Posted on Mon, Oct. 21, 2002

BEYOND THE NET

In search of a super simple computer

By Janine Warner

A friend of mine sat his mother down in front of his computer not too long ago for her first lesson. Just then, his phone rang and he was momentarily distracted. When he returned, he found her holding the mouse in mid air, pointing it at the computer; already frustrated that clicking on the buttons wasn't making anything happen.

He and I both got a good laugh out of it later (although he worked hard not to laugh while he carefully explained to her that the mouse wasn't a remote control). But the incident demonstrated something I've believed for some time: Until computers are as easy to use as a remote control, they're not going to reach the broadest possible audience.

Televisions currently adorn the homes of more than 90 percent of U.S. residents, but computers have only crossed the 60-percent mark, and the number of new households buying computers has actually slowed in the last two years. That drop in computer purchases has prompted software and hardware companies to develop new computers that are easier, more versatile and more entertaining to use.

On the consumer side, HP's new Media Center packs a sophisticated entertainment package into a high-powered desktop. You can even use a remote control to interact with it.

On the business side, the new Table PC makes it possible to ''write'' on the monitor of a portable computer as easily as a pad of paper and interact with programs through a touch-screen. Weighing in at only a few pounds, it's small enough to take almost anywhere.

Whether you buy one of these new machines this fall or not, their emergence on the market is worth noting because they each represent a significant step in computer design and functionality. It's these kinds of innovations that may eventually attract the digital holdouts in that last 30+ percent of households that still don't have a computer.

The HP Media Center is a high-powered computer, but it's also an entertainment center that can be used in what HP calls the ''Lean Back Position.'' That's why it comes with a remote control, explained Product Marketing Manager David Galvin. HP expects you to be leaning back in your chair when you use it.

Think of the Media Center as everything you would expect in a high-end desktop computer, plus a built-in television and digital recording device that's even easier to use than your VCR.

It works a lot like the TiVo digital video recorder, but it has the added advantage of including a DVD player and recorder to give you unlimited storage space for multimedia, as well as the ability to copy programs for use on other machines (such as your laptop on an airplane).

The Media Center also serves as a stereo system that plays CDs and MP3s on 200-watt speakers offered as standard equipment. (HP invested heavily in the speakers when studies showed sound was an especially important consumer feature. Most computers ship with 3-watt speakers.)

On the business end of the spectrum, the coolest new computer design hitting the market this fall is the Tablet PC. These small, lightweight laptops feature a monitor that you can flip around, close over the keyboard, and use facing upward so that you can write on it like it's a pad of paper. I tested a prototype at PC Expo a couple of months ago and was amazed at how much it felt like writing on a note pad and how well it transformed my handwritten words into typed text. Add to that voice recognition and recording power, and you have a laptop that really might replace hand written notes some day, whether you're in a conference room or a classroom. Tablet PCs run on a special Windows operating system and are being manufactured by multiple hardware companies.

What's important to note as these innovative machines hit the market is that making computers easier to use is still a relatively new phenomena and one that is likely to become increasingly important in the future. In the ''old days,'' when computers were the size of a large room and only capable of simple calculations, the idea that you should use any of their power to make them easier for humans to interact with seemed ridiculous, especially to the geeky scientists who created them.

Now that computers that are small enough to fit in a child's hands have more power than many adults know how to use, it makes sense to harness some of that capacity to make them easier to operate.

If Moore's Law, which states that computer processing power doubles every 18 months, continues to hold true, multifunctional devices, such as the Tablet PC and the Media Center, will get increasingly powerful and become less and less expensive, meaning they should find their way into more hands and be easier to use when they get there. That's good because they're both still priced a little high compared to other computers on the market. (The Media Center will cost about $1,400 without a monitor, and Tablet PCs should go for about $2,000.)

Even at the higher price, the ease of use may be worth it. I'm looking forward to having a computer I can be entertained by in the ''Lean Back Position,'' and I can't wait to tell my friend's mother she can finally use a remote control to interact with her computer.

Janine Warner is the author of several books about the Internet, including ``Dreamweaver MX for Dummies.''

To learn more, visit: www.janinewarner.com.