Tech savvy people embrace new gadgets

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

In big cities like Jakarta a cellular phone is no longer sufficient for many people to provide them with quick access to their e-mails or the Internet.

More and more people have switched from carrying their laptops to informal business meetings to smaller gadgets such as personal digital assistants (PDAs).

The reason is simply practicality, considering the small size of the gadgets, without sacrificing performance.

BlackBerry

Those who are not familiar with the service might relate blackberry with a muffin. Well, it's not.

We are talking about a wireless connectivity solution in the form of a business phone that meets the needs of wireless e-mail and data for users who prefer a smaller handset design.

Available in numerous types, this device enables the user to access existing e-mail, provides integrated phone, SMS, browser and organizer applications as well as operates on wireless wide area networks.

BlackBerry provides government, corporate as well as individual users with access to a wide range of applications on a variety of wireless devices.

Analysts have projected that BlackBerry -- which has acquired a 21 percent share in the global PDA market -- will beat Palm Source in terms of popularity, which currently has an 18 percent market share.

Sales of PDAs equipped with wireless local area network (LAN) or with applications similar to cellular phones, like BlackBerry, reached 55 percent in the PDA market in the January-March period of this year.

In Indonesia, the BlackBerry service is provided by cellular operator PT Indosat.

Web accelerator from google

Apart from a reliable handset, people are also looking for faster website access. Internet surfers will soon enjoy such a facility using Google Web Accelerator.

This feature -- provided by Google, the largest online search engine -- is an application that enables Internet users with dial-up connectivity to access websites with dozens of pages in seconds.

The advantage of the application has been proven by many websites, like Softpedia.com. With 256 kilo byte per second (kpbs) modem connection speed, the front page of Softpedia.com could be accessed seven to nine seconds faster while using the web accelerator.

Even though the web accelerator offers faster access to websites, it should be remembered that the speed depends on the number and complexity of the pages. (001)