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June 9, 2004 |
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Is the PDA dead? No, not really--at least not yet, but you could be forgiven for thinking so after Sony announced it was pulling its CLIEs from the U.S. market. Plus: Apple rolls, camcorders rock. |
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PDAs
Technology attracts more premature obituaries than Mark Twain. Sony announced that it was getting out of the PDA business. Its CLIEs will quit the U.S. market by the end of the year. That announcement caused no end of "Whither the PDA?" speculation. Fueling that speculation are numbers that show PDA sales running flat this year, while sales of smart phones are expected to double. One of the biggest questions Sony's move raises is what it all means to the Palm platform: Sony was one of the biggest licensees of the Palm OS. Its exit could cede yet another market to Microsoft.
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Apple
Another big week for the Colossus of Cupertino. Apple released its AirPort Express Base Station, a networking gizmo that streams iTunes music to your home stereo. It also updated its low-end eMac. (Our reviewer calls it "an attractive, adequately speedy, easy-to-use PC without the flat-panel iMac's relatively high price.") And its iTunes music store withstood an onslaught from Wal-Mart to remain our favorite online music store (so far).
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Camcorders
Maybe it's the upcoming vacations; maybe it's all those weddings and graduations. Whatever the reason, we've seen an unusual spike in interest in camcorders and other video tools lately. Among the more intriguing results for searches on camcorder: Canon has two new Opturas, the 400 and the 500, both of them combination MiniDV camcorder/digital cameras (and successful ones at that, say our reviewers). Sony's DCR-PC330 is also attracting attention; it's another combo camera that, while not cheap, produces excellent video and still images. Finally, we have an answer to that seemingly age-old question: What to do with all those old videotapes? Burn them to DVD.
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Ultraportable PCs
Lots of interest lately in ultraportable PCs--and we mean ultra: The Sony VAIO X505, for example, weighs just 1.7 pounds, yet it's a full-fledged Windows PC. (We voted it best of show at last January's CES.) You've been searching for the X505 a lot lately, perhaps because it's slated to hit U.S. shores soon; we expect review units later this month and will give you our first impressions as soon as we can. We're also seeing lots of interest in the OQO, a supermini Windows PC that's been talked about for years and is finally expected to appear this summer. (Check out our video.)
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Samsung A650
We saw it at Samsung's line show back in March. Now Verizon has announced it to customers. The Samsung SCH-A650 is GPS ready, with a 65,000-color display, enhanced messaging service, voice-recognition software, BREW support for games and apps, and wireless Web access. But we suspect it's the $80 price tag (with two-year service agreement) that has folks excited. We're working on our review and will let you know what we think ASAP.
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