Event Highlights Wireless, Mobile Tools

George A. Chidi Jr., IDG News Service

PHOENIX--Wireless and mobile products are claiming much of the attention among the new technology on display at the Demo 2002 show here this week.

Some of the technology is already taking product form, soon to be marketed to consumers and business users. Others, however, are technological innovations in search of a home. They're being marketed to service providers, such as public networks and carriers, for packaging as part of a service plan.

Among the products being previewed at the event:

• Digit Wireless demonstrated a new keypad for cell phones, designed to make typing short messages easier. The Fastap keypad has a 4-by-7-inch grid of raised alphabetical keys (including a space bar) with a more standard numeric set of keys nestled in the spaces between the grid. The keypad is designed to eliminate the need to scroll through letter choices, like pressing the number 2 key three times for the letter C when entering text.
• New software for Pocket PC personal digital assistants allows a user to attend a Webcast conference--or deliver one--on the road. Presenter's iPresentation Mobile Conference is currently in beta test trials with selected customers and will be generally available in April of 2002.
• Mitigo unveiled software that can convert the integrated digital camera of a PDA or other mobile device into a barcode or matrix code reader. CodePoint software operates on the device itself and not through the wireless network, requiring sufficient processing power in a device. But if information can be encoded densely in a matrix format, wireless devices with cameras could input larger amounts of data without necessarily having it in an electronic format.
• Virtual Ink will take whiteboarding wireless with its Mimeo XI, a device that snaps to whiteboards with suction cups. Using a digital signal processor chip to process ultrasound and infrared input, the unit captures whiteboard text and graphics, then stores them in flash memory. The flash allows the device to store the recordings of a whiteboarding session, freeing users from having to connect PCs to the Mimeo appliance.
• Newbury Networks announced its LocaleManager and LocaleServer software, which allow wireless LAN administrators to define different access rights and security procedures for different discrete areas of an 802.11-standard network. The product could allow general Internet access from common areas like the lobby of a building, but would only make a corporate intranet available in more secure locations like workspaces.
• Security and performance-tracking software for wireless networks emerged from mFormation Technologies. The company's Enterprise Manager software enables organizations to secure and control wireless devices and data, monitor performance, and pinpoint faults anywhere in a wireless network in real time over the air.
• Boingo Wireless has a technology that offers a down-to-earth solution to wireless connectivity. Boingo is an aggregator, offering a single sign-on to what it believes will be the highly competitive world of public access network providers, all using 802.11b access points in airports, coffee shops, and other public spaces as the gateway to an IP network. Boingo software "sniffs out" available networks and connects subscribers without making users key in a long list of arcane sign-on codes.
• Wireless carriers could offer customers the capability to call several people at once with a single command, and to send mobile instant messages in a burst to several recipients, using new technology from Octave Communications. Octave Improv allows customers to group phone numbers so that a single command like "call soccer team," can be used to reach an entire list of people by phone. After trying all of the phone numbers for each person on the list, the system can optionally leave a voice message on an answering machine or a text message via e-mail, page, short message service, or an instant messaging system.
• ArrayComm is demonstrating its i-Burst broadband wireless Internet access system. Users can access the Internet at bandwidth up to 1 megabits per second, according to the company. ArrayComm plans to sell the technology to wireless carriers, which would build it into their base stations and then sell i-Burst as an additional service capability either on their own or to other Internet service providers for consumer resale. The first commercial trials are set for later this year in San Jose, California.

Ephraim Schwartz of InfoWorld contributed to this report.