Beepwear: A multiporpose watch<\/p>\n
By Zatni Arbi<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Think of wristwatches that are made in the U.S.,
\nand Timex comes to mind. While watches from this watchmaker may
\nbe perpetually on sale in stores like Woolworths and Longs &
\nDrugs in the U.S., you'll also be able to find its line of \"high
\nend\" and \"high tech\" ones.<\/p>\n
Do you remember DataLink, the watch plus organizer that can
\nsynchronize its data -- phone numbers and appointments -- with
\nthe one stored on your PC? It is also a Timex product.<\/p>\n
So what do you get when Timex works together with Motorola? It
\nis Beepwear, a watch that is also a pager. Courtesy of PT Sky
\nTelindo Services, I was able to play around and have a lot of fun
\nwith a Beepwear.<\/p>\n
This wearable pager has all paging capabilities that you would
\nexpect from a full-featured pager, complete with different beep
\nsounds and a silent mode operation. It can receive and store as
\nmany as 16 alphanumeric messages of up to 104 characters each. It
\nuses the 900 Hz Flex technology from Motorola, and it is
\navailable here for US$129. Here, as well as in the U.S., SkyTel
\nis the exclusive service provider for Beepwear. While it commands
\nsuch a steep price in rupiah terms, if you have money to burn and
\nyou have always lost your previous beepers, you may like this
\none.<\/p>\n
The display is sharp and the text is easy to read. Beepwear
\nwill sound a distinct alarm when it receives a paging message.
\nThe screen will say \"1 New Message\". Press a button, and the
\nmessage will scroll from right to left. If it's too dark to read
\nthe LCD, you can press another button and the INDIGLO night
\nlighting will make the screen far more readable.<\/p>\n
The watch can also function as a 100-hour stopwatch and can
\ndisplay two different time zones, making it a good companion for
\ninternational travelers. In the U.S., Beepwear also displays
\nnews, weather and sports updates from SkyTel. In Indonesia,
\nSkyTel provides these updates through its SkyInfo service.<\/p>\n
There are still some problems that need to be addressed,
\nthough. In my test, the battery did not last as long as the more
\nusual types of pagers, although the information on its Web site
\nclaims that it should last two to three months. Fortunately,
\nreplacing the standard hearing-aid battery is not difficult to
\ndo.<\/p>\n
The watchbands also need some design work; they are too bulky
\nfor those with less than macho-like arms. Luckily, Beepwear comes
\nwith accessories to transform it into a cute pocket pager.
\nDisassemble the bands, which is easily done, and place the watch
\nin its cradle. You can even attach the belt clip to it to make
\nsure it will not be lost. Or hang it around your neck like a
\npendant.<\/p>\n
The watch itself may not go very well with your business
\nattire, and Timex should work on making it sleeker. Yet it is a
\nvery practical solution, especially for absent-minded people like
\nme who often realize we have left our pagers somewhere -- usually
\nat home -- when we are already too far on our way to turn around
\njust to fetch it.<\/p>\n
Those who use personal organizers can opt for the upcoming
\nBeepwear Pro, which is a combination of a watch, a Motorola pager
\nand an organizer that can store up to 150 contact numbers.<\/p>\n
E-mail Paging<\/p>\n
Here's a very useful service that SkyTel is making available
\nto its customers. It's not officially launched yet, as Ade
\nMeyliala, the company's marketing executive, has informed me, but
\nher customers can already use it.<\/p>\n
This service allows anybody from anywhere in the world to send
\na page to a SkyTel pager in Indonesia by e-mail. All you have to
\ndo is send an e-mail to sendpage@skytel.co.id. You have to leave
\nthe cc and bcc lines blank, add the pager ID number in the
\nSubject line, and type in your message in the usual place. You
\ncan send the same message to up to four pagers at the same time.
\nAll the ID numbers should be added to the Subject line, separated
\nonly with a space.<\/p>\n
I like the service very much, because it allows me to send
\nunlimited number of pages to my wife when I'm on an overseas trip
\nwithout having to pay for any international call. The message
\nwill be sent to her pager the moment the e-mail reaches SkyTel's
\nserver. In addition to being able to get my message across
\nquickly, I can also send her personal messages that I might find
\ndifficult to dictate to an operator. Furthermore, those who
\nprefer to use their own mother tongues will also appreciate the
\nability to send pager messages by e-mail.<\/p>\n
However, according to Ade, your pager needs to be activated
\nbefore it can receive messages sent through e-mail, and you have
\nto contact the company to request the activation.<\/p>\n
Now, what about the possibility of receiving harassing
\nmessages through e-mail? Not much, because when you receive the
\nmessage by e-mail, the identity of the e-mail sender will
\nautomatically be included as part of the message and will appear
\non the pager's screen. But there will still be a possibility that
\na hacker will be able to forge his own e-mail address and dump
\nall kinds of junk on your pager.<\/p>\n
Still under construction is the facility to send messages to
\npagers from several of our Web sites, including indosat.net,
\nvision.net and wasantara.net. When the facility is there, you can
\nfill in a form and click a button, and the message will be send
\nto the pager. Other pager services such as Multipage and StarPage
\nare also working with these Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to
\nprovide this service.<\/p>\n
Notification<\/p>\n
Wouldn't it be nice to get notified by the beep of your pager
\nevery time you receive an e-mail? Some ISPs have already included
\nthis capability in their services. You can request that each time
\nan e-mail arrives in your mailbox, your ISP sends a notification
\nto your pager. The message itself will not be forwarded, though.
\nYou will know who the sender is and what time he sent his e-mail.<\/p>\n
Unlike in Singapore and even the U.S., the pager is still not
\nvery much in use in Indonesia because it is not really a status
\nsymbol. Besides, as Megawaty Khie, SkyTel's marketing manager,
\nreminded me, people prefer using their cellular phones because
\nfinding a working public phone is quite difficult, even in
\nJakarta. She definitely has a point there.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/beepwear-a-multiporpose-watch-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}