| With his trademark beard, perpetually jolly personality and a twinkle in his eye-which comes from an uncanny ability to see what’s around the next bend in technology, my guru gift consultant this year isn’t Santa Claus. Instead it’s Friday Harbor tech guru, big-league consultant and Orca-watcher Mark Anderson, who publishes the pricey but popular Strategic News Service (S.N.S.) newsletter, with a readership that includes Bill Gates, Michael Dell and Esther Dyson, to name but a few.
This year, as the flames of my low-tech, pellet-burning stove danced like sugarplum fairies in the background, I asked Mark to surmise the hottest high-tech gear for the giving. From the genie’s granting, here are three gifts certain to make those holiday wishes come true.
The first is code-named AORTA, which stands for Always-On-Real-Time-Access and is the harbinger of the next wave of “voice recognition and wearable computer systems that respond to our needs seamlessly.”
Northwest-based AT&T Wireless’ new Always-On Service lets you summon information without the need for phone dialing. Having an always on “device” with you is equivalent to carrying an entire reference library with instant access to Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus as well as maps and phone books.
“The whole point of AORTA is that it changes human behavior,” says Anderson. “If you’re watching someone look for information with a telephone or computer, it takes too long to get to the Website or to dial out. With ‘Always On,’ voice recognition takes over. All you do is pick up the phone and say two words into it — say “Microsoft stock” and you get the information right back.” To jump on board this bandwagon, a Motorola Timeport 7382I phone ($200 for AT&T Wireless customers) is required. Service begins at $50 a month and include 1 MB of file transfer (you pay by the amount of data you send, instead of by the month) and 400 voice minutes.
Next up is the new Compaq iPaq PocketPC running the brand new Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 Operating System. Besides sporting a whole new interface which includes helpful “pop-up bubble” tips, you can customize the handheld’s screen as you wish, a picture of your family for instance. There are also some pretty nifty business features including the ability to synch up with a corporate database on a network or via infra-red wireless connection. The new PocketPC also works better with existing Palm devices, as well as instant messaging, and rich MP3 music,” says Anderson. Compaq ‘s iPaq H3700, with 64MB of memory, is priced at $499
The grand finale this X-mas? Think: X-Box. – the ultra-sleek new Microsoft gaming console. “The question,” Anderson predicts, “will likely be, ‘Can you get your hands on it?’” Microsoft predicts over 1.5 million Xboxes will be sold before New Year’s Day. So, will 800,000 X-boxes be enough for day one? Whenever you nab yours, and depending on the bundle you tote, your holiday gaming will be wrapped up for a price of $399 for the main console, or up to $1,500 for the high-definition playback package.
This 733 MHz microchip and 256 MHz graphic processor could change the way you think about consoles, the same way IBM and Apple changed the way we think about PCs. By turbocharging both the main microchip and graphics engine, the speed and imaging are jaw-dropping.
With toys like these, the holidays have never been harder to wait for. One new development for “brick- and-click” shoppers is to order home electronics at Amazon and pick ‘em up at your local Circuit City store. |
