Word: palm
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...instant messaging, news from the New York Times or ABC, detailed driving directions from MapQuest, even remote access to eBay auctions. And little doesn't mean less. Cell phones rely on a software standard called Wireless Application Protocol, which custom fits Web content onto those cramped little displays. Palm Inc., for its part, uses its own Web "clipping" technology to pull information onto its PDAs...
...relies on the Internet. For close communications, many handhelds, including budget models for kids, have infrared sensors that let one unit interface with another nearby. Executives can use it to beam their business cards from their device to someone else's. And it's the technology behind that romantic Palm commercial in which two beautiful strangers, spying each other from different trains as one pulls away, manage to communicate: she sends him her phone number before they're whisked apart. (Yes, you can really do it if both Palms are on and you're close enough together...
...gets better. A service called Surveyor pulls live video-camera images from the Web and puts them on a Palm. Right now it's showing two live Web-cam images--the Tokyo skyline and the Empire State Building. Not too exciting. But suppose it calls up a live picture of your daughter's preschool classroom? Or the home-security camera in your backyard while you are on vacation? It's only a matter of time...
...phones could one day replace wallets and money. Europeans are already using cell phones to make purchases from vending machines (the cost of the cigarettes or candy bar is automatically added to your account). That might come to America soon, but the industry is setting its sights even higher. Palm wants you eventually to store your credit-card numbers on your PDA and use it to make major purchases. It's working on a variety of techniques--including digital signatures and fingerprints--to establish that the person making the purchase is really...
PDAs, with their larger screens, are a better bet for Web surfing. But they're expensive. A Palm VII costs $449, plus the monthly fee you pay for any wireless service. And they're not much use when you need to make a phone call. One-way pagers seem pretty antiquated these days, but two-way pagers with Web access can be a less expensive and highly portable way to access discrete bits of information. You can already use them to send and receive e-mail, buy the new Toni Braxton CD on Amazon.com ditch your Microsoft stock...