 Tonight, the hit flicks of last year on video. Look before you rent. Culture clash on your plate. They call it fusion. And the next wave is portable data. Join us for Venture. Welcome to Venture. I'm Mike Saunders. Dumbing down. Some movie critics say it's the trend of the 90s. You pay your seven bucks and check your brain at the door. Are the movies in mental meltdown? And if so, do we care? Dumb? People, PDA means holding hands in the park. But in TechnoSpeak, it translates to personal digital assistant. These handheld devices promise to streamline, organize, and otherwise give meaning to your life. But enough hype. Let's check out the hardware. We'll start by taking a look at the first and most famous personal digital assistant. That's the Apple Newton Message Pad. And here's their latest version, the Message Pad 120. The Newton is famous for its handwriting recognition. Don't be fooled by bugs like this, where welcome to Newton becomes volume to Clinton. In fact, the one-planning's recognition is much improved, and it learns your penmanship pretty quickly. Plus it has one of the most satisfying scratch-out effects in the industry. A nice big puff of smoke. The Newton comes in one or two megabyte versions, but its most impressive feature is its intelligence. Forget a lunch date? Just right in lunch, and the free-associating Newton finds it on your calendar. With each successive version of the Newton, already we're seeing it get more usable. The screen's getting easier to read. The handwriting recognition is improving. The amount of memory and the number of programs available are increasing rapidly. They're working on it. Well, they'd better work fast. The Magic Link from Sony is the new kid on the PDA block. Instead of text and menus, the link provides icons and rooms, where every object is loaded with functionality. Want a calculator? Look for it in your customized desk. To turn your Magic Link into a phone, you guessed it, just tap the phone. To check up on finances, open your virtual wallet. Games are in the game room, and if you have a Sony TV, the link doubles as a clicker. Just don't leave it in your couch. But communication is the heart and soul of the Magic Link. Check out this customized email postcard. Oh, and did I mention the sound system? We've designed it to be easy to use, to be fun, and to really address the areas of communication, of organizing, and access to information. The Casio Z7000 takes the smorgasbord approach to PDAs. It reads only block letters, not very reliably, and it takes its time doing it. But it does come with a bunch of quirky and sometimes useful programs. If you want a good dictionary, a pocket quicken for finances, U.S. or world information, a quick game of solitaire, or if you desperately need to find a Dutch word for vegetable, the Casio is a handy low-end alternative. Look familiar? It's the Motorola Envoy, a clone of the Magic Link. The Envoy gives you the same environments, office, hallway, downtown, and the same funky ways of sending and storing. The big difference is, it's wireless. Goodbye, Mr. Phone Line. Depending on the wireless service you choose, you can get stock quotes, news summaries, and other info over the airwaves. And if you're not sure that crucial email went through, you can even book a flight and deliver it yourself. The PDAs we've seen so far are notepads first and communicators second. Here's a product that turns that around. The IBM BellSouth Simon. If you want to see the Simon's most impressive feature, turn off the lights. Ah, a nice backlit screen. Maybe the other PDAs will take the hint. The Simon is really a cellular phone with some PDA functions glued on. It's got basic fax capability, an instant Rolodex, a big old clock you won't need glasses for, and a sketch pad. But here's the downside. The Simon's too big and clunky to carry around. It just doesn't fit anywhere. Too bad, because it's Predict-a-key keyboard, which actually predicts the next letter you'll type, is a really cool idea, and a great time saver. Okay, I admit, the Timex Datalink watch isn't really a PDA, but gadget-wise, it's a winner. Disguised as a digital watch, this Dick Tracy special gobbles up names, phone numbers, and appointments. How? It's customized software that converts data on your PC into flashing bars of light. Just hold up the watch to the monitor and let it rip. Oops. Time for football practice. You'll never miss another birthday, deadline, or practice again. Okay, bottom line. Most PDAs are nifty little gizmos, but do you or I actually need one? Well, right now with PDAs that are out there, you see a lot of great ideas bundle into these expensive, really cool little packages, but they don't have color, they don't yet have the wireless two-way communication that you want. They show the potential through the applications that they do have of what you can do with PDAs, but they're not quite there. I tend to agree. In terms of price, performance, and portability, these PDAs offer tantalizing glimpses of what the ideal PDA will be someday, but someday just isn't here yet. Love that flip, John. Thank you. It takes practice. I bet it does. Don't try it at home. Well, you were kind enough to lend me a few of those PDAs, and I played around with them for a week, and they were actually really fun, and I'm not a computer person, and they were easy to use. They just don't fit into my life, and I was wondering who were they for and why do you need one or want one? Ultimately, they're going after you. Me? It's not there yet. And right now I think the companies are satisfied just going after those early acquirers, they call them in the trades, which are the people that go out and spend lots of money on first versions of expensive hardware. Eventually, though, they want them to be as ubiquitous as a telephone, and the more they are, the more useful they'll be. Right. Well, even though some of them had some really strong and persuasive features, I found that the ones I used were essentially just expensive toys. If you really needed one, which one would you recommend? Well, I suppose the best among them, so far, was the Motorola Envoy. That's the one that had the magic cap system, which was all the cute little pictures and graphics. Games. The house you lived in, exactly. And it has the antenna attached, so you can send, email, and receive it from the back of a taxi cab, as they say. No coincidence, it's probably the most expensive, so. Oh, well. Exactly. You'll be getting us one, though, actually. If I could, I would. Okay. Well, thanks for joining us for John Zitrain and Suzanne Salter. I'm Mike Saunders. See you next time on Venture.