PDA
A portable digital assistant is a palmtop computer, such as a Psion or a Palm. The first PDAs were little more than digital personal organisers but recent
developments and add-ons mean that they can offer Internet access, email, digital voice recording and can even be turned into a GSM mobile phone. PDAs can
be synchronised with your desktop PC and data
downloaded from- and to each.
Who are the main players?
The market was dominated by Palm and Psion until
Handspring introduced the Visor earlier this year
(which is made by the original maker of the Palm
Pilot). Visor is a nifty device in its own right but
its Springboard port makes it very easy to add
peripherals, including a camera and a modem. Also
check out Microsoft’s new operating system, Pocket PC,
used in Compaq’s iPaq and Hewlett Packard’s Journada
which features cut-down versions of Word, Excel,
Outlook and Explorer. Other products to look out for
include Sony’s forthcoming PDA, which uses the same
operating system as Palm. Also due imminently are PDA
phones, with Orange promising one in time for
Christmas.
What should I buy?
Choose Palm Vx and fork out another £100 for Ubinetics
Palm companion, which turns it into a GSM mobile phone
allowing you to surf the Internet and check your
email.
User’s tip: Go to www.zdnet.com/downloads and
www.download.com for useful PDA software downloads.
Also, make a note on your PDA to back-up at a certain
time every day or few days, depending how much you use
it.
Further information:
www.microsoft.com
www.palm.com
www.psion.com
www.handspring.com
www.orange.com
www.sony.com
www.casio.co.uk
hp.com/uk
www.compaq.co.uk
www.ubinetics.com
www.zdnet.com/downloads
www.download.com
WAP phone
A Wireless Application Protocol mobile phone allows
the user to access parts of the Internet remotely. Of
course, because of practicalities like the small
screen, you can’t experience all the bells and
whistles of a typical Web page, but it is good enough
to peruse CVs from an online recruiter or to check
travel timetables.
Who are the main players?
In short, all the big mobile phone names: Nokia,
Ericsson, Motorola, Siemens et al. The best advice is
to check out services on offer by the phone networks
at their respective Web sites.
What should I buy?
The Nokia 7110’s scrolling bar makes it simple to whiz
through WAP sites. It also has a built in fax.
Contracts begin from XXXXXXXX.
Users’ tip: Don’t get too attached to it. 3G phones
will be vastly superior and if you’re serious about
mobile telecoms, you’ll want one as soon as they’re
available since they use the Universal Mobile
Telecommunications System (UMTS) and will combine
Internet and video technology as well as offering
increased bandwidth. Expect the first ones by late
2001 [SUE TO CHECK THIS]
Further information:
www.btcellnet.co.uk
www.one2one.co.uk
www.orange.co.uk
www.virginmobile.com
www.vodafone.net
www.nokia.com
www.motorola.co.uk
www.ericsson.com
www.siemens.co.uk
www.sony.com
www.wap.com
WAP chat, glossary, FAQs and everything else you ever
wanted to know.
www.wap.co.uk
Where to search for UK WAP sites. Plus how to submit
your own WAP site for listing.
www.umts.org/umts2000
Find out about third generation phones and when they
will be available.
Data storage device
A medium for backing-up and storing your work. While
higher bandwidths means that greater amounts of
information will be digitally transmitted, there will
always be a need for back-up media. The format depends
on what you want to do with it: removable media like
Zip disks are excellent for downloading data fast and
carrying it around; tape drives are good for serious
daily back-up; CD-Roms make good archive media; or you
might be looking for a portable hard disk as a hard
disk extension. DVD-Ram, meanwhile, is the latest
high-capacity storage option.
Who are the main players?
Iomega, La Cie, Kenwood, IBM, and Creative Labs but
due to the number of different formats they don’t
necessarily compete head to head.
What should I buy?
The Iomega drive which holds 250Mb Zip disks dominates
the removable arena and it’s a great product. It links
to your system via the USB (Universal Serial Bus) or
PC card interface and data transfer times are pretty
fast.
User tip: If possible, buy two of the above. It may
seem extravagant but it will mean you can have one at
work and another at home which we reckon to be an
enduring data storage system which won’t need
upgrading for some time yet.
Further information:
www.iomega.co.uk
www.ibm.com
www.kenwood.com
www.lacie.com
Webcams
A camera that can be attached to a computer for the
purposes of video-conferencing, video emailing, a
personal surveillance system or an HR department’s
version of Big Brother. When broadband arrives,
Webcams will be elevated from their current gimmicky
status to a powerful tool for proper
video-conferencing anywhere in the world.
Who are the main players?
Logitech, Creative Labs, 3Com, Philips, and Kodak.
Logitech has the best range of cams with one to suit
every need from a cheap domestic one to those capable
of full-blown Webcasting.
What should I buy?
Logitech products are excellent but for us the top
slot it’s a tie between the 3Com Home Connect which
offers the best image quality and the Creative Video
Blaster Webcam Go Plus, because it can also be used as
a digital camera. Check out both.
User tip: Don’t get carried away by video email (small
video clips sent with emails) –it sounds like a good
idea but remember that it quickly fills up email
inboxes.
Further information:
www.logitech.co.uk
www.3com.com
www.creativelabs.com
www.kodak.co.uk
www.philips.com
Digital voice recorder
An improved quality dictation machine. Digital
recorders offer better quality voice recordings, make
it easier to get to the relevant parts of the
recording and means not having to worry about running
out of tape, with some models holding over five hours
of chat. Some also allow you to plug in voice
recognition software in order to transcribe your input
(especially useful if you’re on the move with no
secretary to hand). Some devices, such as the Voice It
Mobile, come with this software built-in.
Main players:
Household names such as Panasonic, Sony and Olympus,
but also look out for the aforementioned Voice It,
too.
What should I buy?
The Panasonic RR-QR240 offers over four and half hours
recording time and lets you plug in voice recognition
software (IBM Via Voice and Dragon Naturally Speaking
the two defacto products in the field).
User tip: Don’t expect too much from voice recognition
software at the moment – it’s far from perfect but
persevere and it’ll start to pay off.
Further information:
www.panasonic.com.uk
www.sony.com
www.olympus.co.uk
Laptop computer
They need no introduction and continue to be an
essential for those on the move. The performance gap
between laptops and desktop computers is closing all
the time so you may want to consider replacing your
desktop system altogether with a laptop. Displays are
bigger (14in is pretty standard), they don’t lack
processing power or speed and 20Gb hard drives are not
unusual.
Who are the main players?
Sony’s Vaio series looks great and has become
something of a laptop status symbol – and Vaio’s
feature-set and performance justifies it. The Compaq
Presario, HP Omnibook, Dell Inspiron and of course
IBM’s Thinkpad are equally well worth looking at. But
remember that buying a laptop comes down to personal
choice – most manufacturers can offer something that
is comparable to a desktop system so find the one
you’re comfortable with and check its spec will match
your needs.
What should I buy?
The name Hi Grade may not trip off the tongue when you
think of laptops but it’s certainly one to watch and
top machines in its Ultinote range are among the
fastest laptops around at 750MHz. Throw in 20Gb of
hard disk space and who needs a desktop system?
User’s tip
While laptops come bundled with everything needed for
mobile computing, if you’re using it in lots of
different countries, you might need to buy the
necessary hardware and phone socket adapters as
extras. www.teleadapt.com offers good products and
advice on this subject.
Further information:
www.compaq.com
www.dell.com
www.ibm.com
www.sony.com
www.hi-grade.co.uk
hp.com/uk
The technologies that will change the way you work
Broadband
If you think the Internet is powerful now, wait until
broadband is with us properly. It’s short for broad
bandwidth and is a high-speed telecommunications
network that will be able to carry video and
multimedia as well as voice. BT’s ADSL (Asymmetric
Digital Subscriber Line) is a broadband service and is
currently being rolled out in this country. ADSL
offers an always-on, high speed link to the Net which
ultimately will be able to work 40 times faster than
ordinary modems – it’s currently about 10 times
faster. Users will pay a flat-rate fee so it makes it
much easier to control Internet usage costs in a
department.
www.btopenworld.com
Find out about BT’s broadband offering and if it’s
available in your postcode area.
www.broadband.co.uk
Bluetooth
A short-range wireless technology that will let
devices such as laptops, PDAs and mobile phones talk
to each other within a 10 metre radius (soon to be
extended to 100 metres). It will also allow such
devices to hook-up to the Internet remotely. Nearly
2,000 developers are working on Bluetooth products,
which should begin shipping soon. Ericsson’s
Bluetooth-enabled phones, which also incorporate WAP,
are due later this year. Phone manufacturers such as
Ericsson and Nokia are hoping they can use Bluetooth
to turn their products into the ultimate remote
control for all your devices.
www.bluetooth.com
Official and definitive site dedicated to the
revolutionary technology. Find out when the buzzword
will be turned into a commercial reality – and you can
get your hands on a product.
GPS
Global Positioning Satellite receivers use information
sent out by satellites to pinpoint where you are. It’s
long been used in built-in navigational systems for
cars and there are a number of hand-held devices aimed
at the outdoor adventurer set available. However, the
technology is being used in the second phase of test
3G phones to help tell phone networks where a user is
so it can provide localised content.
www.gpsworld.com
ANOTHER TO COME
Voice Browsers
These allow Internet navigation using voice commands
via a phone. They’re currently being developed and are
already in use in the US in voice portal services such
as Tell Me. It is still early days but this
potentially could be the most important development
ever for mobile phone users.
www.tellme.com
US voice portal, which uses voice recognition
technology; you can’t access the service but it’ll
give you an idea of what it’s all about.
www.nuance.com One of the companies behind the voice
recognition software that could change the way you use
the Web.
www.speechworks.com Similar to the above so gen up on
what voice technology can do for you here
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