The question of what is mobile computing, and how mobile computing will be used in the future keeps coming up. It was in 2000 when I went to just using laptops for all personal computing. Now, almost 10 years later I am looking to mobile devices and how they might be able to replace my laptop.

So now as we start 2009 and see that Nokia was the #1 computer make in 2008, that Palm is back with a new mobile device, and Sony is selling a computer to fit in your pocket I think it is prudent to think about how this is going to affect the devices we look at for forensics in the future.

I find that I can type almost as fast with one thumb on my N95 as I do a full keyboard, so what does that say about what devices I use? A 13 year old girl sends 14,528 text messages in one month, how fast does she type on the phone? My sister went a while with just using her iPhone as her only computing device, and did not miss her “computer” much. When I was at DefCon this year, my N95 became my primary computing device for the time, and got me by just fine.

So when working with these devices, where are the standards? We are stuck with a multitude of different devices and no clear winner on software that is best suited for investigations on these portable computers. And the issue is just going to get bigger.

The drivers are all in place to for a snowball effect to start up, and if we are not ready for it there is a good chance we will get just plowed over.