Personal Digital Assistants These electronic organizers can be the small-business owner's little helper.

Alexander Graham Bell had his Watson, Johnny Carson had EdMcMahon, and now even a fledgling BIZ Experiences can afford anassistant--named Newton or OmniGo. For less than $1,200, a newgeneration of lightweight, portable devices, commonly known aspersonal digital assistants (PDAs), are making life a lot lesscomplicated for the technologically savvy businessperson.

PDAs allow you to take the office wherever you go, squashingdown many of the organizational, practical and communicationsfunctions of a laptop computer into a package that can usually fitin one hand. Although most PDAs may look like a child's toy ora portable video game, they are very serious, powerful tools.

In the Beginning

PDAs first came on the market in 1993, when Apple's Newtonwas introduced. The dazzling little device never quite lived up toall the claims its manufacturer made, however, especially regardingthe handwriting-recognition function, which was supposed to learnto quickly recognize an owner's jottings and converthandwriting into text. Although the first-generation Newtondidn't live up to its lofty promises, it did open the door fora variety of developmental improvements which have placed a numberof remarkable units on the market.

This year's Newton goes well beyond the promises originallymade by Apple, as do units from Sony, Hewlett Packard, Motorola andothers. Many of today's units really will recognize yourhandwriting, and reviews by consumer publications indicate thatsome units today actually do learn to pick up on the quirks ofindividual penmanship and convert them into printed text.

Beyond being an electronic notepad, these units are virtuallycomplete computers in themselves--so portable and flexible that youcan connect to the Internet via a cellular phone to check yourlatest e-mail messages while vacationing in Maui, or send animportant fax to a client while stuck in traffic. You can even workon your company's balance sheet, sketch out an idea, or book aflight back from your vacation in Maui.

Good Things Come in Small Packages

"The units are very small and handy, and you can take themwith you anywhere--out to dinner, on a business trip, and on a daytrip," says Naoya Suzuki, product marketing manager forSony's Magic Link.

Suzuki says that PDAs can best be used by businesspeople whoneed to travel and yet keep in touch with their customers whilethey're on the road. Suzuki draws a difference between what hecalls high-end PDAs, like Sony's Magic Link or Apple'sNewton, and products without advanced computing and communicationscapabilities.

"If you just want to have a little device that keeps trackof names and contacts, you can find those kind of products for lessthan $300," Suzuki says. "That's one category, withno communications functions, no applications--just a handheldorganizer. There is another set of the products available whichincludes the more high-powered, high-function products withbuilt-in communications and more connectivity options, such ase-mail and Internet capabilities."

While the PDA won't replace a desktop or notebook computerin a businessperson's technological arsenal, the PDA can serveto complement the other devices by providing a portable, light(less than two pounds) alternative that is more powerful than adigital organizer, while offering quite a few popular options foundin portable computers.

Basic Features

The units all have basic calendar, appointment, phone book andclock features, and most offer a spreadsheet program as well,allowing users to plug in a formula for such tasks as delivering ajob estimate on the spot or entering vital accounting data. PDAsare more than simple organizers, as a serial cable can connect eachunit to a stationary or laptop computer to allow information to beeasily downloaded and uploaded between the two machines. Powering aPDA can be as easy as going to any store and picking up someregular alkaline batteries, although some units work only onrechargeable batteries.

The units with communications functions offer faxing, Internetand e-mail capabilities, with some providing speakerphone functionswhen connected to a cellular phone. While handwriting-recognitiontechnology is included with most units, an on-screen keyboard isusually also featured, allowing the PDAs to show off two differentuses of their touch-screen technology.

One unit that has received a lot of positive press lately is theU.S. Robotics Pilot 5000. Relatively low-priced (in the $370neighborhood), the Pilot was touted as a hot new technological itemby Playboy magazine and received an enthusiastic review fromPC magazine.

The unit offers a lot of the basic features which are makingthese tiny electronic assistants quite popular. The Pilot, forinstance, transfers a day's worth of information to a computerin about 15 seconds, according to the PC magazine article.Playboy states that the unit "stays juiced for severalmonths on two AAA batteries," but PC magazine cautions,"when your batteries run out, you have only three minutes toreplace them, or you will lose all the data on your Pilot. Ofcourse, you don't lose all the data on your desktop PC, so themoral of the story is to be sure that you back up your filesfrequently."

User-Friendly

"A PDA cannot completely replace a notebook computercompletely, but it does a lot of things," Suzuki says. He addsthat PDAs come with one big advantage over laptops--they'reeasy to learn to use.

"Based on our experience with customers, if you give a unitto somebody and ask them to do something--send a fax to a friend,for instance--they can easily figure out how to do it without anydirections or a manual. The Magic Link screen is like that of adesktop--you tap items on the screen, using either your finger or apen. The units are very user-friendly. For a user to get used toWindows or Mac, they need instructions and somehand-holding."

According to Suzuki, software usually comes bundled with thevarious units, and additional software and upgrades are availableon floppy disks. The Magic Link, for example, comes with an airlineguide, an Internet browser, and Internet-connectivity software.Other programs are transferred via serial cable to the PDA by usinga floppy drive on a laptop or desktop computer. Suzuki adds thatSony has its own Magic Link software catalog available, with thesoftware coming from many third-party suppliers.

But the biggest consideration in choosing a PDA, according toSuzuki, is compatibility with other computers used by the potentialbuyer. "For people who use these high-end PDAs, thecompatibility with their desktop PC should be a highpriority," he says.

Communications-hardware manufacturer Motorola seems to bestepping in the next obvious direction with its pricey PDAs,integrating beeper technology right into its unit to allow thesending and retrieving of messages. It's easy to see that thesehandy little units are going beyond the promise of a paperlessoffice by making nearly your entire business universe portable aswell.

Personal Digital Assistants

Apple Newton MessagePad 130

Manufacturer's Suggested Price: $799

Phone Number: (800) 776-2333

Features: The MessagePad 130 begins with basicorganizers, such as a built-in note pad, to-do list, date book,telephone log and address file. The unit comes with Pocket Quicken,a version of Intuit's popular expense-tracking/spreadsheetprogram. Information can be entered either by hand, by using anon-screen keyboard, or through an optional external keyboard.Handwriting-recognition software allows your handwriting to beconverted into typed text. The Message-Pad 130 can exchangeinformation with both Mac- and Windows-based personal computers. Itcan be plugged directly into a wall outlet, or it can run off arechargeable battery or four AA batteries.

Sony Magic Link PIC-2000

Manufacturer's Suggested Price: $899

Phone Number: (800) 556-2442

Features: This latest version of the Magic Link has beenexpanded to 2 MB RAM, effectively doubling the memory of thelast-generation Magic Link. The Magic Link's operating system,Magic Cap, integrates a wide variety of communications, datacollection, database access, finance, and special industryapplications. The unit allows users to connect and perform a pairof separate applications at once--such as downloading informationfrom a PC while connecting to a cellular telephone to send ane-mail message. The built-in modem is 14.4 kbps, an industrystandard for speedy transmission and reception.

The unit also has auto-dialing capabilities and a built-inspeakerphone, which can be used with a cellular phone for use in aroundtable conference call.

Hewlett Packard OmniGo 100 Organizer Plus

Manufacturer's Suggested Price: $349

Phone Number: (800) 443-1254

Features: The OmniGo, a handheld organizer, looks like apalmtop computer and has all the functions of a PDA. Unlike otherunits, the OmniGo allows the user the option of entering data viathe attached keypad or using the pen to use on-screen features. TheOmniGo enables users to track appointments and expenses, takenotes, maintain a phone list, and compute financial information.The Omni-Go's jotter function is modeled after the concept ofPost-It notes, and the unit employs a handwriting-recognitionsystem to allow for easy conversion to typed text. Pocket Quicken,a connectivity package allowing users to connect to a Windows-basedPC to download or upload data, is also available with the unit.

Casio Z-7000

Manufacturer's Suggested Price: $599

Phone Number: (201) 361-5400

Features: The Z-7000 employs a touch-sensitive screen andallows users to incorporate both text and sketches onto onepage--allowing, for example, a user to have his handwritingconverted for a telephone book entry and include ahand-drawn map of directions on the same page. The Z-7000 providesall basic organizing functions and also includeshandwriting-recognition and Pocket Quicken software. In addition tospell-checker and thesaurus functions, the unit includes atranslation dictionary providing equivalents for 1,000 words in 26languages. By using an optional modem, a user can connect toAmerica Online via pre-installed software. Another optional linkpackage allows users to connect with a PC to share information. TheZ-7000 is powered by an AC adapter or by three AA batteries, whichwill provide up to 100 hours of use.