Josey Puliyenthuruthel: Serious finds fun? Not quite

GIZMO GALLERY

Twenty years from now, when the history of mobile personal technology products is written, there will be many a snigger on today's bumbling efforts at cramming several devices, functionalities and applications into a single personal technology device.

The mine-is-bigger syndrome has device companies shoehorn a phone with quad band capability, camera, email and Internet access, wireless data and Bluetooth functionality, a digital music player, a gaming device, FM radio, a USB and infrared port and a range of applications into a single device, increasingly being called a "smartphone".

While there is a growing business need for such functionalities among a fast-growing swathe of today's always-on urban population, absurdly designed smartphones "" from large candy bar shapes to cigarette box designs "" are certainly not the answer.

There isn't, as repeated often in these columns, yet a single device that fits all the requirements of a corporate road-warrior.

Can't I have all the personal technology I need in one device? Someday, yes. Until then, I will carry an IBM notebook, a Palm Tungsten E2 personal data assistant, an Olympus digital voice recorder and a Nokia cellphone with me wherever I go.

If I am out of office and need to download email or check the news wires on the Internet, which is more than a few times a day, I fire up the computer to connect to Reliance's CDMA network or hook on to a

WiFi hotspot. My appointments, contacts database and key documents are encrypted on the Palm T, which also doubles up as a repository for my favourite audio playlists.

One key missing piece in this jigsaw is Bluetooth short range wireless access. It's a technology that has taken time to gain acceptance although it came on the personal technology scene before the WiFi standards "" 802.11a, b and g "" family became a smash hit.

My interest in Bluetooth is not so much synching data between various devices but more as a technology that allows me to use a wireless headset.

And why is that important? Bluetooth gadgets such as the wireless headset are low-power devices and will not potentially fry the temporal and parietal lobes of my brain.

Yes, Bluetooth phone-headset combos suffer the downside of being hacked without much of a sweat.

A quest for a good Bluetooth-enabled phone led me last week to the Nokia 3230 introduced in India in April priced at under Rs 18,000. There are cheaper Bluetooth phones in the market yet the Nokia 3230 has some additional features going for it.

It is a tri-band phone; boasts of GPRS, a step-up technology that enhances data speeds on GSM networks; and has a camera with a resolution adequate not to miss on trigger-happy multimedia messaging or MMS opportunities.

A relatively-large screen size helps with watching video clips that can then be backed on a flash card in the expandable memory slot.

I used the phone with a Planotronics wireless headset and found the experience easy on my neck while taking notes from a conversation on the computer.

The 3230 has the normal calendar, task organiser, notes, currency converter and calculator functions that are common on Nokia's phones running on the Symbian platform. What I liked most in this phone was, well, its Rally Pro game. Rather addictive.

That said, the phone fails on its design. Its small and neat candybar design is attractive but in daily use it is not nearly as intuitively designed given its keypad is positioned way too low on the face of the phone.

For instance, the top half of the phone is heavy, making it cumbersome to balance it on your palm while keying in a short message especially if you are butterfingered.

This error could have been corrected if the weight of the phone's parts was distributed better over the design or perhaps made lighter. Although I liked the five-way joystick button for navigation, here's a personal peeve: I prefer rubber keys and I missed them on the Nokia 3230.

Overall, the Nokia 3230 "" "Serious bhi, fun bhi" goes its tagline "" is a phone that the Finnish company can build upon and I'll wait till a new improved version comes out; hopefully, at a lower price. Until then, my reliable and well-thumbed Nokia 3315 will have to do; even if, I'll miss Bluetooth and risk frying my brains.

josey@vsnl.net