By Deryck Richards

Managing Partner

DESKTRONIX

desktronix.com

Text messaging is a quick way to stay in touch with people for personal or business purposes. With text messaging, you can chat with a partner by typing on keyboard and reading what they write to you on screen. Many text messaging products can work with cell phone text messaging (aka SMS or Short Messaging Service) so you can chat with people who aren’t in front of their computer. So, why not just pick up phone and talk?

It’s faster than e-mail and phone calls. And you don’t have to pay anything to text. If you need to chat with someone briefly or ask a quick question, it’s much less intrusive than calling someone. As with most developing technologies, several types of text messaging are available and each one is incompatible with others. But don’t let that keep you from trying it out. The main text messaging products are ICQ (www.icq.com), MSN Messenger (www.msn.com), AIM (www.aim.com), and Yahoo Messenger (www.yahoo.com).

btw (By Way...)

Each one is free and simple to download, install, and sign up. You can locate your “buddies” by searching in an online directory by their screen name, e-mail address, name, or telephone number. Once you get hang of it, text messaging can be extremely addictive. As you continue to use text messaging, you will find yourself learning to abbreviate words and sentences. When you leave an online chat, you might say BRB (Be Right Back), I’m afk (away from keyboard), or TTYL (Talk to You Later). See glossary below.

by Deryck Richards

Managing Partner

DESKTRONIX

desktronix.com

Carrying around an address book and planner is becoming a thing of past. With new PDA developments, you can manage your contacts and schedule, use e-mail, and even listen to music. Personal Digital Assistants, originally called "Palm Pilots," previously were used just for retrieving basic information. Today, using some of more advanced models could possibly replace need to carry a laptop computer. Modern PDAs can play music, games, videos, write documents, and connect to networks and databases -- nothing short of a desktop computer.

Although newer PDAs have processing power of a computer, they still have some limitations. Inputting information is done by handwriting recognition or by a miniature keyboard. Skilled users can input 20 - 30 words per minute, less than half speed of a good typist on a full-size keyboard. PDAs with a color screen tend to run through battery life faster. Finally, because small screen size number of prograqm options that can be displayed, programs available aren’t as advanced because user doesn’t have as much control over program.

Despite these limitations, market for PDAs is continuing to expand. Students, doctors, and business professionals are increasingly relying on PDAs for computing on go. Common PDA applications include spreadsheet, word processing, database, financial management, and games. PDAs synchronize files with your computer so that you can take your important information with you and update it when needed.