Fujitsu-Siemens is really going out on a limb by declaring their latest LifeBook – Q2010, the "world's most desirable" laptop. This particular model is an ultraportable model and is targetted to the business professional that is really on the go.

The Q2010 features:

• Bluetooth 2.0 and 802. 11g support
• 3G Mobile phone connectivity
• Gigabit Ethernet
• Voice of Internet Protocol (VOIP) ready. You can Skype right out of the box.
• Biometric fingerprint scanner
• 12.1" LCD Display (1280 X 800)
• 1.0 Gigabyte RAM
• SD and Express Card support for future expansion
• SIM Slot for cellular networking
• up to 8 hours of battery life
• "piano black" finishing
• incredibly small (less than standard sheet of letter size paper) and under 2" thick

If you are already salivating for one right now, the Q2010 will ship in limited quantities in the the next couple of months. The LifeBook Q2010 will cost around $6000 CDN. Start breaking those piggybanks!

If you ever need a ultra portable laptop computer, LG Electronics may have just the model for you – Xnote TX. This “paper thin” laptop features:

• 1.3 GHz Pentium M Processor
• 12.1″ WXGA LCD Display
• 1 Gigabyte of Memory
• 60 Gigabyte of Hard Drive storage
• Weighs 2.4 lbs.
• Available only in Korea

Thought your new RAZR V3 phone was the best looking mobile phone ever! Think again! Motorola has just launched a brand new “slider version” of the famous RAZR mobile phone. A bigger screen and thinner form factor, can you ask for anything more? Unfortunately, this phone will only be available in Korea. The Motorola MS600Z features:

• built-in MP3 player
• 14.8 mm think
• 2.2 inch colour display
• 1.3 Megapixel camera

Continuing on the topic of thin phones, Samsung also decided to release a 9.8 mm thick phone – SGH-Z150. The SGH-Z150 is a full 4.1 mm thinner than Motorola’s trendsetting RAZR V3 and just a couple of hairs thicker than your iPod – 2.9 mm to be exact. Unlike its Motorola counterpart, the SGH-Z150 is a 3G phone and probably will be available only in Japanese/Asian/European markets. Too bad so sad for us North American folks!

NEC just launched the NEC N500is slim phone to compete with Motorola’s vastly popular RAZR thin phones that mobile phone carriers in Canada (Rogers/Fido, Bell, Telus) cannot seem to get enough off. This funky slim model from NEC features:

• 65K Colour Screen
• 1.3 Megapixel Camera
• MP3 audio player
• 64 built-in polymorphic ringtones
• Expandable storage via memory card
• Works only on the GSM network (i.e. Roger’s/Fido in Canada)

This beauty is, regrettably, only available in Japan and select European countries. Lucky Europeans and Japanese folks!

~Geekboy.

For those of you that are paranoid about the government evesdropping on your mobile phone conversations, you can head over to Japan and purchase one of these personal cell phone jammers. The unit supposedly gives users a 70 seconds of privacy and costs around $71.00 USD.

Photo & Story Courtesy of: Red Ferret

Reprinted from Renfrew-Collingwood News,
December 2002/January 2003 Edition. Updated May 2005.

Recently, I received several e-mail inquiries from avid readers contemplating and looking for advice regarding the purchase of a Personal Digital Assistant (or PDA). Traditionally, Christmas has been a popular time of year for the purchase of these handy little devices and picking the right one for the right person can be quite a challenge. So, without further a due, here’s my take on PDAs.

Computers, today, come in a variety of shapes and sizes; you got your standard personal desktop computer, laptop, handheld or PDAs and the newly introduced tablet PCs. Most of the early personal digital assistants are small handheld computers that were designed primarily to replace our day planners. All data entries and user interactions with a PDA are done by using a pen-like device or stylus and a small touch sensitive screen. Special handwriting software converts the written entries into the appropriate commands and information. All PDAs perform basic tasks like:

• Contact management via an electronic address book;
• Appointment scheduling;
• E-mail;
• To-do lists; and,
• Personal Memos

Everything pertaining to technology these days seems to be getting better over time. Today, most personal digital assistants are pack with the same computing power as early desktop computers and do more than your run of the mill basics; some allow you to record voice messages and play musical files, while others allow you to view digital pictures and video clips. So if you are in the market for one of these gizmos here are a few basic things to consider.

OPERATING SYSTEM AND SOFTWARE APPLICATIONS
In the handheld market there are two dominant operating systems – Palm and Pocket PC 2002. Both operating systems have the same features and functions and allow you to interact with PDA in pretty much the same way. Currently, Palm is the dominant of the two and is found on approximately two out of three handheld devices sold worldwide. More than 15,000 third party software applications have been written and developed for the Palm operating system versus about 5000 or so applications for the Pocket PC. Applications range from personal financial software to games to word processing.

Although there has not been as many applications, initially, written for the Pocket PCs, the standard Pocket PC device does ship with “pocket” versions of Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, Internet Explorer and MSN Messenger. So, if you are a user of any of these programs, you can use them on all Pocket PC handhelds and not have to buy or look for additional software. This can be a real time saver for those that do not like to experiment or learn new things technology wise. Even though the Palm devices do not have any of our favourite Microsoft products running on it, there are plenty of cheap and free software applications from third party vendors that can do the same job as the aforementioned software packages.

HARDWARE
From a hardware perspective, all PDAs are all roughly the same shape and size and are designed primarily to fit in your shirt pocket or purse. All have a screen, stylus, and easy access buttons for you to access frequently used functions like: address book; to-do list, etc. Some devices even have built-in microphones to record voice messages and tiny speakers to playback sounds and music.

Since the screen is the part that we use to interact with the device the most, it is naturally the most important thing we look at before we buy. There are two general types of screens available: colour and monochrome (black and white). Besides looking a bit prettier, the only purpose, I think, of having a colour screen is if you are going to be viewing pictures, video clips, or presentation slides on your handheld device. But if you are not going to be showing pictures or want to spend the extra bucks, just purchase a monochrome product. The resolution of the screen is another item for consideration. A higher resolution tends to give greater picture quality and clearer text.