Products > Hardware > Gizmos

Benchmark Computer Solutions presents some of the most advanced gizmos from renowned companies in the industry.

PDA

PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) is a term for any small mobile hand-held device that provides computing and information storage and retrieval capabilities for personal or business use, often for keeping schedule calendars and address book information handy. Some PDAs have an electronically sensitive pad on which handwriting can be received. Apple's Newton, which has been withdrawn from the market, was the first widely sold PDA that accepted handwriting. Typical uses include schedule and address book storage, retrieval, and note entering. However, many applications have been written for PDAs. Increasingly, PDAs are combined with telephones and paging systems.

Today's traditional PDAs are descendents of the original PalmPilot and Microsoft Handheld PC devices. Palm devices run the Palm OS (operating system), and Microsoft Pocket PCs run Windows Mobile. Some PDAs offer a variation of the Microsoft Windows operating system called Windows CE. Other products have their own or another operating system.

Tablet PC

Tablet PC is a type of notebook computer that has an LCD screen on which the user can write using a special-purpose pen, or stylus. The handwriting is digitized and can be converted to standard text through handwriting recognition, or it can remain as handwritten text. The stylus also can be used to type on a pen-based key layout where the lettered keys are arranged differently than a QWERTY keyboard.

The tablet PC relies on digital ink technology, where a digitizer is laid under or over an LCD screen to create an electromagnetic field that can capture the movement of the special-purpose pen and record the movement on the LCD screen. The effect is like writing on paper with liquid ink.

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a standard developed by a group of electronics manufacturers that allows any sort of electronic equipment - from computers and cell phones to keyboards and headphones - to make its own connections, without wires, cables or any direct action from a user. Bluetooth is intended to be a standard that works at two levels:
It provides agreement at the physical level - Bluetooth is a radio-frequency standard.
It also provides agreement at the next level up, where products have to agree on when bits are sent, how many will be sent at a time and how the parties in a conversation can be sure that the message received is the same as the message sent.

The companies belonging to the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, and there are more than 1,000 of them, want to let Bluetooth's radio communications take the place of wires for connecting peripherals, telephones and computer. Products with Bluetooth technology must be qualified and pass interoperability testing by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group prior to release. Bluetooth's founding members include Ericsson, IBM, Intel, Nokia and Toshiba. Benchmark Computer Solutions provides advanced Bluetooth enabled devices and services.