Frankly Speaking: Info gap monster strikes again

Technology is advancing so fast these days that even the folks who sell it can't keep up.

This was brought home to me big-time on a recent trip to shop palmtop organizers, also known as "handhelds." In four electronics stores I visited, no one could tell me how the things work; i.e., exactly what they do to make life easier.

That's not to fault the sellers. When a person has to know the working details of umpteen different brands of umpteen different gizmos VCRs, TVs, video cameras, digital cameras, cell phones, etc. ad infinitum, well, you have mission impossible.

In the tech world, the information gap between what shoppers want to know and what sellers can tell them isn't new; it's just bigger.

The info-gap occurs in the non-tech world, too. My favorite example is the time I went to lunch at a California Denny's with another transplanted Missourian whose jaw dropped when he spotted chicken-fried steak on the menu. "Gee," he said, "This really makes me homesick. I haven't had real chicken-fried steak in 10 years." He looked up from the menu. "Do you think it's the real thing?" I said I didn't know, I'd never seen it in California either, but he could ask the waitress.

He called the waitress over to our table. "Tell me, this chicken-fried steak on the menu. Is it real chicken-fried steak?"

"Oh, yes sir," she said a little too quickly.

"Are you sure? What exactly is it? How do you fix it?"

She hesitated, then said brightly, "It's a steak wrapped in a chicken and fried."

He didn't order the chicken-fried steak.

The palmtop sellers are as earnest and eager to please as the waitress. "I'm sorry sir," one said. "I know I should be able to help you. I just haven't had time to sit down and learn about those things. I'm really sorry."

Hey, that's okay. What's better than a guy who saves you grief by admitting he doesn't know?

The clerk at another store said, "I think you just punch the screen with this little pencil thing." Heh. That alone made it worth the trip.

We're not giving up. We've been thinking we need one of these handheld things to get a grip on the Niagara of paper that flows across our desks. After all, this is a lively business community we're working to cover and the news releases, queries, contacts and tips come in a near-blizzard. And okay, I admit it, I'm one of those people who in a hurry can jot a note quickly on a piece of paper and pick it up two days later to read something like "Lisa and the bird."

I still haven't figured out "Lisa and the bird."

Some palmtop salvation arrived in the form of SBJ salesman Ben Fielder, who just happens to have a Palm IIIc handheld, uses it like crazy, and has a knack for putting things in plain English.

He made it clear that his gizmo has the four functions I most need: datebook, address book, to-do list, and memo pad. Furthermore, it allows adding notes to any individual entry in any category a priceless feature, I think. Furthermore, it comes with a "docking cradle" that allows direct communication with a computer with matching software. Data can be updated by entering it in either the computer or the handheld, and pressing a "synch" button then updates the works. No more risk of the old organizer dying and taking the data with it.

Of the Palm IIIc, Ben says, "It's great! I use it everyday. It's one of the best things a busy businessperson can have."

The Palm IIIc looks like a good one, all right. And there are other handhelds on the market by such makers as Hewlett-Packard, Handspring, Sony, Compaq and NEC. We're curious about those too, and now that we have some fundamentals under our belt, we may look at them as well.

Oh, a major point: For shoppers who've been burned by organizers with teeny-weeny keypads that kicked the cyber-bucket and required mailing to Nome, Alaska, for repair, most of the handhelds are being sold with an inexpensive (around $25) optional warranty that calls for instant replacement at the store if they go on the fritz. Another great feature.

We'll let you know how the quest for the perfect palmtop, handheld, or whatever-they'll-be-calling-it-next organizer works out.

Meanwhile, we'll light a candle for the poor, harried electronics clerks of this world.