cliffmat

Thanks for your suggestions so far

Re: CGOAB - I've come across this loads but faced with just mountains of text never really investigated much! I've already got a blog set up (which I'm told can be updated by email!).

I don't want to use the GPS on a phone fro tracking simply because as pointed out the battery would last minutes, and the data roaming costs would cut my trip short to mere days I think...

The main thing I'm wondering I suppose is graphically what's best to use? i.e. google maps with manually entered locations updated by my "willing" brother, or some more fancy high tech and ideally cheap cheap way...

Bacciagalupe - those were exactly my thoughts, except I borrowed a Milestone from a friend for a week and found that the slide out keyboard was tough to use and the battery drained after less than a day (though I was playing some weird robot game a lot)

Definitely keen to have something seperate from this like the SPOT device, only without the subscription charge (hence having to download tracker data and email back to my brother, for example). It's alternatives to SPOT (and how to display data) I guess that I'm really wondering about...?

I've got the ebook reader sorted - aside from hopefully working on whatever smartphone i get, I bought a wind up mp3 player that has an ebook function (albeit basic). Still as you say though, saves carrying around those pesky harbacks!

Just need to work out how to write notes now, so I can copy them via usb (if wi-fi isn't available)