Give Me Wireless Or... Well, Give Me Wireless!.

End of the Road for the Unconnected Handheld?

"Recently we had a chance to try a slightly different approach to wireless Internet access and e-mail using a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone, the Sony Ericsson T68, and a Compaq iPaq H3835 with a Socket Bluetooth CF card. Once we set up a dial-up networking account for our existing EarthLink account using Socket's excellent Connection Manager software, we were able to browse the Web and check e-mail wireless from anywhere--we didn't even need to take the 2.9-ounce phone out of our shirt pockets to connect (or disconnect).

Before long, expect to see nearly all handhelds ship with some form of wireless access. And in the short term, if you can pick up a wireless-enabled handheld for between $50 and $100 more than a standard PDA, you should give it some serious thought." [ZDNet]

While I like the unique features of the Sony Clie NR-70V, I'm not as jazzed about it as I would be if it had wireless connections. New reality: I won't be buying a new PDA that doesn't have wireless capabilities. Even if the network support isn't quite there yet, it will be. Soon.

[The Shifted Librarian]

OK, here is the info I promised: The stick can currently be ordered for $210.25 from here.  News release here [Palminfocenter], and here [Sony Japan]. Apparently, it is supposed to have a price of around $155.00, so the price above may reflect some of what I call the early adopter tax. More info here.

I'd pay $75.00 for the card, and so far no one has one for sale on Ebay, so I guess I'll have to wait. It's just as well, I have no other Bluetooth devices as of yet, and my cell carrier has no Bluetooth phones (yet), so I can be patient, for now.  

9:56:56 PM    

Toshiba's iPod Competitor [Slashdot: News for nerds, stuff that matters]

Interesting, it has a removable 5 GB drive. Assuming that it's in a format that allows you to put in a larger sized drive, and the 5 GB is more a matter of price to market consideration, you'll be able to fit all your data on a small removable disk, and since the disks are the same size/format as PC cards, I imagine you could easily swap them out as needed. Given that Kensington's version of these disks can handle up to 200G of operating shock, I think there is little to worry about in terms of dropping/data loss.

5:15:07 PM