In Electronic Devices. The Future Is Now

Nation's Business, Nov 1, 1998

If you're like most small-business people, you depend on low-tech and high-tech electronic devices to get you through the day. Perhaps a clock radio wakes you, a microwave oven and a coffee maker help you prepare breakfast, a personal computer helps you conduct business, a cellular phone keeps you in touch with people, and a television helps you wind down at night.

Electronic devices of the 21st century are expected to make people's working and personal lives even more convenient and productive. A number of these gadgets and gizmos debuted this year. They include devices for the office, road, and home. Following are brief descriptions of some of these products.

On The Road

AccessLink Pager (SkyTel Corp., 1-800-395-5304, www.skytel.com). SkyTel's AccessLink is a small device that allows users to send as well as receive pages. The AccessLink also enables users to display on its four-line screen incoming text messages and news feeds from Dow Jones & Co., Inc.

Unlike most two-way pagers, the AccessLink doesn't have a keyboard for composing outgoing messages. Instead, users manipulate the pager's arrow keys to select from a dozen preprogrammed responses or create their own. Retail price: $322.

AutoPC (Clarion Corp. of America, 1-800-462-5274, www.autopc.com). It's smarter than a car stereo-and it plays music better than a PC. Clarion's AutoPC is a miniature multimedia computer designed for installation in the dashboard of a car or truck to provide passengers with stereo sound, navigation, wireless communication, and hands-free computing.

The AutoPC taps the power of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows CE operating system- designed principally for hand-held computers-to control its functions and keep track of each driver's contact and address information. Drivers operate AutoPC using voice commands or by hand.

The AutoPC's navigation system provides turn-by-turn instructions to any U.S. destination on its small liquid-crystal display. Drivers can make cellular calls via AutoPC using voice commands or by recalling a contact from the address book.

The AutoPC also offers a full range of stereo features, including an AM/FM radio, a CD/CD-ROM player, a tuner with 20 station presets, and a 10-band equalizer. Retail price: $1,299.

CapShare 910 (Hewlett-Packard Co., 877-473-6772, www.capshare.hp.com). The recently announced CapShare 910 is the first in a series of devices billed by Hewlett-Packard as "information appliances" that work independently of a PC.

The palm-size, 12.5-ounce CapShare enables on-the-go users to scan with great fidelity and retain in memory up to 50 printed or handwritten documents as large as legal-size sheets of paper.

Back in the office, scanned faxes memos, newspaper and magazine articles, business cards, receipts, and other documents can be transmitted via an infrared link or a cable from the CapShare to a desktop, laptop, or hand-held computer or to a printer.

Available in December, the CapShare 910 will sell for $699.

Co-Pilot (Precision Navigation Inc., 1-888-422-6672, www.precisionnav.com). Drivers don't have to get lost anymore: The Co-Pilot electronic compass and navigation system can help them find their way.

The Co-Pilot is mounted on the dashboard or windshield of a car, truck, boat, or recreational vehicle. Drivers can follow the maps or written directions that appear on the Co-Pilot's backlit liquid-crystal display to their destinations.

To further ensure that drivers will get where they're going, the Co-Pilot contains a sensor that detects and compensates for outside magnetic interference, which can cause inaccurate readings. Retail price: $99.95.

REX PRO Organizer (Franklin Electronic Publishers, 1-888-739-6400, www.franklin.com/rex). There's a strong tendency among hardware and software vendors alike to clutter second-generation products with cumbersome features in a misguided effort to entice customers into "upgrading." Franklin avoided this trap when designing the REX PRO information manager.

This easy-to-use successor to Franklin's popular REX PC Companion maintains its small size-about the size and thickness of three stacked credit cards-and its light weight of 1.4 ounces, but it gains memory and now can maintain 6,000 records.

While the original REX could be used only to view appointments, contact information, to-do items, and brief memos downloaded from computers, the upgraded device can be used to edit the downloaded information and make new entries directly on the REX.

Thanks to the TrueSync Plus software included with the REX PRO, the device can directly synchronize its contents with desktop or notebook PCs running most popular information-management programs. Retail price: $229.95.

Seiko MessageWatch (Seiko Communications of America, 1-800-7243585, www.messagewatch.com). Seiko's MessageWatch--maybe the next best thing to Dick Tracy's fabled two-way wristwatch communicator--combines the features of a conventional digital watch and a pager.

The MessageWatch, which can store up to eight pages or messages of up to 16 characters each, receives information over FM radio frequencies. In addition to messages, MessageWatch wearers can receive news, sports, and weather information from providers such as the Nasdaq Stock Market and local weather bureaus.