TECH TO GO

Palms ready to add modem
via new card slot
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By Andy Walker, Cyberwalker Media Syndicate

Palm's m505 handheld computer - available at Amazon.com

The hand-held world is finally ready to go wireless. The gear is in place, now we wait for the wireless carriers to turn on the wireless connectivity.

The Pocket PC devices by Compaq, Hewlett Packard and Casio have been ready to carry a wireless signal for almost a year now, thanks to a robust portable operating system, a slot for a wireless card and a good micro-browser.

But it's been like living inside a brand new house waiting for the utilities to turn on the power and water.

We'll look back on these wireless dark ages much the way we recall the days of candles and well water.

Wireless data connectivity at speeds up to 19.2 Kbps is available in most of the United States, but it is expensive. Wireless data connection has been also available on the Palm VIIx and RIM Blackberry pager throughout the country at 9.6. Kbps, using a technology called Mobitex.
It's just as well. The Palm world hasn't been ready for anything better.

Palm, the overwhelming leader in the hand-held wars, has had great success in selling millions of devices that amounted to glorified electronic organizers. The screens, with the exception of one model, remained monochrome. There was no expansion slot to add a wireless modem or other card-based gadgets and Palm's wireless software strategy was constrained to a limited e-mail program and utilities for the Palm VIIx, though a mobile Internet kit has recently come available.

All that changed with the announcement of the Palm m500 and Palm m505 on March 19. With the new devices, the company has plugged all the holes in its hardware strategy.
Most importantly, the two new devices add a Secure Digital slot. This is a postage-stamp-sized opening at the top of the device. It can take two-gram flash memory cards that can offer expansion storage, or multimedia devices such as MP3 players and input/output devices such as modems. The cards can transfer data to the Palm at up to 10 megabits per second. The slot is also compatible with the MultiMediaCard (or MMC) standard. MMC cards are being used on audio players, cellular phones and digital video cameras.

The new slot bulldozes open the possibilities on the Palm platform.
Initially, Palm will offer a series of branded SD cards that include a games-card, a travel-utilities card, a dictionary/thesaurus card and a data backup card. Prices will run from $30 to $40.

There's no official word on who will make the wireless modem cards, which will operate with cellular companies' wireless data services, but odds-on favourites include Samsung and Motorola, members of the SD Card Association (SDCA). Canadian company Novatel Wireless, which makes wireless cards for laptops and the Pocket PC, is also a member.

Toshiba, one of the founding members of the SDCA, has already announced an SD card MP3 player. It will be available in Japan, April 22. The player has 64 megabytes of built-in flash memory that can store about 60 minutes of music. An optional 64MB SD memory card can also be added to the MP3 device to expand the music capacity to two hours.

Toshiba has been an early innovator of Bluetooth products, too. It showed off PC Cards at Comdex in Las Vegas last fall, so it's not hard to imagine that a Bluetooth SD Card will come from the laptop company. That is if Bluetooth, a short-range wireless technology, ever sees the light of day. It 's been floating around since 1997 and still remains absent from products, despite promises from vendors. The problem: getting the cost on the chips below $5. It's a chicken-and-egg conundrum. Device manufacturers won't buy the chips until they're cheap enough, but the chips won't become cheap enough unless manufacturers buy them.

A Bluetooth SD card will enable a Palm to share an Internet connection with a cellular phone or any other device in a 100-foot range that can share connectivity.
Of course, the card slot will also make a Palm SD phone possible. We've already seen a phone accessory that converts the Palm-like Handspring Visor into a cellular phone. Palm functionality has also been built into a new Kyocera phone. It will be available initially through Verizon Wireless.

The new Palm operating system, onboard the new devices, is able to handle voice and data information. The m500 and m505 also have a new alarm system, designed to go off when a reminder is triggered in its calendar. The hand-held can be set to beep, flash an LED light or vibrate like a cellphone or pager.

The Palm m505 also incorporates a new colour screen, which can show 65,000 colours. This is a vast improvement on the 256-colour Palm IIIc, the company's first colour offering.

The only remaining omission is good onboard sound. The devices still emit plaintive beeps like an ancient Atari game. Palm is relying on the SD card makers to provide additional sound functionality.

The wireless world, outside of streaming music, is mostly silent, so this isn't a must-have, at least not yet. I admire the way Palm has been frugal with its feature set. They held off on colour primarily to maintain battery longevity. Sound playback is a bit of a power eater, too, so it makes sense that they would offload it to the SD card makers for the time being.

Speaking of power, the m500 series features lithium polymer batteries that, according to Palm, provide three to four weeks of average use on a single charge.

The m500 will be available in April for $399. The m505 will be priced at $449 and will be available in May. No word on the wireless modem pricing.

So now the wait begins. Go draw some water from the well, would you? I'll light the candles.