O2 Joggler: Digital calendar for the school-run set

A joggler is a welding tool, known in the US as a 'panelflanger'. We looked it up. We love a good flange. It's also the name of O2's new attempt to dragpeople-carrier-driving, welly-boot-wearing parents into the digital age.

O2 is hoping to replace the tried-and-tested family kitchencalendar with a device that looks like a souped-up digital photo frame with a179mm (7-inch) touchscreen and a suite of family-oriented applications.

We let our fingers do the walking with the panelflanger -- sorry, Joggler -- and found it easy to use. O2 wants to recapture its romance with the mums-and-dads market from when it was BT Cellnet, so it'skeeping things so simple even a sleep-deprived parent with a full-time jobcan use it. There's no battery, stylus or keyboard, just a touchscreen with aniPhone-like home screen and a limited number of applications.

There's free news and weather from Sky, games -- currently justSudoku, with more on the way -- and a handy traffic map that shows delays on Aroads and motorways. It also fulfils its photo frame promise with a photo slideshowscreensaver, and can play music (MP3, WAV, WMA) and videos (including MPEG-4, Divx,FLV and H.264). O2 also says that at launch, it will stream some pre-setInternet radio stations. But shockingly, there's no Web browser, which O2 saysit excluded in the name of kiddy safety.

The Joggler's main event is O2's new shared calendarapplication. It's built into the Joggler and can also be accessed online. Parents who manage to escape their kitchen for a few hours can addappointments or check it by text.

It's very much targeted at busy families who need to keeptrack of little Jimmy's football matches. But like the humble kitchen calendarit's intended to replace, there's no way to import or export events, or syncwith other calendars.

The Joggler connects to your home network by Wi-Fi orEthernet cable, for the millions of us with Ethernet in the kitchen. There's alsoa USB2 port for a flash drive, along with 1GB of onboard memory. It doesn'ttake a SIM card, but O2 says it will have a messaging app that can send upto 50 text messages to any mobile in the UK for free. You can also send textsto your Joggler to let the kids know you're late for dinner, as if they don't havetheir mobiles glued to their ears anyway.

The screen is sharp and glossy, which makes it a great-looking digital picture frame. But at £150, it's a pricey one. The real questionis whether a digital device can ever match the scribbled-on glory of thekitchen calendar, even if it adds handy features such as text messaging andweather reports. We're not sure if we're willing to spend the time typingevents on to the Joggler, rather than just sticking them to the fridge --especially when we'll have to do it all again in our work calendar becausethere's no syncing.

The Joggler is being released in April and it'll befree in lieu of an upgrade for O2 customers. For gadget-mad families due for anO2 upgrade, we can just about imagine the Joggler replacing that cheesy digitalweather station on the kitchen windowsill. But with its laser-like focus on thefamily market, locked-down suite of applications, and lack of Web browser, itwon't be much use to anyone else.