The last time I tested a pager – a few years ago – I vowed I’d never carry another gadget like it again if I could help it. People beeped me at night, on the weekends and holidays. I had no privacy.
So when Motorola asked me to take a look at its PageWriter 2000X two-way wireless communications center, I faced a dilemma: How do I evaluate the unit without actually using it.
I found a way.
I gave the pager to my girlfriend. As a professional musician, she travels more than I do (oh, you still believe the myth about travel writers being on the road all the time?) and her schedule is in a constant state of disarray. The PageWriter, with its miniature keyboard and built-in scheduling software seemed like the perfect way for her to stay wired – and organized.
It wasn’t easy, convincing her to try the pager. For one, she’s in the military, and pagers aren’t allowed to be worn with the uniform. Even its Dick Tracy-like looks weren’t enough to win her over. Not until Newsweek published a blurb on the Motorola did she take the pager for a test drive.
And wouldn’t you know it, now she’s hooked.
Why? Probably because the PageWriter 2000X isn’t an ordinary pager. It’s more like a convergence device. It combines the functions of a personal computer with that of a pager and cell phone. You can send and receive messages to either a one- or two-way pager, to an e-mail account, phones and fax machines. She could do everything but place an actual phone call to me through the PageWriter.
Most of our correspondence took place by e-mail:
Me: Will I see you this evening?
Her: Sorry, bucko, I’ve got a concert.
For more immediate notification, she would use the SkyTel messaging service to read an e-mail message to me over the phone. But these were difficult to understand at times, with a metallic-sounding robot voice reciting the text at an uncomfortably quick pace. I liked the fact that she was notified when the message got delivered, but I was frustrated that I couldn’t respond to the message over the phone. Instead, I had to call back or e-mail if I wanted to reply. The gadget is not difficult to operate. The nine display lines are easy to read, except in the glare of sunlight. You can boost the font size if you’re having trouble deciphering the contents of the screen. The pager also offers a lighted keyboard, making it a cinch to type in low-light situations. A cursor control button at the base of the keyboard navigates about as quickly as a mouse on a PC, so you don’t waste a lot of time fumbling for the right selection.
All told, the PageWriter 2000X is just slightly larger than a normal pager. However, it’s considerably more expensive. Depending on who you buy it from, it’ll cost you more than $300 for the device, which doesn’t include a service plan. That’s something a serious business traveler would want to give some consideration to, but I’m less convinced that that military musician is suited to it.
Having written that, I should point out that my girlfriend found a way around the “no-pagers-on-uniforms rule” – she simply put it in her pocket – and now I fear that she will never want to return the gadget to its rightful owner. One of the remarkable things that this technology has done is get her to organize her life. Pre-pager, she literally had no idea where her next concert would be, and as a result, spent an awful lot of time calling people or running back to the band room to verify her appointments.
With the PageWriter 2000X, all of that ended. A personal alarm clock notifies her whenever she’s expected somewhere. The pre-installed scheduling software leaves very little to chance, letting her input and then retrieve appointments without having to learn C++ or some other archaic programming language. My only regret is that she won’t use the PC dock to synchronize the scheduler with the computer at my place. I’m kind of tired of paging her to ask what she’s up to. Perhaps what she really needs is a cellular telephone.
But then, do the other wireless devices come with games? The Entertainment Pack that ships with this tech toy contains some of the more addictive selections, including my all-time favorite: Battleship. With a rechargeable battery that lasts about a week, I suspect she’s spent a lot of time playing on her pager. If I were carrying it around, I probably would be checking the news with Wolfetech’s PocketGenie application, but this kind of hardware is really not for me. A final note on the PageWriter: The most clever thing those Motorola designers did, as far as I’m concerned, is to include a list of paging options. You can choose one of several songs the device will play when you’ve got an incoming message, including the 1812 Overture. The tune begins as all of them do, but during the cannons, the pager vibrates. Reportedly, every musician who heard it doubled over on the floor laughing.
The 1812 isn’t a good enough reason to buy a PageWriter 2000X, but it will keep you and your friends entertained. That I can guarantee. Its biggest detractor is the cost. When my girlfriend surrenders the pager – or I should say, if she surrenders the pager – she’ll be hard-pressed to afford the monthly service fee. Military musicians aren’t paid well enough to make this pager a cost-effective investment. I’ll be sorry to see her lose it, because from the sender’s side, having all of those messaging options is great.
Perhaps one day, when she’s a big recording star, she’ll get her toy back. If I get to play battleship again, it’ll all be worth it.
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