VideoLike many executives, Joseph Muscari spends a considerable amount of time on the road — the CFO of Alcoa Inc. made nine trips to China alone last year.
And in true road-warrior fashion, he does not travel light when it comes to electronics. Standard components of his arsenal include a Lenovo ThinkPad X40, a BlackBerry 7230, and a Motorola RAZR GPS cell phone. Muscari also takes along a lesser-known device, a fairly low-tech sheet of black plastic called the Privacy Filter. The 3M-designed screen, which attaches to the display of Muscari's notebook computer, prevents bystanders from stealing a glimpse of whatever he may be working on. Like many companies, Alcoa goes to great lengths to keep digital data secure, yet, as Muscari notes, "Something as simple as somebody looking over your shoulder could cause a problem."
Muscari has touted the virtues of the Privacy Filter to Alcoa's CEO and finance staffers. It's simple, reliable, and solves a very real problem. Those became our guiding principles as we assembled this look at new technologies that help executives stay productive no matter where they may be. Cool has its place, but when you've been on the road so long that you no longer remember what time zone you're in, what you value most is reliability.
So the technology editors at CFO have zeroed in on well-designed products that more than carry their own weight. Some are cutting-edge, others are mainstream or should be. Wide availability, ease of use, value, and effectiveness were our top criteria. Most of these products are wireless, and some don't even require power cords. All of them can help make business travel vastly more bearable and even — dare we say it? — fun. Or substantially less painful, which is the business-travel equivalent.
Smart Phones
Do-It-All Devices for the No-Time-Off Set
Now that Research in Motion has seemingly put its legal troubles behind it, the company can get back to making innovative PDAs. Its latest, the BlackBerry 8700c, is a great example of how far the multifunction "smart phone" has come. This nifty device, sold at Cingular Wireless stores for around $299 (plus the obligatory two-year activation fee), lets you talk, check E-mail, browse the Web, check your calendar and address book, and plenty more. The 35-key, backlit, QWERTY keyboard is reasonably big, and the 2.5-inch screen is bright, clear, and adjusts to ambient lighting. It seems tailored to the hard-working finance executive: Excel files can now be displayed as spreadsheets, and there is a notable dearth of preloaded games.
The Samsung SCH-i730 also exhibits some real design smarts. For starters, the keyboard slides out from the bottom of the phone, reducing the carrying size of the unit. It's also lightning fast and ships with Windows Mobile 2003 (second edition). Hence, the Samsung smart phone runs Pocket versions of Word and Excel. In addition, the Samsung phone comes equipped with a cavalcade of communication tools, including Wi-Fi and EV-DO cellular data (from Verizon Wireless). All this connectivity comes at a price, however. The i730 costs $450 (with a two-year service contract from Verizon).
More thrifty types may prefer the Palm Treo 650, which is priced at $249 if you sign on for a two-year service contract with a wireless carrier. We've always liked Treos, particularly the Palm OS, and this one is no different. The CDMA phone comes with a decent keyboard and a much-improved screen. The swappable battery is another plus. And while the Palm doesn't come with integrated Wi-Fi capabilities, it does feature infrared and Bluetooth ports. Oddly lacking is a standard headphone jack or the inclusion of an adapter — you have to shell out $5 to $10 for one, a low-rent move for a device that retails for $600 without a service contract.
Product Details
RIM BlackBerry 8700c
Price: Around $299 (with Cingular 2-year plan)
What you get: 16 MB installed RAM, 64 MB flash memory, RIM OS, Bluetooth, quad-band support, 4.7 ounces
Samsung SCH-i730
Price: $450 (with Verizon 2-year plan)
What you get: 64 MB installed RAM, 128 MB flash memory, Microsoft Windows for Mobile Pocket PC (2003 Second Edition), Bluetooth, IrDA, Wi-Fi, EV-DO, 6.5 ounces
Palm Treo 650
Price: $249 (with 2-year plan); $600 retail
What you get: 23 MB flash memory, Palm OS 5.4, Bluetooth, IrDA, MP3 player, dual-band or quad-band option, Avvenu remote-access software, 6.3 ounces
Accessories
The Planet's Smallest Juice Machine
Cell-phone makers love to pile on new features, but all that souping up comes at a cost: battery life. A big color screen, camera, and streaming video will have you plugging in the recharger more often than you call ahead for take-out.
Advances in power storage may eventually lessen the problem, but until then, we'll continue to carry a Turbo Charge TC1012 from Voxred International. About the size of a tube of Chap-Stick, this gadget holds an AA battery and provides enough juice to keep a cell phone running for about 2 hours (40 hours when in standby mode). The blue light tells you it's charging. We like blue lights.
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