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October 28, 2004 |
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In this week's buzz, you're as excited about the new Treo 650 as we are. One of the reasons? It has Bluetooth. That's why it's so disappointing to hear that Sprint is very likely to hobble the Treo's Bluetooth abilities. Maybe the OQO, the Creative Zen Micro, Google Desktop, and a new Windows phone can cheer us up.
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Treo 650
Is the Treo 650 the new king of smart phones? It wasn't even announced yet, and searches for it were burning up the CNET network. The spanking-new upgrade was announced Monday, with few details left to surprise us. What's new: a higher-resolution screen, a faster processor, more memory that's also nonvolatile (meaning data won't be lost if the battery dies), and an improved (but still VGA) camera. Plus, it now supports the IMAP e-mail protocol, and--we've been saving the best for last--it includes Bluetooth. Oh, but wait. It sounds like Sprint will be crippling the Bluetooth so that you can't use your phone as a modem without paying Sprint for data transfer. So, don't buy your new Treo from them.
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OQO
What would you do with a computer that's only a tiny bit larger than a PDA? That's the question we think many of you are asking as you search for information about the teeny, tiny, full-fledged Windows XP computer that is the OQO Model 01. The OQO slides open to reveal a complete keyboard, has built-in wireless, runs Windows XP, has a 1GHz processor, and so on--all the accoutrements of a real computer, but real little. Biggest problem: it'll burn your hands if you run it too long. Biggest other problem: if you already have a PDA and you already have a computer, it's hard to imagine why you'd need a tiny little laptop thingy. Biggest other problem (OK, we might be misunderstanding the superlative, but problems just keep cropping up): it costs around $2,000; you can get a much more powerful laptop for about the same price. That said, the OQO is super, super cool.
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Creative Zen Micro
'Tis the season for would-be iPod Mini killers--that is, 5GB players that cost about $200 to $250, come in multiple colors, or include some other feature that manufacturers hope will finish off the weakest member of the iPod pack (we use the term weak extremely loosely). Heck, there are so many competitors that we've taken to calling them the "iPod Mini Assassin Squad." The most murderous (that's Tarantino-like code for promising) of the bunch is the Creative Zen Micro, which does the iPod Mini one better by coming in 10 colors, to iPod Mini's 5, and offers one more gigabyte of storage (5GB) for the same price ($249). It also supports MP3s and protected WMAs, includes an FM tuner as well as FM and voice recording, and transfers files over USB 2.0. Plus, you've been searching for news on the Micro like crazy. Better get some bodyguards, iPod Mini.
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Google Desktop
Desktop search is big news, with quite a few companies getting in on the action. But all news is bigger when Google's involved. The company has just released Google Desktop, a new tool (currently in beta) that indexes your entire hard disk, all your e-mail, and even your AOL Instant Messenger logs so that you can find anything on your PC as easily as if it were on the Web. In fact, the results of your desktop search actually show up in your Web browser whenever you use Google for regular Web searches. That's a little weird, actually--we'd prefer to separate Web and desktop searches--but we can't argue with speed and accuracy. The big question about Google, though: will its brilliant indexing features just turn your PC into a sitting duck--a quickly searchable database for any bright young hacker who makes his or her way through your defenses?
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Audiovox SMT5600
No wonder searches were up for this first smart phone based on Windows Mobile. It has nearly every convergence feature known to man attached to it. Think playing music, taking pictures, viewing digital photos, playing games, taking and playing back short videos, watching recorded TV...you get the picture. You can also sync the phone to a Windows XP Media Center-based PC to easily transfer all the aforementioned content. It's nuts. It's the vision of a mobile future, and it's here. Granted, the playback quality isn't fantastic yet, and massive onboard storage for all that content isn't available currently. But we're getting closer and closer to a one-device world, and it's no wonder you--and we--find this flagship device so intriguing.
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