New communication devices point to future of industry
By Zatni Arbi
JAKARTA (JP): No need to raise your hand. I know many of you are already using Microsoft Office 97 today. Indeed, the latest version of this business applications suite offers plenty of benefits.
On the other hand, it also causes a problem typical of software updates. As you might have anticipated, while files created with Winword 6.0 or Winword 95 can be easily read by Word 97, the reverse is not true since the new version adds Internet- specific features to its files.
Therefore, if you want to share files with colleagues who are still using Winword 6.0 or Winword 95, you may want to save your work in the older file format. Microsoft programmers have chosen to name it the 'Word 6.0/95' format, while the new one is misleadingly called 'Word Document'.
To select the older file format is easy. In the 'Save As' dialog box, select 'Word 6.0/95' as the file type. However, if you want to make this file format the default (you can choose any of the file formats that appear in the drop-down list as the default) just click on the Option button. Then look for the 'Save Word files as' box. Select the format that you want, and click on OK. From now on your Microsoft Office files can be shared with the late adopters.
Too bad making this option permanent is not possible in Excel 97. It's a bit strange that the programmers forgot to add it to the other Office programs besides Winword.
One feature in Office 97 that I find very useful is the possibility of disabling the macro facility in Winword and Excel 97 when under the threat of macro viruses, which are now another fact of life. Unless you really work with macros in Excel and Winword and swap diskettes with colleagues, just keep the built- in virus macro protection activated. Click on Tools, Options, and then General. See whether the box next to this option is checked.
Voice Dial
Here in Jakarta, traffic quite often grinds to a halt because a certain driver is unable to complete a turn and has to back up and repeat his maneuver. Upon close observation, you may see that he has only one hand on the steering wheel and the other on a cellular phone to his ear. Despite the nimbleness of a car with power steering, one hand is usually not enough to negotiate the sharp turns in this city. Yet, many drivers still think that disrupting traffic is not as bad as interrupting their phone conversations.
Therefore, I truly hope that, like our neighbors in Singapore, we prohibit the use of cellular phones while driving. Until our government realizes the urgency of such a law, perhaps you should look for this new feature in your next cellular phone: Voice Dial.
Voice Dial is not be an unusual feature for those who have a car kit that allows them to talk on their cellular phone and voice dial a pre-programmed number. Still, the car kit is an additional cost, and it gives thieves a greater incentive to break into your car. Philips, the electronics giant that has suddenly woken up and surprised us with new advanced electronic gadgets, has incorporated this capability into its tiny new cellular phone, the Spark.
As you can see in the accompanying picture, the cellular phone belongs to the GSM front, and it doesn't have too many confusing control buttons. You can program it to store 20 names and phone numbers. Then you can assign specific voice tags to the first ten names on the list. You have to train it in a quiet room to ensure a high recognition performance. Once the training is done, you can simply say "Home" and Spark will dial your home phone number, or any other number attached to the voice tag "Home".
Limitations
There are some limitations, though. Other people may not be able to use the voice dial facility of Spark unless they can imitate the recorded voice sample, which means that only the owner can instruct it to place a call. However, that may be a positive point, as it prevents accidental commands from people standing close by.
Other features of Spark includes a long battery life that allows for more than two weeks of standby time and Duo SIMM compatibility. Furthermore, it is ultra slim and ultra light. I just hope that more electronic gadgets are equipped with a voice activation feature similar to the one in this Rp 1.4 million (all-in) Spark phone. For people like me who have limited eyesight and don't like reading LCD panels, this feature helps simplify life.
Given the level of PC penetration in our lives today, it would be logical to have a PC in one's car as well. It shouldn't be surprising, then, that microprocessor giant Intel has been on the front line developing a PC for the car. They call it, well, what else? The Connected Car PC.
And it may not be just another redundant piece of equipment. In today's luxury car, for example, a Global Positioning System, or GPS, is becoming a standard tool. Even taxis in Singapore and rental cars in the U.S. are equipped with this device, which offers multiple benefits. When you enter an unfamiliar area, for example, you can avoid getting lost by programming the system and entering your destination. The system will then guide you there by telling you to turn left or right or make a U-turn.
A car PC will be able to handle the positioning task very easily. When needed, a PC in the car can function as a game station, such as the one shown in the accompanying pictures. With Flash ROMs, universal serial bus, telephony and Internet connections, the use is almost unlimited. You can use the PC to run productivity tools while it monitors the performance of the car's engine.
You can see two displays of the same car PC in the accompanying picture. To minimize distraction, the screen on the dashboard has a low resolution, monochrome LCD. However, the one on the rear is high-quality, full-color screen with video capability. Of course, the attractive display is intended to keep the children from getting grumpy after a long ride.
Definitely, one of the most welcome features in the car PC will be voice command. The good news is, progress in computer voice recognition has been encouraging. IBM's VoiceType is just one of them.
PC Videophone
The video telephone, or video phone, is not a new concept. In fact, back in late 1980s there were already some products on the market. However, pumping so much audio and video data through the limited bandwidth of the plain old telephone system (POTS) has been too challenging to overcome, and therefore the videophone system never really caught on.
With Internet becoming a daily menu, Internet videoconferencing tools became available. Intel is not the only one that provides Internet-based audio and video connection beyond Internet phone. According to PC Magazine's roundup, there are at least four other different Internet videoconferencing packages available from CineCom Corp., Connectix Corp., White Pine Software Inc., and VDOnet Corp.
However, today, with the help of Intel's MMX technology, your PC can be turned into a video phone system. In a recent press outing, Intel gave a live demonstration of its Video Phone system to IT journalists. Unlike Intel Internet Videophone, the new system does not rely on the Net to zap the audio and video data from one end to the other. Instead, it relies solely on the POTS.
During the demonstration, Christopher Gozali, Intel's Networking Manager for Indonesia, dialed his colleague in Singapore from the conference room of Carita Beach Resort in Carita, West Java. Needless to say, the phone line there was far below today's standards, although it is less than a three-hour drive from Jakarta. Amazingly, the connection was still acceptable. Both parties were able to communicate fairly effectively and the video quality was not so bad.
The key to the new system is the ability of the PCs to compress and decompress a huge amount of audio and video data efficiently. This is where MMX technology makes a crucial contribution. If you read my recent report on MMX capability, you'd know by now that a single instruction in the MMX-enabled Pentium handles eight bits of data instead of just one. This tremendously helps increase the speed of the compression and decompression process. We can decrease the resolution to increase frame rate so that the video looks more real life. We can do the opposite to get better images but jerky video.
The system, which Intel will shortly launch here in Jakarta, consists of software, a video capture board and an Intel video camera. You need an MMX Pentium system, though. In addition, you cannot share files or conduct video conferencing with a third party. The link is nothing more than the 100-year-old point-to- point connection.
It's still good news, nonetheless. Although ISDN appears to be a millennium away from your house, with your next PC you may be able to communicate both in voice and in smiles on an outdated telephone line.