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Technology Stocks : The New Qualcomm - a S&P500 company -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sawtooth who wrote (4827)	1/5/2000 9:02:00 AM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 13582

Review: QCOM pdQ "Supergadget" by: keeyah_1 1/5/2000 8:54 am EST Msg: 90543 of 90544 Part 1 of 2 BUSINESS WEEK ONLINE January 5, 2000 PRODUCT REVIEW by Karen J. Bannan Qualcomm's pdQ: A Happy Marriage of PDA and Cell Phone It's a digital supergadget -- but its price tag may be too dear for most mortals Qualcomm's newest integrated cellular phone, the pdQ, should have a great big "S" plastered on its box, as in "Supergadget." Finally, a device that fits in my pocket and lets me check e-mail, get stock quotes, read the latest news, and keep in touch with the office no matter where I happen to be. While it's expensive and service is still a problem, this product bears watching. The pdQ is the size, shape, and weight of a garage-door opener, with a flip-open handset that exposes the workings of a built-in Palm III personal digital assistant, or PDA. Inside the phone, there's a touch screen and a small writing area. A small pen-like stylus is housed in a slot at the top of the unit and can be used to tap on the touch screen or "write" on the phone. The phone ships with a charging cradle that doubles as a synchronization tool to let you upload data to your PC. The integration between the pdQ phone and PDA gives the user capabilities that are far beyond those of other cell phones. For example, there's an address book that stores names, phone numbers, and e-mail addresses. But here's where the integration comes in. Each entry is clickable, that is, you tap your stylus on an entry and either call or e-mail the person instantaneously without having to input phone numbers or addresses manually. HOTSYNC. The phone also allows you to keep track of your business expenses and then transfer them directly to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet on your home or office PC. The system has the same HotSync technology found on other Palm devices for connecting to your PC. You can also send and receive e-mail using your PC-based e-mail program or a pdQmail program (which I preferred). It's nice to keep in touch with office e-mail without being there. There's also a built-in Web browser, so you an keep up with the latest news, stock quotes. Real superheroes can even access crime reports (seriously). The pdQ's browser is different from other handheld browsers because instead of feeding you preformatted content from Web sites, you can actually go to any site on the Web. This lets you keep up with the most obscure Web news, but if your favorite site is Java- or image-heavy, you may have a problem. The pdQBrowser software is text-based only, so images, applets, and frames don't render on the screen. KRYPTONITE. One of the most noticeable differences between using a PC Web browser and the pdQbrowser is the way you enter URLs, as Web addresses are called. Instead of typing addresses, you write them with your stylus using the Graffiti Alphabet, which is also used to enter e-mail text and other pdQ data. If you've never used a Palm product before, try to picture writing on one of those kid's writing tablets with the clear, plastic cover -- only the writing area is 1.25-inches wide. It takes a little getting used to. And while the pdQ is a great convenience, it has one serious problem. Spotty digital PCS service acts like kryptonite on the pdQ. Lose the signal for a split second, and you're out of business. My home office is located on Long Island, an area that doesn't have great Sprint PCS coverage at the moment. Since Sprint is the pdQ carrier on my home turf, I often lost my connection to the Web in mid-download. And some days I couldn't get any connection. This problem should ease as coverage becomes more uniform, but in the meantime, service problems may leave you frustrated. Continued in....

To: Sawtooth who wrote (4827)	1/6/2000 10:26:00 AM
From: engineer	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 13582

Aw, come on....that guy was tame compared to the guy who had his phone in one hand and his Palm pilot in the other and was actually entering graffitti while driving this giant Suburban down the freeway going north by Sorrento Valley the other day. the Bluetooth stuff will make your car stereo into your handsfree klt and all of them will have voice activated systems in them for other fucntions. IF you enter teh car with a BT enbled phone, then the cars will just figure this out and enable the phone type operations. Of course to do this, someone is going to have to define a standard phone interface set of comands which allow it to do both voice and data type calls. If they did this, then you could use your car to get things like MAP and local info while driving. You could also solve the guys problem with the Palm pilot in that you could ask the car to take a memo for you while you drove.