What's new out there in the IT world?<\/p>\n
By Zatni Arbi<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): By now you must have heard people talking about
\nelectronic newspapers of the future. Soon, you will have on your
\nscreen a crisp bright display that you can roll or fold just by
\npressing a specific area on a panel. You will soon be able to
\ndownload the latest update of The Jakarta Post through a wireless
\nconnection. Gone will be the traditional newspaper that has been
\naround for hundreds of years. The first being in England, the
\nDaily Courant, which started publication in 1702.<\/p>\n
Believe it or not, the technology for the sci-fi newspaper is
\nalready available today. I have just received the 1998 annual
\nreport of the Universal Display Corporation, a U.S. company that
\ndevelops flat panel display (FPD) technology. You can see one of
\ntheir planned products, the flexible organic light emitting
\ndevice (FOLED), the name of their core technology, in the
\naccompanying picture that I've scanned from their report.<\/p>\n
Unlike the thin film transistor screen that we now have on
\ntoday's high-end notebook screens, each pixel on the device's
\npanel uses iridium-based dopant molecules that emit light based
\non its electrophosphorescence mechanism. Its very low power
\nconsumption makes this technology very suitable for portable
\ndevices that run on batteries, including the electronic newspaper
\nthat you can still take with you to the bathroom.<\/p>\n
Also, when driving your car of the future, where do you think
\nyou will see the emergency indicators for low fuel level or a
\nfaulty wire connector? Will they still be flashing on your
\ndashboard? Maybe not. Maybe you'll see them on your windshield in
\nfront of you and the road. The same company has also been
\nworking on a transparent organic light emitting device (TOLED).
\nWhen nothing is displayed, you won't see it. You can see the road
\nahead perfectly clear as if nothing but the windshield glass was
\nthere. But when information needs to be displayed, it will pop up
\non the windshield, visible but not too obtrusive to hamper safe
\ndriving. You won't have to lower your eyes to look at the
\ndashboard anymore.<\/p>\n
Another product from the company is the stacked organic light
\nemitting device (SOLED). The company stacks three of the devices
\nvertically to form a pixel in a cellular phone or notebook
\ndisplay. By altering the color of each pixel into various degrees
\nof red, green and blue, you'll have a much better resolution with
\nmore vibrant color on the screen. The company has been developing
\nthis technology, which may eventually replace the liquid Crystal
\nDisplay (LCD) technology, in cooperation with Princeton
\nUniversity and the University of Southern California for the last
\nfive years. The company currently has over 40 patents pending in
\nthe U.S.<\/p>\n
Faster processors<\/p>\n
Today, Aug. 2, is the planned international launch date for
\nthe 600 MHz Pentium III and the 500 MHz Celeron, the latest
\nupgrades from giant chipmaker Intel Corporation.<\/p>\n
The features are basically the same as what we already have on
\nthe market. What this means is certainly a lower price for the
\nprevious generation of the 450 and 500 MHz Pentium III or the
\n400, 433 and 466 MHz Celeron processors. Too bad the rupiah has
\ngone limp again, otherwise, it would be the right time to dump my
\nold Pentium 133 MHz system.<\/p>\n
Intel has also announced that its upcoming 64-bit Merced
\nprocessor (the Pentium IIIs are still based on the 32-bit
\narchitecture) has graduated from the drawing board and prototypes
\nare being constructed. They expect to be able to show them by the
\nend of this year.<\/p>\n
Moving on to services, it seems that a responsiveness to
\ncustomers' needs has become the competitive tool of the day. Last
\nmonth we saw Epson and Metrodata announcing their one-hour
\nservice, and this month Hewlett Packard (HP) has announced their
\nService from the Heart call center. They call it Melati, which
\nstands for the Indonesian translation Melayani Sepenuh Hati.<\/p>\n
With the availability of the call center, you can call in and
\nask for advice on any of over 65,000 products that HP has sold in
\nIndonesia, from small hand-held calculators to UNIX servers.
\nProducts up to five years old will still be supported. Printers
\nand scanners are included, of course. HP will have lines of
\nengineers that can help you solve your problems, and a Web site
\nwill soon follow.<\/p>\n
It's one more example of how competition almost always
\nbenefits the customer, isn't it?<\/p>\n
Use notebooks for days<\/p>\n
The notebook computer is truly the mother of convenience to
\ntoday's mobile workers as it allows them to work anywhere -- in
\nthe dining room, the boardroom, at the airport terminal or on the
\nairplane. Unfortunately, the battery is not an infinite source of
\npower, and as it gets older it has less and less juice to draw
\non.<\/p>\n
Some major airlines have fitted their first and business class
\nseats with power outlets, so, you can play Tetris productively
\nfor hours between meals. However, there has been concern that a
\nshort circuit may occur, and when you're 10 kms above the ground
\nthat kind of problem may not be a good situation to have.<\/p>\n
In fact, the concern came, among others, by an association of
\nbatterymakers. Could it be because the sales of extra battery
\npacks would drop once the power outlets are also available in
\neconomy class? Anyway, it's still up to the FAA to decide if you
\ncan recharge your notebook battery as you try to sleep on a
\ncramped airplane seat.<\/p>\n
However, a piece of good news has also come from the world of
\nscience and technology, and it may eliminate the need for
\nbatteries in portable devices altogether. The July issue of
\nScientific American features an article by Christopher K. Dyer
\nthat highlights the use of fuel cells to replace batteries.<\/p>\n
Fuel cells, which were actually invented in the last century,
\noffer multiple advantages over our conventional batteries. While
\nthey are easy to handle, fuel cells are cheaper to make and they
\ncan provide much longer power by using hydrogen atoms.<\/p>\n
Dyer says that a fuel cell will enable you to work 20 times
\nlonger per charge compared to a Ni-Cad battery of similar size.<\/p>\n
Fuel cells are also lighter, and recharging can be done just
\nby adding hydrogen. The article also says that you may eventually
\nbe able to use your notebook for 100 hours non-stop, or leave
\nyour cellular phone in stand-by mode for months without having to
\nrecharge.<\/p>\n
That's really great news, and with so much progress being made
\nby Honda, DaimlerChrysler and other carmakers to bring clean cars
\nto the road, I think the fuel cell technology will advance more
\nrapidly than it has in the past. If fuel cells become available
\nfor our notebooks we could still use the power outlet at the
\nairplane seat for our electric shaver, couldn't we?<\/p>",
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