips. The chips have tended to be costlier per unit of storage than the disks, but over time they could get competitive. Prices are dropping fast, and chipmakers are working on memory cards, like the one in your digital camera, that are capable of storing over 10 gigabytes.

For now, though, keep your eye on the little hard disk that powers the iPod. It may be powering lots of gadgets soon.

This week, my assistant Katie Boehret and I tested the first such high-capacity PDA, the $499 LifeDrive from palmOne — the company that, in its original incarnation as simply Palm, developed the first popular PDA, the Palm Pilot, back in 1996.

PDAs from Palm and other companies could already hold some of these multimedia and productivity files. But their storage systems, which used memory chips, were severely limited and functioned mainly as organizers for calendar and contact data, short notes and a limited amount of email. Those functions are increasingly migrating to smart cellphones, so palmOne is hoping to revive the PDA with the built-in hard disk and a new role: managing and viewing your important digital files when you’re away from your computer.

The $499 LifeDrive mobile manager from palmOne Inc. stores and displays photos, documents, music and videos.

At first glance the silver, rectangular LifeDrive looks like a thick, high-end organizer with an extra-large screen. But under the hood it has a four-gigabyte hard drive, which gives away the fact that there’s more to it — if the hefty price didn’t tip you off.

PalmOne wants you to look at the LifeDrive not as a bulky (6.8-ounce) handheld on steroids, but rather as a “mobile manager” — meaning that this thing will not only carry your data on one portable hard disk, but also allow you to view, edit and listen to that data in a comfortable, uncomplicated way. It also uses Wi-Fi to access the Internet for Web browsing and emailing.

Overall, we found this portable to be user-friendly and well-designed, if a bit large. We really liked how its generously sized 3.8-inch color screen can flip from portrait to landscape view with one simple click of a button on the LifeDrive’s side. This made Web pages more comfortable to read and videos easier to watch. A handy five-way navigation button at the base of the device lets you page through menus and lists of options with one hand.

But the LifeDrive disappointed us on one important count: poor battery life. When we used the device with its Wi-Fi turned on, it ran out of battery after just two hours and 18 minutes. We also tested battery life by playing music files in a repeating loop with the screen on; the LifeDrive did a little better but still lasted only three hours. More disturbingly, this last test crashed the LifeDrive three times.

In addition to Wi-Fi, the LifeDrive has built-in Bluetooth — a short-range wireless technology that connects the device to other Bluetooth-equipped products like cellphones, printers and computers. After a few clicks, Katie had our device recognizing my Bluetooth-equipped Apple iMac G5 desktop computer.

For more information: www.palmone.com.

Transferring data onto the LifeDrive is simple and can be done in a couple of ways other than wirelessly using the Internet to load files. A handy SecureDigital (SD) card slot at the top of the device makes it easy to offload digital photos from a camera. Katie’s digital camera takes an SD card, so she was able to insert the card and dump photos onto her LifeDrive on the go, freeing up precious space on her camera. If your camera doesn’t take an SD card, palmOne’s $50 Digital Camera Adapter accessory attaches to the device and acts as a reader for other types of memory cards.

We also loaded our computer files onto the LifeDrive. Once it was connected to our computer, it acted as another drive. A smart program called the LifeDrive Manager popped up on our desktop and displayed five folders for loading Applications, Documents, Music, Photos and Videos. We easily dragged and dropped documents into the appropriate folder, and they were transferred to the LifeDrive.

Of course, you can also HotSync your LifeDrive like a traditional palmOne PDA once it’s connected to your computer. That process synchronizes the address book, calendar and other organizer features with Microsoft Outlook or other organizer software on your computer.

The LifeDrive comes loaded with programs that let you use your digital files. DataViz Documents To Go 7.0 makes it simple to view and edit Microsoft Office files created by PowerPoint, Word and Excel. We opened and edited Word and Excel documents without issue. Special palmOne programs such as Pocket Tunes and Blazer handle playing music and Web browsing, respectively, on the small device. And another program plays entire movies — we watched a little bit of “The Lion King” in landscape view and were impressed with the results.

We listened to music and video soundtracks on the LifeDrive out loud through a speaker on the back of the device, which produced a pretty hefty sound considering the size of the thing. You can also listen by plugging headphones in, though a set is not included.

After setting up the LifeDrive’s email program to access my account, we easily sent attachments and text emails from the LifeDrive.

The palmOne LifeDrive is a pretty fair little gadget for offloading important digital data that you want to keep with you while traveling or on a day-to-day basis. It would be especially handy for digital camera users who want a good way to offload photos when they can’t get back to their computers to do so.

But it’s expensive, it’s bulky, and its poor battery life is really limiting, especially for people who will want to access their media and use the LifeDrive for Internet access over the course of a whole day. Until the company can improve battery life of the LifeDrive, we can’t wholeheartedly recommend it.

Even if palmOne fixes the battery issue, it’s not clear that the inclusion of the hard disk can revive the fading PDA category. Smart phones are also getting hard disks — the first prototypes of hard-disk phones have already been shown in Korea and Finland. And once such hard-disk phones become common, they should be able to do everything the LifeDrive does and more, albeit with a smaller screen. So why carry a second, bulky device?

With reporting by Katherine Boehret

Write to Walter S. Mossberg at mossberg@wsj.com