Technolust

Handspring Treo

Hey, you got your BlackBerry in my Visor! You got your Visor in my BlackBerry! After a year of hype and countless delays, Handspring's vaunted Treo is finally here. This hybrid phone/PDA actually fits in your pocket and lets you get legitimate work done with it. But while it's essentially a combination of a standard Visor and a RIM pager, unless you're intimately familiar with the inner workings of both, you'll have a devil of a time getting used to the Treo. Yet despite its flaws and the sky-high price, we're already looking forward to the color version later this year. $399 and up / www.handspring.com

Brookstone 900MHz Wireless Mini Speakers

Most wireless speakers make cans and string look outstanding in comparison, but at least Brookstone's 900MHz Mini Speakers look stylish—even if the sound is sketchy. But setup is a snap, and the speakers work with both your PC and your stereo receiver. $125 / www.brookstone.com

Cybiko Xtreme

All the hip kids dig it, so why not bring the Cybiko to corporate America? The latest version of this short-range wireless messaging device forgoes the day-glo colors of yore and updates the look with a silver, biz-friendly patina. Not only does the Xtreme give you instant chat capabilities with other Cybikos (up to 300 feet away), but you also get games, an address book and calendar, and regular e-mail features (by syncing with your PC). If it wasn't made for people with such tiny hands (read: kids), this just might be the perfect pocket PC. $140 / www.cybikoxtreme.com

Sony VAIO MX Series

TiVo meets the PC—and a whole lot more—in Sony's ambitious hybrid home theater and productivity system. The MX is about the size of a small PC, and it's got a 1.7GHz Pentium 4, an 80GB hard disk, and 512MB of RAM. But it also replaces all those components next to your TV. A built-in FM radio tuner outputs crisp tunes, and a DVD-RW drive and a minidisc player/recorder are accessible via the front panel. The overall feature set is outstanding, but we were hoping for a 5.1-channel audio setup instead of the two crummy speakers it includes. $2,800 and up / www.sonystyle.com/vaio

Copyright © 2002 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in Ziff Davis Smart Business.