After much waiting, palmOne has released its own Wi-Fi SDIO card, at least for two models. Larry Garfield sees if it was worth the wait.
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The ability to connect to Wi-Fi networks is a main draw for many handheld users, but to date few Palm OS handhelds have supported it and power constraints have kept many SDIO cards from appearing. Now palmOne has released their own low-power card for the Tungsten T3 and Zire 72.
 | The palmOne Wi-Fi card is simple to setup and simple to use
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The card itself is about 1.5 times the length of a normal SD card, so it sticks out from the handheld quite a way but doesn't feel especially fragile. Aside from the labeling, it appears virtually identical to the SanDisk Wi-Fi card, right down to the small green connection light on the front.
Installation of the card required a Windows install program from palmOne that places a large, 3 MB installer on the handheld during HotSync. The installer then configures the necessary software, deletes itself, and restarts the handheld automatically.
The on-device software consists of four parts. There is a Wi-Fi Setup wizard applet, which works much the same as the Phone Setup applet to walk the user through a one-time configuration. The second is a VPN Setup wizard that walks the user through setting up VPN connection. There are also new Wi-Fi and VPN Preferences panels that duplicate the functionality of both, and offer a bit more flexibility. Opening the Wi-Fi panel automatically connects to the last used access point, if available, and sets the Network panel to a new "Wi-Fi" option.
The Wi-Fi panel lets the user log onto any discoverable network, or manually configure a network using a simple dialog based on the category dialog. There is also a graphical but not especially finely-grained signal strength meter, and several configuration screens to tweak most settings a user would need. Some, such as setting up a manual IP address, are four "Details" buttons away, but otherwise the interface is clean, fast, and well-designed.
The palmOne Wi-Fi card supports both 64-bit and 128-bit WEP encryption with one or four keys, and allows the user to input keys via hex, ASCII, or passphrase for maximum flexibility. It also supports both Infrastructure (to an access point) and Ad-hoc (peer to peer) modes.
In practice, connecting to an open access point was trivially simple and a connecting to a WEP-encrypted access point was just as simple, once we entered the right password. Range was surprisingly good, with a near-perfect signal anywhere in our office and a functional signal even three stories away near a metal grill fence, which usually kills most radio signals. Oddly, we found the connection slightly better on the Tungsten T3 than on the Zire 72. The card does draw a fair amount of power, however.
Availability
The palmOne Wi-Fi card will be available starting in early September for $129 USD. It is compatible only with the palmOne Zire 72 and Tungsten T3.
Conclusion
The palmOne Wi-Fi card does what it claims to do, provide 802.11b Wi-Fi connectivity with a minimum of hassle. Range is good, and setup and configuration are as straightforward as one could reasonably ask. On the downside, the installer requires a lot of temporary space, and not surprisingly for a Wi-Fi adapter the power draw is considerable. WEP support is solid, and the inclusion of a VPN wizard is welcome as well, although there is no support for more modern Wi-Fi encryption systems such as WPA. Users looking to add Wi-Fi to their Bluetooth-enabled palmOne handhelds should definitely take a look.
- What's positive: Easy setup, good connection and range, good WEP support
- What's negative: Large installer, no WPA
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Price and availability
The will start selling for TBA () in November 1999.
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