Mobile |
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by Chuck Horowitz |
This is the year of advanced handheld communications. Cellular telephones will be equipped with paging, fax and data communications capabilities.
These devices (phones?) will have the ability to browse the Web, send and receive e-mail and make or receive phone calls. Now, if they could also write this column ......
Somewhat along these lines, Corel Corporation (Ottawa, ON) will produce their own PDA to be released in the second half of 1997. No name has been announced for this under $500.00 addition to the PDA market. The unit will have a RISC processor and either a monochrome or color LCD screen. Corel's PDA will include the sending and receiving of e-mail and faxes, a contact manager and scheduler, handwriting recognition, voice recognition and a Web browser. The difference between Corel's PDA and all the others on the market is that it will be programmed in Sun Microsystems' Java language. This will allow you to download Java applets from the Internet that will run without any problems on the PDA. (Just when you thought that PDAs were on the way out). Corel can be reached at 613-728-8200.
Nikean Wireless Devices (San Diego, CA) is preparing two small wireless modems that snap into the U.S. Robotics Pilot. They are developing e-mail and Web software called Minstrel that will allow the Pilot to send and receive e-mail messages over CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data) networks. They are also developing "The Page," a snap-on module that will allow one-way alphanumeric messages, news and stock quotes.
S-MOS Systems, Inc. (San Jose, CA) makes the Cardio, a PCMCIA size 486DX4 computer (with a full-function 486 motherboard) that can fit in your wallet. It has a 100 MHz processor, 16 MB of memory and a graphics accelerator. The card is only being used in industrial, custom devices at this time, but it should soon be available in devices that we can all buy. S-MOS can be contacted at 408-922-0200.
Transmonde Technologies, Inc. (Cerritos, CA) makes the low-end Vigor notebook computer with a 133 MHz Pentium processor, 256K of Level 2 cache, an 11.3 inch SVGA screen, 8 MB of video RAM, a 1 Gigabyte hard drive, two Type II PC Card slots, a built-in microphone and 16-bit stereo speakers. On the high end, Transmonde makes the Vibrant, a multimedia notebook with a 133 MHz Pentium processor, 256K Level 2 cache, a 12.1 inch SVGA screen, a 6X CD-ROM (swappable hard drive), MPEG-1 compression, external port for television, an infrared port, built-in microphone and 16-bit speakers and two "hot swapping" NiMH batteries that last for up to 5 hours. Transmonde can be reached at 800-656-2792.
RDI Computer Corporation (Carlsbad, CA) has produced the TurboSPARC 170, with a 170 MHz TurboSPARC processor. The system runs the Solaris operating system and Sun Microsystems' Virtual Workgroup Architecture Software. It has a 12.1 inch thin-film-transistor display, a 3.6 Gigabyte hard drive, TGX graphics (for two and three dimensional rendering), an internal fax/modem and up to 256 MB of RAM. At a little over $16,000 for a starting price, I'm not running out to get one just yet, but I'm not an applications developer or a MCAD designer either. For those of you who are, RDI can be reached at 619-929-0992.
WinBook Computer Corporation (Colombus, OH) makes the WinBook FX with a 150j MHz Pentium processor, a 12.1 inch SVGA active-matrix screen, a 28.8Kbps internal fax/modem, a 1 Gigabyte hard drive, 16 MB of EDO RAM (expandable to 40 MB), 256K Syncburst Level 2 cache, removable 3.5 inch floppy and 6x CD-ROM drives, an integrated dual-button pointer, a lithium-ion battery, integrated Sound Blaster Pro 16-bit stereo/audio, one Type II and one Type III PCMCIA slots including a PCI local bus PCMCIA controller with graphics accelerator, and parallel, serial, PS/s, game and one 2-way infrared ports. The unit comes with Windows 95 installed. WinBook can be contacted at 800-468-0712.
Fidelity International Technologies (Edison, NJ) has the ultimate portable drive. The TransCD/PD is a combination quad-speed CD-ROM (a bit slow by today's standards, but there are tradeoffs) and a rewriteable optical drive in an external SCSI II device. It reads/writes to 650 MB cartridges and is rewriteable more than 500,000 times. Fidelity also makes portable CD-ROM drives. They can be reached at 908-417-2230.
Expect to see 150 MHz and 166 MHz notebooks with Intel's MMX (Multimedia Extensions Instruction Sets) processor this year. NEC will produce three new Versa series notebooks, one with a 13.3 inch flat-panel screen. Texas Instruments will have two TravelMate notebooks with 166 MHz Pentium MMX and a built-in 33.6Kbps modem. IBM will produce ThinkPad notebooks with the MMX processor.
Chuck Horowitz is a HAL-PC member and in the Genealogical SIG.
E-mail me at webmaster@hal-pc.org with any comments you have and tell me what you want to see here.
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