Staying in Touch With Technology.

HERE is the problem with typical ''elder tech'' products: there's not enough ''tech'' in a phone that uses an oversize keypad but offers limited features, for one example. Advancing age can rob people of their abilities, and products that help mitigate that are good things indeed. But what if the need for that kind of assistance is still decades away? Today's baby boomers are just now crossing the retirement line, but that does not render them incapacitated. Far from it. It may, however, render them out of touch. ''What's developing is a digital divide,'' said Ken Dychtwald, the chief executive of Age Wave, a research and consulting organization that focuses on population aging. ''New technologies are largely oriented to people under the age of 50,'' Mr. Dychtwald said. ''If you're older than that, you have to muster the courage to ask your family how things work.'' [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]