Word: pdas
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Thanks to localization, PDAs can give you directions linked to where you are at any given time. Overlay a map of the Grand Canyon, and it can tell you which path to take to get out. Not surprisingly, many of the localization services revolve around mobile commerce, which the industry has dubbed m-commerce. Your handheld, or for that matter your cell phone, can point you to the nearest Starbucks or Chinese restaurant. When you're lost on the road, it can lead you to the closest gas station...
...hear the industry talk, the future of m-commerce is virtually unlimited. PDAs and cell phones could one day replace wallets and money. Europeans are already using cell phones to make purchases from vending machines (the cost of the cigarettes or candy bar is automatically added to your account). That might come to America soon, but the industry is setting its sights even higher. Palm wants you eventually to store your credit-card numbers on your PDA and use it to make major purchases. It's working on a variety of techniques--including digital signatures and fingerprints--to establish that...
...what should you buy? The current array of devices--cell phones, PDAs, beepers and more--bewilders even the experts. "Every few months there's a slew of new products that have more features, perform better and are priced lower," marvels Ira Brodsky, an analyst with Datacomm Research. But you've already got plenty of choices. A cell phone is a good bet if most of your wireless connectivity is going to be done by voice. These "smart phones" have the added advantage of being less expensive than a PDA. It's not hard to find a cellular service that will...
...PDAs, with their larger screens, are a better bet for Web surfing. But they're expensive. A Palm VII costs $449, plus the monthly fee you pay for any wireless service. And they're not much use when you need to make a phone call. One-way pagers seem pretty antiquated these days, but two-way pagers with Web access can be a less expensive and highly portable way to access discrete bits of information. You can already use them to send and receive e-mail, buy the new Toni Braxton CD on Amazon.com ditch your Microsoft stock...
...Will single-purpose machines prevail, or will new appliances emerge with multiple functions? It's a high-tech version of Lamarckian evolution, in which new characteristics are acquired through demand. You can expect cell phones to sprout color monitors so they can be used to surf the Web, and PDAs to develop telephonic capability. When the convergence is complete, the theory goes, we'll have a single device combining in one small, supersmart package the qualities of a PDA, cell phone and pager--allowing you to schedule, e-mail, call, beep and surf without missing a beep. That could happen...