Palm VII with Net access -- indispensable
San Jose Mercury News - Published Sunday, June 13, 1999
I'VE just survived a travel nightmare, made just a little bit less awful by an interesting
new piece of technology.
Here's the nightmare: On the afternoon of Sunday, June 6, I boarded a United Airlines
flight in San Jose bound for O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, where I was to
connect with another United flight for my final destination in Atlanta.
It was one of those early summer days when thunderstorms roll through the Midwest
and O'Hare, stressed to the breaking point on good day, dissolves into chaos. My
bumpy flight was diverted to Rockford, Ill., after running low on fuel. I arrived in
Chicago three hours late.
By this time, the evening's final flight for Atlanta was long gone and all the nearby
hotels were full of stranded travelers. I grabbed about an hour's sleep on the
uncomfortable carpeting of the ''B'' concourse in Terminal 1 before getting the last
standby seat on a flight to Atlanta at 6 Monday morning.
I arrived grubby, exhausted and 10 hours late.
Here's the technology twist: I was carrying a new Palm VII electronic organizer, the first
in the deservedly popular Palm line to offer a wireless connection to the Internet.
When I arrived in Chicago and realized my connection was history, I went to a pay
phone and called United reservations to book the next available flight.
I then tapped the screen of the wallet-sized Palm VII to access a slimmed-down version
of the Official Airline Guide site on the World Wide Web. After entering the route and
date, I was looking at a list of United flights from Chicago to Atlanta on Monday
morning. Now I could tell the agent which flight I wanted, rather than expressing a
vague desire for the next available departure.
If I'd been in the mood, I could next have used the Palm VII to send a brief
electronic-mail message to the chairman of United Airlines, colorfully expressing my
disappointment at the carrier's decision not to hold the last flight to Atlanta for
passengers who would otherwise become terminal refugees.
I learned two things from this experience.
First, do everything possible to avoid connecting flights through busy hub airports
during thunderstorm season.
Second, there are good reasons to carry a device -- whether a mobile phone, electronic
organizer or laptop computer -- capable of making a wireless connection to the Internet.
Palm Computing, a part of 3Com Corp., has done a wonderful job making the Palm VII
useful, portable and easy to operate. The only real drawback, as with many successful
first efforts at new consumer technology, is cost: The Palm VII itself is $599, and
Internet access plans cost either $9.99 or $24.99 a month.
The Palm VII was officially launched May 24 in the New York metropolitan area,
although the service works anywhere in the country. Palm Computing promises to
introduce the Palm VII elsewhere in the United States ''later this year,'' although some
stores in New York are reportedly violating the company's rules by shipping units to
out-of-area buyers.
For more information on the Palm VII, call Palm Computing at (800) 881-7256 or go to
the Web (http://www.palm.com). Information on the wireless service that accompanies the
Palm VII is also on the Web (http://www.palm.net).
Simple and elegant
If you're one of the few people who's never seen a Palm organizer, let me give a quick
overview.
The original Palm Pilot, introduced in early 1996, and its successor models are the first
handheld electronic organizers to become a true mass-market success story. Outside
analysts estimate 3 million have been sold, and upstart Palm has turned aside a blatant
rip-off by Microsoft Corp., ''Palm-sized PCs'' running the clunky Windows CE
software.
What made the Palm line so popular is its simplicity. The Palm centers around four basic
tasks: maintaining a calendar, address book and to-do list, and producing text memos.
But the company also allows other software developers to create programs for the Palm,
so there are now hundreds of applications, everything from sophisticated financial
analysis programs to inane games.
The other key selling point is ''synchronization.'' The Palm comes with a docking cradle
that plugs into a personal computer. When you drop the Palm into its cradle and push the
synchronize button, anything new you've entered in the Palm is stored in your PC. And
any new data in the organizer program on the PC goes into the Palm. This makes the
Palm safe -- you're only out the cost of replacing the unit if it's lost or damaged, rather
than facing the horror of having every important piece of information in your life vanish.
Palm Computing has also responded admirably to pricing pressure from its competitors.
The oldest model in the line, the 2-year-old Palm Pilot Professional, is now a close-out
special at $149. The year-old Palm III is down to $199.
Rounding out the line is the fancier Palm IIIx at $369, boasting a much sharper display
screen than its predecessors, and the dressed-for-success Palm V at $449, which comes
in an elegant metal case.
I've been using a Palm Pilot Professional for two years and it's become an indispensable
part of my life. While the newer models offer slick improvements, the vast majority of
people shopping for a handheld organizer will get everything they need with the
bargain-priced Palm Pilot Professional or Palm III.
Wait for price drop
For now, the Palm VII isn't yet worth the extra money. I'm going to wait for both the
hardware cost and service fee to drop at least in half. But not much else has to change.
I'm amazed Palm Computing has crammed wireless circuitry into a device that's only
slightly bigger than other Palm units -- the Palm VII is the same thickness and width as
the Palm IIx, and only a half-inch longer at 5 1/4 inches. And the Palm VII weighs a
mere 6.7 ounces, just seven-tenths of an ounce more than the IIIx.
The biggest physical difference is a stubby four-inch antenna that folds into the right side
of the Palm VII. Flipping out the antenna, hinged at the top of the case, turns on the unit
and makes an instant Net connection -- there is no need to log in or enter a password.
The service is robust: I made a connection every time I tried in five states, except inside
the bunker-like building where I work, and was never was cut off in mid-transmission.
The first display is a list of icons for Web sites that offer information through the
Palm.net service -- 22 sites are working with Palm.net now, with more promised soon.
In addition to the flight schedule site, mentioned above, Palm.net is strong on financial
data, sports updates, news and other travel information.
Later in my East Coast trip, for example, I followed the peace talks in Kosovo through
the ABCNews .com site, kept an eye out for more thunderstorms on the Weather
Channel site and checked stock prices through the E*Trade online brokerage service.
Some of the sites, however, didn't strike me as particularly useful. MasterCard, for one,
is offering a service to locate the nearest ATM -- not something I need to know very
often. And UPS has a site for tracking shipments, hardly a got-to-have-it-now need.
I should make it clear the Palm VII delivers nothing resembling a Web page you'd see on
a PC. It's just bare-bones text and boxes for entering information. That's good, because
the amount of data required to display these simple pages is so small you rarely wait
more than a few seconds -- unless the Internet is having one of its periodic traffic jams.
The e-mail program, called iMessenger, makes it easy to send and receive messages. But
this is not a pager -- you have to check iMessenger to see if you have new messages. My
only complaint is that you must use a Palm.net address, such as myname@palm.net; the
service can't be set up to retrieve messages from your regular account.
I'm confident, however, that if Palm doesn't quickly move to remedy this failing, some
independent programmer will provide access to conventional e-mail through the Palm
VII.
Big bill potential
One other caution: Heavy users could quickly run up a big bill with Palm.net.
The entry-level $9.99 plan provides 50 kilobytes (KB) of data per month, which Palm
Computing says is equivalent to about 150 ''screens'' of information. The $24.99 plan
provides 150 KB, or about 450 screens. Extra kilobytes are 30 cents each.
You could easily burn through 50 KB just checking sports scores and a few stocks once
a day, let alone reading e-mail.
And a final note: For those who want their wireless Palm experience through a phone,
you need wait only a few weeks. Qualcomm Inc. says its long-awaited pdQ mobile
phone (www.qualcomm.com/pdq), with a built-in Palm display, should be available
by the end of June. It will be sold by wireless carriers, not in stores, at prices expected
to range from $500 to $1,000.
o~~~ O |
