.KEYWORD mik
.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE Palm Mobile Internet Kit brings the wireless Internet to everyone
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY On November 13, 2000, Palm, Inc. announced that its Palm Mobile Internet Kit was shipping. The software product allows virtually all Palm handheld computer users to connect wirelessly to the Internet using a data-enabled mobile phone. PalmPower Senior Technical Editor Claire Pieterek reviews this important new software.
.AUTHOR Claire Pieterek
Do you have a Palm device but wish it were a Palm VII? Do you live outside the US and wish you could get a Palm VII? Well, you don’t need to wish anymore. The Palm Mobile Internet Kit provides the software you need to take a Palm m100, Palm III-series, or Palm V-series, along with a compatible cell phone, and get the functional equivalent of a Palm VII.
.H1 Palm devices
First, let’s talk about the device requirements. I’m not sure if the Mobile Internet Kit will work on Handspring models–deadline pressures didn’t leave me enough time for experimentation with my Visor Deluxe. If it works with a Palm m100, which uses Palm OS 3.5 in ROM, it’s possible that the Mobile Internet Kit can be made to work with Handspring’s Visor Platinum or Visor Prism. I used my Palm V with a Palm OS 3.5 upgrade.
.H1 Phones
Quite a few cell phones are on the "approved list." Most of these are GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) phones, which is the de facto standard in Europe and Asia. A few US carriers, such as VoiceStream and Cingular, offer GSM service in the US, although it’s on a different frequency than elsewhere. Most of the rest of the phones are CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) phones, such as the Samsung SCH-3500, which Sprint PCS sells. Some of the phones require a cable and/or TDK’s GlobalPulse software. You can find more information about phones that have been tested and are supported at http://palm.com/software/mik/phone.html.
I have a Samsung SCH-3500 phone, pictured in Figure A, with Sprint PCS service.
.FIG A My Samsung SCH-3500 phone uses Sprint PCS service.
Using this phone with the Mobile Internet Kit requires purchasing a $99 cable from Sprint. In the long run, it was less expensive for me to go out and buy a $169 Nokia 8290 GSM phone with built-in IR modem from VoiceStream, which gives me more than double the minutes for the same price I was paying with Sprint. Besides, the Nokia 8290 is much smaller than the SCH-3500. It’s a little taller than a credit card, and weighs less than three ounces.
.FIGPAIR B The Nokia 8290 proved to be more economical.
.H1 So, what do you get?
The Mobile Internet Kit gives you the ability to connect to your cell phone and use Web clipping applications, also known as PQAs (Palm Query Applications) or a WAP (Wireless Access Protocol) Web browser. You can also send SMS (Short Message Service) messages to others with GSM service, and dial up your ISP (Internet Service Provider) to send and receive email.
My colleagues at PalmPower have covered a number of different PQAs in other articles, so I won’t go into great detail here. You’ll find a list of appropriate PalmPower links at the end of this article, and an extensive list of PQAs is available at http://wireless.palm.net/apps. Quite a few PQAs are included with the Mobile Internet Kit, such as ABC News, the Weather Channel, CBS MarketWatch, and ESPN, plus travel-related applications like MapQuest, Etak Traffic Touch, Travelocity, and Continental, Delta, and United Airlines. You can shop, trade stocks, and also send faxes. I’ll go into more detail on these included PQAs later.
Installing the Mobile Internet Kit is pretty straightforward. HotSync your Palm device first and then pop in the CD ROM. A number of files will be installed to your Palm device, mainly PQAs and system files needed to enable wireless connectivity.
.H1 Preferences
One of the first things you’ll notice after the Mobile Internet Kit install is a couple of new options in Preferences: Connection and Wireless. The Connection screen is shown in Figure C.
.FIG C You can set your available connections in the Connections screen.
You can set your available connections in the Connections screen. Be sure to use the appropriate setting for your cell phone. Not all Nokia phones sold in the US have IR, let alone IR modems!
Figure D shows the Wireless screen.
.FIG D Here’s the Wireless screen under Preferences.
There’s not much you can configure in Wireless. The proxy is used to connect to Palm.Net, as far as I can tell. The Mobile Internet Kit documentation comes in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Japanese, but doesn’t provide much information.
.H1 Applications
You get lots of applications with the Mobile Internet Kit. Most of these are PQAs, but you also get an SMS utility and email, as well as an optional WAP browser, which is not installed by default. Having been completely unimpressed with WAP browsing on my Samsung phone, I declined to install it on my Palm V.
HandPhone SMS, pictured in Figure E, lets you send short messages to people with GSM phones.
.FIG E HandPhone SMS sends short messages to GSM phone users.
I couldn’t really test HandPhone SMS, because GSM service is not prevalent in the US, and it’s just about impossible to tell who uses what carrier without asking each cell phone-toting individual I know. This will be a far more useful utility in most of the rest of the world, where GSM is the standard.
MultiMail Pro II is the email package provided in the Mobile Internet Kit. Palm recently purchased Actual Software, developers of MultiMail Pro. The opening screen, pictured in Figure F, gives you the option to send email, receive email, or both.
.FIG F With MultiMail Pro II, you can send and/or receive email.
See my article in the July 1998 issue of PalmPower (at http://palmpower.com/issues/issue199807/handson001.html) for information on how to set up MultiMail Pro II. Astute readers will note that this is not the most recent version of MultiMail Pro.
I tapped the receive button and found out I don’t have any mail as you can see in Figure G.
.FIG G I don’t have mail.
.H1 PQAs
I’ll briefly go over some of the many PQAs that are shipped with the Mobile Internet Kit.
.H2 CBS MarketWatch
With CBS MarketWatch, pictured in Figure H, you can check your stock portfolio.
.FIG H Enter your ticker symbol and tap the Go button to check a quote.
As you can see in Figure I, it’s a down market for tech stocks today. Looks like President-Elect Bush’s nomination for Secretary of the Treasury is not sitting well with the market!
.FIG I CBS MarketWatch provides real-time stock quotes.
.H2 Etak Traffic Touch
You can check traffic from your Palm device using the Etak Traffic Touch PQA. A word of warning, though, this might be hazardous unless you’re car-pooling. It’s pictured in Figure J.
.FIG J Pull down the "Local" menu to choose a city.
Once you’ve chosen your city, tap the Traffic button. You’ll see a display of all of the problem traffic areas in your locale, as shown in Figure K.
.FIG K You’ll get a list of traffic trouble spots with Traffic Touch.
.H2 Weather Channel
You can get weather information from the Weather Channel. First, enter a city name or zip code, as shown in Figure L, and press Go.
.FIG L Enter a city name or zip code to get your local weather.
In a moment, you’ll receive the current and future weather forecast for your area, as shown in Figure M.
.FIG M This is helpful information for anyone who needs to pack for a trip.
.H2 The Go translation service
The Go translation service, pictured in Figure N, is another good source of information for travelers, although the selection of languages is somewhat limited.
.FIG N The Go translation service is great for travelers.
To use it, first enter the words you need to translate, choose the language to translate into from the drop-down menu, and then tap Translate Now. In Figure O, I entered a phrase appropriate for the season!
.FIG O Have a Happy New Year in any language.
.H1 Conclusion
I’m really disappointed that Palm chose to include MultiMail Pro II with the Mobile Internet Kit, rather than the far superior MultiMail Pro III. You can read my MultiMailPro III review in the July 1999 issue of PalmPower at http://palmpower.com/issues/issue199907/multimail001.html.
I’m also wondering what the Mobile Internet Kit really does for me that my trusty old modem, MultiMailPro III, and ProxiWeb don’t do. It’s really hard to consider the Mobile Internet Kit setup that I have truly mobile because I can’t walk around online, like I’d be able to do with an OmniSky modem. Most places I go have readily accessible analog phone lines that I can use, and my ISP provides local dialup just about anywhere through the GRIC (Global Reach Internet Connection) service. Besides, you can use PQAs without having the Mobile Internet Kit, a Palm VII, or even a Palm device that can be upgraded to Palm OS 3.5. Check http://www.geocities.com/daveinfopage/palmpilot_webclipping.html for more information on how to do that.
Although the Palm Mobile Internet Kit is really neat and provides a good introduction to Web clipping applications, I think I’ll stick to my landline modem for now. But let’s not forget that regardless of which way you choose to go, there’s a Palm solution that’ll work for you.
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.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on The Palm Mobile Internet Kit, visit http://www.palm.com/software/mik/.
For more information on GSM service, visit http://www.option.com/gsmresource.htm.
For more information on VoiceStream, visit http://www.voicestream.com.
For more information on Cingular, visit http://www.cingular.com.
For more information on the Samsung SCH-3500, visit http://www.samsungelectronics.com/mobile/products/cdma/sch3500/index.html.
For more information on Sprint PCS, visit http://www.sprintpcs.com.
For more information on TDK’s GlobalPulse, visit http://www.greycell.com/Products/softmob/indexplm.html.
For more information on phones that have been tested and are supported for use with the Mobile Internet Kit, visit http://palm.com/software/mik/phone.html.
For more information on the Nokia 8290, visit http://www.nokiausa.com/beauty1/1,1585,47,FF.html.
For more information on PQAs, visit http://wireless.palm.net/apps.
For more information on MultiMail Pro II, visit http://www.actualsoft.com.
For Claire Pieterek’s article on MultiMail Pro II in the July 1998 issue of PalmPower, visit http://palmpower.com/issues/issue199807/handson001.html.
For more information on CBS MarketWatch, visit http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/newsroom.htx.
For more information on Etak Traffic Touch, visit http://www.traffictouch.com.
For more information on the Weather Channel, visit http://www.weather.com.
For more information on the Go translation service, visit http://translator.go.com.
For Claire Pieterek’s MultiMailPro III review in the July 1999 issue of PalmPower, visit http://palmpower.com/issues/issue199907/multimail001.html
For more information on ProxiWeb, visit http://www.proxinet.com.
For more information on OmniSky, visit http://www.omnisky.com.
For more information on GRIC, visit http://www.gric.com.
For more information on using PQAs without the Palm Mobile Internet Kit, visit http://www.geocities.com/daveinfopage/palmpilot_webclipping.html.
For Kathy Burns’ article, "The best of the PQAs," in PalmPower Magazine Enterprise Edition’s November 2000 issue, visit http://www.palmpowerenterprise.com/issues/issue200011/bestpqa001.html.
For Kathy Burns’ article, "Wacky PQAs that make you wonder," in PalmPower’s December 2000 issue, visit http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue200012/weirdpqa001.html.
For Bruce Elgort’s article, "Developing a Palm VII PQA that reads data from a Domino database," in PalmPower’s December 1999 issue, visit http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue199912/pqa001.html.
For more information about Palm computers, visit http://www.palm.com.
.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.
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