The race is on to put the Internet in your pocket.

Pager, cell phone and personal digital assistant companies are jockeying to see who can cram e-mail and the Web into the smallest wireless container.

The Palm VII and several Web-connected cell phones can put you online from almost anywhere. But Motorola's new $399 Timeport P935 has something phones and PDAs don't: a full QWERTY keyboard.

The Timeport looks like an overgrown pager. At less than 4 inches wide and 3 inches deep, the device is small enough to carry on a belt clip, yet large enough to type on - if you mostly use your two thumbs.

The unit opens to reveal a high-resolution LCD screen that can display text messages of up to nine lines of 29 characters without scrolling. With the backlight on, you can see the outlines of the keys and read the screen in a darkened theater.

When a new e-mail arrives, the Timeport rings like a cell phone, unless you switch to a vibration alert.

Timeport users are required to sign up for a service plan with Skytel pager network (prices vary) to send and receive messages. Subscribers are given a 10-digit number that doubles as a pager number and e-mail address.

You can enter contacts, appointments and e-mail from the keyboard, or hook the Timeport up to a PC via a docking cradle with serial cable. Once the link is in place, you can download and synchronize appointments, contacts and other data with Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes or other software.

For more information, go to http://commerce.motorola.com/.

(PHOTO: courtesy of Motorola)