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Wireless Handheld Recommendations?
JLyle asks: "I am trying to determine my options for a simple wireless internet device that my wife and I could use for instant messaging and/or e-mail. Due to some medical problems she's unable to speak right now and some of her upcoming treatments will require her to be in isolation, so it would be nice for us to have this way to communicate. I'm looking at things like Motorola's Talkabout T900 (around $99 with current rebate deals) or the Palm VIIx (ditto). We don't really need the added features of a full PDA like the Palm Pilot, but it's a nice bonus if that device works well. This is an area where I'm very unaware of the state of the art, etc. Are there any wireless gurus out there who can clue me in as to the most appropriate solution for this situation?"
We just replaced out Nextel phones at work with T900s and Skytel service. So far, we've been very happy.
The keyboard on the T900 is easy to use, takes about an hour to get used to (quicker and faster than grafitti). 1 AA battery will last you a month, where the Palm VII seems to eat AAA batteries (2 at a time).
The only issue with Skytel service is that you pay a per-page fee after 500 each month.
On the other hand, service for the Palm VII is still pretty high - $50 a month plus bandwidth. We have those at work too and I'm not real impressed with them. We're trying Blackberrys now - might want to look into those.
Considering that whatever you do, you need to get 2, I think the 2 way pager will be your best bet. More so if your wife isn't a geek - the T900 is not imposing like most tech devices.
Best of luck to your wife.
"All I ever wanted was to see Larry Wall give Bill Gates a Perl necklace."
http://www.eisenschmidt.org/jweisen
Although I'm still a fan of the T900 and have been for some time, I've had reliability problems. I purchased mine from Metrocall, and while the service was great, I went through 3 replacements before I just gave up on it. They always broke the same way - one day they ust stopped powering up when I flipped open the screen. And I treated these things gingerly too! If you choose it, I hope you'll have better luck than I.
The RIM Blackberry is another popular option in the pager department.
The option I'm with now is Wireless internet from At&t -- for 15/mo on top of any plan you have unlimited WAP, etc, and the R289LX Phone has an optional clip-on keyboard too (though I chose the T250 myself)
Another cheaper cell-phone option is Voicestream who offers 5mb of WAP data across any of their iStream Phones for $5/month.
And Depending on range, you could even go with some wireless toy like the Cybiko, too.
Hilary Rosen's speech was about her love of money and her desire to roll around naked in a pile of money.
Motorola MTS-2000t ml
http://www.motorola.com/cgiss/portables/sp50.sh
More features than you can shake a stick at!
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and enemy of growth. -JFK
sysadmins and teenagers alike seem to love 'em.
and isn't aol hyping some blackberry device now?
i'm not sure what the coverage is like for the palms, but the blackberrys seem to work just about everywhere.
ive been lookin for good wireless too. my requirements would be good coverage, flat rate service charges, "always on" service, unlimited transfers, and be able to use any tcp/ip application. the only service ive seen/heard of is cdpd. i have a minstrel S for my handspring visor with att&t pocketnet service(29.99/mo unlimited). 19.2kbps tops, ssh, irc, imap, pop, http, telnet, whatever..all works fine from my pda. there are also pcmcia cards, as well as cdpd modems for general palm devices. if your using ..i have a pcmcia modem
pcmcia then the price pops to something like 59.99. oh also you get a static ip, which is great, i opened my firewall to my proxy for my static ip so i can proxy through it, makes browsing much smoother. also opened my mail server so i can relay through it too. bout the only thing im missing is a vpn client of some sort. the novatel pcmcia cdpd modems work great in linux and freebsd too i believe. run any app
as well but have not activated it. i don't
travel enough to need 2 wireless accounts(no you can't transfer between the 2 because of the different service plans that vary depending on the device your using).
I've had both a Blackberry and a Palm VII, and much prefer the Palm VII for my purposes.
For your purposes, I would go with one of the 2-way pagers, either the Blackberry or the T900. They have always-on email checking so you immediately know when a new message arrives, and they're dead simple to use.
A couple of misconceptions I've seen on the thread and elsewhere:
Someone said Palm VII service was "$50 plus bandwidth" -- they have three levels of service, at $10 with little bandwidth, $25 with fair bandwidth, and $45 with unlimited bandwidth.
Someone else mentioned that they got good coverage with their Blackberry, with the suggestion the Palm wouldn't match it. That's not true, as both are hosted on BellSouth's Mobitexx network, no matter who resells them (Palm, Skytel, Earthlink, etc.).
The ability to program web clipping applications for the Palm is why I think it's better for geeks. It's very easy to build WCAs to interact w/web pages built dynamically by Perl/Python/PHP. I looked at the SDK for the Blackberry, and it's a lot more work, and so less suited to quick, one-off applications.
How about a Cybiko Xtreme? If you need more range (you'd want to talk to her while at home or something) I'd say go for a Blackberry. Unless you're getting the keyboard for the Palm, I'd guess that using the Blackberry would be quicker and easier.
Mr. Ska
Keep it simple - if you don't need the overhead of a PDA, don't bother with it.
At least a couple of carriers, including Voicestream, support AOL Instant Messenger from any SMS phone, and it's even built into their latest version of the Nokia 3390.
For email, some carriers are begin to support access to email over simple WAP, so once again, you can go on a cheap device and a cheap service plan to pull it off. If the email's for work, several vendors have products for carrier and device-independent access to corporate email.
People make this stuff too complicated with the latest and greatest devices. Real solutions are out there at reasonable prices for commodity hardware.
Seen any BadMarketing lately?
http://maui.bitmovers.com
It's a really cool Java API that lets you create abstract user interfaces that deploy dynamically to a variety of mobile platforms as well as web browsers. Perfect for software that administers embedded devices.
You may want to try two-way instant messaging with AT&T Wireless or Sprint.
Is there any current technology that allows you to send messages to groups using a cell phone?