__ Just Outta Beta __
__ Have Screen, Will Travel __
Sooner or later, every technology gets smaller and cheaper. Lightware's LCD projector, for example, is half the weight and cost of its rivals. At less than 5 pounds and under US$3,000, the bright little projector is a great sidekick for business presentations on the road. But you may find yourself tempted to sneak it home after hours, pin up a bedsheet in the living room, and enjoy it as a makeshift home theater.
__ Release: November. Lightware: +1 (503) 641 7873. __
__ Robber Barons __
Ever wonder what it would be like to run a railroad empire? Pop Top's Railroad Tycoon II, the follow-up to Sid Meier's groundbreaking PC game of eight years ago, lets you lay virtual rail across terrain based on real satellite photos. The strategy is to link factories, farms, and cities with a train system and compete against rival companies.
__ Release: late October. Gathering of Developers: on the Web at www.godgames.com/. __
__ Just-Right Computing __
If Goldilocks were sampling today's mobile computers, she'd likely say laptops are too bulky and PDAs too small. Vadem's Clio, on the other hand, is just right. The first in a line of mobile computers using Microsoft's Jupiter operating system, the Clio ships for less than US$1,000, with a weight of about 3 pounds and a 12- to 16-hour battery life.
While it may look like a laptop, the Clio is the world's first convertible computer. Thanks to the engineering origami of frogdesign, a hinge allows Clio to take on three shapes - a laptop with full-size keyboard, a presentation monitor propped up in an A-frame (perfect for PowerPoint slide shows), and a flat-tablet computer with a pressure-sensitive screen. Vadem, which now owns the handwriting-recognition software installed in the old Apple Newton, uses it here so you can take notes with a stylus instead of hunting and pecking.
Before Clio, Vadem was a background player, developing chips for other companies. Now it seems to be brashly reinventing mobile computing. Although Clio doesn't have the power of a desktop computer, it does have everything an itinerant typist needs - an instant-on function, Internet capability, and a special utility to search for keywords across memos, contacts, and to-do lists on your desktop.
__ Release: fall. Vadem: +1 (408) 467 2100. __
__ The Audible Difference __
Most notebooks and handhelds come with installed modems, but you aren't guaranteed a convenient place to connect in a hotel room or airport terminal. And even if you're lucky enough to find a phone jack, additional hassles ensue when you configure your system, use a calling card, or try to get online abroad.
PocketMail is a service that lets you efficiently send and receive email using only a phone's handset. Instead of connecting your computer to a phone line, you dial an 800 number and place the handset against a little speaker and microphone. The audio-based service, developed by PocketScience, costs US$9.95 per month and works only with a new breed of small handheld devices made by companies licensing PocketMail. One cool example is JVC's email reader/address book, which sports a slick casing engineered by San Francisco gadget masters Bridge Design.
PocketScience has breathed new life into the concept of acoustic modems. Old-growth computer geeks, who remember using a modem by dropping a phone handset into a special cradle, might see this as a step backward. "We don't care how sexy the tech is," says Andy Shapiro, VP of marketing, pointing out that PocketScience's compression and error-correction techniques can quickly transmit error-free text - even on noisy phone lines. "It makes accessing email as easy as making a phone call."
__ Release: October. PocketScience: +1 (408) 919 7444, on the Web at www.pocketmail.com/. __
__ You've Got Voicemail __
It's embarrassing to leave private messages on someone's pager, especially when you have to work with a human typist on the other end of the line. Enter the OmniVoice 3N1, the first pager to receive and play voicemail over ordinary networks. You can get messages up to 20 seconds long on the go and kiss that nosy transcriptionist goodbye.
__ Release: winter. OmniVoice Technologies: on the Web at www.omnivoice.com/. __
__ Our Robot Friends __
Hans Moravec, founder of Carnegie Mellon University's robotics program, has made a cottage industry out of gleefully predicting the fall of human civilization. His latest book, Robot: Mere Machine to Transcendent Mind, claims that bots will surpass human intelligence by 2050. As our evolutionary heirs, he says, this new machine race will not only gain our acceptance, but also earn our admiration.
__ Release: November. Oxford University Press: on the Web at www.oup-usa.org/. __
