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EE Gifts for the Holidays
Electronics manufacturers have been hard at work packing each of their newest gadgets with a host of functions that mimic the capabilities of several high-tech toys already on the market. The drive to create a device that is all things to all people, combined with electronics' inevitable march toward miniaturization, has yielded a spate of new products from which to choose the perfect gift for one's favorite engineer.
There is a lot to love about the wristwatches now hitting the market. One of the more exotic is the SPH-WP10 watch phone from Samsung Electronics. That's right, an actual wireless handset made to be worn on the wrist. Because it is so small and dialing would be exceedingly difficult under the best conditions, it has a voice command feature that allows numbers to be dialed verbally. It also features text-to-speech software that allows the user to listen to voice mail, e-mail, or other messages instead of reading them. It is currently available only in Korea, but a Samsung spokesperson confirmed that a limited quantity will be available in the United States starting next year.
For those who have given up tracking life's events with a personal digital assistant (PDA) after losing one packed with critical information (Go ahead, admit it. No one's looking.), the onHand PC Watch from Matsucom Inc., Denver, Colo., is just the ticket. It stores as many as 10 000 entries in its scheduler, and includes an address book, a to-do list, an expense tracker, and a memo pad. To speed data entry, information can be transferred from a desktop PC via the onHand's docking station.
Mobile phone makers have heaped new functions on their handsets, putting as many modes of communication as possible in the palm of a user's hand. A perfect example is the Nokia 7110, which has a built-in wireless application protocol microbrowser for Internet access. It also sends and receives faxes, e-mail, and text files, and has an infrared link for wirelessly transferring data between the phone and a PC. The icing on the cake is a feature aimed at combating the bane of mobile phone users' existence: dropped calls. The 7110 is a dual-band phone that switches automatically between frequencies to take advantage of whichever is providing the strongest signal at the moment. Usually a dual-band phone selects the strongest band at the outset of a call and drops it should the signal peter out.
As personal digital assistants have become ever more ubiquitous, Handspring Inc., Mountain View, Calif., has begun introducing a suite of plug-ins for its popular Visor PDA that allow it to play music, take photos, send and receive faxes and e-mail, and make phone calls. The Visor Phone from Option International, Leuven, Belgium, turns the Visor into a mobile phone that can also send and receive e-mail and provide wireless Internet access. The touch of a button puts a call through to any phone number in the Visor's address book.
The Palm PDA, the runaway bestseller in its category, has also introduced a few add-ons, including the PalmPix from Eastman Kodak. The PalmPix turns the Palm into a 640-by-480-pixel digital camera that stores images as BMP or JPEG files that are transferable to a PC through the Palm's hotsync cradle.
With such a treasure trove of high-tech toys available this year, gadget lovers have much for which to be thankful this holiday season.
Contact: Willie D. Jones, 212 419 7564, [email protected].For faxed copies of the complete article ["EE gifts for the holidays," by Willie D. Jones, Assistant Editor, IEEE Spectrum, December 2000, pp. 31-35] or to arrange an interview, contact: Nancy T. Hantman, 212 419 7561, [email protected].
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