From the Online Journalism Review blurb: All U.S. journalists, pro and amateur, need for better field reporting is a better cell phone. Fortunately, some are on the way.

An excerpt from the Dec. 20 story by Clyde Bentley:

"Backpack" journalism? How old fashioned. My newsroom is in my pocket.

I may have literally picked up the future of journalism while in London this fall. For the past two months I have field-tested a cell phone so sophisticated it defies that name. It's the forerunner of a new generation of convergence device that could change the way we do our job.

I came to the UK to shepherd a class of Missouri School of Journalism students for four months while they learned how the rest of the world gets its news.

The trip gave me the opportunity to scratch one of my biggest technology itches. When I went to Korea a few years ago, I saw a society that was rapidly moving away from the laptop computer and toward hand-held super cell phones. But between the language barrier and my own awe, I never really figured out why the Koreans could watch video on their phones and I could only check my voice mail.

The answer to my question came from Mark Squires, head of communications for Nokia UK. Rather than give me a technical answer, he reminded me that it's "Knock-y-ah” and handed me an impressive chunk of aluminum, silicon and glass. It looked something like Spock's tricorder.

The Vulcan's machine only worked in three dimensions, however. This N93 is on paper a 3G (Third Generation) cellular telephone. But in fact it shoots high quality still and video photos, displays them for you on a 2.4-inch active matrix screen or connects to a standard television, downloads any Web page you want, produces copy on Microsoft Word, displays your presentations on PowerPoint, keeps your expense account on Excel, opens that e-Book on Adobe Reader, records the mayor's speech in digital audio, phones Mongolia free on Skype, polishes your shoes and teaches your kids Latin.

Well, maybe not the last two. But it does include a bar code reader if you are ever curious about those thick and thin lines.

Addendum

This Dec. 23 BBC story talks about what might be new in the wonderful world of cellphones in 2007.