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Small Tools for Big Shots

by Vandana Mandlekar
THE cxccutlve-on-thc-movc has arrived. Complete with hts notebook computer, portable facsimile machine, portable printer, and mobile phone. He has all the information from hts desktop PC bundled into that 3.2kg, A4sfzc contraption that fits neatly into his briefcase.
I Ie is ready to floor you with an on-the-spot printout of the complex building design he Just showed you on hts notebook PC lie ts even equipped to fax tt to other parties while he sits in front of you. and he Is going to call up his boss on the mobile phone before giving you Ihc final quotation.
Thanks to the giant strides In computer and communica tton technology, todays travelling executive can virtually carry his office around — well, almost, minus the boss.
In the fast-expanding and highly competitive world of noti hook computers, vendors arc cvcr-anxious to dangle their latest, "upgraded", "advanced", ftrst-ttmc-cvcr-fca-turc-formula carrot tn front of you before you’ve had a chance to say "notebook."
Naturally, they also try to score a point over each other by developing models with Improved portability, faster and more powerful processors, VC As with more grey scales for greater clarity (essential for the popular Windows applications). power-saving features, or by introducing pen-based computing, a unique selling . proposition In itself.
Complex applications using spreadsheets.DBMS. Windows 3.0 or CAD call for high clock speeds. In order lo eater to the demands of faster notebook computing, vendors have Increased the clock speeds from 8 MHz. 12.5 MHz and 16 MHz lo 20 MHz and even 25 Ml Iz.
AST now boasts of a "first-ever 25 MHz notebook computer". Ils Premium Exec 386.25 also combines a high-storage-capacity 80,MB hard drive (rare in notebooks) and a 4 MB RAM.
’ Toshiba has gone a step further with (Is latest T4400 model, a palhbrcakcr-of-sorts. by Introducing the Intel 486SX CPU to the notebook world. It is combined with an 80 MB HDD and 25 MHz. clock speed.
Apple has gone in for 25 Mllz clock speed in its powerbook 170 though the HDD is limited lo 40 MB.
However, these arc all lop-of-thc-Hnc models, costing anything from HK 820.800 (AST) to HK 836,800 (Apple). Available in Hongkong since the beginning of February this year, the AST Premium Exec 386/25 has been shown to work 25 per cent faster than its 20 MHz counterparts in benchmark speed tests conducted by the company.
This model has been recommended for specialised vertical applications, spreadsheet recalculations, database analysis and CAD applications.
According lo Data Systems.
AST's distributors in Hongkong, ihc model has a "good" market and should especially attract CAD users in advertising, interior designing and product designing.
At this writing. Toshiba was due to Introduce here the "first-ever notebook computer built round an Intel 486SX processor'. The model also incorporates a gas plasma display. which is said lo vastly improve the clarity of the screen over the standard ICD
and have a faster refresh rale.
The computer retails in the US for S5.599 (with LCD) and for S5.899 (with gas plasma display).
Bui is such awesome power really needed in personal comptrting? Yes. maintain Chevalier (OA) Ltd, Toshiba’s distributors in Hongkong.
According lo Chevalier, though Ihc transition to 486SX notebooks Is no I expected lo be as remarkable as the one from 286 lo 386SX, its market "will see a significant growth".
And with increasing demand. Chevalier also expect the price of the 486 notebook to come down.
The T44OOSX is Ideal for high speed graphics requirements, malhintcnsivc applications and powerful Windows processing. The users, according lo Chevalier, could range from engineers to actuaries and graphic designers.
With all these advancements. batteries continue to be the Achilles’ heel of notebook computers by contributing disproportionately to the weight (20-30 per cent of the total weight of the computer) and delivering too little (average 2-3 hours output). Batteries running out too soon and loo frequently can prove Irritating to the travelling executive, especially when he Is already complaining about the extra battery pack that has to be lugged around loo.
Notebook manufacturers arc now devising ways of overcoming the hump of power man age menl by advancements In two directions: Increasing the capacity of the battery and bet • ter power management through the use of power-sav ing components.
The Nickel-Hydride (NIH) battery, for instance, with higher energy density than the conventional rechargeable Nlckcl-Cadmium (NtCd) battery is fast making Ils way into notebook computers.
Also less toxic than the NiCd battery, it has been incorporated by Toshiba in its T22OOSX and T2OOOSXc notebook computers. Others are opting for the 386SL chips, which save power by using fewer chips, and freeing sys
km resources from power management chores.
Zenith's MastersPort 386SL, Bondwclls B386SL and NCR’s penbased computer, NCR 3125, use the power saving I386SL chip. Sharp s latest PC-6700 series notebook computers, unveiled in Hongkong on March 16. also have Intel’s new 32-bit 386SL microprocessor.
With Intel’s VLSI (Very Large Seale Integration) microprocessor. Sharp says it
could maintain the battery power lo the maximum while keeping the size to an acceptable minimum.
The "Flash ROM facility, according lo Sharp, is the "most sophisticated 4 level power management sys-Icm.BlOS (Basle Input/Output System).”
Most other popular brands In the market speak of advanced power management " techniques such as automatic shut-down of the CPU when the machine is idle and automatic display — and hard drive-shut down after a user-specified period of keyboard Inactivity.
When it comes to Innovation and Improvement, the current talk of the town is the notepad. The NCR 3125, available in Hongkong since mid-1991, is a pen-based notebook computer made lighter (1.6 kg) by the elimination of the keyboard.
The first portable computer lo recognise hand written script, it translates what the user writes on a digitised screen, with a cordless pen. It has been planned to throw notes, paper forms, pencils, pocket calculators and cHp-
Ixiards out of the window by the use of a more familiar and simpler user interface.
The notepad Incorporates Microsoft's Windows for Pen Computing and GO Corporation’s PenPoint operating systems as well as MS-DOS. While some experts have heralded it as the beginning of a new revolution tn personal computing, others dismiss the hype surrounding the notepad and arc skeptical of its utility.
According to a senior exec-
uttve with a computer company. "NCR's notepad is a complete misunderstanding of the requirements of executives; they type, they don’t write." Typing is not a hindrance. he maintains.
While the advantages include its relatively greater appeal with the senior executives and managers unfamiliar with the keyboard, critics point out that (a) even the most advanced software translates the hand writing with only 90-95 per cent accuracy and (b) the fastest hand writing cannot match the speed of fast typing.
With the price ranging from S47.850 to 871,610 depending on the mass storage devices provided, a 20 MB hard disk or an 8 MB FEPROM (Flash Erascable Programmable Read Only Memory) besides a fax/modem adaptor, the NCR 3125 is still beyond Ihc reach of a significant section of the notebook market.
In a class of their own arc the Apple Macintosh Powerbooks incorporating System 7. the newest version of Macintosh system software. They have built-In networking and file-sharing capabilities. a plus point with office* last moving towards an ope n sys-
tem environment
The "remote access software" also cnabk's the user lo access his office network and desktop systems from any telephone line. Apples three Powerbook models an- also notable for a built-in palm-rest and a central.trackball.
The increasing popularity of Windows applications Is forcing even the l*C vendors lo make the mouse more com pact and Integrate it with the keyboard, where it is easily accessible and doesn’t occupy extra spare outside.
Sharp in Ils 6700 series nolrlxwk computers hies put a trackball above the keyboard.
For those who only want to maintain a diary and an address book or perform low-end word-proccsslnc and spread sheet functions, palmtops serve the purpose well.
Hewlett Packard's IIP 95LX rek-ased last rear incorporates Untis 12 3 an advanced fi u.im i.il rah ul.iH-r a phone .in aj>|>biiilmchl book a memo editor, data communi canon software and MS-DOS 3 22 in Its ROM.
Some users, however, have lound Ihc keyboard of this model loo small for swift oper a Hon.
Sharp’s PC-3000 is said to b.ivr scored here, with a key hoard that allows two-hands typing. A Hongkong company, AIM also offers a 1.4kg half-A4 size palmtop called Bicorn.
Ihough desktop fax ma-i lunes arc also trimming down lo keep notebook computers company on the road, most of the technically "prolablc" ones (Xerox. Ricoh, Sanyo) still weigh between 5.5kg and 6 kg and do not really lend them selves to being lugged around.
Toshiba’s latest mode), TFI3). has inched closer to the aim on this score with a weight of 4.9 kg. Other chnnv (eristics to look out for arc the telephone-fax swltchlnc and automatic document feeding capabilities and the resolution.
Portable printers, though, seem to have come of age. Canon’s one much-talked-about 2.7-kg bubble Jet printer Is now facing competition from Ihc Kodak Diconlz models weighing’ only 1.7 kg (with batteries) and the Apple Style-writer al 2.3 kg. kodak also offers a colour printer weighing 5.9 kg.
The cost varies with the number of facilities offered, such as different ringing tones, rapid recharge facility, electronic lock, LCD display, picking up incoming calls by pressing any key, automatic storage of numbers dialled, signal strength display, escalating call alert, size of the alphanumeric memory, one-touch memory (one-touch dialling of most frequently called numbers), "hands free" operation for drivers, theft alarm and automatic answering.
(Courtesy: Executive)