I can rarely be accused of shouting at my television set, because I haven't owned one for a few years, but when visiting a friend's house and seeing Intel's laughable "Wireless broadband on top of a bloody mountain" advert, I reverted to my past and shouted "Oi, no! That's nonsense! There's no access point up there and the LCD crystals in the screen would freeze anyway!"

None of which did me much good, apart from reducing a bit of tension. But it did get me thinking about the trials and tribulations of doing any kind of proper work while you're on the move.

Laptops are fine and dandy for people who travel from one place of business to another (be it a customer's premises or another branch of your own company), but you'd look a bit daft bringing one out in a pub or restaurant (not that this seems to stop some people, who mistake 'daft' with 'cool').

And yet, as a writer, that's what I want. I'd like to sit in a pub somewhere, merrily tapping out an editorial like this one on a discreet little keyboard while supping a pint of the black stuff. For many years I've used a Psion 3mx because I like the keyboard, screen and 35 hours of power-on use from two AA batteries. Yes, 35 hours. The newer keyboard-less PDAs therefore hold no real appeal for me, especially those with built-in rechargeable batteries, so you can't even buy a spare set from a petrol station if they run out.

But while the 3mx (discontinued for several years, but still fetching high prices on eBay) is great for writing, it's not so good for Internet access. So now I have a Psion 5mx for when I go away. I don't like the keyboard or the screen, and I still think the 3mx has better-written applications (non-nerds look away now: I have a mail client with SMTP authorisation for the 3mx; to do that with the 5mx you need a Java applet work-around), but the 5mx lets me use the Opera browser with a mobile phone.

That means I can maintain this site while I'm away. Last week I did just that, from the exotic locations of Venice and, er, the Peak District. You didn't notice, did you? But I can't do this for long - not for more than three or four weeks at a time, as the lack of processing power becomes a problem.

So... what I need, and I suspect what lots of other people would like too, is a PDA the size of a Psion, with a transflective screen (no need for colour), usable keyboard, at least 10 hours of life from a pair of AA batteries, a built-in modem with IrDA link for a mobile phone (better yet, have the phone built-in) and enough power to run some decent applications; 200MHz should do it.

Unfortunately, I think that the chance of finding such a device is roughly the same as the likelihood of finding a broadband wireless access point on the top of Mount Everest. Let me know if you know otherwise.