What more can you say about a cellular phone integrated with a send/receive fax machine, pager, electronic mail, calendar, appointment scheduler, address book, calculator, and note pad?
For one, its the first of its kind on the market. Eventually, Personal Data Assistants like this will become a standard, but for the time being Simon stands alone.
Working without a manual, the commands were intuitive and easy to use. While Simon isn't as "creative" as other PDAs (like Apple's Newton) others don't include as much functionality as Simon does. I entered the first appointment I had (8:oo, Wednesday night) but I found that the alarm defaults didn't seem to be set up as I expected. It was unclear if the Simon was going to beep me an hour earlier, or right at eight - when I'd have begun to miss my appointment.
I found that the included pen made it easier to use the interface than my fingers. Either the well-backlit screen could be bigger or fingers could be smaller.
The biggest drawback of Simon was that when the cellular phone runs out of power, which happens daily, you can't access any of the other features - rendering Simon as useful as a small, plastic brick. Nonetheless, if you're looking for a office that fits in your coat pocket and have $1000 lying around (not including activation), Simon is a great choice.
