Latest cool gadgets to look forward to

Zatni Arbi, Columnist, Jakarta, zatni@cbn.net.id

What do you use your cell phone for? Of course, you use it to make and receive calls. But, sometimes, you also make calls to your wife or husband, who has just disappeared into the crowd in the mall. Or you want to call your driver, who has been waiting to pick you up at the foyer. Do you really need to use a cell phone for these purposes?

Currently, one local cell phone operator, Telkomsel, will give you a 20 percent discount on your airtime bill if you make a call to any of the other members of your family, as long as they are registered in the Halo Keluarga program. Still, would it not be cheaper if you could call these people, who are still in the same area, via a walkie talkie instead of a cell phone?

The cell phone operators may not like this idea, but next year it will be possible for individuals in Singapore to use their cell phones as walkie-talkies. Currently, the service is available only to corporate subscribers in this highly wired neighbor of ours. Motorola, a leader in two-way radios, makes the handset, which is called i95cl, while the service is provided by Digital Network Access Communications, or DNA Comms.

As reported by Business Times on Oct. 3, the user only needs to push one button to talk to the other party. The device can store hundreds of other walkie-talkie ID numbers. The service, which is also packaged into the cellular services, not surprisingly, will enable cell phone users to save up to 80 percent on their monthly bills. Let us see who will be the first to bring this kind of service to Indonesia.

* Searching for the right PDA and cell phone

Gadget freak or not, you must be looking for a PDA and cell phone combo. You may even have bought a Handspring Treo Communicator or a Blackberry 5810. Here is another one that may make you wish you had waited a bit longer, and the name may also make your hair rise: T-Mobile Sidekick from a company that calls itself Danger (www.t-mobile.com).

The device has a 2.5 inch monochrome screen that folds to cover the keyboard. The T-Mobile Sidekick has a thumb keyboard so that you can easily "press in" - not "type in" -- your message and send it as an e-mail or as an SMS. You can also browse the Web with this device, too. T-Mobile's server will reformat the normal Web pages so that they will fit into the device's tiny screen. The Web pages will then be fed into the device using GPRS.

It is also a PDA, and it runs Danger HipTop operating system. It comes with 16 MB of RAM, and it is a GSM cell phone, too, obviously. With a Li-Ion battery, it boasts a three-hour talk time and 60-hour standby time. Two things starkly missing are the speakerphone capability and Bluetooth connectivity. However, if and when this gadget becomes available here, these features may be included.

If you insist on using Pocket PC, T-Mobile also has a Pocket PC Phone Edition. This one does not come with a keyboard, but it has a color screen and looks more like your other PDAs. It is also GPRS-capable.

* Cameras and more cameras

In a year, you will probably have more digital cameras than you ever need. Your cell phone may have one. You have one attached to your PC for video conferencing. You have the 1.3 megapixel digital cameras that are no longer adequate by today's standards. Casio has digital camera watches and the Exilim credit card-sized cameras. Now Panasonic (www.panasonic.com) also has digital cameras that you can wear.

Using the SecureDigital (SD) or Multimedia memory card for data storage, Panasonic's US$450 e-wear SD A/V Recorders lets you capture video and store it as MPEG4 files, take still images, record audio during interviews and playback audio files. The tiny gadget has a 2-inch color screen with 300,000 pixels, a built-in flash and comes in three different colors to match your dress -- silver, blue and red.

To download the files, Panasonic includes a USB SD card reader/writer that attaches to your PC. All you have to do is remove the card from the A/V Recorder, plug it into the reader/writer and run the included program.

Along with all kinds of new social problems that they bring, this tiny camera, as well as dozen other cameras, should actually work toward forcing people to behave better when around other people. Among other things, these tiny gadgets could actually help provide the police force with evidence when arresting people who ride their motorcycles without a headlight at night, for example. But, of course, no technology will be of any use if the police themselves break the law.

At any rate, the pace at which new gadgets are appearing does not slow down a bit. No wonder more and more husbands and wives have separate bank accounts, as it is getting harder and harder for them to resist having that new, cool gadget that they have seen in the newspaper today.