Tuesday, October 13, 1998
High-tech toys
TECHNOLOGY: As technology advances, palm pilots, pagers and cell
phones are getting smaller, and as prices fall, their popularity
with students continues to grow
By Pauline Vu
Daily Bruin Contributor
Once upon a time, a time long ago, there was the beeper.
A few months later someone created "digital display" for phone
numbers, and that little beeper became a pager.
Next, the pager companies created something called "voice mail,"
an oxymoron as good as any there ever was.
And then "text messaging" came into existence, and commercials
showed that asking someone to marry you through the pager could
indeed be a glorious thing.
Now technology has brought another breakthrough in the form of
"voice paging."
Conex’s new "Pocketalk," also known as the "portable answering
machine," will let you hear exactly how angry your boss is when
she’s paging you.
If the existence of evolution is still in doubt, one has only to
wander through the UCLA Computer Store and take a good look
around.
Technology is bombarding today’s consumers with gadgets that are
faster, better, and much more important than ever before.
"A cell phone is almost a necessity in life," said Roger Kirnos,
a third-year international economics student.
"I use it to call ahead when I’m running late to save time. You
don’t have to stop at a pay phone or anything," he added.
Cell phones, pagers and electronic organizers have been around
since the early 1980s, and were initially most popular with
professionals, such as doctors.
In the last few years, however, their use has taken off and they
have become a common commodity for consumers, including college
students.
When the computer store on campus opened in 1986. it sold only
hardware, software and other computer-related items.
However, three years ago, as the techno-gadgets grew more
popular, the store also jumped on the bandwagon and began selling
pagers, cell phones and other electronic items.
The most obvious reason for the popularity of these products is
that their prices have fallen drastically since the early days of
the techno-gadgets.
"Today it literally can cost you $7 a month to use a pager. In
the late 70s, it might have cost around $50 a month," said Robert
Cortes, manager for campus communications.
Kirnos said that with the various deals and rebates he got with
his cell phone, it is almost free.
Over the past year, Cortes added, the general price of such
gadgets have fallen an average of 10 percent as more companies
entered the business.
Price is just one reason for the breakthrough popularity of
these instruments. Another reason is that gadgets have so much more
to offer today than ever before.
The Nokia 9000i, which Cortes called "the most advanced wireless
phone," is not only what it appears to be.
In addition to being a cell phone, it is also a personal
organizer and fax with e-mail Internet access in the guise and size
of the average cell phone. It costs about $650.
Just last week Kirnos bought a Palm Pilot, an extremely advanced
kind of electronic organizer.
Including the portable modem he bought with it, the total
package cost him about $300. However, he says the price has been
worth the convenience.
"It’s easier than carrying around a DayRunner," he said. "You
can just delete files instead of scratching them out."
He also said the Palm Pilot is easily updatable and compatible
with any computer.
"Realistically, I can write a paper on it and transfer it to a
computer, and totally eliminate typing," Kirnos said.
Another fancy feature of the Palm Pilot is that it can read its
owner’s handwriting.
"It takes a few days, but you can train it to learn your
handwriting," said Jan Grinwach, director of the UCLA Store supply
division.
"Then you can write short notes on it and they’ll come back
typed," she said.
Obviously, cell phones and organizers didn’t start out so
advanced.
Cortes estimated that a new product or new application to a
product is invented every day, and about every three months there
is a significant breakthrough in the industry.
Is all this just a little redundant? Sometimes, the "significant
breakthroughs" might be nothing more than a certain fancy cell
phone made in an even smaller model.
Even people who buy techno-toys wouldn’t go so far as to pick up
every single new device.
"I don’t need a new organizer every single year," Krinos said,
"I’ll buy a new one only when mine gets too outdated."
Despite all the new electronic features today, not everyone
plans to rush out and buy the hottest techno-gadgets there are.
"Electronic organizers are a little dumb. Learning all the
shortcuts wastes just as much time as you save," said Amy Wang, a
second-year physiological science student.
Kirnos admitted that he was at first intimidated by the
instruction manual for the Palm Pilot.
"It took me a few days, but I’m starting to get the hang of it,"
he said.
Grinwach said that although pagers and cell phones are certainly
more student-oriented, electronic organizers are still used more by
professional businesses.
"Our opinion of electronic organizers is that they’re not really
in the student market," she said.
The price of an electronic organizer might seem a little high
when it is, after all, still just an organizer.
However, Grinwach argued that the price is "reasonable for what
they do."
"But they still do not satisfy the students’ needs," she
reiterated.
Although she possesses no technological knick-knacks herself,
Wang said most of her friends have cell phones and pagers.
"It depends on what kind of lifestyle you lead, whether you’re
really social or really busy. Then technological advances are
really good," she said.
Grinwach agreed that there is a definite convenience factor.
"Students are never in one place for very long. These things
permit them to be mobile and stay in touch with whoever’s trying to
reach them," she said.
Most users predict that as the price of these techno-gadgets
fall ever lower, their popularity will just keep rising.
"Life is about convenience, and these things make life
convenient," Kirnos said.
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