Gadgets

It’s the coolest one

From converged devices that combine PDAs and mobile phone functions to Tablet PCs with Wi-Fi and screens you can write on, the market is flooded with high-tech mobile products. Akhtar Pasha looks at some rather intriguing gadgets

PDA-Phones
At first glance these devices might seem to be neither fish nor fowl, but the three converged devices described in this article can stand their ground against the best PDAs and double up as mobile phones too.

Sony Ericsson P800

The P800 is a phone/PDA combo that comes with goodies such as a built-in digital camera, MP3 player and video player. If you are a gadget aficionado or frequent traveller the P800’s plethora of features make it a good buy. You get around using a pen-based user interface. There’s an integrated camera on the back of the phone. Taking pictures is really easy; you just have to click on a button on the side for clicking photos at up to 640 x 480. It supports MMS, GPRS, High Speed Data and WAP 2, Bluetooth, IR and all the popular mail protocols (SMTP, POP3 and IMAP4). You can download and check your e-mail on the move, jot down notes, schedule meetings and synchronise with Outlook on your desktop PC using the USB docking station. Got an e-mail with attachments? No problem, it can handle Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Acrobat and MPEG-4 video files. You can download Java applications and games. For multimedia there’s a 4096-colour screen, polyphonic sound and it plays MP3 files. The P800’s 12 MB of internal memory is complemented by the Memory Stick Duo, which comes with a 16 MB module. An adapter lets you transfer files from the Memory Stick onto the PC. For the features it packs in, its weight of 158 grams is reasonable.

OS: Symbian
Price: Rs 40,000.
Vendor: Sony Ericsson

Nokia Communicator 9210i

The communicator was the first PDA-phone created in this category. The 9210i is the latest member of the communicator family. From outside it shows a five-line text display. You have to flip open the lid to access the keypad to write an SMS or make a voice call. The key attraction of the 9210i is that it lets you surf the Internet on a 640 x 200 4,097-colour screen. The phone supports dual-band GSM 1800 and 900. CopyAnywhere allows you to drag-and-drop stuff. The 9210i’s word processor can also open Word files, allowing users to edit or view documents anywhere. It has a presentation viewer, RealAudio and RealVideo. While it scores points with support for e-mail and Web browsing, GPRS support is missing, as is Bluetooth. These features have become default features on PDA-phones from other vendors. At 244 grams, the communicator is much heavier than other converged phones.

OS: Symbian
Price: Rs 37,500
Vendor: Nokia

Motorola A388

This compact PDA-phone weighs 130 grams. The lack of a keypad is made up by the inclusion of a 2.4-inch touch screen. By making the phone’s screen an input tool, Motorola has reduced the number of buttons to a minimum. The interface has easy to read icons organised into three categories—communication (includes SMS, e-mail), Web browsing and contacts. Applications is where you find the calendar, to-do list, notepad, voice notes and music composer. Setup has the phone settings and the calculator. On the downside, you must tap the screen with either the collapsible stylus (stored at the phone’s base) or a fingernail to access the programs. Another drawback is that the A388 does not support voice dialling. To share data with your PC and populate the address book, calendar, and to-do items you can use a serial cable or infrared. The A388 is GPRS ready and supports triband GSM (900/1800/1900).

Price: Rs 20,000
Vendor: Motorola

PDAs
Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) range from the capable, no-frills entry-level models that are immensely popular to the feature-rich models at the high-end. The Palm Zire and Casio PV-S600 fall in the first bracket. Then there are the high-end models like the Palm m515 and the HP iPAQ that let you take your files and work on them on the go. Somewhere in-between is Casio’s top-of-the-line PV-S1600, a more powerful version of the basic models.

iPAQ 3850

The iPAQ H3850 is a powerful machine sporting a 206 MHz Intel StrongARM processor and 64 MB SDRAM and 32 MB ROM. You can synchronise it with your desktop PC to get your e-mail and MS Office files onto the PDA, letting you take your work along with you. The iPAQ’s handwriting recognition is a big plus. The largish 240 x 320, 65,000 colour screen makes pictures, videos and games stand out. The iPAQ offers five application buttons that offer quick access to the calendar, contacts, Qstart, Qmenu and recorder. These buttons can be customised. You can record voice memos. Pocket Word (with spellchecker), Pocket Excel, Pocket Internet Explorer, Windows Media Player 8 (MP3, audio and video streaming), Solitaire, Inbox (with spell checker for e-mail), Microsoft Reader (ebooks), Explorer and MSN are all part of a rich set of applications. Terminal Services Client, VPN Client and the Server Sync client help make the iPAQ a good choice for the corporate warrior. It supports wireless connectivity through an infrared port.

Weight: 180 grams
OS: Microsoft Pocket PC 2002
Price: Rs 33,500
Vendor: HP

Casio Pocket Viewer PV-S1600

A no-frills PDA with all the essential tools, the Pocket Viewer lets you take a wealth of PIM data along with you. Pocket Sheet gives you access to basic spreadsheet capabilities—you can build your own spreadsheets from scratch or open Microsoft Excel sheets synced from your desktop PC. Synchronisation with Microsoft Outlook is done using the bundled Acrosync LE software. You can also set up your schedule, reminders and to-do items directly. 16 MB of memory is a fair bit for PIM functionality. The PV-S1600 weighs 155 grams and is powered by two AAA size batteries. Other features include expense, contacts, schedule, memo pad, reminder and conversion (General currency/Euro). It supports add-in software and comes with a USB docking cradle (it supports serial transfers with an extra cable). It has a functional 160x160 display.

Price: Rs 8,995
Vendor: Casio India

Palm Zire

The Zire is an elegant and sleek entry-level PDA, aimed at users looking to replace their digital diaries and bulky paper planners, lists and sticky notes. At present, this is Palm’s best-selling model in India. A lightweight PDA weighing in at just 109 grams, the Zire is easy to tote around. The 2 MB memory is sufficient for storing thousands of addresses and to-do list entries. The Zire also lets you store memos, expenses and offers a notepad, calculator and games. Data can be synchronised with Microsoft Outlook using Pocket Mirror software. It can be synchronised with both PCs and Macs using the bundled Palm Desktop application. The Zire has an internal rechargeable lithium ion battery. It’s 160x160 pixel display is standard for this class of device.

OS: Palm OS Software v4.1
Price: Rs 6,600
Vendor: Tech Pacific sells Palm products in India

Palm m515

The m515 is a colour touch-screen-based, 139 gram, feature-loaded PDA, with 16 MB RAM for applications, presentations and video clips. Bonus software lets you view Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, send e-mail, read ebooks, view video clips and photos, browse Web content offline and more. Four shortcut buttons at the bottom of the m515 (from left to right) provide instant access to calendar, address book, to-do list and notepad. In the middle of these shortcut buttons are two up/down navigation scroll buttons. The screen is a 160x160 pixel TFT active matrix integrated display supporting 65,000 colours. The m515 comes with a Lithium Polymer rechargeable battery. HotSync and USB let you connect to your PC, it also comes with an infrared port. The m515’s expansion slot is compatible with SD and MMC cards.

OS: Palm OS version 4.1
Price: Rs 20,500
Vendor: Tech Pacific

Tablet PCs

Tablets are high-end notebooks with handwriting and voice-recognition functions, thrown in for good measure. Like most high-end notebooks on the market, these machines support Wi-Fi. All that functionality does make tablets a little heavier than ultra-slim notebooks but then again they are the ultimate status symbol on the mobile computing front.

HP TC 1000 Tablet PC

The most intriguing feature of HP’s tablet is its detachable slate that makes it a writing tablet in every sense of the word. The TC 1000 has a Compact Flash slot and it supports USB 2. Applications like Zinio make the tablet an excellent e-book reader. It lacks a CD-writer/DVD player combo. The active pen needs a single AAA battery. This tablet’s 1GHz Transmeta processor lags behind faster Pentium III chips that power other tablets. Considering its target audience is senior managers this is not a big issue, after all not much processor power is needed for taking notes and voice memos. The screen of HP’s Tablet PC TC1000 is protected by tempered glass. 256 MB SDRAM and a 60 GB hard disk are more than enough for running office applications. A 10.4-inch colour TFT screen with 1024 x 768 resolution and Compaq sound blaster and an internal modem round off the package.

OS: Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
Weight: 1.4 kilograms.
Price: Rs 1.45 lakh
Vendor: HP India

Acer TM C104 Tablet PC

This is the second avatar of Acer’s tablet. The C104 tablet is the successor to the C100. Acer has bumped up the speed and hard drive capacity. Best of all, the Tablet Mark II comes with a DVD/CD-RW combo. Powered by the Intel Pentium III-M 900 MHz processor, the C104 has 256 MB RAM, a 40 GB hard drive, 10.4" XGA LCD w/ digitiser and Wi-Fi support (802.11b). The LCD panel can be rotated, detached or turned around for making a sales pitch. The CD-writer/DVD player combo drive is a big plus point. 10x100 Ethernet, a 56k fax/modem, smart card reader, full size pen, USB and an optional 1.44 MB floppy drive make up the rest of the package.

Acer is going to launch the C110 tablet later this year. This machine will be built around Intel’s Centrino platform using the 900 MHz Intel Pentium M processor.

OS: Microsoft Windows XP Tablet Edition
Weight: 1.4 kilograms
Price: Rs 1.79 lakh
Vendor: Acer India