Duds to Diamonds
And now - we are approaching the goal of a do-it-all device. Microsoft and Motorola have announced their partnership to produce their "Smartphone," a wireless phone with a full functioning PDA driven by the new Microsoft Mobile operating system. While this offers a lot of great functions, so far neither this product or any of the other PDA's offer the "speech to text" function required to listen to eBooks on a PDA. Microsoft lists two obstacles: first is technical - the processing power and memory required for text-to-speech processing, and secondly the issue of intellectual property rights (the copyright thingy). Authors historically have sold audio rights separately, like movie rights. Even with computer-created voices, the text-to-speech capability spills over into the audio arena and a whole new issue (see Orwell, George). Reflecting the company, this is a phone with a PDA, in contrast to the Palm Treo, a PDA with an integrated phone. Apples, oranges, all a little fruity.
But practical - and affordable?
The Dana models are are a blown-up version of a PDA in the sense that they run on the Palm operating system, but offer a "full-sized" (for small hands like mine) keyboard and limited capabilities - but at a very affordable price (less than $400.00). A reminder of my old Radio Shack Model 100, my first portable computer, the Dana appears to be an entry level device, but one that would survive life in a kid's backpack - or even a soldier's ruck.
And that tablet thing we mentioned as originally being a bust - the newest try is a bevy of several new models sporting Microsoft's Windows XP Tablet Edition operating system. Each looks much like the display half of a small notebook, but is defined by the capability to recognize handwriting on the screen and subsequent conversion to a computer file. Each - in my humble opinion - is still either too heavy, expensive, slow, or all of those undesirable characteristics, for widespread acceptance. But, like the eBook concept, one day I think we will all carry some version of the tablet. If every crewman the Enterprise is issued one, it's bound to come true - right?
On the right is the HP Compaq Tablet PC tc1100. Some manufacturers offer a removable keyboard, some just rely on stylus input. Of the recent offerings, I believe this is the best value, but still a bit expensive. And the handwriting recognition algorithms are getting better and better - not up to comprehending my hen-scratching yet - but close!
Finally - Panasonic and Sony, among others - are racing to market devices that actually "look" like books. They fold open displaying two opposing pages - real books on an electronic reader. They are already targeting the Asian text book market. This might be it, the product that finally brings eBooks to the popular market! If you have been around the electronics world since back when Bell Labs invented the transistor, as I have, you won't be surprised to learn Kent Manufacturing, in Kent, Ohio, has the patent on the new display technology ("e-ink") that the Japanese eBook designers apparently are going to license and use. Once again, we are going to invent and let the Asian electronics giants profit from the products. More as the products are unveiled.