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User Review of OmniSky Wireless service for Palm V
mcc::reba writes "Here is my experience using the new wireless Palm V service from OmniSky.
It is a Very Cool Thing."
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I'm not whining, I'm pointing out a statement in the article that is not based on facts but prejudices (in this case, against desktop OS's in general) - BTW, Mr Moderator, that's why my posting is not off-topic. I like Linux, I use it, but I can't stand that biased Linux-is-better-than-the-rest talk - it doesn't do Linux any good. You won't see people like Linus or AC making those kinds of statements. I react the same way when people tell me that nothing else reaches Windows' GUI capabilities - it's just the same thing: flamebait.
I have tried to figure out how the Palm VII works for a while now, since I got one for Christmas and I can't return/exchange the thing for a Vx (would be nicer).
Apparently, it's a cellular modem, probably 9600 baud. That's what people are saying anyway. It's definatly not a full TCP/IP implementation, it uses some propriatary things. This, however, is a GOOD thing here. Although you are limited to using only Palm.Net applications, since they charge you by the kB (ugh), it keeps bandwidth down. Otherwise, loading Slashdot once would consume ALL of your monthly bandwidth (and then some).
There's also a lot of debate over OmniSky vs. Palm VII. Apparently it boils down to either spending a lot up front (it will be = $50/month) for OmniSky, or spending $10/month + kB usage for Palm.Net.
Jeff
The Palm VII does not browse the web or run a TCP/IP stack to do is wireless operation. All you can use are a built-in mail app and a good hundred or so (and growing fast) little "web clipping" apps that are basically preloaded web forms for querying URLs that return simple VII-optimized pages.
It uses a pager network. It's very slow. Service is expensive for the volume you get. You can't surf the web, though you can shop, check various kinds of email, whip up little apps of your own to hit your own servers, trade stocks, etc.
But it is good and I like my VII very much. Why? Because Palm's decision to use pager technology means it sips batteries. Two AAA cells last a month. And as limited as its net access is, it does what I need, and what most people need. Ever actually used telnet on a Palm? If you want to be cured of wanting it, just try it.
That said, the OmniSky has the VII beat pretty solidly in most geek regards: you get email notification, the ability to surf the web, telnet, do instant-messaging, etc. But the VII has been dropping in price, and if you like living hassle-free, the legendary Palm battery life can be nice. Fact is, you can get a VII for $450-$480 these days. A Palm V and the OmniSky package is an easy $600, and if you travel much, you're stuck carrying charging paraphenalia.
Clear enough?
I find it very attractive - mind you, all I've got to compare it with is the Australian mobile data services at 10cents for 30 seconds for 9600bps, or 20cents for an SMS - ick. (If Omnisky were released down here in Australia, I'd buy all the appropriate bits ragardless of the fact that I'm waiting to see which PalmOS device gets Bluetooth first...)
I placed my order on 12/23. My employer gave me a Palm V last year after I brought the Palm "virus" to campus 3 years ago. Now they're picking up the tab for the OmniSky beta!
Schweet!
N.B.: Nota Bene, or "note well." It's used as kind of an obscure alternative to "Just so you know," or "For your information,". I never really liked it myself.
For more information, click here.
So a back of an envelope calculation gives us:
Assuming OmniSky is downloading constantly at 1KB a second (given 19.2Kbit modem) and there are 2.6 million seconds in a month, we could download about 2.5GB of information for your $50. The same amount of bandwidth would cost you (roughly) $520,000 using the Palm VII.
I know this all ridiculous but it does highlight the potentially huge cost of per/KB metering.
Now all I want is for OmniSky to make a Springboard module for my Visor :-))
openSoar
The review mentions that the Palm seems much more unstable while on the network. I think the reason for this is that the TCP/IP stack uses 32k of the dynamic heap, which is quite limited (IIRC, the Palm V has less than 20k available while the TCP/IP stack is loaded). Many apps aren't tested with an active net connection, so the authors aren't as careful about checking their memory allocations.
Apparently, it's a cellular modem, probably 9600 baud.
:), when you're using a PQA it really is quite a bit, unless you're doing lots of massive data downloading, such as lots and lots of email. I found it honestly hard to run through 150KB/month.
:)
That's not true, actually.. Surprisingly, the Palm VII (and I've had one now for a good 5-6 months) runs off a radio signal, not a cellular modem. There's no modem part involved (i.e. no modulating/demodulating).
You're correct about there being no full TCP/IP implementation. You can't run any normal TCP/IP application, but only the special PQA's (Palm Query Applications) which are basically just extremely simple HTML-based apps which can request very simple HTML pages from an actual HTTP server. However, the Palm VII itself doesn't actually hit the HTTP server, but goes through the Palm.Net proxy server, which reads the requested page and (1) strips the page of all images unless otherwise told by the page (via a metatag META NAME="PalmComputingPlatform" CONTENT="YES" is it I believe (this is knowledge from some time back I haven't used in a while)) and (2) then compresses the page into a format the Palm VII can decompress in order to use as little precious bandwidth as possible.
See, that's the trick about PQA's. They follow the usual "minimalist" strategy of Palm Computing, which is to avoid all the fancy things that only attract attention and don't really serve any major function and stick to the things that are really useful and do them well. The Palm VII was initially, and still is, criticized for this, however, in this age of the Internet in which many people are caught up by the idea of bigger, better, and flashier. However Palm realized that the most viable option for them was to take a step back from all that and find a type of wireless service that was viable for the world of today (or at least the world of 6 months to a year ago, and we all know how different that can be from the world of today when we're talking electronics). It wasn't yet feasible to create a wireless service with unlimited access, or at least wasn't easy to pull off, so they created a service that was based on how many KB you used in a month. I had the 150 K/month plan for $24.95/mo I believe it was, and while this seems like nothing (the size of the Slashdot front page perhaps?
However, if I understand the Palm V with the OmniSky wireless service, it allows you to use PQA's (which was previously not possible as the Palm VII ran Palm OS 3.2, which handled PQA's, and all the other Palms ran Palm OS 3.0 or 3.1) and I'm not sure how they managed this through a Palm V (but I knew it could be done with enough expertise) and can also run regular TCP/IP programs, i.e. AvantGo, ProxiWeb, or an email client. Correct me if I'm wrong about that, but I think that makes for quite a flexible environment. You can choose the OmniSky per-KB plan (I don't remember exactly what the costs are but I'm sure they're available at OmniSky.com) and just use PQA's (with the flexibility of being able to use any browser, etc in an emergency) or you could choose the more expensive unlimited plan and have the ability to use PQA's or regular TCP/IP progs no matter what.
FWIW, I find PQA's much nicer to run on a Palm screen than full-fledged web pages, because PQA's are optimized for a black and white screen of that size whereas most webpages certainly are not and a poor job is usually done of representing them on a 160x160 pixels screen. Also, I'm not sure what the speed of this new Palm V wireless modem is, but PQA's also load much faster on a slow connection than a large web page would.
Anyway hope this info's useful to someone, and I didn't just waste 15 minutes typing it all up.
The current program is a beta: you pay $299, you get the modem and free service through the end of March (and now, according to this web page, through the end of April -- cool!), and a 15% discount on their normal service.
I've never actually used a Palm VII, but as far as I can tell this really does work like one, except with unlimited service for the next couple of months. Certainly I've downloaded a bunch of web clipping apps from palm.net (the service provider for the PVII) and they mostly work. OmniSky doesn't know yet how much the permanent fees will be (they said a max of $50/month).
I honestly don't know if I'm going to keep this. It's really cool, but so was the Ricochet I had a couple of years ago, until I realized that I hadn't used it in four months and I was paying $40/month for the service. Fortunately OmniSky is also offering a full refund within 30 days, and a $199 refund within 60 days. Or, I suppose, I could just sell it in March or something.
Definitely a fun toy for now, though!
Adam
I am Jack's complete lack of surprise.
Just some FYI, I guess.
Much Love,
"S"HM
*****
(I refuse to spellcheck out of contempt for your belief system)
The problem you're having in parts Connecticut are that AT&T doesn't cover that area, rather an affiliate does (or so says my AT&T brochure that my cell-phone came with). It is the only place I've ever experienced problems with AT&T wireless, and my phone shows something other than AT&T in that zone (just like the Palm shows a different provider number). Not much you can do about it I suppose, you'll find the same problem in certain parts of eastern Mass.
In general, I'm not all that surprised the TCP/IP implementation is suboptimal, back in the day the only thing that could panic my linux box would be dealing with TCP/IP, and Windows 3.0 with various addons always seemed to die with it, but now Linux works fine, and Windows is windows so it's only improved marginally. FreeBSD has had good TCP for years. Windows CE, I've been told, has a barely functional implemetation, so I suppose this must be better than that. Anybody know how the Palm VII's TCP/IP is? Also, the site says the WinNT installer worked, anyone know if they have a Linux/Unix (I'll run under Linux emu on FBSD) version waiting in the wings?
Q:Doctor, how many autopsies have you performed on dead people?
A:All my autopsies have been performed on dead peop
As someone that received my OmniSky yesterday, I want to note a few more details. First, this is in BETA until May, so please keep that in mind.
My experiences have been different from the reviewer in several aspects. I have had very good luck with the included applications. On the other hand, the installation was absolutely terrible. It requires a Windows machine to install (ODD! everything else can be installed from Linux!). The installation requires Palm Desktop, which itself didn't get along well with my Palm (linux had no problems). Having fixed that, got to install, which takes FOREVER. It backs up the entire 6MB of data in my Palm at what must be a very slow speed, then proceeds to restore this data at the same snail's pace, and then for some odd reason, back it all up again.
What else... oh right, apps. ProxiWeb works great, has its advantages (supports SSL! and bookmarks) over AvantGo. OTOH,AvantGo has some more options for tweaking display. All in all, impressive and surprisingly useful.
The biggest benefit: it still fits in your pocket. I do not know of any other device that offers wireless unmetered full Internet access and still manages to do that. This is a tremendous asset. It gives you a lot more freedom that you may not have thought about before.
Cool. Finally a general use for the Symbol version of the Palm III that has the barcode scanner built in. "Gee, I'd love to buy this from you, but (*bleep*)(pause) I see I can get it online for $x. How about you meet that price? No? Ok. (tap)(tap) I just ordered it and it will be delivered tomorrow morning. Thanks anyway. How about one of these? (*bleep*)..."
This would be especially fun at certain stores where the sales people are all obnoxious twits who work on commission (Guitar Center comes to mind :-)
G.
I got mine right before Christmas - I think around the 22nd.
To start with, I have to say that unlike everyone else my install did NOT go well. I have a 2MB Palm V and used to have a fair number of notes, phone numbers, and apps loaded...
That is, USED to. The installation claims it needs 1MB free memory on the Palm to install all of its apps, which would be fine except somehow it got confused during the install and thought it needed 1MB free AFTER the install of all its many compments!! How very frustrating, in that after deleting every app on my Palm it was 9k short of the space it needed and the install would abort every time.
Luckly, I determined that at the point the install quit the Palm really had everything loaded that was nessicary, and I was able to go ahead. I will summaraize the install with two notes:
* The install wants to update your ROM first (which is why it backs up all your files), this takes some time.
* The install has no way to select which pieces you would like to install - so you ARE ging to make room for the install to drop a 38k ESPN.com app in your Palm even if you don't care to lookup sports scores.
But, as others have said it is a beta program so hopefully my feedback will fix the installation up a bit.
As for actual use of the thing, so far I have used it for some phone number lookup, stock quote lookup, and most importantly Etak traffic reports for Denver - which hasn't actually helped me yet but looks like it could be useful at some point.
The mail server (I've just hooked it up to OmniSky's for the moment) has had some problems so far s I haven't been able to use it much, though it has a number of canned messages you can send quickly if you want to just send someone a note that you're running late or want someone to call Another nice feature is that the mail app knows all of the e-mail addresses you have stored in your Address book...
Another thing that I'm not sure others mentioned was that as part of being in the beta program, you got a 15% discount on the monthly service for as long as you subscribe.
I'll try and get some pictures up tomorrow if no-one else has.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley