PDAs are ultraportable - until you decide to communicate. You can write a message anywhere, but forget trying to send it unless you first find then tether your gizmo to an RJ-11 jack. Now personal communicator fans can cut the phone umbilical thanks to Envoy and Marco, two sleek machines from Motorola that incorporate built-in wireless communications with their respective General Magic and Newton operating environments.
Both machines share an outwardly similar design that's compact and elegant. Unlike most PDAs, the screen, stylus, and PCMCIA ports are fully protected when the unit is closed up, yet they unfold, Transformerlike, into rapid-operation mode.
Despite the glitz, Envoy and Marco remain true to the design intentions of their respective systems - not always a plus. For example, Marco (the Newton clone) slavishly repeats two features of the Newton that I detest.
It has only one PCMCIA slot (Envoy has two), and there's no built-in telephone modem.
Why should a modem matter on a wireless device? Because the cost of sending messages wirelessly via the Ardis network can be exorbitant. The "executive package," at US$109 per month, buys 425 message units; cost thereafter is 23 cents per unit. Sending straight ASCII is relatively efficient, but add the slightest drop of digital ink, and message sizes easily balloon to 10 units per message or more.
All things considered, Envoy struck me as the better of the two units. It has a phone modem plus two PCMCIA slots, and the General Magic software is vastly superior to Newton when it comes to communications tasks.
Despite glitches, both Marco and Envoy represent big advances on the PDA front that deliver on real needs. Users will grumble over sometimes-astronomical communications costs and an assortment of small annoyances, but once they begin carrying either the Envoy or Marco, I doubt they'll ever want to leave them at home. Personally, I hope to resist the temptation until I can afford the monthly message bill.
Envoy: US$950 to $1,500; Marco Wireless Communicator: $900 to $1,400, depending on service options. Motorola Inc.: (800) 894 7353, +1 (708) 576 5000.
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