The biggest issue with the Harris handhelds was that they were more paperweight than PDA. They were too big (slightly larger than a cell phone), didn't transmit data very well, and at one point during testing there were 417 outstanding technical requirements not being met. "Reverting back to paper, which we've done in the past and know we can do, lessens the risk," says Stephen Buckner, a Census Bureau spokesman.

The silver lining to this story? The Bureau will still take delivery of 151,000 handsets "to check residential street addresses using the Global Positioning System." Kids these days call that Google Maps, but if the government wants to dole out billions for something we can do for free, then who is Gizmodo to argue? [The Washington Post]

Mobile telephones, pagers, radio transceivers, electronic personal organizers, headsets, microphones, speakers, carrying cases and phone holsters, computer software and programs used for transmission or reproducing or receiving of sound, light, images, text, video or data over a telecommunications network or system between terminals and for enhancing, interacting and facilitating use and access to computer and communication networks; computer e commerce software to allow user to safely place orders and make payments in the field of electronic business transactions via a global computer network or telecommunications network; computer game software for mobile handsets; computer software and programs for management and operation of wireless telecommunications devices; computer software for sending and receiving short messages and electronic mail and for filtering non-text information from the data; digital cameras, video cameras; data cards, modems, global positioning units, batteries, battery chargers, power adapters, antennas...[and] Wireless telephone services and electronic transmission of data and documents via communications networks and global computer networks.