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Bill Machrone
An integrated cell phone/PDA? It's for real--and it's not bad

Bill Machrone
Contributing Editor PC Magazine
Wednesday, April 18, 2001
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Small size used to be the can-you-top-this macho game when all the road warriors and executives displayed their hardware on the conference table. Now the trump card is integration.

The Kyocera Smartphone QCP 6035 has taken the business world by storm--everybody's praising its innovative design and combination of features--a tri-mode cell phone, 8MB Palm, Web browser, and e-mail. PC Magazine's review has all the details on size and weight, but rest assured that this unit is comfortable to carry and use.

Still, the Smartphone is not without compromises. The screen is noticeably smaller than the typical Palm screen, which causes some readability problems, but the overall usability is just fine. If you want to use the phone while you're using the PDA functions, you'll need an earphone, which I find annoying. I still prefer a separate phone and PDA. If you don't mind being tethered to the device, though, you reap the benefit of a wireless PDA with Web access--that's the real attraction of the device to me, because the Palm browser can see many non-WAP sites that phone browsers can't get to.

Although I have yet to encounter coverage limitations in the places I travel with my PCS phone, the additional coverage provided by the Smartphone's CDMA PCS, digital CDMA, and analog cellular ensures that you'll get a signal just about anywhere.

At $500, the cost of the Kyocera device is reasonable compared to the cost of a comparable phone and a separate PDA, and a flat-out bargain compared to the combined cost of a phone and a wireless PDA. The Smartphone 6035 is a glimpse into the digital, wireless future, although it'll be a long time before prices come down to the point where this is the phone for everybody. Scaled-down Small Business Server fights Linux suites

Microsoft's Small Business Server 2000 has a goal: keep small businesses in the family so that they don't get distracted by Linux on the migration path from individual, peer-networked machines to a full-scale BackOffice implementation.

Overall, it succeeds fairly well, as noted in PC Magazine's review. It's less than half the price of BackOffice, and it's slightly easier to install than the Linux distributions. It has some significant wins, such as the ease of setting up new users, while still remaining VAR-friendly. It's rich with features such as Terminal Server, SQL Server, and Exchange, as well as a proxy/firewall. It should definitely be on your list of things to check out if you're headed toward a server-based small business.

Are you interested in a fully integrated cell phone? What about Microsoft's Small Business Server? TalkBack to me.

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