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

To: LBstocks who wrote (6212)	2/4/2000 12:33:00 AM
From: Ruffian	Respond to of 13582

Part 2> Part II lcwatson (46/F/Baton Rouge, LA (but trav) 2/4/00 12:23 am Another handy, though much larger, model, is Qualcomm's PDQ 800 Smart Phone. It combines a cell phone and a Palm Pilot into one unit. It can manage all your contact and scheduling data in the Palm Pilot operating system, and links up with your PC to update the info. You can use Graffiti software, so you're not restricted to using the keypad. It also isn't restricted to WAP, as are the more compact phones, so it can surf the Web using the same language--HTML--that your desktop uses, although the going is slow. Still, it can't show graphics. Instead, it displays markers where graphics go, with the title of the picture in brackets. The phone that generates the most oohs and aahs because of its small size is the new Motorola Timeport--a silver, Web-enabled StarTac. It's not as easy to figure out as some of the others, and its screen allows only four lines. But the screen is also more recessed than the others, so it stays clear of your cheek while you phone. Other screens often come away from a call smudged with makeup or skin oil. Motorola (MOT) also makes two gadgets that offer even better solutions to wireless Web e-mail than phones: the Pagewriter 2000X and its soon-to-be released Timeport two-way pager. Featuring minute screens and tiny keyboards, each weighs only 6.7 ounces. The Pagewriter was useful for short messages, although I wouldn't want to draft a contract on it. It also offers a second nifty feature that makes up a bit for its lack of a phone function. It allows you to send an e-mail that goes to a computer, which then calls the person you've selected and reads the message in a computer-generated voice. Remember to spell difficult words phonetically, or it will trip up the machine. A test message to my girlfriend, Guillemette, came out sounding like ''gilly meat.'' Spelling it ''key ah met'' got me closer to the correct pronunciation. The Pagewriter also had the most dependable signal of the devices I tested, perhaps because it runs on the SkyTel Communications satellite network instead of a cell-phone grid. LOCATION, LOCATION. Whatever the device you choose, count on a lot of hoopla about Web telephony in coming months. Since midsummer, Sprint PCS no longer sells any other handset but Web-enabled ones. And more sites are looking into developing WAP content. But if the industry wants the technology to spread widely, it needs to increase the transmission speed. That's something companies are focused on, says Mark Desautels, chief executive of Wireless Data Forum, a Washington (D.C.) trade association. He says that in three to five years, Web phones will connect at speeds of 384 kilobits per second, about as fast as a cable modem or DSL phone line. Even before then, Web phones will be able to determine where you're calling from and provide services appropriate to your location, says Richard Siber, telecom analyst for Arthur Andersen in Boston. ''I land in Los Angeles, and I want to look up restaurants,'' says Siber. ''I go to the Yellow Pages services in my Palm. I tell it: 'I only want restaurants serving Mandarin Chinese food that are within walking distance.''' Try that trick on your current cell phone. By ROY FURCHGOTT