The Pda May Not Be Doa After All

Will radio rescue the personal digital assistant? Since Apple's Newton and its ilk hit the market last year, potential buyers have been trying to figure out just what their use might be. For all too many, the answer has been: not much. Apple's improved MessagePad 110 has failed to find a mass market since its introduction in March, AT&T's Eo bombed, and BellSouth has delayed introduction of Simon to rethink the product.

The problem with the Newton is fundamental: Its use as an electronic notepad, calendar, and phone book is crippled because it's hard to get information into it. The thrill of watching a machine translate your handwriting quickly turns to frustration with its slowness and errors. And while Newton handles fax and e-mail, first you have to find a phone line. It offers truly mobile communications only as a sort of superpager, using a receive-only radio unit from BellSouth's MobileComm.