Feeding Our Desire For Instant Data
The Age
Monday February 22, 1993
FOR ALMOST a decade, faxes have fed our desire to have information immediately _ not the next day or so by post, not in an hour by courier and not even later in the morning by the internal mail system, but right now.
And we want it whether we are behind a desk on the 50th floor of a CBD tower or sitting on the ground beside a four-wheel drive in the outback. The ``electronic cottage" predicted by Alvin Toffler has become the ``electronic tent" if necessary.
Australians have embraced faxes to become the second highest user per capita in the world _ it is estimated there is a fax for every 16 workers. Modems also cater to this urgency, and save time and errors by eliminating the need to re-key data or fiddle around with floppy disks.
Both these items do much the same kind of job; they transmit and receive data. It is no surprise that they have joined forces, particularly in the ``portable office" area where compact is beautiful.
The aim of electronics developers seems to be to compress everything that is on your desk, in your desk, in your filing cabinets and shared by other staff members into a box that fits in your pocket. It is just about happening; there are limitations, but the progress is dramatic.
The ``mobile PC" market, which includes palm-tops, notebooks, laptops and portables, is growing in numbers and shrinking in size and for these tiny powerpacks to operate effectively, the communications between them and the office must be effective.
Modems are therefore vital and their efficiency is improving all the time. A lot of these can perform fax functions as well _ or vice versa. A lot of faxes can work as modems.
Hewlett Packard produces a tiny fax/modem for use with the 95LX palm- top computer. It is slightly larger than a credit card _ about 4.5 centimetres by about six centimetres and not as thick as a matchstick.
The company predicts even smaller developments.
The Worldport ASCII Fax/Data Modem can be used as a normal modem transmitting and receiving data in ASSCI text, can send faxes anywhere in the world via standard or mobile telephones and access bulletin boards.
The card can transmit up to 64 kilobytes of data. This piece of equipment has not yet been Austel approved, but this is expected within the month. The recommended retail price is $400.
NetComm produces a similiar-sized modem, the CardModem 24, which the company claims is suitable for all main brands of hand-held notebooks, palm-top computers and PCs that support the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association 2.0 standard. The CardModem 24 features automatic line speed detection and adjustment for standard national and international speeds. The recommended retail price is $799.
Dataplex, a manufacturer and distributor of faxes and modems, has a full-function modem about 65 millimetres wide, 25 millimetres thick and 120 millimetres long. It is capable of transmitting and receiving 9600 bytes per second (BPS) and can be used with a PC or laptop computer.
``This is an ideal size for people who are on the move _ light and easy to carry with all the functions of larger modems and the ability to transmit locally, interstate and overseas," said the manager of Dataplex's wholesale department, Eric Smith.
``People who take work home from the office can just can slip it into their pocket, work on their PC at home and transmit the data back to the office. It has economical advantages in that it can be shared among staff. A lot of modems can do fax as well, the technology is virtually the same." The market for portable faxes, smaller versions of the standard office facsimile machine, is a growing one, according to the branch manager of Voca Communications, Danny Leddin. One segment of the market is car faxes, with the power source coming from the cigarette lighter and communication via a cellular phone.
A standard portable fax is simply carried in a briefcase and plugged into a 240-volt power point and standard telephone. The smallest Voca Fax is about 300 millimetres long, 220 millimetres wide and 120 millimetres high. Voca Fax prices range from about $999 to $1399.
The implications of increasing sophistication and use of portable equipment could change the way business operates, according to NetComm spokesman, Chris Howells, who said that ``convergence to one device, whether on the desktop or in your hand, is creating a new central tool for business activity.
``This convergence could completely change the way many businesses are structured in the next 10 years. For example, what happens to the hundreds of acres of vacant office space in Sydney, Melbourne or London, which the banks hope will fill over the next five years, if telecommuting really does suddenly catch on? Obviously, telecommuting could save businesses billions of dollards in fixed infrastructure and transport costs."
© 1993 The Age
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