XplanaZine

This one caught me a little by surprise, although I’m not really sure why. It’s not like I’m not scouring the Web waves for interesting convergence and integration news all the time.

So, here’s the short of it. As reported on Slashdot, It appears that the Finland cell phone manufacturer, Nokia, will be throwing in its lot in the handheld gaming industry with its N-Gage. Not only is this device capable of playing games, but other noticeable features include a cell phone, radio, Web and data capabilities, and an MP3 player. In fact, throw in an e-book reader and a food synthesizer and there would never be any need to go anywhere if you owned this device. Just stay home and jack in.

Now, what caught me by surprise was that I wasn’t looking for integration to come from this direction. I’ve been writing about phones and PDA’s that can play games and do all of this stuff, but it hadn’t occurred to me that an equally attractive alternative would be a to make a game device that would have phone and PDA functionality. Go figure.

I had looked at Cybiko as a niche toy for teenie boppers and never given the idea another thought. Taking a closer look at this integrated device, its definitely targeted at a younger gaming crowd that might want some extra features. The screen and gaming controls are nice, and the N-Gage also supports 3-D graphics. All of this means that its big, like a good handheld gaming device. Not the kind of thing you want to strap to your hip as an unnoticeable piece of integrated communications equipment. Nope. This baby will definitely get noticed. Also important is that N-Gage is built for wireless and designed to allow users to share games and compete against one another. Hmm… can anyone spell file sharing?

At any rate, it is a device packed with functionality, but it is focused on gaming first. The other features are there to promote communication and collaboration with others, but you can imagine that a lot of the conversations and e-mails may be about the games bring thrashed out on the N-Gage’s beautiful screen.

So, the big question for educators is this. Will this kind of technology be a hit with college students? Do we have any material now, or have we envisioned any, that would make use of this admirable integration of functions? It’s just java and modified Web pages so there’s really no excuse. Except, of course, that we haven’t yet had a vision that expands beyond our traditional environments. Did someone say java? I think I need a cup before I start writing down proposed activities on my virtual whiteboard.