A Phone Smarter than Me!!!
by Gary Woods

Microsoft has been working on expanding their Windows Mobile Operating System to include phones. The SmartPhone technology is designed for one-handed operation and targeted at people who want to use Outlook data on a mobile phone for calling, messaging, and email.

The Operating System includes Pocket Outlook, Pocket Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player 8 for music, image and video files. You can also play games on the phone with a version of Solitaire included.

There are several ways to find and dial numbers, a speakerphone, and tight integration with Outlook. For example you can have the silent mode automatically kick in when you have a meeting scheduled.

If what you want is a large display on a PDA for working with Word or Excel documents while you travel then a PDA/Phone would better suit your needs. But if you use a PDA mostly for contacts, appointments, tasks, entertainment, and reading and managing email a SmartPhone could work for you.

The coolest SmartPhone out there currently is from Motorola and is around $300. The MPx200 is 3.4 by 1.8 by 1.0 inches and weights in at 4.2 ounces. It has two LCD screens, a color display on the flip-up panel and a monochrome one on the case top to show the time, date, signal strength, battery power and caller ID. It looks like we’re getting really close to merging the PDA with our phone, or maybe we're already there.

If you have any suggestions or questions for me please drop me a note at garyandlaury@santabarbaraproperties.com or see my column on the Internet at http://www.santabarbaraproperties.com or call me at (805) 729-0910