What's new in the ever changing computing world?

By Zatni Arbi

JAKARTA (JP): Magnesium, a type of silvery-white metal that is light and moderately hard, is suddenly being used by a growing number of notebook makers for the housing of their notebooks, replacing the thicker plastic.

Siemens, for instance, has launched a sleek, very high-end SCENIC Mobile 800 that is among the first to use the gorgeous metal casing (I'm still waiting for their demo unit to arrive and, once it does, I'll definitely share with you the details).

Toshiba is another leading notebook maker that also uses magnesium for the casing of its notebooks. Their new Portege 7000 Series really has a pretty face. Then there is the attention- grabbing Sony VAIO 505 Series notebook that everyone has been talking about. Even Gateway also has its own magnesium-cased Solo. Among the first to embrace the magnesium casing, though, was HP Omnibook Sojourn. This super-thin computer is not, unfortunately, available in Indonesia.

The use of magnesium alloy has multiple benefits besides sheer good looks. The metal is a great heat conductor, so heat dissipation is improved. This will reduce the need for the fan, which can be turned on only when the heat buildup has reached a certain point. This, in turn, will save battery power.

Some time ago I highlighted several new DeskJet printers from Hewlett Packard. Quite recently, HP also introduced a special version of its low end LaserJet 6L, which it called LaserJet 6L Gold. Basically identical to the 6L, this printer is sold only in three countries -- China, India and Indonesia -- at a much lower price. While the original 6L carries a price tag of about Rp 4,8 million, the Gold version will be sold at about Rp 3 million. Not bad. HP informed me that all the instructions for setting up the printer will be in Indonesian.

If you are looking for a new, low-end laser printer, look for the Gold. And, remember, while the price of the toner cartridge is much more expensive than the ink cartridge, the printing cost per page is still lower when using a laser printer. By the way, the original LaserJet 6L is now replaced by LaserJet 1100, which has just been launched in Jakarta.

The ongoing krismon (monetary crisis) really forces vendors to either lower their prices or come up with more cost-saving products. Under such a circumstance, Canon, an HP competitor in the ink jet printer arena, has also launched a new addition to its Super Printer line, the BJC 4310SP. Canon claims that this new printer can save on ink usage by 75 percent when you print using its super economy mode.

At the time when there's still no sign for the end of our krismon, the more economical the printer, the better chance it will have in our market. Canon seems to realize the need and is banking on it. According to Datascrip Office Solutions, Canon's sole agent for Indonesia, the estimated price of BJC 4310SP will be Rp 2,1 million and it will be available mid of December.

Like many of the other Canon printers, the BJC 4310SP can also function as a color scanner. All you have to do is replace the ink cartridge with a scanner cartridge, and you can scan at up to 360 DPI resolution. It can also print on a wide variety of media, including 3-D stickers, Fabric Sheets and T-shirt transfers, and of course it prints photos, too.

Wearable PCs

At the IBM e-Travel exhibition in Singapore several weeks ago I also had a chance to see a prototype of a tiny computer that belonged to a new category called "wearable PC". Actually, computers of this form factor have already been widely in use by the U.S. and other advanced countries' military, although they are not made by IBM. Only now it is becoming available for civilians as well.

The IBM wearable PC that I saw in Singapore was actually an equivalent of a 233 MHz ThinkPad 560 notebook. It used the tiny microdrive hard disk that IBM had invented, and the display was contained in an eyepiece that we had to place right in front of our eye. The prototype still had a low-resolution display, but I was informed that it should eventually be equivalent to a 12" monitor at VGA resolution. Input was made through a specially designed TrackPoint and, of course, voice recognition software.

IBM is not the only player in the civilian wearable PC game. Another wearable PC maker is the Fairfax, VA, based Xibernaut. Its Mobile Assistant 4 (MA4) weighs less than two pounds, but it runs on a 266 MHz processor and 4 GB hard disk. It also has a head-mount display. The price is still a steep US$5,000. According to the 45-people startup company Xibernaut, the potential use of wearable PCs is unlimited. Service engineers, for example, can use them to read repair manuals while working in a tight space. Police officers can check the license numbers of suspect cars against their databases.

No cable needed

While the cordless pointing device is not new (I've been using a cordless Logitech mouse for a year now), the cordless keyboard is now getting more and more popular. Logitech also has a combo consisting of a Cordless Keyboard and a Cordless Wheel Mouse ($100) that uses radio frequencies to enable you to invoke Windows functions and type documents without the cables.

A cordless keyboard may not sound like very important technology, but if you have been using the Lexmark ergonomic keyboard that I had, you will know how sad it is to have to say goodbye to this very comfortable keyboard simply because the cable is broken and cannot be fixed. How I wish it had a wireless connection to the PC instead.

And one of the biggest innovations of SCENIC Mobile 800 from Siemens is just that: A cordless, removable keyboard. Stay tuned!