pathfinder.com
PC-Free Devices
Joel Dreyfuss
The Microtek ImageDeck scanner humming atop my desk is different
in an important way from any scanner I've owned before: It's working
without my PC. The $500 unit does away with the need to be hooked
to a computer--and frees me from the headache of doing a setup.
Anything I scan goes right into the ImageDeck's Zip drive. I can
move the disk to a PC or a Mac when I'm ready to work on the
image.
Cutting the cord to the PC is a burgeoning trend in digital devices.
It's affecting the design of printers, scanners, and other peripherals.
Dirt-cheap memory and inexpensive logic chips have opened the door
to all kinds of simple appliances that each perform a single task
extremely well. Some carry out their digital jobs so well that you
might start to wonder whether you need a PC in your life at all.
Take Lexmark's PhotoColor Jetprinter ($350), designed for the
growing market in digital photography. To print your pictures, you
no longer have to download your camera's data to a PC; instead, you
stick the camera's memory card directly into a slot on the printer: no
wires, no software, no configuration headaches.
Remember the complications of setting up your PC to receive
e-mail? You won't have them with Sharp's Telmail. The $150 device
fits in your shirt pocket, and collects and sends e-mail when you hold
it up next to any phone. (The accompanying e-mail service costs
$9.95 a month.)
The trickle of smart gadgets will soon become a flood. "We're going
to see PC capability built into any device that costs over $75," says
Howard Anderson, managing director of the Yankee Group, a Boston
consulting firm.
Computer industry powers know that PC-less devices pose a threat.
That's why Microsoft developed Windows CE, an operating system
for hand-held devices and mini-notebook computers. Bill Gates has
also pushed hard to embed Windows in everything from set-top boxes
to automobiles. But sales of such Windows-enabled products have
been slow: Users seem to care less about the brand than about
convenience. 3Com's Palm, based on a non-Microsoft operating
system, has sold more than two million units, thanks to its
simplicity and the one-button ease of synchronizing data between it
and a PC. In an upcoming wireless version, the Palm VII, 3Com will
provide over-the-air access to databases and special Websites that
summarize and collect info on investing, travel, and other topics.
Far more is at stake than gadgetry. The Internet has shown the power
of networks to add value to stand-alone devices. That's why consumer
electronics giants Sony and Philips recently decided to develop
products using Sun Microsystems' Jini software environment. Jini
promises to link disparate devices in all kinds of networks, letting
people easily control and command everything from air conditioners
to printers in their homes and offices--whether they're at home or at
work.
This may signal the first time in the short history of widespread
digital technology that the IQ of devices rises while the IQ needed to
make them work declines. |
