There's a wireless Palm for every budget!
Oct 08 '00 (Updated Feb 18 '01)
The Bottom Line Prices of all-in-one solutions are unaffordable. Until price drops, I'll stick to my "wireless-with-wire-Palmokia"...
If you want to go wireless with your Palm today, you have various options. The best solution for you depends on your particular needs and spending power. I've narrowed down the possibilities to six:
1. Buy a Palm VIIx.
Pros: it's an all-in-one solution.
Cons: this costs 449$ us for a bulky monochrome PDA; that solution is available in the US only.
2. Get a Palm (or a Visor) with a wireless modem such as the Omnisky (or the upcoming Handspring's Visor Phone)
Pro: it's the best thing next to an all-in-one solution.
Cons: this adds quite a lot to the main PDA's price (300$ plus monthly usage); that solution too is available in the US only.
3. Get a Palm and let it talk to your IR-enabled mobile phone (Dr Salami explains you how on his graphically confusing but otherwise excellent site: http://users.zipworld.com.au/~rmills/palm.htm )
Pros: it's the best thing next to an all-in-one solution.
Cons: IR-enabled mobile phones carry a heavier price tag than those without.
4. Get a Palm and let it talk to any phone with the Palm Modem and the GSM kit.
Pros: it's possible to connect to ordinary phone line, which cuts the costs of cellular data usage.
Cons: for a "wireless with wires" solution, it's quite pricey; also, the modem is bulky.
5. Get a Palm and let it recognize your mobile phone as an external modem using TDK Global Pulse cable and software
Pros: it's cheap (99$) and easy to set up.
Cons: you go wireless... but with a wire!
6. Get a Palm and let it talk to a cheap mobile phone using a homemade cable and Global Pulse software (instruction on this page: http://members.home.com/rray4/about.html )
Pros: it's the cheapest solution of all.
Cons: you have to spend some time figuring out how to modify a few cables...
++ MY PERSONAL CHOICE +
Living in Montréal (Canada), the first two options were out for me. To get the third working, I'd have to spend 250$ on the phone only, which is quite a contradiction for a girl who barely uses phones (I just need data capabilities). The fourth was too bulky. The sixth needed a high geekiness coefficient.
So all things considered, the TDK Global Pulse for Palm seemed to be exactly what I was looking for: an efficient and adapted solution to test the PDA wireless world without spending too much. Expect a more detailed review of the Global Pulse as soon as Epinions sets up a category for it.
++ THINGS TO DO ON THE NET WHEN YOUR PDA'S CONNECTED +
When I told my friends I could connect my Palm IIIc to my Nokia 5190 to get online, the reaction was always the same: what's the use of it?
At first, I wasn't sure myself if this was such a great idea. At 9600 bps, surfing the Web (using AvantGo or iSilo) is pretty discouraging. When using graffiti, it's quite problematic to have a fast discussion on ICQ. So I thought I'd mainly use it to check my email when I'd be on the road.
Then I learned it was possible for me to install the Web Clipping applications that ship with the Palm VII series. You can get them from a friend who uses a VII or a VIIx if you live in the US; if not, do some searches on the Internet, you'll find them somewhere -- that's what I did). Be aware that these will reside directly into your Palm's ROM,which means you won't be able to erase the Web Clipping applications unless you use Z'Catalog or an equivalent. If you have problems setting it up (getting INET error messages, for example), do some research in Usenet's archives (www.deja.com/usenet), where a lot of questions have been answered.
The possibility to use all the PQA (these are small utility programs running over the Web Clipping applications) available for the VII really changed my view of the connected PDA. That's because PQA are well adapted to the actual wireless PDA world:
* they need very little bandwidth, so it's painless to use them even at 9600 bps;
* they're light on your Palm's precious memory, weighting only a few kilobytes;
* most of them are information services based on some powerful search engine, that will give you access to the information you're looking for in a snap. For example, you can use your eBay PQA to follow an auction in which you have great interest; you'll click on Ebert's Movie Reviews PQA to rapidly know thumbs up that video you're about to rent is valued; you'll do a fast search with Britanica, GuruNet or Google to get a fast answer on anything; you'll use the Global Communicator PQA to translate an expression from and to many languages.
To browse some lists of available PQAs, visit:
Palm.net: http://www.palm.net/
PalmGear's PQA sections: http://www.palmgear.com/software/index.cfm
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Epinions.com ID:
transgenik
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Member: Martine Gingras
Location: Rosemère, Québec, Canada
Reviews written: 23
Trusted by: 28 members
About Me:
Let's talk about things. Real things.
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