Ken Pugh is the future.

Mr. Pugh is drinking coffee in a Starbucks in San Jose, CA. He has many gizmos hanging from his belt. A cell phone, complete with stars-and-stripes face plate. A headset for his phone. A pager. A separate wireless device with a tiny screen and thumb-sized keyboard for tapping out e-mail messages. A digital organizer. "You could call me a gearhead," he says, with pride. "My only complaint is that I have to carry so many things." His phone beeps. He answers it, with a bit of a flourish, as if to demonstrate his gearheadedness.

It's a generally accepted belief-in the computer industry, at least-that it's only a matter of time before everyone will want to be just as connected as Mr. Pugh, whom I meet while pondering our digital future over a grande mocha. In Japan gearheads are typically teenagers, known as the oyayubizoku-literally, "clan of the thumbs"-for their enthusiasm for tapping out messages to one another with their thumbs on their cell phones. Here in Silicon Valley it's usually the business travelers, like Mr. Pugh, who are the ascendant gearheads. Electronics giants and startup ventures alike are trying to get those of us not in either category just as hooked on handheld digital devices.