Will you still love your personal organiser if your mobile does more? Bill Bennett contemplates a techno-death.

Those shiny new Palm Pilots and Pocket PCs sitting on store shelves may look like the last word in mobile computing. However, a new generation of smart phones is about to arrive that could leave them for dead.

Smart phones combine digital organiser or hand-held computer functions with normal voice telephony in a single compact package. You can manage your address book, organise appointments and record or write memos with them, just like you can with today's hand-held computers. At the same time you'll be able to surf the Web, read email and handle instant messaging.

Eventually smart phones will work with a whole range of Internet-delivered applications. Business people will be able to use their phones to send or receive information from company databases or use complex commercial applications. Consumer models will even allow you to download and listen to music or capture pictures and send digital snapshots to friends.

Smart phone hardware is already on the market overseas and selling fast. At the time of writing, a number of manufacturers are preparing models for the Australian market.

The German computer maker Siemens will launch its first Australian smart phone later this month. Siemens' product manager, Tarquin Swift, says the SX45, which costs $2199, is essentially a Casio Pocket PC with a built-in phone. "We added extra phone functionality to the Pocket PC," he says.

"For example, you can click on a name in your Outlook contact file and decide to send them an email, an SMS message or call them on the phone."

Swift says combining a Casio Pocket PC with a phone was the fastest way to get a product to market. The product is not really aimed at home users, though some early adopters will buy it. He says, however: "There is a definite demand from corporate and business customers for this kind of product."

While the SX45 is far from cheap, it is advanced. Swift says it has a colour screen and can receive streaming video or audio. The SX45 also has a number of built-in multimedia functions and works with multimedia messaging services (MMS) – an advanced version of the SMS found on conventional phones.

Another of the new breed of phones will be the Handspring Treo Communicator which, although based on Palm Pilot technology, looks nothing like the shirt pocket computer. The mono-screen version will sell for $1399 when it is released here next month.

Robin Simpson, research director with Gartner Australasia, says: "Treo brings a new level of usability to phone functions. Handspring has integrated the components very well. There's a jog wheel and a keyboard for short messaging." The Treo also has email and a Web browser – which he says is much better than the browser on a Palm Pilot.

Simpson says that, strictly speaking, the Treo is not a smart phone – it's more of a mobile phone with a good user interface than a computer. It does point to the future, however.

He thinks it will be popular with SMS users: "People will use it as a messaging tool; SMS will really take off now someone has developed a decent user interface."

But while the Treo has features that will attract individual consumers, Simpson says it will also strike a chord with business users. He says: "There's a strong community of Palm developers in Australia. All of a sudden there's this strong integrated platform. It is going to be a real boost for the developers and business use is going to spur the uptake of the technology."

Microsoft is busy trying to sell an alternative smart phone technology. Previously known as Stinger, the device is now called the Windows Powered Smartphone 2002. Like the Pocket PC, it uses a cut-down version of the Windows operating system and links easily to desktop computers and their applications. It also has a colour screen.

Simpson says that, so far, few phone makers have opted to use the Microsoft technology because it requires an expensive software licence but offers few real advantages. Australian consumers may soon be offered a version of the phone, however. "British Telecom is selling a version in the UK that works and we could see something similar from Telstra," he says.

Hand-held computers were always meant to be mobile communications devices. Almost a decade ago Apple's marketing for the original Newton PDA showed young professionals sitting in cafes, wirelessly transmitting data to and from each other. The Newton came and went, however, long before that dream became a practical reality.

The problem is that connecting a hand-held computer to the phone network has always been a bit tricky. In general you need to carry a phone and a computer along with something to connect them. It is sometimes possible to use infrared links between the two devices, but an old-fashioned cable is generally more reliable.

Smart phones sidestep these problems by integrating phone and computer hardware. Connecting the devices, however, was only part of the problem. Until recently, most mobile phone networks in Australia could not reliably transfer data at speeds faster than 9.6Kbps. This might be fast enough for dealing with email but browsing the Web is painfully slow, even allowing for the cut-down Web pages used by today's hand-held devices.

Mobile-connected computing won't really take off until 3G networks are in place. Hutchinson, which owns the Orange mobile brand, is building Australia's first 3G network. The service is expected to open for business at the end of the year or early 2003 in east coast metropolitan areas, with other cities to follow. At the time of writing, Telstra and Optus's 3G plans were unclear.

In theory, 3G networks can run at 2Mbps, though few users will see anything like that. More realistically, users can expect to see a few hundred Kbps.

In the meantime there's an interim technology known as general packet radio service (GPRS) that sits somewhere between today's second-generation networks, GSM and 3G. The service has been live for a few months but has yet to be promoted. Like 3G, GPRS is always on, so there's no waiting to connect to the network. But it's still pretty slow.

Australian carriers say their GPRS networks will operate at 10Kbps per channel. This sounds bad but phones can have multiple channels. In practice, most users will find the service works at about 30Kbps – that's considerably slower than today's desktop modems and roughly one-tenth of the practical speed available on 3G. In both cases you can expect to pay for the amount of data traffic rather than the time spent online.

While smart phones look set to replace conventional hand-held computers, they don't pose much of a threat to mobile phones – especially in business and corporate markets.

Swift says that although you can use the Siemens SX45 as a phone, "most people probably won't". He says he expects it to sell as a connected PDA and that most users will probably keep a tiny, minimal-feature mobile for their voice calls. He says that devices such as the SX45 are more likely to replace laptops than anything else.

Simpson takes the argument further, saying that there is definitely a consumer market for converged devices: "The phone market is largely ruled by fashion. There's a part of the consumer demographic that simply has to have the latest and flashiest phones." Likewise he thinks the one-unit convenience will appeal to certain groups of people, but not everyone.

Simpson says that for lots of users the current wave of converged devices involve too many compromises to be practical. For example, they have poor battery life, small screens, cramped keyboards or are too big and clumsy. Some have limited functionality. Many of the first generation of devices are difficult to use for ordinary voice calls. But future smart phones may progress past these initial limits and, inevitably, become more affordable.

For the next five years at least, Simpson says, the majority of users will choose to buy a best-of-breed hand-held computer and a best-of-breed mobile phone. The glue that will stick the two devices together is Bluetooth. "That way you can carry a hand-held computer that doesn't compromise on screen size and a practical phone handset," he says.

There's another advantage to this approach. Simpson says that the technology in hand-held computers and mobile phones is changing fast. By using separate devices you can upgrade one without having to upgrade everything.

Smart phones hit the streets

Already on sale in Australia, Kyocera's QCP 6035 smart phone combines a CDMA phone with a Palm hand-held computer. The $1299 device runs all normal Palm applications and can be used to browse the Internet either through HTML Web pages or WAP. It also has a folding full-size keyboard add-on. Scheduled for Australian release towards the end of this year, Sony Ericsson's P800 is a multimedia smart phone with a large colour screen, an Internet browser and a built-in digital camera. While the resolution of the camera will not be up to professional photography standards, it will enable you to take pictures while on the move and send them directly to other phones.
The P800 will also function as a pocket organiser and features Bluetooth wireless technology, making it easy to connect the phone to PCs or other devices without the need for cables. Sony Ericsson says that when it arrives, the P800 will probably be priced at the high end of the range.
Like the P800, Nokia's 9210i Communicator uses the Symbian operating system. This is a development of the technology used in the Psion range of hand-held computers and enables the phones to work with Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint documents as well as Adobe Acrobat. Organiser information can be synchronised with Microsoft Outlook files on desktop computers.

Priced at $1800, the 9210i Communicator looks like a doll-sized laptop with a tiny keyboard and a colour screen. The phone can handle streaming video and audio as well as Macromedia Flash animations. Nokia is aiming at business users: the phone can run a virtual private network so that people on the move can link to databases securely. The 9210i is expected to arrive in Australia by the middle of the year.

Go for the suite spot

You’ll need antivirus, firewall and anti-spyware software to keep your PCs safe from most threats. While some expert users manage to run products from different vendors, the applications may not play nicely together. You may even cause your system to crash.

Applications dovetail smoothly in security suites. They also give you a single interface to control everything. What’s more, suites are cheaper than the sum of their components. You may need to find separate spam filtering, anti-phishing and adware software.

Check the extras

Many security suites go beyond the basics offering features like parental controls, spam filtering and tools to stop private information like passwords, account details or telephone numbers from being transmitted.

Don’t double up

It’s tempting to think that running two firewalls or antivirus programs will make your system doubly secure – it won’t. Overlapping security tools can create havoc, slowing your computer and making it hard to troubleshoot problems. Stick with one of everything, it’ll be safer not to mention cheaper.

Watch the calendar

Many commercial security software products come as one or more applications coupled with online links to an automatic updating service. Typically when you buy the product one year’s worth of updates come as part of the deal. When the year is up you can pay a fee to get a further year’s worth of updates.

That’s convenient, but typically the cost of an extra year’s subscription is the same as you’d pay for new versions of the applications. As security vendors are constantly updating their technology and adding more features to their products – buying a fresh product is the better option. What’s more, avoiding the subscription gives you an opportunity to avoid lock-in and move to a rival company’s offering.

Also, watch out for arrangements where a security software company takes your credit card details and automatically invoices for updates. They try to tell you this is a service to make life easier for you. In fact, they do it because they make a lot more money that way.

The question isn't whether the virus-writers, phishers, spam merchants and other assorted online nuisances are targeting your PC, your money and your privacy. The question is how successful will they be.

Your computer and your data are potentially vulnerable from the moment you hit the on button. The threats multiply when you go online. While there’s no sure way to make your system safe, there’s plenty you can do to minimise the risks.

Computer security

The risks are real. At the less worrying end of the spectrum, neighbours might hop on your wireless router and surf the web on your ISP account or pranksters may load your PC with troublesome viruses.

There are people, including some seemingly respectable companies, who want to spy on your online activities.

More seriously, there are crooks who’d like to control your computer so they can suck money from your bank accounts.

Others want to hijack your machine so they carry out their crimes or even terrorist acts at arm’s length leaving a trail that investigators may track to your front door.

Getting Started

It sounds scary, but a whole industry has evolved to help keep you safe. These days you need a variety of tools to fight a complex range of security threats (see the next post: Computer security guide: 2 what are the main threats).

At the least you should consider antivirus, a firewall and anti-spyware tools.

This may sound complicated and expensive, but all-in-one security suites make life easier and help you sleep at night.

These are particularly helpful if you’re not a security expert because the separate tools in security suites should interact smoothly with each other and offer overlapping protection from today’s nastiest threats which can use a blend of techniques to probe your defences.

A computer buyer's guide for non-experts.

Buying a PC once meant swimming in shark-infested waters. You only had to wade into a computer store and sleek-looking creatures would circle, hoping to sink their teeth into your credit card.

These days the bites you’ll encounter when shopping for hardware are spelled with a “y”. That’s because computer retailing has grown-up; respectable stores have learnt how to sell computers and customers know to avoid the rip-off retailers. Even so there are still predators, so act with caution.

Most independent specialist computer stores in Australia and New Zealand are small fry. While there are swept-up specialist showrooms in swish retail areas, many are in run-down shopping districts, or in industrial or retail parks. You’ll find them tucked away in suburban backwaters, on the wrong side of the tracks or in the creepy subterranean areas of shopping malls where you might expect to run into a party of orcs. The key word here is low rent.

Inside, store decor can range anywhere from the neurotic tidiness to health-hazard squalor. There might be a few nerdy looking guys working out back in what looks like a pigsty. This is the engineering department. Amongst empty cola cans and fast food wrappers you’ll find state-of-the-art processor chips and disc drives which may end up inside your computer.

Unbranded hardware

As a rule small specialist stores offer unbranded hardware. Or at least unbranded desktop computers. In the trade these are known as white boxes. Wall stains are hidden by posters for companies you’ve never heard of. While there's limited brand choice, these guys can tailor a system to your exact specification or budget in a matter of hours.

And it’ll be cheap. If you’ve already got a monitor, mouse, keyboard and speakers, you’ll find good basic desktops start at around $500. Spend $1000 and you’ll have something better than 99 percent of corporate office workers will have on their desks.

In the past small specialist stores would offer unbranded or obscure-brand laptops. These days the portable computers are almost always from well-known multinational companies, though you may see some unfamiliar names.

You’ll find the sharpest prices at the small specialist stores – saving more that 20 percent on prices elsewhere – but there are risks:

• First, you need to check that the hardware you paid for is exactly what you got (the section at the bottom of this post tells you how to do this). This check applies to all computer purchases from any type of supplier.
• Second, a small store might disappear before your computer’s warranty expires. As a rule of thumb, a store that has been around for more than three years is unlikely to close overnight. With the economy the way it is, small stores are probably no riskier than some of the big ones.
• Third, most of the prosecutions for software piracy involve smaller specialist stores. Make sure you get certificates and boxes for all the software included in your purchase. Be wary of unexpected applications pre-loaded on to the hard disc.
• Fourth, brand name manufacturers spend a lot of time and effort matching components and fine tuning their hardware. El cheapo computer makers might just visit the lucky dip barrel and shove in whatever parts come to hand causing problems down the track. You might even find second-hand components in your machine. Of course, the big brands play similar games with their discount product lines.
• Finally, don’t part with your money until you have the hardware.

Bigger range, less choice

Larger electronic retailers such as Dick Smith and Harvey Norman tend to carry a lot more stock than the specialists. They offer a bigger range of prebuilt systems as well – though this may vary depending on store size. You’ll find the brands are mainly recognisable and although they may offer limited flexibility, you are usually restricted to buying complete systems with all the extras. Don’t expect to choose from a smorgasbord of components either. Prices are usually higher than elsewhere.

Electronics retailers tend to keep machines on shelves and are less keen to let you test drive, especially when they are busy. Their focus is on a quick turnover of stock so expect to find less emphasis on customer service and a more intense emphasis on selling: touch a machine and a sales rep will approach you. You might find slightly more pressure to buy.

In some cases sales staff are ‘incentivised’ to push certain product lines. For example if they sell so many models in a particular range, they’ll get a free holiday in Fiji. So treat brand recommendations with caution. The sales reps are also expected to flog you extra stuff once you’ve made a big decision – it’s the computer retail equivalent of “do you want to upsize?”

Variable after sales support

After sales support varies drastically from retailer to retailer so check individual store reputations with your friends before buying. You may find support is referred back to the manufacturer, but legally the store is obliged to satisfy the customer.

Watch out for the special deals in the electrical stores. Old stock gets shifted at exceptionally competitive prices, but some so-called bargains are the rubbish products more savvy consumers have left on the shelves for a good reason.

Smaller independent specialist stores are far more common on the ground in Australia than in New Zealand, where a handful of big chains dominate. Australia also has large specialist outlets like Sydney-based Harris Technology where you’ll find neat rows of computers and printers along with other kit logically organised around the store.

In practice they offer a far more comprehensive range of hardware, a wider choice of brands, lots of small extra components and, usually, better sales advice. Prices are comparable with elsewhere.

Staff in the big specialist stores are better informed than in the electronic retailers. Not only do they know more about the items they sell, but they know about what is going on in the industry. What’s more, because they offer a wider range of hardware they feel less pressure to push inappropriate products. You’ll get good after sales support, these stores have proper workshops, but if you invalidate your warranty it may prove expensive.

Buying PCs direct from the manufacturer

If you already know exactly what you want and have better things to do with your time than listening to sales patter then you may prefer one of the direct sales operations.

Dell runs the largest and best known direct PC sales operation. Apple, Acer and Harris Technology also offer direct online sales, although Harris doesn't make its hardware. Some specialist stores also offer direct sales.

When you buy a computer from a direct sales operation you can usually chose a basic model and then customise it to your heart’s content. Dell’s team will then assemble your chosen hardware and deliver it directly to your home.

Buying direct is convenient and, in general, you have a lot more flexibility than buying a brand name PC in a store. That’s because the machine is assembled to your specifications. It is hard to choose components online if you’re not technical, but telephone sales people can walk most beginners through the process.

One word of warning though, many direct sales companies speak in a strange coded language that isn’t immediately obvious to consumers. Years ago, I purchased a Dell via telephone after visiting the web site I thought I was buying a computer complete with a DVD burner. When the computer turned up, it couldn’t write DVDs. The sales critter (probably in a far-flung third world country) didn’t make it clear that a ‘combo’ drive could read and write CDs and only read DVDs. My complaints were not accepted.

Dell: a mixed experience

Personally this experience, along with a few other problems, means I will never buy from Dell again. However, many of my friends and colleagues are happy with the company.

One other thing to watch with Dell is that the company’s special offers are good value, but once you alter the specification, the costs quickly rise.

Many computer makers, including direct sales operations like Dell, offer telephone after sales support – mainly during office hours. They’ll help you set up the system and troubleshoot problems; if something needs fixing you’ll have to courier or take the machine to their warehouse and wait for a few days. You may be able to pay extra for on-site support. Specialist computer stores usually offer their own in-house after sales support.

Don’t underestimate the need for support. Everyone buying a new computer needs help at one stage or other – even experts. It’s worth paying a few dollars more for your hardware if you can get someone to hold your hand while you set things up.

Finding the right sales person

Finding the right shop is hard enough, but for most people finding the right sales critter once you reach a store is even more important.

If you’re a seriously techno-savvy consumer, the last thing you need is someone who talks like a kindergarten teacher on mogadon. Some insist on explaining everything as if reading flashcards. On the other hand, if you’re a novice, excitable nerdy guys with cartoon ties speaking incomprehensible jargon is off-putting.

Older readers might remember the TV comedy sketch where Rowan Atkinson goes into an electronics retailer and asks for a ‘gramophone’. The smart-alec sales assistant then spends the next few minutes giving the customer a hard time because he doesn’t know the meaning of terms like woofers, tweeters and Dolby. If this still exists on videotape it should be mandatory viewing for everyone who sells computers.

While there’s still a tendency for some retail staff to patronise customers, the good news is that these days they are better trained. Individual sales people may have difficultly getting the balance right, but most places have at least one person who can communicate with you on the right level.

Things to watch out for

The other thing to watch for is over-zealous sales people. Some retail computer stores put their staff on group bonus schemes; others run on an individual commission basis. This means the more they sell, the more they earn. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but take care.

Avoid being hurried into any purchase. In particular avoid anyone who tells you that a particular price is “only for today”. Watch out for any extras, only buy what you know is necessary. Retailers earn wafer thin margins on hardware, but the profits on other items can be sky-high.

In some small computer stores, the person who runs the shop is the owner. They may haggle. Don’t expect to negotiate a lower price if you’re just buying a PC – specialist stores typically already have rock-bottom prices, work off tiny margins and have little room to move. However, if you want to buy a bundle of stuff in a single transaction, they may offer a good deal.

How to quickly check computer hardware

To get a list of the hardware components inside a Windows Vista machine click Start, All Programs, Accessories, System Tools, System Information. This isn’t always 100 percent accurate, but it is a good guide. Macintosh users can find more limited information by pulling down the Apple Menu and click “About this computer”.

Businesses think long and hard before buying computer hardware and software. Some have finely tuned technology plans. Others might take an ad hoc approach, making up the rules as they go. This sounds unwise, but it has the advantage of flexibility.

Some managers consult with their end users and technology specialists before drawing up specification lists. Many business buyers prefer the security of a known brand, some seek comfort in long-standing ‘technology relationships’, and others like the prices or local service offered by smaller outlets.

Whatever the details, business people tend to put a lot of research and effort into their system and software purchases. So should you. But it's easy to hung up worrying about the wrong things.

While it makes sense to plan software buying in detail, this is not always the case for hardware. After all, modern computer hardware is a commodity. There isn’t much difference between one brand and another. Inside they are pretty much the same. After years of conducting in-depth benchmarks (among other jobs I edited the Australian edition of PC Magazine), I can confirm that the difference between the top-performing brands and the average is rarely more than a couple of percent.

Whisper it quietly, but this difference is well under the margin of error. When comparing classes of computers, the performance spread between the highest and the lowest is usually less than the margin of error. And even if it isn’t, I challenge anyone to sit at any two similarly configured PCs and tell me which one is running five percent faster. You won't notice any difference running Microsoft Word or working online with Firefox or any other browser.

Frankly, for people in business performance is an issue, but the performance that matters is that between different classes of machine and not different models within a class.

Oh and before we go any further, if raw processing speed really worries you, most of the time you can boost it  by adding more Ram. Spending a $100 on extra memory chips is the best IT investment you’ll ever make. Not only will this kick-start sluggish systems, but you’ll be able to do more work and work more productively.

Of course, benchmarking does show up poorly performing products. But these are as likely to come from the most prestigious stables as from the cheaper no-brand operators. By all means use benchmarking information to avoid the dogs, but in the long run, average performing machines are as good a buy as the fastest.

While the performance spread of similarly specified PCs is minimal, prices tend to have more variation. Both follow the well-known bell curve. But the top and bottom performers in any class might deviate three or four percent from the average, while prices can vary by up to 20 percent; and even more if we include Apple's expensive hardware in the list.

You might expect that prices vary with performance. They may, but only up to a point. Statisticians and economists call the way two variables interact; ‘correlation’. So, if price and performance ratings match, they would be highly correlated, if cheaper machines performed best, then they would have negative correlation. In reality, there is merely a weak correlation between price and performance.

If you draw a graph and plot performance against price, there would be a pattern, but a number of points on the graph would sit a long way from any trend line or cluster. These are the machines to watch. Those that are nearest to the corner where performance is sluggish and prices are high represent the worst value. Those in the opposite corner represent the best.

It might seem like a lot of work, but this is a worthwhile process if you need to buy a lot of hardware. However, it is worth remembering that differences in performance rarely matter, dollars in your pocket do.

So, what PC purchasing lessons are there for individuals and small business owners? The key is to get your IT spending into perspective. When shopping for hardware, you should pay more attention to the features included in the package than to any benchmarking details. Remember warranties and reliability are more important than performance. And above all else, remind yourself that a low-price, average performing system plus $100 spent on Ram will almost always give you a better return than a pricey speed demon.