This article may contain URLs that were valid when originally published, but now link to sites or pages that no longer exist. To maintain the flow of the article, we've left these URLs in the text, but disabled the links.
.gif) .gif) | | On the Cusp-70 Hour MP3 Device, Wireless Networking, and Any-shape Batteries | | Douglas Boling | hen I look down the road I see a convergence of technologies that will bring us some pretty exciting products in the not-too-distant future. Here are some cool new technologies I found in my recent travels, both physical and virtual.
One cool item I came across is a new MP3 player with a twist. Instead of using flash memory for file storage, this box had a 4.3GB hard disk. Of course, having a hard disk means the box that would normally be the size of a cigarette pack is now slightly larger than the original Sony Walkman, but there's a huge gain in the amount of music you can store on the box. Instead of 30 to 60 minutes of music, this machine can store 70 hours of tunes.
The machine comes with a 3 � 6 inch LCD display with a file manager to help you organize your music. A USB port is used for downloading, which is important considering how much music you can fit on the drive. You would think that adding a hard disk would wipe out the battery pretty fast, but actually it has a fairly long life span. The box is designed with a 10MB RAM buffer that caches the MP3 file so that the hard disk isn't continually running.
My reservations about the box are really just nit picks. The system has an annoying three to five second delay from the time you press the power button until the screen turns on. Also, there is no docking cradle for the box; you need to plug in the power and USB cables manually, which can be a little annoying. But these problems could be fixed without much effort.
So, who developed this little gem? Surprisingly, it was a Compaq research team in Palo Alto, California. The Compaq folks told me that they would not market the system. Instead, it has been licensed to a Korean manufacturer. It should be available sometime early next year at around $700. That's significantly more than the current MP3 players out there, but not bad considering the capabilities of the system.
Another technology that has gone from infancy to adolescence is Bluetooth. Last year, Bluetooth, the wireless personal area network standard, was just a specification. This year, there are prototypes in the form of development boards, chipsets, and even PC card-based transceivers. The word is that PC card-based Bluetooth products may be released in mid 2000. We'll see if they meet their schedule. Ericsson has a Bluetooth-based product already announced: a wireless headset for their cellular phones.
Even if hardware is shipping, there is still much work to be done creating ways to automatically configure and interface a network of mobile devices in real time and have those devices accessible by applications in Windows®, Palm OS, Mac, and Linux-based machines. I figure Bluetooth is going to be like IrDAâ"the hardware was there long before the driver interface. However, unlike IrDA (which is still mainly a curiosity), Bluetooth has the potential to be something quite useful.
Ironically, one of the problems with Bluetooth is that it interferes with the other wireless networking standard known by the user-friendly name IEEE 802.11. This is an 11Mb wireless LAN standard that has a longer range, but higher power consumption. While you would think that there would be room for both standardsâ"and there should beâ"they both use the same 2.4GHz frequency. Until the two standards bodies can work things out, IEEE 802.11 devices and Bluetooth devices can interfere with each other.
The IEEE 802.11 committee is looking for a more user-friendly name. The name being proposed is Wi-Fi, pronounced "Y-Fy." This name is supposed to be a play on hi-fi, used back in the old days for high-fidelity stereos. However, given the spelling, there is going to be an ugly tendency to call this device a wifey. You would figure the IEEE 802.11 folks could come up with a better namesake than a Judy Blume novel. I think I'll stick to IEEE 802.11.
Finally, on a more technical note, lithium polymer batteries may finally be maturing. This battery technology is enabling those ultrathin PDAs. The battery I saw looked more like a foil sugar packet than a standard battery. The technology provides the power density of lithium batteries with the shapeability of plastic. Batteries have always been the bane of industrial designers. In the past, they have had to take their beautiful prototypes and fatten them up to make room for a cylindrical battery. There are other noncylindrical batteries out there, but they are expensive and still come in standard shapes. The best thing about lithium polymer batteries is that you won't be able to notice them in a product. Lithium polymer batteries have been touted for a number of years as the next big thing in batteries. It looks like they may have finally matured enough to find their way into products.
The wireless standards, along with the new battery technology, are going to combine with already powerful and inexpensive embedded microprocessors to make some really cool products. The remaining key is the screen technology. Once that is figured out, we will be on our way.
| | Douglas Boling is an author, trainer, and consultant specializing in Windows CE. He is a contributing editor to PC Magazine. Doug teaches Windows CE seminars through David Solomon Expert Seminars (http://www.solsem.com).
| From the March 2000 issue of MSDN Magazine.
|
Receive the MSDN Flash e-mail newsletter every other week, with news and information personalized to your interests and areas of focus.
|