Single-Minded Gadgets

We live in an era where all devices want to do and be everything. Take a mobile phone, for example. Calls and SMSes aside, it can shoot pictures and video, fetch your mail, play music, record voices, keep you entertained with gaming, bring you the World Wide Web, allow you to chat over IM and a lot more. The same applies to a media player or a TV.
Yet, in this age of multipurpose, do-it-all devices some companies seem to think there’s enough room in our pockets to accommodate yet another dedicated, single purpose geeky gadget. Here are some of the hottest examples of these one-function devices.
For people whose mind boggles at using e-mail on their phone — be it a BlackBerry or an iPhone, there is Peek Pronto, an e-mail only handheld gizmo. The Pronto looks like a slim BlackBerry, replete with a full, spacious QWERTY keypad and 2.5-inch, QVGA display, control wheel and 8MB of internal memory. The device offers e-mail, SMS messaging, Word and PDF support, and search. Period. Priced at $50, Peek Pronto obviously requires a monthly service plan for the mail which comes at $15.
Obsessed with Twitter? Take a look at Twiiter Peek. A standalone, lightweight Twitter-only, on-the-go gadget, that offers instant delivery of tweets and unlimited tweeting. A one-time $199 fee entitles you to a lifetime’s service. TwitterPeek features a QWERTY keyboard and a screen that for some strange reason doesn’t allow you to view a complete 140-character tweet.
If you’re fond of reading and don’t mind reading onscreen, there’s nothing better than the Amazon Kindle. A rage in a number of countries, this brings to your palm Amazon’s electronic bookstore with a stockpile of 3,60,000 titles and 85 newspapers that you can download in seconds directly to the device. Every Kindle comes with a lifetime AT&T 3G service — even in India — to purchase books over the air. The $259 device holds some 1,500 books, has 6-inch e-ink, non-backlit screen and a battery that lasts two weeks.
So what is the wisdom behind carrying an additional handheld gadget that performs a function which could easily be performed by your phone or laptop? Well, you never think twice before carrying along an iPod or digital camera when you’re travelling, even though your phone will serve the same purpose, do you? That’s because dedicated devices make life simpler. You’re less dependent on your phone. You can multitask more easily. The user interface is simpler. You also automatically end up conserving its battery life — and memory, in the case of video. And quite often, dedicate gadgets like cameras work far more efficiently and thus fetch far better results. Well, they should...

The writer is a part-time publishing consultant and a full-time devotee of all things tech. He can be contacted at ashishone@ gmail.com and twitter.com/ashishone