Technofile:Anyone who read about or watched the launch of Apple's iPhone online will have been impressed by how far the idea of a "smartphone" has come. From a humble and clunky digital diary, the range of options for the average person who wants a phone and a PDA in one is bewildering, writes Mike Butcher.
But have we gone too far? Is the smartphone morphing into an unfathomable blob which can do so many things - playing music, taking pictures and running our lives - that we don't quite know where to begin with it? One of the longest-running smartphones on the market has been Palm's Treo range. Years ago they were quick to merge their popular Palm PDA with a mobile, making it one of the earliest and most innovative smartphones on the market. Palm recently came out with two new Treo options: the 680 and 750 versions. The latter is a 3G smartphone running on the Windows mobile operating system, which is available on contract or direct from Palm.
I recently tried out the Treo 680 which is largely an update on the previous 650 version, but the differences are noticeable. Gone is the 650's bulbous antenna, replaced with a smooth, solid-feeling phone which sits well in the hand. The 680 runs the Palm operating system, which many techies will deride as being rather long in the tooth. I disagree since, because of it's heritage, the Palm OS is now able to run a back catalogue of thousands of great programmes and games, and it works equally well with Apple Macs and Windows PCs.
It is also a very workman-like smartphone, incorporating both a touchscreen, large, easy to hit call and end buttons, and a robust keyboard which is fantastic for pecking out either quick notes or tightly edited text messages. With internal memory of 66MB, expandable with common SD cards, the Treo can even play movies with a sprinkling of third-party software.
Three things let down the 680: although it has Bluetooth, infrared and is quad-band, it won't work on 3G networks, has a low resolution camera and it lacks WiFi (which is becoming common in smartphones). The Treo 750 fixes the first two of those issues and even adds HSDPA for fast web browsing.
However, even at €454 (without contract) the 680 is - at least in smartphone terms - affordable, putting it within reach of individuals or small businesses who don't need instant, Blackberry-style push e-mail or big, enterprise-style functions.
• Panasonic has unveiled its high-definition AG-HSC1U camcorder, billed as the world's smallest professional HD camera. Boasting a 40GB hard drive, the camcorder has a fast Leica lens. It is currently pitched in the US for $2,099 (€1,622), so worth considering if you are making a trip over there and looking for a higher-end video camera.
• Sony appears to have admitted defeat in its battle with Apple's iPod. Despite bringing out digital Walkman media players and a range of Walkman mobile phones, the Japanese electronics giant has now released its first iPod accessory: the docking station CPF-IP001, which will allow you to connect most of the iPod range. Still, I very much doubt this means the cessation of hostilities between the two.
