If this is the shape of things to come, then it's a nice shape. The first thing that strikes you about the XDA, O2's new combined phone and pocket computer, is its sleek stainless steel case. But the XDA is not just a beautiful piece of kit.
In one device you have a mobile phone, personal organiser, web browser, email, word processor, dictaphone and MP3 player, using Microsoft's PocketPC 2002 operating system, over a quick GPRS connection. The second thing you might notice is the price: just under £500 if bought with a 12-month contract with O2, or a hefty £800 without.
That's a lot, especially when you add in the "mobile web" tariff required to use the XDA on the internet: O2's Web Surfer rate starts at £13.99 a month, which includes 4MB of data download - or about 120 web pages. Pricey or not, the XDA is far and away the most exciting handheld on sale. Slightly larger than a Palm-style personal digital assistant and weighing 200 grams, the XDA works extremely well, and is the first handheld of its type that is more than the sum of its parts. Remember those articles about how we were all going to be surfing the web and sending emails in the bath? Well, this is it.
The colour screen is crisp, the sound quality is surprisingly good - it can also be used as a speaker-phone - even without the headphones. The device's reception is also extremely good, even when the signal is weak: for the first time I was receiving emails on the Tube in tunnels. The XDA's most obvious weak point is its battery life: since battery technology has not kept pace with devices such as this, users are stuck with 3.5 hours of talktime, and about 15 hours of use. Given the way batteries degrade over time, users may soon struggle to get through a day without recharging.
But there isn't much O2 can do about battery life: it is selling a bigger battery and in-car charger accessories, which could help. It could do something about the minimal memory installed: just 32MB of Ram, and a single expansion slot. That aside, O2 should be applauded for its initiative in producing the XDA, a more versatile performer than the Blackberry, and more advanced than anything else on the market right now. If you can afford it, why wait.
RA You can already get mobile phones with built-in radios, MP3 players, cameras or even thermometers. Now iScan has released what it claims is the world's first truly mobile scanner. It is a small device that slots into an Ericsson phone to turn it into a bar code scanner. This offers the prospect of paying for your shopping at Tesco or a meal in a restaurant by waving your phone at a bar code. You could also place a bet by scanning in a bar code in the racing section of a newspaper, which then sends your wager in by text message and deducts payment from your bank.
Success, of course, will depend on sufficient establishments signing up for it. The initial uses are expected to be corporate - with carrier companies such as FedEx using phones to scan the bar codes on parcels instead of the expensive terminals they use now. But once third-party developers get involved, all sorts of applications could emerge.
You can't just attach the device and start scanning because the phone itself has to be re-programmed. So most of the early applications are likely to arise from sellers offering the phone and scanner as part of a package. How much it will cost will depend on how much the seller can recoup in other ways. It could be subsidised or £200 for the scanner plus the cost of the phone.
Who needs a an old-fashioned pager in the new era of mobile phones and personal digital assistants? Lots of small and medium-sized companies, according to PageOne. Yesterday it launched Oventus, which claims to provide executives on the move with "the most comprehensive communications tool in the world". Pagers have always had the advantage of receiving messages in areas where mobile phones can't operate but have suffered from being a one-way channel of communication.
They are still one-way but they can now link up with emails, text messages, call centres and the internet. They can provide secure (ie encrypted) communication and be used in conjunction with a mobile phone to provide two-way links. The selling features also include guaranteed delivery (as long as the pager is switched on) with detailed message tracking. Prices start at £25 a month for a basic service for very small companies or around £250 a month for companies with up to 50 employees.
