First, I know NOTHING about cell phones, i-Pods, hand held computers, etc, etc.

My 18 year old son is moving to San Francisco.  We want to give him at
least a cell phone, and possibly a very high tech gadget, with
internet capabilities and other options too.  We have heard recently
that SF is looking into providing free wireless internet to the entire
city.

Could someone clue us in as to what sort of wireless service this
might turn out to be and what sort of devices we should be looking at
to buy our son?

It appears that details on the San Francisco wi-fi project have not
yet been released, but an announcement may be made soon:

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/13041626.htm

Hello timespacette-ga,

There was an article in the San Francisco Chronicle this week that
might be of interest to you.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2005/11/09/BUGIHFL3G11.DTL&hw=wireless+system+is+closer&sn=001&sc=1000
Wireless system is closer 
S.F. officials ready to request proposal from 26 vendors
Wednesday, November 9, 2005

Good luck.

~ czh ~