All together now
Accompli 009: Multitaski
 | With Ed Curran, Technogadgets |
(CNN) -- Remember the "brick phone?"
That's what we affectionately called Motorola’s original portable cell phone. Not only was it a wireless phone, but it also doubled as a 2-pound dumbbell and a handheld martial-arts weapon.
The latest wireless phones can also be used for various tasks but
they’re just a tad more refined than the historic brick phone. The
wireless phone is quickly becoming the heart of so many things we do.
|
"Think of it as a two-way pager, e-mail device, fax machine, Internet appliance, personal information manager, notepad, calendar, address book, and wireless phone hung on your belt. It’s the size of a Toast-R-Oven. Just kidding."
|
Internet browsing, short messaging, AOL Instant Messaging and e-commerce are just a few of the uses for this device that used to just make phone calls.
Early next year you'll be able to get your hands on the Motorola
Accompli 009 Personal Interactive Communicator "Virtual Office." Think of it as a two-way pager, e-mail device, fax machine, Internet
appliance, personal information manager, notepad, calendar, address
book, and wireless phone hung on your belt.
It’s the size of a Toast-R-Oven.
Just kidding.
 |
QUICK VOTE
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
The Accompli 009 is actually about the same size as a Motorola Timeport pager. That’s the one with the clamshell design and the QWERTY keyboard inside. It seems just a tad thinner and has a tiny antenna stub.
(What is QWERTY? Look at your keyboard -- those top six alphabetical characters from the left, see them? The QWERTY keyboard layout, despite many tries at other formats, has remained the standard since Christopher Latham Sholes' development of it in the 19th century.)
The compleat device
The Accompli 009 does everything.
It’s a pager, a personal information manager (PIM), wireless e-mail
unit, wireless Internet device and a wireless phone. It seems there’s
nothing the Motorola Accompli 009 Personal Interactive Communicator
can’t do.
Just becoming available in Europe, and in the United States early next year, it features a 256-color display and a full QWERTY keyboard. It also is programmable, so additional applications can be installed
later. Prices will vary depending on your service provider.
At a time when wireless phones are becoming more like Personal Digital Assistants (Nokia, for example, and Kyocera is expected to unveil one at the end of the month), and Personal Digital Assistants are adding wireless phone capabilities (the VisorPhone module for the Handspring Visor), the Accompli is more of a two-way pager with PDA and phone capabilities.
|
"It’s cool to have an item that does everything but you usually have to give up something. Either the size of the unit is larger or the screen is smaller or the interface is cumbersome."
|
It may be the perfect Swiss Army Knife of communications for you, in a form no bigger than your current pager. Neat idea.
It’s clear that we’re seeing the convergence of several technologies in a single communications device and it doesn’t always work. There are times you need a Swiss Army Knife and there are times you just need a small screwdriver.
It’s cool to have an item that does everything but you usually have to give up something. Either the size of the unit is larger or the screen is smaller or the interface is cumbersome.
It takes a lot of know-how, a little luck and some smart marketing to launch a product that quickly develops a cult-like following (the BlackBerry device comes to mind).
Everyone is testing the waters to see what people will embrace, or at least what we’re willing to put up with.
Ed Curran has covered the world of high-tech for more than a dozen years and is the publisher of Technogadgets® -- www.technogadgets.com In addition to his weekly column here at CNN.com/career, watch for Curran's reports on CNN television.
| 
![[CNN Money]](http://i.cnn.net/cnn/images/main/fn.logo.newsnet.gif){kind=logo}
![[SI.com]](http://i.cnn.net/cnn/images/main/si.logo.gif){kind=logo}
(
