New gizmos on the block

As usual, the New Year is being hailed as a bright new dawn for technology. Publicists scream that 2002 will be the year that we see nirvana at last. Third generation mobile phones, wireless gizmos talking to each other everywhere.

Let's not hold our breath, though. Remember the fever of anticipation over Ginger, the mystery device that was going to change life as we knew it? It turned out to be a £2,000 electric scooter. Now known as Segway, it arrives in the shops this summer.

Here are some of the other bright new technologies due to make their debuts in 2002.

Mobile mania

At last, mobile videophones that surf the web, play games, do e-mail, wash the dishes and change the baby's nappy. Third-Generation (3G) phones can handle data faster than ordinary phone lines, up to two megabites a second, so they can act as mobile offices and entertainment terminals in theory capable of almost anything, from downloading the company accounts to playing Doom online.

Third-generation networks will begin to operate this year for business users - the rest of us will have to wait until 2003. For us, 2002 will be the year texting got pictures and sound, courtesy of the Multimedia Messaging System (MMS). The incredible Nokia 7650, due out in the spring, has a big colour screen on the front and a camera on the back, so you can take a snap, add a text message or even a short recording and send it off to all your mates. Fab.

? www.umts-forum.org

? www.nokia.com/phones/7650/demo

Counting the kiosks

Eh? Surely payphones are as dead as the dial phone? Not according to BT and Marconi, which are installing 3,000 this year. They will feature colour screens, keyboards and rollerballs, so that users can surf the web, send and receive e-mail and get local information such as nearby shops, train timetables etc.

? www.groupbt.com

Smarter phones

Linux, the free operating system rivalling Windows, is being hyped as a cheaper and better alternative to Palm and PocketPC, but the only Linux- based palmtop to arrive here is the Sharp Zaurus. It has a miniature slide-out keyboard so you don't have to relearn how to write. Unfortunately, the expected price is £400 and Linux is said to be difficult to use, so only geeks like it.

In fact, 2002 may see the disappearance of palmtops as separate devices, to be replaced by smartphones. Already, the Nokia 9210 Communicator (the phone that opens up into a dinky laptop) outsells every palmtop in Europe. Handspring's Treo smart- phone is a palmtop with a built-in GSM phone and high-speed data link. A sticky mess on the screen when you press it to your ear is prevented by a transparent flip-lid. It will cost around £500 when it arrives soon.

? http://developer.sharpsec.com/jindex.cfm

? www.handspring.com

? www.nokia.com/phones/ 9210

Cable cutters

Freedom is the battlecry of wireless-networking fans, and two rival systems are set to do battle in 2002 - Bluetooth and 802.11. Bluetooth is a radio chip now appearing in many mobile phones, laptops and palmtops, while 802.11 is a wireless version of the Ethernet office network system.

Pundits predict wireless will change the world, enabling everyone in a room to network instantly all their laptops together. Or for shops to send electronic ads to every Bluetooth-equipped mobile passing by.

Already these high hopes are being dashed. Instant networks are proving difficult to etablish in practice, and in the United States, Starbucks has removed many of the 802.11 units it installed, due to a lack of interest.

Wireless technology will probably be used solely to remove that spaghetti of wiring at the back of every computer.

? www.bluetooth.com

? www.80211-planet.com

Digital dosh

Internet shopping is still being held back by credit card security problems. This year, banks are ditching magnetic stripe cards in favour of ultra-secure, computer-chip-based smartcards (the ones with the gold patch on the front), but this will be no good for home users unless PCs sprout suitable readers.

An alternative would be to create net currencies that would exist only on the web, but all efforts to do this have failed - the web- based currency beenz crashed last year.

For 2002, people will be trying to persuade us to pay using our mobile phones.

Paybox hopes we will be able to pay cabbies and market traders by pressing keys on our mobiles, as is already popular in Germany.

? www.paybox.co.uk

Keyboard killers

Microsoft will be making a big push to persuade us to invest in new types of PC this year - Tablet PCs and legacyfree computers that dispense with the need for oldfashioned communications ports and floppy disks, in favour of USB and wireless.

Microsoft launches the XPbased Tablet PC standard later this year, hoping that manufacturers will deluge the market with computers consisting only of a screen that you can hold in your hand or rest on your lap. The problem is that we all type now, and no one seems to want to go back to writing.

? www.microsoft.com/ windowsxp/tabletpc

? www.compaq.com/ products/desktops/iPAQ/lfree

Radio days

Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB) will finally be a hit in 2002, say the people making the radios and those behind the digital stations. DAB gives you clear reception, extra digital-only stations, and the ability to carry other information, from track listings to traffic reports. Most broadcasters have yet to exploit the extra capacity and the basic hardware has been costly and dull (save for Psion's funky Wavefinder, which requires a PC).

Expect cheap players, the first portables, more stations and more excitement. Please.

? www.ukdigitalradio.com

? www.bbc.co.uk /digitalradio

? www.wavefinder.com