John K. Davis, Independent Distributor, SendOutCards

USB Memory Watch

Now, here is a cool gadget:

USB Memory Watch - 512 MB for $199.99.

The watch also comes in a 128 MB and 256 MB versions for $79.99 and $129.99, respectively.

This is a very sleek watch with USB and 512 MB integrated into the tiny package! If you are like me, you need to tell the time, but you also need a way to carry your valuable data with you at all times (you know - your MP3 files, favorite images, PowerPoint presentations, whatever). This watch can handle the mission for you and do it in style.

The 512 MB version is really awesome--that is half a Gig of data storage in a watch! The watch has a built-in USB cable and can transfer files to and from most computer operating systems. The USB cable is cleverly stored in the watch band and the USB connector tucks conveniently and stylishly into the band. There is also a LED indicator light at the nine o'clock position that indicates the device's status. The watch is surprisingly sleek and lightweight--this is no bulky wrist weight. The band is comfortable and very flexible.

Wearable peripherals; I love it!

Tiny New Scanner

Wow! I am in lust!! It is now possible to take a scanner with you wherever you go. The new $200 device is tiny. In fact, it’s called a Planon DocuPen:

As the name implies, the handheld scanner is roughly the size of a long pen or pencil--roughly 8 1/2 inches long by 1/2-inch thick. You put the DocuPen at the top of a page, you press a button to turn it on and then just start rolling the device down the page.

It takes only four seconds to scan a business-size letter. A small red light flashes if you go too fast, so you quickly learn the speed range of the gadget. If you go too slow it just shuts itself off thinking you have finished with the scan.

Device Convergence

I have written about the benefits of converging useful gadgets into a multiple-use digital device. This process is well underway with telephones, computers, personal digital assistants (PDA), digital camera, audio and video player and recorder, radio and television, photo album, wireless networking, instant messaging and presentation manager all quickly integrating toward a single digital device.

The question seems to be mostly about which segment of the market is going to lead this process. Some say telephones as companies like Nokia, Motorola and Sony Ericsson rapidly move toward an evermore integrated digital device. Others say that Palm, HP and the other PDA manufacturers have the best understanding of the proper form factor and will succeed sooner and more thoroughly than their competition. I am in the PC camp.

What!? That huge thing on my desktop? Or am I speaking about the ever smaller laptop computers? Well, the essence of the issue in my mind is all about the operating system and I believe that a personal computer operating system will win this battle of convergence and PC manufacturers will ultimately be the big winners.

I am not alone in this belief. This is what Andy has to say about the subject in a post he made at the Rohdesign Weblog:

The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that the future of PDAs / smart phones / whatever is none of the current devices but rather a PC (or Mac) in pocket form. (Whether this is already technically achievable today, is another issue.) But why?

What A Deal!

I often praise my Sony Ericsson T610 wireless phone with built-in camera. Now T-Mobile is offering it for FREE to new customers. That's right, the phone is FREE! And, they are also throwing in a Jabbra Bluetooth headset for FREE! Click on the image of the phone for details about this awesome offer.

The deal is especially good when you look at T-Mobile's service plans.

Tiny Camera

The more I read about the 3.2-megapixel resolution (2,048×1,536 pixels) Kyocera Finecam SL300R, a truly pocket-size camera barely bigger than a business card measuring almost 4 inches wide, 2.5 inches high, and 0.6 inches thin, the more impressed I become. It's equipped with a 1.5-inch LCD and a built-in flash. It has a 3X optical zoom (38mm to 115mm in 35mm film equivalent) and an aperture range of f2.8 to about f4.8. It features both fully automatic and fully manual controls for exposure and shutter priority among many shooting modes.

The Finecam SL300R also comes with Adobe's Photoshop Album software, a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, USB connectivity and an AC adapter that plugs into the camera and works as both a power source and a battery charger.

One of the amazing things about this mighty miniture is the speed at which it can snap pictures...

Nokia 7700

I love my Sony Ericsson T610 wireless phone. The new Sony Ericsson P900 is very cool, but it does not have a feature set that would cause me to abandon my diminutive T610.

Today Nokia announced future availability of their 7700 wireless device (you really can't call it a phone, it is so much more). This has features that will blow away the competition (for a few months).

The best of the features is the screen--it is huge for such a small phone. And look at the other new features bundled into this svelte device...

Tiny Hard Drive

Check out the new Archos 500455 ARCDisk USB 2.0 20 GB 1.8" Micro Hard Drive, the world's smallest 20GB external portable hard drive. With its ultra-fast USB 2.0 interface and extremely small size, the ARCDisk is perhaps the ultimate portable hard drive. Especially if you travel between locations where you have access to a computer, why not carry your data in your pocket?

The ARCDisk has a footprint smaller than a 1.44 MB floppy disk, and weighs only 2.7 ounces! It is equipped with the latest generation 1.8 inch hard drive, and is designed to be usable without an external power supply (when connected to a powered USB 2.0 port). It is ideal for traveling. It's also an ideal solution for laptop PCs where storage capacity is at a premium.

Lite Light

I belong to a referral exchange club where members use network marketing to promote their business and assist other club members to find new customers. We do not have outside speakers at our meetings. The speaker is always a club member and this privilege rotates so that everyone gets a turn to present details about their business. It is a great group and I enjoy our weekly gatherings.

We have a raffle drawing each week. One of the obligations when it becomes your turn to speak to the group is to provide a raffle prize valued at $25, or more. I enjoy bringing cool gadgets for raffle prizes. Yesterday, Larry Woznuk, our dentist, won the high-tech gadget I brought for the raffle--a Streamlight 68202 ProPolymer 4AA Flashlight with 7 Ultra Bright White LEDs.

It's a great little flashlight. When I say "little" I mean 6.5 inches compact and 6.3 ounces light...

Now It Is PDAs

A recent post here told about more wireless phones with digital cameras being sold last year than standalone digital cameras, an indication that these two devices are converging. Well, now its PDAs being absorbed.

...sales of smartphones, high-powered mobile handsets capable of doing most things PDAs can do, are rising fast. Smartphones can be used to store addresses and phone numbers, download small pieces of software (such as games), browse the internet while on the move, store and play music, and jot down brief messages. And, of course, they are also telephones. Why carry both a phone and a PDA around, when you can carry a single hybrid device? Fewer than 4m smartphones were sold during 2002, but nearly 12m will be sold this year, says Neil Strother of In-Stat/MDR. Although final sales figures are not yet available, it seems very likely that sales of smartphones overtook sales of PDAs in the third quarter of this year.

iQUE 3600

Garmin iQUE 3600 review by PC Magazine

Garmin, one of the most respected names in the GPS industry, has entered the PDA market with an intriguing convergent device, the Garmin iQUE 3600 ($590 street).

I recently assisted dear friends to get their new iQUE 3600 properly configured. It took four days.

So, OK, there were a number of special circumstances that created problems for us. First, two of the days were over the weekend. And then there is the thing about a prior Garmin device sabotaging us a bit. But no handheld device should ever take four days to configure.

The basic problem is digital rights management (DRM). Garmin has a chain of registration numbers, unlock codes, customer numbers and serial numbers that are needed to initiate the gadget’s GPS features. If anything goes wrong, and there are many things that can go wrong, you are toast.

Garmin closes at 5:00 PM ET and they are closed weekends. If Garmin feels they must build an obstacle course for customers to navigate, they could at least have support waiting on the sidelines for those who fall wounded during the arduous event.