The long-awaited Handspring Treo 180 does a marvellous job of miniaturising and merging the features of a personal digital assistant (PDA) with a phone into a compact, lightweight (147g) device that fits snugly into a shirt pocket.
It combines the usual PDA facilities (diary, contacts book, PC synchronisation etc) with dual band phone, text messaging (SMS), email and web access, enabling you to read email and trawl the net (including pictures) either directly or from bookmarks from a reasonably sized screen. It is a huge advance on previous Palm and Handspring PDAs.
Its clam-shell top opens to reveal a Qwerty keyboard below the screen, designed to be operated by two thumbs.
There are two main drawbacks. Web access is pretty impressive when it arrives (despite a monochrome screen) but travelling there is the digital equivalent of going by Railtrack, mainly because of the continuing slowness and unpredictability of Wap (wireless application protocol). This should be solved when the GPRS (general packet radio service) version arrives later in the year, as it will be "always on" to the web and you won't have to make a fresh connection every time you want more information.
The second drawback is that the keyboard is too dinky to be able to write long replies, though you can get a Grafiti handwriting recognition version instead. Miniaturisation has its limits. But if you are looking for a device combining phone, organiser and web access that fits in a shirt pocket or equivalent, then there isn't any serious competition at the moment.
The Pogo has much faster web and email access and is in full colour but at 240g is heavier. The Treo 180 costs £499 or £299 with a BT Cellnet contract - available directly from Handspring or at Cellnet outlets.
Cracking app
The Blackberry is completely different. It is expensive, it isn't a phone, it can't access the web, it is monochrome - yet it is sweeping corporate America, where its addictive nature has already earned it the soubriquet "Crackberry".
Why? It is easily the best hand-held emailing device I have come across. It fits in a shirt pocket, has diary/contacts functions and weighs under 139g - but its unique selling point is delivering corporate emails in a fast, secure way. It costs £2,500 to install Blackberry software for up to 20 people alongside the company's existing email server (integrated with Microsoft Exchange) plus £399 for each handset and a £39 monthly subscription (reductions for more than 20 users). BT Cellnet has the British rights.
For that, you can receive all your emails - corporate or otherwise - in real time (no logging on) wherever you are, and if you delete one from the Blackberry, it is automatically deleted from the office computer. A small keyboard beneath the (ample) screen enables replies to be written with two thumbs.
Many people regard the idea of corporate emails being pumped at you wherever you are a vision of digital hell. But it is clear from its success in America that this has become a must-have business tool. Already second generation companies - known locally as "Kill Blackberries" - have been springing up in Silicon Valley. Doubtless, a consumer version won't be far behind.
Touch photos
Photoshop 7.0, the new version of the celebrated software, is easy and smooth to use, especially on the new Macintosh OS X interface. The new healing brush on the tools bar speeds up retouching work such as removing dust or hairs from scans. By pressing the alt key and clicking on the mouse to select the background colour, you can use that colour to erase something nearby like an intruding lamp post or unwanted wrinkles from a face.
The automated web photo gallery function is very good for people wanting to publish holiday snaps on the web without needing to do a snippet of html. All you need to do is upload the files on to your web space.
Another feature enables you to drag a circular icon across, say, someone's face to turn it into a Francis Bacon-style distortion.
File browser and extra brush functions are a nice idea, as is a multiple undo facility, but other functions have been flipped around without obvious benefits for the regular user
For professionals, it will be worth the £450 (+ VAT) full version or £99 + VAT for the upgrade though, sadly, there won't be many impecunious art students in the queue.
