Tech Gear to Watch in 2004

From smart phones to fancy MP3 players, and from satellite radio to combo DVD/DVR players (and more), here's what you need to keep an eye on in the coming months.

Michael Cahlin

What's coming up in 2004? New versions of the gear you enjoyed in 2003, that's what! Picture-happy portable phones. MP3-playing PDAs. Digital cameras shaped like a package of Kraft Singles and almost as thin. Flat-screen PC TV monitors that are that thin (well, nearly). Music players that double as personal storage devices. Game-popping cell phones. PDAs masquerading as laptops. Wheel mice gussied up in black leather. Wireless everything. And even radio makes a comeback. Talk about a season to still be jolly!

The personal technology marketplace is thriving. And why not? The latest gadgets let you handle more tasks. They offer new and easier-to-use features, and boast bold designer styles and colors. The piece de resistance? Cutthroat pricing in many cases.

We've compiled a list of the hottest gear just out, and we give you a sneak peek at what's coming around the corner.

Player Perfect: MP3 Players

Industry trend: Bigger, smaller, bold colors, Star Wars designs, take your pick. Portable music players come in so many shapes, sizes, formats, and prices, you really do need a score card. The upside: Even without special deals and rebates, you can find terrific standalone MP3 players from $130 to $500, and many players, such as the Creative Labs Nomad MuVo NX, double as voice recorders and mini storage devices. Another option is DiskOnKey's unique SmartCaps MP3 Player ($130), which is actually two separate devices--a 128MB DiskOnKey memory key chain storage device the size of a Pez dispenser, plus an MP3 player/digital recorder. The memory key chain travels solo or slides into the player. Ba-bing! It works with all DiskOnKey key-chain storage devices from 32MB to 1GB, so you can carry more data or play more songs.

Apple's undeniably cool IPods remain very popular--with good reason. The newest snow white and silver players offer capacities of 30GB ($399) and 40GB ($499); they're smaller and boast longer battery life (Apple says eight hours). They also provide touch-sensitive controls. For the first time, PC users can buy the same IPod as Mac fanatics, and that includes being able to download songs from Apple's music store. You can also play games, import and export photos, download graphics, even look up names in a contact address book.

Two IPod competitors target Apple on two fronts--features and price. The 20GB hard-drive-based $350 Samsung YP-910GS is about the same physical size and costs a little less, but it includes a voice recorder, an FM tuner you can listen to and record from, and a transmitter so you can wirelessly broadcast to a car FM radio. Second, Dell's two Digital Jukebox music players, the $249 DJ 15 (15GB capacity) and the $299 DJ 20 (20GB capacity) are retro-boxy, but the company says each plays up to 16 hours between recharges.

Check out PC World's Top 10 Audio Players.

Do-It-All Smart Cell Phones

Industry trend: You'll find a serious blending of PDA and PC here. High-speed wireless data phones are smaller, lighter, and cheaper. They include speakerphone capability, a QWERTY thumb keyboard, a card slot for memory media, and an integrated digital camera. The best let you send and receive e-mail with attachments--and you can view the message and the attachments, while talking to the sender on speaker!

Two examples of such smart phones: Palm fans can try the $500 Handspring Treo 600; for PC World's review, check out "Impressive Treo 600." Pocket PC devotees might be interested in the $650 Hitachi G1000. If you don't care about having a QWERTY keyboard, check out the Motorola MPx200 ($300) or the newly released Samsung ($400) SPH i600.

For kids: A high-resolution screen and game controls make Nokia's spankin' new $300 N-Gage more appropriate for gamers, not gabbers. The N-Gage rolls many things into one: A combo game deck, cell phone, an MP3/FM player. You can play multiplayer games over the phone lines or use the built-in Bluetooth short-range wireless link. For more details about N-Gage, check out "Nokia Unveils Playful Cell Phone."

Hot Handheld Personal Digital Assistants

Industry trend: What a difference a year makes! The latest generation of PDAs does more, costs less, and looks better. Prices have dropped, and you'd be hard pressed to find one without a fast processor, clear color display, wowee audio and graphics support, MP3 player, and, of course, the ubiquitous digital camera. A higher-end model, such as the clamshell-design Sony Clie PEG-UX50, looks like a tiny laptop, but it has a bunch of built-in features: a keyboard, Wi-Fi capability, an MP3 player, voice recorder, Bluetooth, and a larger screen. And with a $650 price (with a special $50 mail-in rebate), it costs nearly as much as a low-end laptop.

Entry level? Pick your price. At $99, the Palm Zire 21 does just about everything, except color. The Palm Tungsten T3 ($399) does color and has a very cool slide-out screen chassis. For more details about both units, see "Palm Refreshes Tungsten, Zire PDAs."

For something unique, Garmin's IQue 3600 ($589) comes with a built-in GPS locator system. (Note: You need the $80 car kit to get the GPS to function properly--as well as to avoid eating up the battery.) On the Pocket PC side, since merging with Compaq last year, the HP/Compaq IPaq line dominates the market. At $250 (or $200, if you apply for the $50 rebate), HP's IPaq Pocket PC H1935 has everything except a camera. The HP IPaq Pocket PC H4150 ($450) has built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Just released, Toshiba's new Pocket PC E805 ($600), with a 4-inch screen and 128MB of memory, is supposed to appear early next year.

Radio Returns

Industry trend: It's baaaaaaaack. Just like the Six Million Dollar Man, yesteryear's radio has been rebuilt; it's better and more powerful than it was before.

Out: poor sound, weak signal, advertisement overload, and content "under-load."

In: CD-quality sound, digital recording, digital reception, remote controls, and hundreds of new stations beamed down from outer space offering better content. Yes, you have to pay for the difference, but you're really getting something for your subscription fee! These are definitely not your grandfather's transistors.

Take the new table radio from Cambridge SoundWorks, for instance. The company offers a tabletop unit at a price that's $100 lower than a similar product offered by Bose, its top competitor. The $400 Cambridge SoundWorks 740 CD includes a sub-woofer for richer sound, back panel audio inputs (perfect for MP3 players, TV, DVD player, and satellite radio tuners), a sleek CD feeder that can also play MP3s, and an RDS (radio data service) tuner, which displays information about the song titles playing on the radio.

For PC World's hands-on review and to learn more about the 740 CD's features, check out "Left to My Devices: Wave Good-bye, SoundWorks for Me."

Introduced in 1999, the Bose Wave Radio CD is starting to show its age. The Wave Radio CD still sounds great, but at $499, it feels overpriced--especially when you consider that the cheesy pop-top CD player does not play MP3 CDs.

Three words describe the main appeal of Pogo's Radio YourWay AM/FM Radio Recorder: "TiVo for radio." Depending on the model, you can record four hours of broadcasts on a 32MB version ($149) or 16 hours on a 128MB version ($200), and you can play your recordings anytime you want. A built-in microphone lets Radio YourWay moonlight as a digital voice/music recorder. Using the provided USB cable, you can also transfer files (including MP3s) between Radio YourWay and a Windows PC, but not a Mac.

Like HBO versus Showtime, both XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio deliver CD-quality audio beamed by satellite for a subscription fee; XM Satellite costs $10 per month, and Sirius charges $13 per month. Each company sells tuners and adapter kits for car and home that cost from $150 to $200, so you can shuttle the same tuner to and fro. Which is better? Today, only XM has a handy-dandy portable boom box, the Home Adaptor Kit powered by AC or batteries. Sirius says its will have one early in 2004. For hoop-hounds, however, Sirius is a slam dunk, broadcasting 60 NBA games a week. And football fanatics can enjoy new programming, starting in 2004: the NFL Radio Network. Sirius promises to broadcast every NFL game (along with some playoffs)--it's all included in the existing $13 subscription charge.

The best way to compare content is to jump on each company's Web site, check its program guide, and listen to sample music streams for free. Price-wise, both are offering year-end deals on their Web sites. Currently, XM has a $30 rebate on the Delphi XM SKYFi Radio Receiver (pre-rebate price is $130); Sirius tops it with a $50 rebate on its Plug and Play package, which lowers the price of this complete car and home system to $150.

To read about a first-hand experience with the Sirius service, see "Gadget Freak: Satellite Radio A-Go-Go."

Combination DVD DVR Recorders/Burners

Industry trend: Say sayonara to VHS. The hottest trend is folding TiVo--or a TiVo-like service--into cable boxes and DVD players. Before you buy, check your local cable company to see if they have--or will soon be offering--DVR (digital video recording) services. Comcast, for instance, plans to offer "TiVo-like" services in 2004, and many Time Warner subscribers already have the option.

If you can't wait, prices on standalone TiVo and ReplayTV boxes have fallen during the year, as newer models are rolled out. You can snag a TiVo for as little as $199. (Note: This price does not include the $13-per-month subscription fee--or a one-time $299 lifetime fee.) Best bets: Check the companies' Web sites for further year-end discounts, rebates, and clearances. Another great source for purchasing TiVo or ReplayTV equipment: EBay.

New this year are combination DVD and DVR players that also play CDs and MP3s like the Toshiba SD-H400 ($550) and Panasonic DMR-E80H ($700). Toshiba includes free, basic TiVo; Panasonic does not. Neither product burns programming directly to DVD. For that luxury, check out Pioneer's DVR-810H ($1209) and DVR-57H ($1800)--the first DVD combo player/burner with TiVo. Both products let you record shows on recordable and rewritable DVD discs. Hook up your VCR to the back of either unit, and you can transfer your old VHS tapes to DVDs. Expect prices to drop substantially in 2004 when Sony and others introduce competitive models.

If you haven't gotten into the DVD-burning craze, but you want to do something with your pile of VHS tapes, HP's $350 DVD Movie Writer is a unique all-in-one external kit that turns old analog video into DVD. The Movie Writer hooks up to a Windows PC via a USB 2.0 cable, just like a regular external DVD burner. Simply connect your VCR to the Movie Writer with a standard video/audio cable, then press the Record button on the device. A Video Transfer Wizard pops up and walks you through the rest of the transfer and burning process in a handful of mouse clicks. So far, the Movie Writer is the only one of its kind on the market (the price also includes a DVD+R five-pack).

Picture Perfect: Digital Cameras

Industry trend: Coveted 5-megapixel digital cameras, such as the Canon PowerShot S50, just dipped under $400--something most of us thought was impossible a year ago. See PC World's review of the Canon PowerShot S50.

Expect falling prices to continue in 2004, especially on 3.2-megapixel (and lower) models. Concord Camera will be introducing new 3- and 4-megapixel digital cameras for under $200 at Winter CES 2004.

Manufacturers seem to be focused on packing more features into a smaller and lighter casing, and making camera-to-computer interfaces, smart menus, and controls easier to use. Look for more powerful optical zooms and scads of automatic features and on-camera manual controls to make snapping sophisticated pictures easier.

The HP Photosmart 935 ($350) is another example of an affordable 5-megapixel camera. Check out PC World's review.

If you're willing to trade megapixels for style, you'll pay about the same for the ultracompact Minolta Dimage Xt ($225 and up), a 3.2-megapixel cutie, because of its radical thin, square design and built-in zoom that eliminates waiting for the lens to telescope out. See PC World's review of the Minolta Dimage Xt.

For the best bang for your digital bucks, Gateway is offering a 2-megapixel camera, the DC-T20 Digital Camera, for $99, and a new price-busting 4.1-megapixel DC-M42 and (larger-size) 5-megapixel DC-M50 camera--both cameras recently dropped in price from $250 to $200. If you don't mind sending back an arsenal of mail-in rebates, Gateway is currently tossing in a free Epson Stylus CX3200 multifunction printer (along with 100 sheets of Epson's high-gloss photo paper).

Check out PC World's Top 10 Digital Cameras.

Printer Perfect: Photo Ink Jet Printer

Industry trend: Prices plummeted this year, as more companies pumped out printers to meet the growing demands of amateur photographers. The sweet spot is now hovering at roughly $200 to $300; however, companies like Canon have photo printers starting at a ridiculously low $80. Workhorse units should pull double duty--printing both standard everyday documents and standout digital prints. Look for units with color 2.5-inch LCD preview displays that can also print pictures straight from your digital camera or media card. You'll also want simple button controls and memory slots that support a variety of media cards. Four-ink (or more) cartridge models are better than two. In the long run, you'll spend less money because you won't have to throw out an ink cartridge that still has cyan and magenta in the tank when you've used up all the yellow.

At $229, the newly announced Epson Stylus Photo R300M is a steal. It includes a color 2.5-inch color LCD display and six individual ink cartridges, compared with the three found in the more expensive HP Photosmart 7960 ($300). With prices ranging from $80 to $500 and five models to choose from, Canon has a printer for almost anyone who prints photos or wants to start.

Check out PC World's Top 10 Ink Jet Printers, Top 5 Photo Printers, and Top Multifunction Ink Jet Printers.

Mighty Mice and Game Pads

Industry trend: Sleeker designer styles, bolder colors, extended battery life, Bluetooth capabilities, smarter receivers that reduce interference from other wireless gadgets, and new lifestyle units are targeting kids, gamers, adults, and the tragically hip.

Ah, the faithful mouse. New models are so slick, you'd hardly recognize them. Take Microsoft's latest Wireless IntelliMouse Explorer ($60). You might like the new tilt wheel technology that also lets you toggle left and right for horizontal scrolling--and one of the new finishes includes black leather.

For gamers, the NyKo Air Flo Mouse sports a three-position setting to control a built-in fan to keep palms dry while mashing monsters. There are the translucent or glow-in-the-dark game pads for Xbox ($25) and PS2 ($20) from MadCatz. And you might want to check out Belkin's very slick Nostromo SpeedPad N52 ($50), which combines a game pad, mouse, and keyboard into one device.