Palm Finally Announces SD WiFi Card 256
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."
11b or not 11b (Score:5, Interesting)
Using the faster protocol would appeal the power users, and the early adopters that go for the hi-speed buzzwords.
Will it work with the Treo too? (Score:4, Interesting)
New Treo 600 (Score:2, Interesting)
Enabling Network Software (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:still using palms (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm disappointed that, apparently, it won't work on other models such as the Treo 600.
12in Apple small? (Score:5, Interesting)
Interesting description... (Score:5, Interesting)
Or, put another way: Why not the faster 11g?
Using the faster protocol would appeal the power users, and the early adopters that go for the hi-speed buzzwords.
I'm glad you didn't say anything about the real-world benefits of 11g (vice 11b) for a PDA; as far as I can tell there wouldn't be any. (Not flaming - just an observation.) PDAs typically aren't used to download large files, and may not be able to keep up with a saturated higher-speed connection. (Think (firehose + teacup).)
I'd try Enfora's product first (Score:3, Interesting)
Although I've not used it yet, I'm more inclined to try Enfora's [enfora.com] product first. It's a nice case + a battery of its own so you won't kill the Palm's battery by running WiFi. Also, it works with any of the recent palms that have the universal connector, it's not limited to the T3 and the Zire seventy-whatever. Home page: http://www.enfora.com [enfora.com].
Re:still using palms (Score:3, Interesting)
Meanwhile, back in the present day... (Score:2, Interesting)
From SanDisk http://www.sandisk.com/retail/256mb-wifi-sd.asp [sandisk.com]:
From Brighthand (older link):
I still miss my Palm.
Too little, too late (Score:4, Interesting)
The one thing the Clie Misses (Score:4, Interesting)
I emailed SanDisk, and here's what they said:
http://robert.accettura.com/archives/00026
Sucks don't it?
Re:I'd try Enfora's product first (Score:4, Interesting)
It's nice, but bulky. Certainly not something you can put in your shirt or pants pocket and carry around with you. While you can charge the palm from the Enfora if the Enfora is plugged in, you can't use the Enfora battery to charge the Palm (one of my fears from the days when Palms didn't have rechargeable batteries and used AAAs).
I like palm, but... (Score:3, Interesting)
So if this thing costs $130, and the T3 costs $300, that leave us with a price tag of $430.
Ahem.
Re:still using palms (Score:5, Interesting)
A laptop is not a PDA. I take my PDA everywhere and reference it many times per day. In fact I rarely leave home without it, since I always end up regretting it when I do. I'm not taking a laptop to the hardware store just in case I have to jot something down.
As to your second point, I have to agree that the WiFi, camera, sound recorder, and mp3 playback are only of secondary interest compared to the to-do list, calendaring, and memo apps.
That said, half-VGA (320x480) is somewhat usable for web browsing. In fact when I browse slashdot on it, I don't use the special palm-formatted version [slashdot.org] because it's too sparse. This may be the ultimate toilet-entertainment device, not that I would ever do such a thing.
But besides that, WiFi is good for quickly, wirelessly transferring documents and software to the Palm, and the battery-life hit is surprisingly not that bad. I can open palmgear [palmgear.com] download a zip file, and install apps without using a PC at all. Bluetooth is comparable, except it doesn't work from anywhere in my home.
I'm torn on having WiFi in the SD slot rather than built-in, as it is on the Sony. On the one hand, I only use the WiFi now and then, so why carry it all the time? On the other hand, it doesn't seem to add much bulk, and I'm already using the SD slot for memory expansion, so having to take that out would render the Palm only partually functional.
Re:still using palms (Score:4, Interesting)
huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
Um...I last rebooted my powerbook for the 10.3.5 system update. Prior to that, I had a 38 day uptime. Furthermore- I've rarely actually run out of battery time. I laugh when people talk about boot up times- they've clearly never used a powerbook if they make such an inane comment. You open the lid. 2 seconds later you've got your network connections and you can start work, unless you turned on password locking. Hell, half the time my SSH tunnels are still useable- even after the PB has been asleep for hours! Not like reboots take any more than a minute on a 1Ghz G4 anyway.
Comparing a laptop to a PDA is absurd. You can't watch video/DVDs, surf webpages with any decent speed or clarity, 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.
A lot of people can use their palms as easily as a computer. For some folks, it's even easier.
Um, are you seriously suggesting people can just "pick up" grafiti? It took me weeks before I could stop looking at the cheat sheet.
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.
Re:huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
My nine-year old son was writing his name in about three minutes. It took me about two hours to get a handle on the alphabet. That got me started and I looked up puncutation and numbers as I needed them. When I was too lazy to do that, I just used the on-screen keyboard. And that's with the old single-stroke Grafitti. The new version is even easier.
My Visor has been sitting in the closet gathering dust for 3 years
Fine. Send it to me. How much you want for it?