Palm Finally Announces SD WiFi Card

Estranged42 writes "After years of waiting, Palm announced today that it will release an SD 802.11b card for its Tungsten T3 and Zire 72 handhelds. This comes after years of anticipation and speculation about this card ever happening. It should be arriving sometime in September for $129. I think I'm still looking forward to getting one. The Register and others are carrying the story."

Comments

still using palms

[Sv-Manowar]

I can't see the advantage of using a palm over using a small notebook (12" ibook or powerbook for example) - espiecally for browsing using Wifi cards as shown here. A compacted and hard to read screen compared to a full internet browser. Surely the space it takes up is made up for in usability nowdays.

Re:still using palms

[Klar]

I think in most cases a 12" notebook would work better. But, palm's are useful if you need something really small that could fit in your pocket and not have to carry a 4lbs small notebook. Palm's are great for keeping track of names, apointments, general information and taking notes while on the run.

Re:still using palms

[Planesdragon]

* cost of the model
* power consumption
* familiarity
* ease of use

For $1,000 (the cost of a 12" iBook) I can purchase new palms with Wifi cards for myself, my wife, and an extra just for the fun of it.

Even if the iBook had equal power consumption on all components (which is unilkely, given screen size alone), a single palm still uses far less kw/H than the iBook for any given task. Solid-state memory and an always-on OS eliminate both boot-up time and HD seek.

A lot of people can use their palms as easily as a computer. For some folks, it's even easier.

And, of course, if I want to have a palm in the TV room just for random web lookups, I don't need to configure an ibook or leave it out. When i want to pull up the data from a website, I can simply turn on the palm, click on the web-browser program (which can even be bound to a buttom) and go right to the site.

Re:still using palms

[Rude Turnip]

Given the size of a Palm device and the situations in which you would need Wifi with such a device (ie on the go, not doing anything multimedia intensive), it makes perfect sense to go with a more affordable solution.

Re:still using palms

[IronChef]

As long as you are carrying that bag around, you may as well get a 15" or 17" laptop instead of that 12".

Meanwhile I will be carrying my PocketPC in, uh, my pocket, and Googling up product reviews while I am shopping. Sure, the browser sucks, but it gets the job done.

Did I mention it fits in my pocket?

Re:still using palms

[stratjakt]

Anyone who can't see that a PDA and a laptop computer are two different devices, suited to two different tasks, probably isnt worth arguing with.

Coming up with anecdotes to prove that PDAs can be useful is a pointless excercise. The PDA market has exploded, obviously enough people out there can see the uses.

Re:still using palms

[NanoGator]

"I can't see the advantage of using a palm over using a small notebook (12" ibook or powerbook for example) - espiecally for browsing using Wifi cards as shown here. A compacted and hard to read screen compared to a full internet browser. Surely the space it takes up is made up for in usability nowdays."

Nobody said it was for everybody. Frankly, though, you'd have a lot easier time seeing it if you were trying to find it. Laptops just can't go everywhere. They don't 'instant on'. Their battery life is HORRIBLE compared to a Palm or PocketPC. The form factor itself is a huge nuisance. Even with something as small as a Powerbook, those things feel like they're just WAITING to jump out of your lap.

There are times where it'd be handy to have a small handheld unit to grab the latest news headlines. During commercials, for example. You're not going to drag your laptop out for that. WIth the Palm, though, you hit 'on' and click a bookmark. Quick check of email? No problem. Heck, even log on and get your instant messages. Piece of cake. Maybe I won't do hard core research on it, but I have times where I don't want to get up and go to my desk just to get a bit of info off the net. It's an entertainment device. Nothing wrong with that.

I ended up just getting a Tablet PC. I miss the instant on etc, but it does boot quickly, has long battery life, and the slate mode with a stylus is much easier on the lap when there's no typing to do. If I didn't get this, I'd be using a PDA instead, and quite happy about it. Sure it's limited. BFD, it's still small and couch-surfable.

Again, it's not for everybody, but come on, how come some of these possibilities didn't cross your mind?

Cool!

[AKAImBatman]

This is really, really cool! Now I can... erm... well... Hotsync without a cradle! Yeah, that's it!

Joking aside, anyone have any practical uses for such a gadget? In my experience, networking Palm Pilots hasn't helped them do much more. Sure, you can do WAP type stuff, but so can your cell phone.

for Palm's sake

[jford235]

it'd better work well 1st time around, cause otherwise they're gonna have a mob on their hands, considering how long this has taken, espically since its only for two palms.

So just like the third party ones?

[Kenja]

So its just like the ones from say Sandisk, but twice as expensive? With inovation like this its no wonder Palm is at the top of the PDA market.

About damn time

[Roadmaster]

Once you use the T3 for any amount of time you realize it's too powerful a machine to stay unconnected; and bluetooth/IR through the cellphone is way too expensive. WiFi enables connection in any of the plenty of hotspots in town, and the T3 already comes with software to check e-mail and do browsing (full-fledged browser, although sometimes the screen size is a bit limiting). I also have a ssh app which will be far more useful if I can actually connect; not to mention VNC which will be great for remote diagnostics. I can actually see myself using one of these...

Review and More Info

[joncarwash]

Here is a nice full review from PalmInfocenter. It goes into full details and testing of the new SDIO Wireless card from PalmOne.

Some have asked how is this different than the SanDisk SDIO Wireless card for Palm that was released a short time ago. This description from SanDisk explains that its card is only for the Palm Zire 71 and products using recent versions of MS PocketPC. The new PalmOne card supports the Zire 72 and Tungsten T3, which the SanDisk card does not (apparently due to driver compatibility issues).

I own a PalmOne Tungsten E, which is the business value model, and there is not wireless support via SDIO cards, and doesn't look to be one available due to the power constraints of the Tungsten E model. Apparently, there have been some tests run with the SanDisk card on the Tungsten E, and it will work, but long-term effects on the SDIO slot have not been studied, and there could be damaging effects on the unit. Tungsten E users that want some sort of wireless connection should check out the Enfora Wireless Portfolio Case which seems to be the only wireless connection available for the Tungsten E.

Personally, I don't need wireless via my PDA since I already have a laptop and wireless card, but I know it is a nice feature, and on a future PDA I would want wireless to be available.

Re:Interesting description...

[realdpk]

"-- higher power consumption?"

Yep. Exactly why it's taken this long to get a SD WiFi card in the first place.

Security Concerns

[Phoinix]

A palm has address book, calendar and secure applications for passwords, etc...

I would think ten times before having my palm accessing or "accessible" via WiFi.

Yes, I am at the paranoid side, but in this age, you have to be so.

Wifi is not an option for me unless there is solid security such as runing two different systems on a Palm similar to a PC. Until that is an option, my Palm is offline.

Re:$129? (now a Grumpy Old Man Rant)

[angst_ridden_hipster]

Blanket statements like "Palms are inferior to PocketPCs" always amaze me, particularly in this case.

Maybe it's because I have a strong (and contrarian) opinion on what a PDA is used for. One doesn't get a PDA when what one needs is a notebook computer.

One gets a PDA to organize one's life: keep phone lists, to-dos, calendars, project management, password caches, and databases of system configurations and favorite restaurants and people's birthdays; read electronic books; and play an occasional time-wasting puzzle games. Maybe in rare cases do a Google search, or get crossword help from OneAcross.com, or download a map to your next meeting.

But if you're wanting to edit Excel spreadsheets, organize photo collections, edit your novel, create PowerPoint presentations, do nonlinear movie editing, etc, why not use something that's designed for that kind of activity? Why not use something that has a mega-pixel display? I have a reasonably portable 5 lb, 12", Unix-based notebook that I can do all that stuff on.

But for my PDA, I don't want all the complexity and extra features. I want reliability, simplicity, and long battery life. I don't want an OS that I have to update and patch and worry about. I do think it's a grand idea to have my PDA integrated into my phone, but I don't want to have to worry about all that other stuff. A PDA is about stability. It's about utility. It's not about extreme versatility.

And I don't want a camera in my PDA. If I'm going to take pictures, I want a real quality lens. I want decent dynamic range. I want 3 fps at useful resolution (e.g., 3008x2000 pixels). I have a digital camera that is designed for the single purpose of doing good digital photography. I don't want half-assed features just for the benefit of having them integrated into one box.

Feh!

Well, I guess I'm a Luddite.

Re:huh?

[Planesdragon]

Um...I last rebooted my powerbook for the 10.3.5 system update. Prior to that, I had a 38 day uptime.

The last time my palm "crashed" was when I was mucking about with a new program. Prior to that, I had an "uptime" approaching 6 months. And when it did crashe, it came back up in a matter of moments.

I'll note that you totally ignored the HDD seek, power consumption, and cost arguments. How nice of you.

or write with anything approaching speed or easy of use(I guarantee I can type at least ten times faster than you can "grafiti"). I'd also like to see you fit 60GB of data onto your palm pilot. Even if it was possible- its OS couldn't efficiently handle that much storage.

1: I don't use graffiti for anything but single-line entry. I have a keyboard for that--and the thing keeps up with me as well as anything else I've ever used.

2: I'd like to see you generate 60 GB of real text--or even 256 MB. You can even have a month to do it. (And we'll ignore that the main point of the WiFi card is to eliminate the Palm's native-memory standard. Want an archive of old documents? Just share with the harddrive.)

3: you're right. A palm and an ibook are very, very different tools. An ibook is a computer, a palm is an accessory.

Um, are you seriously suggesting people can just "pick up" grafiti?

No. I'm suggesting that there are people who can use a palm as well as or better than they can use a computer. Graffitti does take time to learn--but it probably took you weeks to stop looking at the keys when you type, too.

With my iPod and phone (Siemens S56) both supporting full contact info and calendaring as well as text notes for things like directions, I sync them both to iCal and Address Book with two clicks. My Visor has been sitting in the closet gathering dust for 3 years.

Nice. I have a 486 that's been gathering dust for years, too.

There is a role for the palm form-factor. It's not for everyone, but it is a distinct role. (This role can be taken by smart phones, and there's some mp3-player overlap, but there are reasons to avoid both of those.)

Treo 600 with still no bluetooth

[saha]

I'm a current Treo 180 user and the list of things I need the new Treo 600 plus to have are;

Bluetooth so I can iSync without a cable

320x320 screen

If they're going to leave that damn camera, then let it take video. MPEG-4 or H.264 clips.

Last but not least expansion with SDIO for GPS, WiFi, ...etc.

Found a great Treo 600 holster from Seidio, that would protect the screen well. Just like my Treo 180 (which is one reason I like it, but the flip phone part is susceptable to breakage).