One day you could have the functions of all your electronic devices
on a single handheld.
Would you like to replace all your electronic devices with a single
portable product? You could get rid of your desktop PC, your
notebook and your palmtop, your mobile phone, your Minidisc player
or digital recorder, your MP3 player, your Gameboy, your portable
DVD player, and your digital watch. Not to mention your
non-electronic Filofax and A-Z.
The system that has got me thinking is Toshiba's new e740 Pocket
PC, a 6oz wireless PDA with a 400MHz Intel XScale processor and
64MBytes of memory. The clever bit is an optional expansion module
that slots into the bottom of the device. This adds a USB port and
a monitor port, which could revolutionise the handheld computer
market.
You should be able to roll into your office, take the e740 out of
your pocket, and plug in a desktop PC keyboard and monitor for word
processing and Web surfing. There is no need to synchronise your
address book and appointments. If the Pocket version of Microsoft
Office is not enough, you can run any Windows 9x/NT/XP programs you
like by using a Remote Desktop Protocol connection to an NT server.
Do you still need a desktop PC?
While travelling, you can use the outstanding
handwriting-recognition software supplied - Microsoft Transcriber -
and plug in USB hard drives to take back-ups and stream DVD movies
to the built-in Windows Media Player.
Like other handhelds running Pocket PC 2002 software, the e740
already works as an MP3 player, voice recorder etc, and you can
download street maps, or plug in GSM phone and Global Positioning
System modules.
I don't know if the Toshiba e740 actually works as well as my
imagination - I have not had a chance to try one yet. There could
be any number of problems, including a dearth of USB drivers for
things you might want to plug in via the expansion socket.
On the other hand, it does send a clear signal about the future of
mainstream handheld devices. The days when they could be designed
with very little regard for the rest of the computer industry are
drawing to a close.
There is no reason why handhelds should not be able to use the same
keyboards, monitors, PCMCIA cards, hard drives, printers, joysticks
and other peripherals that you would expect to be able to plug in
to a desktop or notebook PC. This would save time, massively reduce
the cost of accessories for handhelds, and also enable users to get
extra benefits from the peripherals they already own.
Jack Schofield is computer editor at The Guardian