"Review: The new Palm VII"
By Russell Kay
05/21/99 A few months ago, I reviewed 3Com Corp.'s then-new Palm IIIx and
Palm V handheld personal digital assistants (PDA) [CW, March 8]. I gave them
high marks as organizers but really disliked using them as communications tools.
Given that experience, I was highly skeptical about the likely usefulness of the
announced but not-yet-shown Palm VII - essentially a Palm IIIx with built-in
wireless communications for e-mail and Internet access. I didn't expect much,
and I was dead wrong. It's a better tool than I had imagined, and one that may
make IT managers sit up and take notice of supporting PDAs.
The VII is notable for how it simplifies wireless setup and for the fact that it's a
complete system out of the box. It also eases simplified, secure wireless access to
an organization's private databases via query applications developed with Palm
Computing Inc.'s own tool kit.
Wireless palm
Recognizing the narrowness of the 8K-bit/sec. wireless datapipe into the Palm VII,
3Com developed an approach to Internet access (their term is Web Clipping) that
uses query applications resident in the unit. When you use one, you invoke a
dialogue and make choices or queries appropriate to that application - say, to
inquire about airline flights between two cities on a given date and time. The
application extracts the essence of that query and sends it to a server, which in
turn translates the query for the host application and sends it to the indicated Web
address, together with any required encrypted authentication information. The
server gets the answer back, extracts the data, and compresses it for
retransmission to your handheld unit.
That two-stage approach, relying on the handheld unit for defining the query and
the server for Internet access and processing, reduces both the amount of data
that the VII needs to transmit and receive and the amount of power it consumes
while doing so. 3Com predicts that a pair of AAA batteries will last up to two
weeks (and also recharge the nonreplaceable internal NiCad power cell). In
developing the VII, 3Com managers learned firsthand how difficult it can be to set
up wireless communications: You have to involve an Internet service provider, a
third-party wireless modem and a phone call to set up the account, and then you
have to program (correctly) all the needed parameters into the machine.
But with the Palm VII, setup is quite simple, and the key is that Palm provides
both the hardware and the communications channel. 3Com has established
Palm.net, a central server farm that acts as the remote host for all Palm VII
handhelds. The user just raises the antenna that tucks alongside the Palm VII's
right side. This turns the radio on and checks for access to the BellSouth Wireless
Data Network, which covers 260 U.S. cities. If it's a machine's first on-air
session, a dialogue prompts for registration information and payment data. When
that's done, it calls up Palm.net via an encrypted link, opens an account (service
plans begin at $10 per month), and in about 90 seconds you're in business.
The real potential of the Palm VII, however, may be the control it offers the IT
manager. The Palm VII wireless platform allows users to access information over
the Internet, and this can include secure access to your own corporate databases.
It's a limited-bandwidth, application-controlled, encrypted access path, it offers a
lot of security along with its convenience, and it seems to give individual users
fewer opportunities to do something improper. I believe it will prove a surprisingly
effective tool for many roving professionals.
The Palm VII comes with several prepackaged query applications, including
automated-teller-machine-locators and a variety of news, financial, travel,
entertainment, weather and map services. But its CD-ROM also includes software
that lets you write your own query applications in HTML to access whatever Web
resources you wish. Better yet, because all Palm communications are
standards-based, your IT department can set up a server outside your firewall to
receive queries from Palm.net, authenticate them, and provide secure, encrypted
access to corporate data, such as an SAP R/3 inventory database, a customer list,
order entry and status information and more.
As good as the Palm VII is, it has drawbacks that will be significant to some
users. For example, it doesn't notify you that you have e-mail - you have to check
manually. Also, although the Palm communications model is bandwidth-sparing,
allowing you to download only parts of messages to see if you want the whole
thing, it doesn't do attachments. Moreover, though the Palm's Graffiti handwriting
system is acceptable for inputting very short messages, it can be a real nuisance
for longer messages.
Even a tiny keyboard, such as those found on Research In Motion Ltd.'s
Blackberry or Nokia Corp.'s Communicator smart phone, would be a welcome
improvement for sending e-mail. Despite these limitations, however, the Palm is a
dandy package combining the extensive data storage of its organizer forebear with
easy wireless communications.
computerworld.com
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