Plugged In: Tiny Gadgets to Get a Storage Boost

1. 1.5-Gig Storage for Less

The Buzz: Tiny MP3 players and other consumer devices are about to get cheaper, courtesy of an embedded storage device from Colorado start-up Cornice. Roughly the size of an After Eight mint (or IBM's competing, much more expensive Microdrive), the inexpensive Cornice Storage Element draws little power, is highly shock-resistant, and holds 1.5GB. Cornice-based MP3 players from RIO, IRiver, Thomson, and others should be available soon. Music gadgets are just the start: Video devices are on the way, and South Korea's Digitalway is readying a small USB storage device that should cost half as much as today's flash options.

Bottom Line: You can never be too thin or have too much storage. Being really cheap doesn't hurt either.

2. An Office by Any Other Name

The Buzz: It's not just Microsoft Office anymore. The upcoming sequel now bears the ponderous label Microsoft Office System. Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, and XML-document builder InfoPath are available in mix-and-match packages. If you want Visio, FrontPage, or handy note-taking app OneNote, you'll have to buy them separately. A staggering 600,000 beta testers have been pounding the code for a while, and response has been enthusiastic.

Bottom Line: So now I have to install a "system" on my system. What ever happened to plain old software?

3. AOL Gets Optimized

The Buzz: Apparently "9.0" didn't have enough oomph. So this summer's upgrade to the world's most popular online service (for which PC World provides some content) is being dubbed AOL 9.0 Optimized. The new version focuses on security and spam, adding word-specific and "learning" junk-mail filters, plus stronger parental controls. A revamped mail interface and 20MB of storage on AOL servers round out the offering, while animated "SuperBuddy icons" (don't ask) should appeal to the chat crowd.

Bottom Line: I guess we really need the junk-mail filters, since almost half of all e-mail in the U.S. is from spammers. The other half? From the 34 million AOL subscribers complaining about spam.

4. Watch Hits the Spot

The Buzz: High tech meets high design this fall when Fossil and Suunto unveil connected wristwatches powered by Microsoft's Smart Personal Objects Technology (SPOT). (Alas, my competing Dumb Impersonal Things Standard has been passed over once again.) For $150 to $250--plus $10 per month (or $59 for the year) to cover the MSN Direct Band Network service--subscribers in 100 metropolitan areas can get customized weather, news, stock quotes, traffic, and messages beamed directly to their wrists. And these babies even tell time: SPOT watches sync up with an atomic clock so you'll never be a nanosecond late. Unable to resist the obvious, Fossil has a Dick Tracy version in the wings, as well as a model from international design guru Phillipe Starck slated for 2004.

Bottom Line: Right. Like this isn't the first step in Microsoft's bid to create a new standard for time.

Contributing Editor Steve Fox covers buzzworthy products, ideas, and trends. Contact him at steve_fox@pcworld.com. Go here for more Plugged In.