'Smart' phone could be remote control of future

SAN FRANCISCO -- Forget voice calls. They're oh so retro. That cell phone in your pocket is well on its way to becoming a remote control for your life.

"Smart" phones -- a tag for handsets that are programmable -- are already being used by busy executives to retrieve documents from office computers halfway across the globe. They're handling e-mail, programming TV set-top boxes and keeping an eye on the home surveillance system.

Tourists lost in some foreign capitals can now, with a GPS-equipped cell phone, get their bearings using on-screen maps. Commuters crossing town can do the same to avoid traffic jams.

Millions of Japanese already use their handsets as digital wallets.

"The phone is rapidly becoming a window to the world," said Rob Enderle of the Enderle Group research firm. "In many ways it's becoming a replacement for the PC."

Cell phones have far outpaced personal digital assistants as the device of choice, with 187.7 million people, or 65.4 percent of the U.S. population, owning one, according to the Yankee Group, which has stopped tracking sales of hand-held computers that lack wireless connectivity, calling them irrelevant.

Software makers, keenly mindful of the trend, are coming up with new ways to make mobile handsets more like personal computers.

Phones that double and triple as digital music players, personal organizers and cameras are just the beginning.

Some of the mobile applications set to debut at the DEMOfall conference, a technology trade show that starts Monday in Huntington Beach, Calif., point the way to a world where the cell phone is a key to greater efficiency.

One such program comes from EasyReach, a Campbell, Calif.-based startup that is jumping into the remote document-retrieval market.

EasyReach founder John Stossel says it's the first software that enables users of smart phones with computerlike operating systems, such as Palm Inc.'s Treo, to search their PCs by keyword. EasyReach users can also e-mail the retrieved documents.

In addition, the software lets a user search multiple PCs on which the program has been installed.

Services such as pcAny- where and GoToMyPC allow a user to control a PC remotely, but most offer PC-to-PC access only. Other software packages try to give hand-held users virtual control of their PC, but that can be unwieldy, Stossel said.

Because most hand-helds already efficiently display document and e-mail lists, trying to replicate the PC's interface on a hand-held doesn't make sense, he said.

"Why try to squeeze a 19-inch screen on a 3-inch display?" Stossel said. "What do you want? Files and e-mails. Let's get them and be done with it."

While many competitors' products only work on certain hand-helds or Java-enabled phones, EasyReach says its software is designed to support the devices of any wireless carrier worldwide.

The software works on any mobile device equipped with an Internet browser, regardless of the operating system. A native application made by Research in Motion Inc. is available for the BlackBerry.

Some companies are betting people will use their smart phones to access content from home PCs.

Software created by Orb Networks Inc., based in Emeryville, Calif., turns the PC into a personal network server that can stream video files and music to hand-held devices.

"We think the reason you invested in broadband is so everything you own is available to you at any time," said Ian McCarthy, vice president of product marketing at Orb, which was founded in 2004. "You have a blurring of the lines between the stuff at home and stuff in your hand."

Orb also recently launched TiVo Anywhere, which lets hand-held users watch shows they've recorded on their TiVo digital video recorders as well as program their TiVo set-top boxes from their smart phone.

Avvenu, a Palo Alto, Calif., startup founded in 2004 and backed by Motorola Corp., intends to challenge Orb on both fronts.

Starting next week, Avvenu will match Orb's network server functions and plans to launch a service bringing TiVo to smart phones, said Orb spokesman David Trescot.

Several companies have developed smart phone applications that utilize Global Positioning System technology, which pinpoints locations anywhere on Earth through satellite triangulation.

Last March, MapQuest and Nextel Communications launched Find Me, a service that uses MapQuest's digital maps on GPS-enabled mobile phones.

At the DEMO conference, MapQuest is expected to announce a similar service for the BlackBerry.

A rival company, Destinator Technologies Inc., will unveil software for GPS-enabled smart phones that automatically updates a route based on the user's location.

The Destinator platform, which has been available in Europe for more than two years, also allows friends and colleagues to spot each other on a map in relation to a destination and send directions via instant message.

Destinator also includes a real-time traffic-monitoring feature. Few U.S. companies aggregate traffic information -- something that's expected to change soon.

"We're going to automated, live navigation," said Jeff Kukowski, Destinator's senior vice president of marketing. "Your printed directions from Yahoo or Google can't tell you how to get back on route."

The Destinator software takes the user's GPS location information and compares it with the planned route. Miss a turn, and the software offers up a revised route.

Adoption of all these new smart phone functions isn't widespread yet, probably because carriers such as Verizon, Cingular and Sprint make it difficult for customers to obtain services the carriers can't closely control and profit from, analysts say.

But smart phone makers are encouraging software developers to keep making new applications that can drive sales, says Kevin Burden, program manager for mobile devices at research firm IDC.

"The makers are lawyers looking for a nice hook because the phones come at such a premium price tag," Burden said. "To sell these things, they have to offer more than a phone and e-mail."

Add P-I Business headlines to