25 Cool Products For Mobile Workers

Headed overseas? No problem. Built for the globetrotter, Research in Motion's BlackBerry 8830 World Edition sports support for domestic CDMA networks and global GSM/GPRS networks. More than just a phone, it also packs in e-mail, organizer, Web browsing and instant messaging features, as well as support for GPS, BlackBerry Maps, a media player and expandable memory to hold it all. It is available for $299 with a Verizon Wireless service plan.

Spend five minutes in Los Angeles and you'll see just how popular this snazzy little Jawbone headset from Aliph really is. It's stylish, yes, but this Bluetooth headset is also built for performance, promising to cancel out pesky background noise and automatically adjust the volume of incoming speech so it's louder than the surrounding din. Hear, and be heard. Jawbone is available for $99.99.

Never worry about losing that CEO's business card or the cab receipt from your trip to the airport again. Visioneer's RoadWarrior scanner can handle receipts, business cards, documents and photos, and is small enough to fit in a laptop bag. And it's powered through a USB port, so that's one less cable to drag around. RoadWarrior is priced at $179.99.

This one's actually still in beta, but we're keeping a close eye on it because, well, it's pretty neat. SoftMaker is pitching its Office 2008 for Pocket PCs as a better alternative to Microsoft Mobile Office. It promises to bring all the power of a full-function office productivity software suite to Pocket PCs. Plus, users can open, edit and save desktop documents created with Microsoft Word, Excel or PowerPoint on their mobile devices, no conversion required. The suite includes SoftMaker's TextMaker 2008 word processor, PlanMaker 2008 spreadsheet and Presentations 2008 presentation graphics applications. SoftMaker 2008 is also available for Windows systems, and versions for Linux and Windows CE are in the works. The final beta is available now at no charge.

If Sprint, ClearWire and a group of like-minded technology partners have their say, networks built on fledgling wireless broadband technology WiMAX will soon take the country by storm. For those lucky enough to already be in an area where WiMAX coverage is available, then Nokia has just the device for you. The Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition, an Internet tablet built to take advantage of the high-speed wireless technology, includes a 4.13-inch color touch screen and slide-out QWERTY keyboard. It also includes built-in GPS capabilities, an integrated media player and 2 Gbytes of internal memory, expandable to 10 Gbytes with an optional memory card. It is scheduled for availability this summer at an expected price of under $500.

You can plug Solio's Classic Hybrid Charger into the wall to rev up its rechargeable battery, but when there's no outlet in sight, just head for the sunshine. This fold-up device fans out to reveal three solar panels that catch the sun's rays and turn them into portable power. Once it's charged, the Solio can power up your electronic devices, including mobile phones, PDAs, Apple iPods, Bluetooth headsets and digital cameras. A fully charged Solio will charge up a typical cell phone at least two times. Just don't get sunburned. Solio Classic is priced at $99.95.

Hewlett-Packard's recent entrant into the ultra-portable computer market is its 2133 Mini-Note PC, a sub-$500 system that weighs just over 2.5 pounds and measures just over one-inch thick. It runs on a VIA C7-M ULV processor at up to 1.6GHz and includes an 8.9-inch display. It packs in up to 160 Gbytes of SATA hard disk storage and up to 2048 Mbytes of memory. It supports 802.11a/b/g wireless connectivity and is available with Microsoft Windows Vista or SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 10. Pricing starts at $499.

With Avaya's One-X Mobile client, users can take unified communications on the road, offering secure access to corporate telephony, voicemail, call logs and corporate directories. That all translates to employees that are reachable via a single number when they're out and about. No more scrambling to find their cell phone numbers. One-X Mobile is available for more than 500 mobile devices, including Apple iPhone, RIM BlackBerry, Palm, Symbian, Windows Mobile, Java and WAP devices.

Dell's recently launched Latitude XT represents the vendor's first foray into the tablet PC market. And it's sold through the channel, another recent development for the formerly direct-only company, so should be interesting to see how it all plays out. This convertible tablet PC offers a 12.1-inch display and is available with Intel Core Solo or Core 2 Duo processors with 1 Gbyte or 2 Gbytes of memory and up to an 80 Gbyte hard drive. Pricing starts at $2,499.

Even the fiercest of road warriors sometimes takes shorter local trips. An outing to a nearby customer? Or an even-nearer Starbucks? When a bulky laptop bag just won't do, turn to Belkin's Ceylon Messenger, a light-weight water-resistant nylon bag built for laptops with up to 15.4-inch displays. It even stands upright on its own for easy packing. It is priced at $49.99 and is available in several color combinations.

For customers that demand crazy-big storage capacity in a pocket-sized package, Western Digital offers My Passport Elite, a sleek, portable external hard drive that is powered off of a USB port. It comes with WD Synch software for data synchronization and encryption and also offers automated backup. It's available in two sizes: 250 Gbytes for $169.99 and 320 Gbytes for $199.99.

The Toshiba Portege M700 brings high-end performance to the convertible tablet PC form factor. Built on Intel's Core 2 Duo processor technology, the system also includes support for Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth and 802.11a/g/draft-n Wi-Fi. It sports a 12.1-inch widescreen display and a built-in Webcam and microphone. A system with 1024 Mbytes of memory and an 800 Gbyte hard drive is priced starting at $1,449.00

This little baby was built to travel. Bring your very own wireless network everywhere you go with the Linksys Wireless-G Travel Router with SpeedBooster, a pocket-sized router that includes a built-in access point, power supply and antennae. On the road? Just plug the router directly into the wall, connect the hotel's high-speed wireless cable and use the device's push-button set-up feature. Voila! Your wireless network is born. It is priced at $179.99.

NetMotion Wireless recently launched Mobility XE 8.0, the latest version of its mobile VPN software. New features include added security controls and support for real-time applications such as VoIP and streaming video. The mobile VPN enables road warriors to maintain secure connections to corporate applications as they move through wireless coverage gaps and across various networks, the company says. Mobility XE8.0 is available for Microsoft Windows-based laptops and mobile devices starting at $150 per seat.

Agito Networks ties Wi-Fi and cellular calling together with its Roam Anywhere Mobility Router. The appliance enables callers to switch seamlessly between the enterprise wireless network and public cellular networks. It features native integration with Cisco Systems Unified Wireless Network portfolio and supports identity-based mobility with enhanced native integration with Microsoft Active Directory and LDAP. RoamAnywhere is available in two models: the 2000 Series, which scales to support 100 simultaneous users starting at $10,000 and the 4000 Series, which scales to support up to 1,000 simultaneous users starting at $28,000.

Cisco Systems extends enterprise communications capabilities to mobile devices via its Unified Mobile Communicator software. The application brings access to corporate and personal directory info, presence status of colleagues, secure text messaging, playback of office voice mail messages and conferencing to users, all on their mobile devices.

HP's Officejet H470 offers speedy printing on the go, packed into a 5-pound package. It can produce up to 22 pages per minute in black and white, and up to 18 ppm in color. It can also handle borderless 4 x 6 photos in as fast as 49 seconds, the company says. It supports Wi-Fi and Bluetooth for wireless connectivity and it boasts a folding 50-sheet paper feeder. Plus, with an optional power adaptor, you can print in your car without a battery. Sweet. Pricing starts at $224.

For all of those iPhone lovers out there, Mophie offers Juice Pack, a battery extender that gives users up to an additional 8 hours of talk time and 250 hours of standby time. The Juice Pack includes a rechargeable lithium polymer battery, a charge status indicator and a pass-through dock connector. It is priced at $99.95.

Polycom brings high-definition voice quality to a personal speakerphone in the Communicator C100S. The device includes two microphones and is certified for use with the Skype VoIP service. It also includes a built-in stereo headphone port to enable hands-free calling when speakerphone just won't do. It is priced at $129.

Riverbed is known for its WAN optimization technology, improving the speed at which branch office workers access resources housed at headquarters. But the benefits don't stop there. With Steelhead Mobile, enterprises can bring the same technology to mobile devices. The software is installed on users' devices, where it then communicates directly with any Steelhead appliance deployed on the network.

It's hard enough to find an accessible outlet in a hotel room, let alone an outlet with a surge protector. So why not bring your own? Targus makes it possible with its Travel Power Outlets with Surge Protection, a portable power strip that that helps protect devices from unexpected power surges and spikes. It's small enough to fit into your laptop bag but designed so that it can accommodate larger plug sizes. Never go without surge protection again. It is available for $19.99.

This one's a little James Bond-ish. Tripp Lite offers a means for securing a laptop when it is unattended. Walk more than 10 feet away from your notebook and Tripp Lite's Wireless USB Proximity Lock automatically shuts it down, then resumes normal operation when you're back within range. It is priced at $59.95.

DiVitas Networks' Mobile Convergence Appliance 1000 provides roaming for callers between cellular and enterprise wireless networks. When used in conjunction with the vendor's DiVitas Client, MCA 1000 provides mobile device users the same functionality they'd get from their VoIP desktop phones. It is compliant with IP-PBX offerings from several vendors, including Avaya, Cisco Systems and ShoreTel. The DiVitas MCA 1000 with a 10-user license starts at $5,495.

Lenovo's new ThinkPad X300 is nothing if not skinny. It measures less than three-fourths of an inch at its thinnest point with a starting weight as low as 2.9 pounds. Billed as a premium ultra-portable notebook, this ThinkPad includes a 13.3-inch widescreen display, Intel Core 2 Duo 1.20 GHz processor, 1 Gbyte of memory and a 64-Gbyte Solid State Drive. Pricing starts at $3,225.

Secure your data. Protect your identity. Surf privately. All excellent selling points used by IronKey to tout its Basic hardware-encrypted USB Flash drive. It sports the IronKey CryptoChip military-grade cryptography, online password manager and Public Key Infrastructure authentication. Like Fort Knox in your pocket. The IronKey Basic secure flash is available in models ranging from 1 Gbyte to 8 Gbyes, with prices ranging from $79 to $299.