.KEYWORD omnisky
.FLYINGHEAD BETA WATCH
.TITLE OmniSky goes head-to-head with the Palm VII
.FEATURE
.AUTHOR Jason Perlow
.SUMMARY The OmniSky 19.2K cellular modem and wireless Internet access service, now in widespread beta testing, allows your Palm V to take advantage of bandwidth-optimized Palm Web Clipping applications, fully browse the Web with AvantGo, and retrieve/send POP3 email when you re on the road. Is it the holy grail of wireless Internet access for your Palm V, or does it fall short on its claims? Contributing Editor Jason Perlow has the scoop.
For a while, the only way that you could experience wireless Internet access on a Palm device was using Novatel’s Minstrel wireless modem for the Palm III and a PalmPilot Professional. While it did allow you to retrieve your email and do Web browsing on your device, the modem/Palm combination was bulky, and web browsing throughput was fairly slow due to the limited 19.2kbps bandwidth of the CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data) wireless standard.
Back in late May, Palm Computing released the Palm VII, with an integrated wireless modem and the Palm.Net wireless service. The Palm VII uses the PQA (Palm Query Application) standard that optimizes the device’s even more limited bandwidth of 9600-14.4kbps. The idea is that Web Clippings (which must be pre-built and made available by a site’s operator) grab Web site content via HTML queries, instead of attempting to fully browse a site. Unfortunately, the Palm VII got a rather lukewarm reception when it was first released because the price of the wireless service (delivered by Bell South) was both very expensive and priced per kilobyte used. Additionally, some people were disappointed that you couldn’t use your existing email address and retrieve mail from your regular POP3 with the Palm VII — you had to use a special Palm.Net address. And finally, the Web Clippings were limited; if you wanted to go to a site that didn’t have a PQA, you were out of luck.
.H1 Introducing OmniSky
Enter OmniSky, a wireless services company that seeks to merge the best features of the Minstrel wirelesss modem with Palm.Net’s Web Clipping. Their first product, an ultra-slim CDPD (i.e., Cellular Digital Packet Data) 19.2kbps modem for the Palm V with an accompanying wireless Internet service, began wide availability beta testing in late December of 1999. The modem, shown in Figure A, is actually the Novatel Minstrel V, which is exclusively produced for OmniSky.
.FIGPAIR A The OmniSky modem mates very nicely with the Palm V.
OmniSky’s wireless service partner is AT&T, which provides CDPD service in most major metropolitan areas, as shown in Figure B.
.FIGPAIR B OmniSky offers coverage in many areas of the United States.
One of the reasons we’re most interested in OmniSky is their plan for service. While an exact price hasn’t been set, we’re told it will be an unlimited use plan for under $50/month. This is radically different than what Palm.Net offers and may just be the killer reason to buy an OmniSky device — if the rest of the product holds up to scrutiny.
.H1 The modem
The modem is a well-engineered device, and matches well with the Palm V. When connected to the modem, the combo, shown in Figure C, is about 25 percent thicker than a Palm III or a Palm VII. While this is still too thick for a shirt pocket and negates the Palm V’s slim appeal, it’s nowhere near as thick as a Palm III/Minstrel III combo, and can be carried in a jacket or a coat pocket without much fuss.
.FIGPAIR C Although OmniSky s Minstrel V CDPD modem doubles the thickness of the Palm V, it’s still very easy to carry around.
The modem is charged with its own AC power supply, and is not capable of charging the Palm V while the modem is charged. This is one of the few negative aspects of the device’s design, as the modem and the Palm V have to be charged separately and you’ll need to carry the modem’s charger and the Palm V charging cradle with you if you intend to be away from their home or office for any extended period. The modem eats a significant amount of power, and needs to be charged every day, since it’s almost always on when the Palm V is inserted in it. Although the unit has no physical power switch, the modem can manually be turned off via a utility installed on the Palm V. However, once you access any application that uses the modem, it automatically turns itself on again.
On a positive note, the always-on nature of this device allows the modem to periodically check and see if you have email in your POP3 mailbox. Even if your Palm V is turned off, an LED at the bottom of the unit indicates if you have mail waiting for you.
.H1 The software
The software suite is what makes the OmniSky service compelling. Not only can you do everything a Palm VII can do with bandwidth-optimized PQA apps, but you also have access to all of the AvantGo channels and the full HTML 3.2 browsing capabilities of AvantGo as well. And, a big plus, unlike Palm.Net, you’ve got send and receive access to your existing POP3 email account.
For Web access, OmniSky has licensed Palm Computing’s Web Clipping software (just like in the Palm VII), and has thrown in a pre-release version of AvantGo 3.2, just in case all the freely-available PQA applications you can download from the Palm.Net Web site weren’t enough. This allows you to have access to virtually every premium news and information service in existence, and then some, as shown in Figure D. You can also use AvantGo to browse any Web site, although the program, inconveniently, doesn’t have a bookmarks feature and many sites will not be optimized for the small display.
.FIG D OmniSky has included support for PQA applications like the ABC News and ESPN, and ETAK Traffic.
In addition to the standard PQA applications and AvantGo channels, OmniSky has included two of their own special PQA applications, OS White and OS Yellow, which allow you to search for phone numbers and addresses of local businesses and residences. This sure beats having to carry a four-pound local phone book with you wherever you go, or having to call "information" on your cell phone.
For email, OmniSky licensed a special copy of One-Touch Mail from JP Systems, and customized it specifically for use with their service. It’s a fully functional POP3 email client, which is supported by virtually every ISP and corporate messaging system in existence. One of the nice features of this software is that it downloads only the headers and first few kilobytes of each email message, tells you how big each message is, and prompts you as to whether you want to download the rest of it. This easily allows you to determine whether or not a large message is the latest 500K digital photo of your sister-in-law’s rugrat, spam garbage from a listserv, or a genuinely important message from a client, as shown in Figure E. The OmniSky mail client is also fully integrated with the Palm V’s address list, so you can do email address lookups and send messages to people on your contact list quickly and easily.
.FIG E OmniSky’s mail client fully supports the POP3 messaging protocol.
In addition to the bundled Internet access software, OmniSky includes Synergy Solutions (at http://www.synsolutions.com) Launch Em 2.1, a third-party application manager for Palm OS. While it’s got a ton of features, I feel that it tends to clutter the screen area. Thankfully, you can turn it off, but it also eats 123K of your flash memory.
I wasn’t able to try the OmniSky installation process firsthand, since OmniSky supplied me with a Palm V pre-configured for the duration of my tests. My understanding is that it installs all the applications to the built-in flash memory of the Palm V, in order to conserve the Palm V’s limited 2MB of user RAM. The Palm Vx, which was released in late 1999 (and also works with the Minstrel V modem and the OmniSky service), has 8MB of RAM.
Various OmniSky testers have reported problems with the installation process, some of which have resulted in a failed installation or unusable units. It took a long time for PalmPower’s Editor-in-Chief, David Gewirtz, to get his modem up and running because of the beta nature of the product and because service availability is still somewhat spotty in his home area. Expect David’s comments in a future issue. In April, when OmiSky launches their service nationally, they will be supplying a software upgrade to beta users, which apparently fixes many of these problems and addresses other usability issues in the product. When we do get it, we’ll have a review here.
[A new version of the software was just posted to the OmniSky site, but we haven’t yet had the opportunity to test it. — DG]
.H1 Performance and usability
We tested the unit in both the NY/NJ Metropolitan area as well as the Miami/Fort Lauderdale area, where it did very well — provided we were outdoors, in a car, or were near a window. At Newark Airport and Miami International Airport, we had no problems using the device indoors, but the arrival/departure areas of these airports have huge windows, which make it easy for radio signals to penetrate. In buildings made of reinforced concrete, heavy insulation, or with thick beams, you might have problems getting a decent signal.
Generally speaking, we felt the response time was a lot faster than the Palm VII’s when using PQA applications. This can be attributed to CDPD’s increased bandwidth over Palm.Net’s. POP3 email access was also speedy, although we did get the occasional timeout from a Linux sendmail server hosted at our ISP.
AvantGo performance was mixed. Don’t use this modem to synchronize channels with AvantGo.com — it is way too slow. Instead of synchronizing the channels to the Palm V (and eating up its precious 2MB of memory in the process) we found we achieved much better performance browsing the AvantGo channels directly from the Internet using the PliNk Web site (see http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue200001/ppcoolsite200001001.html).
Here’s a cool AvantGo trick: Since AvantGo has no native bookmarking capabilities, we added a single custom PliNk channel to our AvantGo.com account, so that we could update the channel links at least once a week. AvantGo plans to implement a new device interface for wireless access late in Q1 2000, which will provide similar capabilities to the PliNk page, but will also provide a complete index to all the AvantGo channels for direct browsing when used on a wireless device.
.H1 The bottom line
For a beta, the OmniSky modem and service looks very promising, but we really want to see what the April software update looks like before we can pass complete judgment. If you’re willing to work within the performance limitations of CDPD, and have no problem traveling with two sets of chargers, the service can be a great tool for certain types of people, namely high-power execs and technogeeks on the run who need access to their email from almost everywhere. David Gewirtz has also told me that he thinks this product may be a boon to network managers who need to check on their servers from anywhere they happen to be.
OmniSky has announced that they are expanding their beta program to accommodate 7,500 users instead of the original planned 5,000 (according to their PR representation, they are already at 6,000 users) and will be extending their $299.00 modem price (which includes free service until April) if you sign up before February 27. While pricing for the service has still not been set, OmniSky has stated that it will be an all-you-can eat service for less than $50.00 per month, and will be extremely competitive with existing wireless service offerings. Too good to be true? Stay tuned.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on OmniSky, visit http://www.omnisky.com.
For Synergy Solutions’ Launch Em 2.1, visit at http://www.synsolutions.com.
For the PalmPower Site of the Month article about the PliNk Web site see http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue200001/ppcoolsite200001001.html.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO Jason Perlow is Contributing Editor for PalmPower and is proud to be an uber-geek. He can be reached at the fashionably evil email address of perlow@hotmail.com
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?13@@.ee6de0f
