|
PDAs
and Electronic Books
by
Mark Sedenquist
Gizmos
and gadgets of every conceivable shape, color, and function
were on display at last week's 2001 CES show in Las Vegas.
I am beginning to see a range of products introduced that
will enable the Dashboarder lifestyle. A few months ago, an
electronics industry pundit said that within five years, Nokia
would be the largest producer of mobile computers. I am not
convinced that this particular prognosticator had the correct
corporate entity in his crystal ball, but I am intrigued with
the growth of products in the PDA (Palm Pilot-type devices)
space. As the computing power of the PDA-platform products
evolve, it is possible that notebook computers will become
obsolete. I have never owned one of these PDA devices, preferring
in most situations to employ a decidedly old-fashioned technical
device: (hand-written notes), but I am beginning to see some
advantages of the newer gizmos.
Check
out the "RoadWriter" mounting bracket/platform produced
for Palm hand-held computers created by Revolve
Design that features an attached keyboard and a phone
holder that retails for around $230. Communities and local
governments that have outlawed the use of cellular handsets
in vehicles are probably not going to be very supportive of
such devices, but it gives a whole new meaning to e-mail on-a-roll.
One
of the more interesting product rollouts was the MPCpro device
introduced by Delphi Automotive Systems at the show. Actually
the most interesting aspect is that until very recently Delphi
was a wholly owned subsidiary of General Motors, and the "Communiport
Mobile Productivity Center" (**update 12/02: This product
is no longer available.) is, I believe, their first attempt
at selling anything directly to consumers. This device docks
a Palm product with an Ericsson cellular phone and incorporates
voice and text-to-speech utilities so that information usually
found on Palm devices, (address book, calendar, etc) can be
delivered to the driver in a hands-free mode. The cost of
the device, the Palm and Ericsson products will be in the
$1000 range.
The
Delphi product requires a TDMA cellular network connection,
and Comworxx has introduced their version using the GSM network.
Instead of a Palm device their "Port-IT" device
is built on the Compaq platform that allows users to "push"
desired information to their mobile computers through the
use of a customized and personalized website. The Port-IT
device, includes a built-in GSM telephone and a variety of
software programs including global positioning navigation,
e-mail, and programming from Internet sources. Pricing was
unclear at this point. I am sure that there were other offerings
that required the use of the CDMA network as well.
Another
group of products that I figured I would probably never endorse
was E-books. Somehow the notion of reading a novel by holding
a laptop left me cold. But the folks at "Go-Reader"
showed me an electronic book reading device that just may
make some sense. This device is targeted at students, (high-school,
college, post-graduate) and is worth a look, even if this
is not a likely Dashboarder tool. The screen is roughly 12"
(diagonal) and has 800 x 600 resolution. It's housed in a
hardened shell that is tough enough to have survived drop-tests
conducted by 8th graders during field trials. The device will
cost about $400 and can hold the content of several textbooks.
Users can purchase individual text book content at about 30%
of the book list price and can view the material from several
books while carrying only one "book" around the
campus. Readers can mark and highlight the text, and future
editions may allow creation of search and find utilities.
An encryption process thwarts unauthorized reproduction of
the book's contents. One application I can see for Dashboarders
would be to store the documentation for all the various products
one needs on the road on one such device. "RTFM"
would be a much easier proposition if such a device could
store all the manuals!
Plenty
more gadgets were on hand-- more news later.
Mark
Sedenquist
Las Vegas, Nevada
January 15, 2001
|
