Darius Wey
05-05-2005, 03:00 AM
<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.computing.co.uk/news/1162839' target='_blank'>http://www.computing.co.uk/news/1162839</a><br /><br /></div><i>"London police officers will pilot handheld devices this year as part of plans for mobile access to systems such as the Police National Computer (PNC). The Metropolitan police has 32,000 officers and represents about a quarter of the UK police service. Mobile data terminals are already being used in all Met police cars, but handheld devices have proved more challenging, according to the Met's director of information Ailsa Beaton."</i><br /><br />Here's another case of mobile device adoption. Yet as exciting as it is, there's one key point that Beaton raises. The current mobile device market tends to cater for general consumers and executive users - either way, this leaves little room for "true mobility" because for most of us, we're indoors at some time during the day. We have access to a battery charger when needed, and that makes up for the mediocre battery life seen in the vast majority of PDAs. Granted, there are industrial PDAs and some corporate PDAs which have extended battery lives, but wouldn't you want your standard PDA to be able to get you through a few days of continuous use before needing a recharge? Keeping in context with what is discussed in this article, not all police officers may have the luxury of an indoor setting and access to a battery charger. With long shifts on the road, you'd want your PDA to do what it is meant to, as well as last you a day or two. This just goes to show that while the adoption of mobile devices is on the rise, the adoption could be a little larger in scale if a few features (such as battery life) were ironed out. Can you think of anything else that would help make mobile devices a little more enticing?