In the lead-up to Christmas, some businesspeople may be frantically searching for the absolute latest and greatest in office gadgetry.

Still others may already be looking ahead to 2004, wondering how today's technology will evolve to suit the needs of tomorrow's executive.

With these things in mind, the Ottawa Business Journal asked local experts what is hot – now and one year from now - in personal digital assistants, cell phones, office software and laptops. Here's what we found out.

CELL PHONES: Calling Dick Tracy

The "Dick Tracy phone" may become a reality sooner than some consumers think, says Elliot Finkelman, partner with Brookecliff Technology Corp.

Improvements in video-streaming will allow real-time, seamless transmission of faces and voices over cell phones, he says. Advances in video-recording could also make real-time videoconferencing via cell phones an everyday occurrence for people who frequently contact offsite clients or partners, he adds.

For this year, there are some cell phones that are creating some serious buzz. The Nokia 3600 ($349.99) has a video recorder that can capture 12-second video clips. Streamed video content can also be captured by the phone's Real One Player. While Canadian carriers have yet to make multimedia messaging service available, the phone is equipped to send video clips to other MMS-enabled phones.

This Nokia model also has e-mail, an Internet browser and a graphics screen capable of supporting relatively complex games, says Herb Woods, chairman of the Ottawa Wireless Cluster.

The many applications of video and photo capability include troubleshooting a major construction project, Woods adds.

"People on construction sites can look at something that isn't correct, shoot a picture of it and send it off to design engineers or project managers," he says. "The collaboration software people are trying to resolve exceptions on the spot, as opposed to letting a crew go off and do something else while they wait three days to make a decision."

Or maybe an offsite engineer is trying to find a small part to repair to a key piece of machinery, says Finkelman. They can quickly take a picture and send it off to manufacturers.

Meanwhile, Sharp Corp. announced last week it has developed a new technology to display business documents on mobile phones, allowing word-processing files, spreadsheets and presentations to fit the size and graphics capacity of phone screens. The announcement is one more piece of evidence that wireless technology will continue to allow execs to leave the office behind and take care of business from a remote location.

While such applications are work-oriented, there are also some important leisure activities that shouldn't go unnoticed, says Finkelman. More and more businesspeople can be spotted indulging in the distraction of cell phone games while waiting in the airport for a flight, he says. And, as the graphic and memory quality improves, such diversions can only get more complex, challenging and engaging, he adds.

PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANTS: Bring it on

There is one, all-encompassing word to summarize the biggest trend in wireless technology this year: convergence. Throughout 2003, wireless devices continued to move toward one single unit. And there is no better product to illustrate this trend than personal digital assistants, experts say.

It has fast become an industry standard: PDAs are being built into cell phones so users don't have to carry around multiple devices. Perhaps one of the most recent examples is the Palm Tungsten W ($299.99), which combines a digital phone with a PDA, two-way short-messaging service and e-mail.

A unique PDA is the Handspring Treo ($249.99), which has the added advantage of a fully integrated QWERTY keyboard, says Woods.

But one of the biggest stories to recently emerge from PDA manufacturers is related to the world of global positioning systems, Woods says. Kansas-based Garmin International, considered to be one of the world's top GPS gurus, recently introduced a PDA with GPS-enabled maps and databases of major cities.

Motorists can slide the StreetPilot (the 2610 sells for US$1166.65 and the 2650 for US$1399.98 US) into a dashboard sleeve and receive voice directions to their destination. The detailed map screen also highlights points of interest, emergency services and restaurants.

It could be perfect for someone who owns more than one car or finds themselves in a rental vehicle in an unfamiliar city on their way to a business meeting or conference, Woods says. The added bonus is that if users carry this PDA with a cell phone, they have a highly mobile emergency package if they need fast roadside assistance, he adds.

During last month's COMDEX 2003 event in Las Vegas, David Nagel, CEO of PalmSource Inc., claimed that many of the hurdles to ubiquitous, wireless, handheld devices have been resolved. While he acknowledged security and bandwidth continue to be nagging problems, he said the next release of Palm OS Version 6, code-named Sahara, will address some of these shortcomings. The operating system is set to launch at the end of this month.

Nagel predicted that, in the near future, the Palm operating system will be capable of offering seamless connectivity via Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) code-division multiple access (CDMA), Bluetooth and wireless fidelity, or wi-fi, technology.

The latter is key since "everyone's going wireless and these wi-fi hotspots are popping up all over town", says Finkelman. "Wireless networking was big this year and continues to grow."

During his address, Nagel gave a demonstration of the Tapwave Zodiac, which was well-received by the audience. As well as standard features such as a calendar and address book, the Zodiac's complex entertainment, navigation and messaging systems were crowd-pleasers, according to several reports.

First shipped at the end of October, the Zodiac is the first Palm-powered handheld gaming device and uses Bluetooth to enable multi-player gaming. It also features built-in MP3 and video players. The Zodiac 1 with 32 megabytes (MB) of internal memory is US$299, the Zodiac 2 with 128 MB is US$399.

OFFICE SOFTWARE: Spam versus e-mail

SQL Slammer, Welchia and Blaster. These are just a few of the malicious viruses and worms that have recently infiltrated computer systems worldwide, causing billions of dollars in damage. A frequent vehicle of choice for such cyber-critters is the spam e-mail message.

Thanks to such high-profile events as Blaster, anti-spam software has been a hot seller this year, according to high-tech experts.

Not to be outdone by his competitors, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates personally announced the launch of MS SmartScreen technologies last month. The technology will make its debut in an add-on for users of MS Exchange Server 2003 Software Assurance. The add-on, called Microsoft Exchange Intelligent Message Filter, will ship in early 2004.

SmartScreen enables Microsoft's anti-spam software to identify and classify messages by checking the recipient's "safe sender", "safe recipient" or "blocked sender" lists. If the sender isn't on any of these lists, the server scans the message for typical spam characteristics in the text and then decides whether the message is actually spam. The message is then delivered to the recipient's inbox or junk-mail folder.

Finkelman is reluctant to predict whether consumers of the near future will see the creation of even more intricate anti-spam software, or even whether consumer demand will continue to grow. While it wouldn't sit well with software developers, one alternative is to eliminate e-mail altogether, he says.

"There are companies in Europe now that have just banned e-mail. Spam software is, unfortunately, not as effective as we need it to be. There's million of dollars being spent by companies on this, but I don't know how spam will ever be prevented from reaching your inbox."

Industry experts at COMDEX 2003 recently admitted the problem of spam is only getting worse. Michael Osterman, president of Osterman Research Inc., a consultancy based in Black Diamond, Wash., said 50 to 60 per cent of all e-mail is spam and that percentage is rising.

Nonetheless, the best anti-spam software was identified by the same group as having a "collaborative filtering technology" that teaches software to spot spam using the same logic humans use when scanning subject lines in their inboxes.

Touted as a leading anti-spam software maker, California-based Tumbleweed Communications Corp. offers its Messaging Management System version 5.6. The core software and service sells for US$10,000 per processor for 2,500 users of less and US$20,000 per processor for over 2,500 users.

Alternatively, Symantec's Norton AntiSpam 2004 ($54.99) promises to filter incoming mail on multiple levels, detecting and flagging unsolicited messages while delivering valid mail. It also blocks pop-up and banner ads.

Industry experts doubt whether new anti-spam legislation in the United States will have an impact since it is next to impossible to prosecute fraudulent spammers who cannot be easily identified or located.

LAPTOPS: Year of the tablet

For the laptop lover, this year was all about the tablet PC.

These computers "have a lot of neat advantages for a lot of different people", says Finkelman.

Among the many brands is the Acer C100 (approximately $3,200), a full-powered wireless laptop with a screen that can be turned and rotated, allowing the user to view a web page in the standard 8.5-by-11-inch format.

Users can draw on the screen and choose to take advantage of a handwriting-recognition function some user groups call "phenomenal". This function can convert handwriting into a formatted document, no keyboard needed.

"It's almost like a real-time pad of paper," says Finkelman, adding it's perfect for executives who rely heavily on note taking during important meetings or to send a prototype drawing via e-mail.

Last month, Microsoft's Gates noted various hardware makers have sold 500,000 tablet PCs in the past year. While it's not a gigantic number, some industry watchers expect tablets to become a more viable option in 2004.

This is because PC makers are moving away from the "performance-challenged" Pentium III Processor, wrote Paul Thurrott in a recent column at winnetmag.com

There is, Thurrott said, a move toward the more powerful Pentium M/Centrino platform, which means second-generation tablets will perform better while getting improved battery life as compared to their predecessors.

As well, Microsoft is expected to improve tablet PC software in 2004 and is set to release a free upgrade for all tablet users called Windows XP Tablet PC Edition 2004 in the first half of the year. The release is expected to make the tablet platform more viable, especially for data entry, said Thurrott.

Also worthy of consumer attention is Sharp Corp.'s work surrounding laptop screens with 3D graphics, says Finkelman.

The Mebius PC-RD3D (US$3,299) went on sale last October in Japan and is planned for release in the U.S. before the end of this year. The 3D function has been included in NTT DoCoMo's cellphones since November of last year.

Sony and Microsoft are playing catch-up, says Finkelman.

The 3D feature could give the real estate industry a boost by enabling an online tour of homes where users can get a sense of depth for individual rooms. It would also make for dynamic power-point presentations, Finkelman says.

Source: Some of the pricing information in this article was provided by Ottawa-based Neolore Networks Inc.