BIZ BITS: ON THE GO

Location, Location, Location
Garmin iQue™ 3600
Garmin have integrated a PDA with their award-winning GPS technology in this stylish handheld device. Backed up with Palm OS 5.2.1, it uses the patented Que TM technology that delivers location awareness, automatic route calculation and voice guidance. The iQue ($589) has a 200MHz processor, 32MB of memory for downloading all the OS applications and additional map data and a handy voice recorder for note taking. Americas Autoroute and the Alantic and Pacific Autoroutes maps come as standard. You’ll never take a wrong turn again.

Notebook Nirvana
Sony B100 Professional notebook
Sony’s VAIO range of notebooks has always stolen the limelight with their unique Z1 design, and the B series backs up their market-leader reputation with stunning good looks. The series, specifically designed for the business traveler, raises the bar yet again with all models based on Intel’s latest mobile-specific, Pentium-M processor. The B100 ($1149) is one of the most compact and versatile models, weighing just five pounds. With an extended five-hour battery life, a fluid 14″ screen to manipulate several first and third-party applications at once, and a full-size ergonomically designed keyboard, this is the perfect accessory if you are on the move. All the B series notebooks are designed to be highly upgradeable with a range of processors, graphics cards, memory and screen displays.

Travel News
Check-in goes space-age
Frequent business travelers should see the stress and frustration completely taken out of the checking-in system by 2007. The International Air Transport Association (IATA) plans to replace all paper tickets with electronic versions and introduce biometric versions for frequent flyers. It’s part of plans to revolutionize the procedure in the face of increased air travel, security issues and plain business sense. Small steps are already underway with electronic ticketing systems being rolled out to airlines and innovations such as radio data-tagging on all luggage.

The most radical plans, however, will involve the check-in process where new biometric kiosk-style ATMs will be available to bypass the traditional system. Many of these kiosks will be shared between airlines and even placed outside airports, allowing passengers to print out their own boarding passes and reduce the whole check-in time to an absolute minimum. Last year Japan Airlines (JAL) introduced their E-check-in service and signed up 2000 frequent flyers on its domestic routes. The system uses biometric scanning to identity face textures and passengers’ unique iris eye scans, giving air travel a true 21st century feel.