Swiss Army Knife Gadgets

Cell phones that take pictures and laptops that convert to desktop computers are just a few of the ‘Swiss army knife’ type of gadgets manufacturers are delivering this month. We recently saw many of these multi-tasking devices at the Wireless trade show (CTIA) and here is what’s currently state of the art.

Samsung A600
This is a new product called the A600 – Samsung calls it the rotating camera phone. The Samsung A600 integrates screen technology -- it actually has a digital camera and flash within the device. How many people are out there that say “boy do I wish we had my camera with me”…. The reality is now you can.

The great news for consumers is that pricing will continue to decrease in the wireless industry specifically with handsets. So if you look at a handset with integrated camera capability that used to be in the $400-$500 price range, this will be significantly lower as we progress through this year. And next year companies will get into cameras that have integrated video capability -- yes, video camcorder capability at reasonable price points. www.samsungusa.com/wireless

HP Compaq TC-1000
HP Compaq’s new Tablet PC TC-1000 offers simplified computing by adding the convenience of handwriting and portability. But the beauty of this product is that it’s a slate, you can pick up a detachable keyboard, snap the keyboard into place and boom, now it becomes just what you think an ultra-portable computer…just like you would have on your desk. www.compaq.com

HP iPAQ Pocket PC h5450
The HP iPAQ Pocket PC h5450 is the first Pocket PC with integrated BlueTooth, wireless LAN, and biometric security as well. You actually swipe the device and there’s a biometric strip -- its actually a thermal fingerprint reader that reads the points on your finger and it recognizes that you are the user and lets you in. Should someone else try to do that, it won’t match the fingerprint that’s stored in the device and it won’t let them into the device. www.hp.com