It's nice to keep connected while enjoying summer outdoor activities, so here are some useful, portable gadgets to keep you wired while you're having fun in the sun.
The Talkabout T900
The Talkabout T900 is the wireless two-way pager that captivated President Clinton when he toured the Comdex 2000 technology show in Chicago this spring. Clinton stood slack- jawed at Motorola's booth as company representatives showed him some of the device's features, which include sending and receiving e-mail, Internet news updates and pages via phone calls.
The Talkabout, which Motorola calls a personal interactive communicator, is another step toward the complete wireless device. At first glance it looks like an ordinary pager, but it has a flip-top, four-line monochrome screen. The Talkabout's interface is simple to navigate with a few simple taps on the keyboard, which is surprisingly easy to use for punching out quick e-mail messages using your thumbs.
The device's connectivity is also impressive; I was able to send and receive e-mail from within my newsroom, which is a steel-and-stone encased electromagnetic jungle full of computers and other equipment that could have jammed the signals. The Talkabout uses ReFLEX, which is a high-speed, two-way wireless communication protocol that Motorola developed to transmit data via radio waves.
The communicator can store 250 contacts in the address book, and the data-on-demand service includes news updates, weather, entertainment tidbits and movie times. The pager's alarm clock came in handy for quick reminders about appointments, and the devices come in four colors: raspberry, black and two shades of blue.
The Talkabout is significantly heavier than many pagers at about 4 ounces, but the features and functionality make it well worth the weight. Prices vary depending on the provider and the service plan, usually hovering around $180 for the pager and $14.95 a month for service.
National service providers planning to sell the T900 soon include TSR Wireless, Verizon Wireless and PageNet. The pager is currently available from Skytel for $149.99 plus $29.95 a month for 500 messages. Motorola's Web site is www.motorola.com.
Diamond Rio 600
Diamond's latest digital audio player has a brand-new look, including colorful, interchangeable face plates and a new backpack memory expansion system that can adapt as MP3 and other digital audio technologies develop.
The snap-in memory module took awhile to get used to, and there were times when I was afraid I was going to break the device trying to slide it in.
The Rio 600 ships with 32 megabytes of memory, which will hold about an hour of near-CD quality digital music, and it can play for about 10 hours on one AA battery. It's light at 2.4 ounces and comes with preloaded music from the film "Mission: Impossible 2" along with an extremely lame commercial about the Rio's various features.
The player also comes with the latest version of the Rio Audio Manager software, which is noticeably more stable than previous versions and lets users burn their own CDs as well as transferring their MP3s or Windows media files to the device. The Rio 600 costs $169.99.
The minimum requirements for using the Rio 600 are either a PC with a Pentium 166 megahertz processor running Windows 98 or Windows 2000, 32 megabytes of memory, a USB port, a CD-ROM drive and 35 megabytes of free hard drive space for the RioPort software. Macintosh users will need Mac OS 8.51 or later, 32 megabytes of memory, a CD-ROM drive and a USB port.
Diamond Multimedia's Web site is www.diamondmm.com.
StreetFinder GPS
Palm Pilot owners might find the StreetFinder Deluxe 2000 global positioning system kit from Rand McNally useful — especially if they hate getting lost.
The package combines detailed mapping software with various GPS receivers that snap onto the backs of the different flavors of Palm organizers, including the Palm III and Palm V series. GPS kits for the Palm VII and colorized Palm IIIc will be available in the fall.
Users can plan their trips on their computers and then download maps, driving instructions and various attractions by synchronizing the handheld device. The software has more than 1 million travel-related business listings, including restaurants, gas stations and hotels.
Since the U.S. government stopped intentionally degrading the civilian-use radio signals from the GPS satellites in May, the accuracy has improved from the previous 100 meters to about 10 meters, making the navigation system more effective.
During my first experiments with the Palm V add-on, the device took more than 20 minutes to find a signal. After several frustrating attempts it finally found a satellite, and later trials took only three to five minutes to connect.
Also, a thoroughly planned trip can take up a lot of memory on a Palm Pilot, depending on the size and scope of the adventure. I had to delete several programs on my Palm V to fit a map, driving directions and local attractions for a simple trip to Chicago.
The Palm V kit costs $199, and the Palm III package costs $179. The StreetFinder Deluxe 2000 software requires a computer with a 486 processor running Windows 95 or later, 24 megabytes of memory, a 2x CD-ROM drive and 125 megabytes of hard drive space. Rand McNally's Web site is www.randmcnally.com.
Handspring Visor
Being an experienced Palm Pilot owner, I was skeptical about the Handspring Visor when it first came out about a year ago. But after further review, I'll admit the Visor is a hardy, reliable personal digital assistant that works just as well as any Palm Pilot.
The Visor uses the same friendly Palm operating system, and the basic software suite is also similar, with programs that manage addresses and expenses and a calculator. There are also a few extras, including an advanced date book with an integrated "to-do" list and a world clock program for tracking time in multiple locations.
The Visor asserts its own identity through its hardware and expandability with a built-in microphone and the Spring board expansion slot, which lets owners add various modules. For example, there's an 8-mega byte memory upgrade module for $99.95, a data back-up cartridge for $39.95 and the Eyemodule digital camera for $149.95.
A digital audio player from RioPort, a scanning pen from Wizcom and a wireless pager module from Innogear are scheduled to be available by the end of September.
The basic graphite-colored Visor, which has 2 megabytes of memory and comes with a computer sync cradle, costs $179. The Visor Deluxe, which has 6 extra megabytes of memory and costs $249, comes in graphite, ice, blue, green and orange.
Handspring's Web site is www.handspring.com.
MZ-R55 MiniDisc Player
If they had only done it right, Sony executives could have blown open the digital music market with a line of portable MiniDisc players and recorders.
Manufacturers have been battling over what will be the storage medium of choice for digital audio players. Some companies are using solid-state memory, some trying various high-capacity disks, and still others are using small hard drives. MiniDiscs, which can hold up to 140 megabytes of data and cost about $2 each, would have been a predator, not a competitor, among the pack of options.
Although Sony plastered "MP3" all over the ads for the MZ-R55 MiniDisc player, this device doesn't play the digital music files. Instead, it connects to a computer via USB and then records the music while it's playing. This means that to record the 74 minutes worth of music that a MiniDisc can hold, you have to wait while 74 minutes of music plays on your PC. The conversion to MiniDisc audio also means that less music is stored on the discs. If the music somehow remained in MP3 format, nearly twice as much music could be stored on one MiniDisc.
Another problem is that there's no software to manage the recording process.
Despite these drawbacks, the sound quality is nice, and the player has a 40-second shock buffer to avoid skipping when it accidentally falls off your desk. The player also connects to CD or DVD players through an included cable, and music lovers can transfer their cassettes over to MiniDisc, too.
Weighing in at about 5 ounces, this small, svelte device fits comfortably in pants or jacket pockets, which should be relatively cash-free because it sells for $399.95.
Sony Electronic's Web site is www.sel.sony.com.
Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service