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Handhelds Hardware

802.11b Cards for Handhelds? 219

Posted by Cliff from the a-network-in-your-pocket dept.
bmetzler asks: "I am in the market for a new Palm device. This time I want to buy a device that is capable of connecting to the wireless network in my home. Apart from wanting a monochrome display, the 802.11b feature is the most important one I am looking at. Xircom makes an add-on module for the M500 series and the m125. This might be a possibility because the m125 is one that I was looking at. However, at over $220 this one is a little pricey. Xircom also seemed to have a model for the Handspring, but I'm unable to locate it for sale any longer. Handera claims support for Symbol's CompactFlash card. The Handera has a nicer, bigger screen, but is also more expensive. I couldn't locate a price for the CF card either. In conclusion, I've got to purchase a Palm, and the wireless capability is the most important feature I need. Is there a good way to do this on a Palm, or should I just go for the Sharp Zaurus?" I'm also looking into replacing my old, aging Palm VII with something a bit more modern with 802.11b support. How do the Xircom models perform on Handspring Visors?
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802.11b Cards for Handhelds? More

802.11b Cards for Handhelds?

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  • Get an Ipaq (Score:3, Informative)

    by PepsiProgrammer ( 545828 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2002 @05:20PM (#3520435)
    Get an Ipaq, they have support for 802.11 through a PCMCIA card if im not mistaken, then you can strip out the crap os that comes with it, and put Linux on it.

    • Re:Get an Ipaq (Score:3, Informative)

      by drsoran ( 979 )
      I agree. I've been playing with my Xircom 802.11b module for my Palm M505 and I can say I really regret that we didn't purchase iPaqs or some other WinCE based machines for PDAs. If you're just looking for an organizer the Palm is fine, but if you're actually looking to do wireless web browsing, check your mail, etc. then the Palm is sorely lacking. I still can't find a full fledged browser that doesn't use some kind of proxy sitting on a remote machine to strip out graphics whereas Pocket Internet Explorer works fine on the WinCE machines without it.

      Also note that the Xircom adapter is big. It's a little bit thicker than the M505 itself and it has it's own battery built into it. To charge it you use the AC adapter that came with your Palm's cradle (if you have the adapter attached to the Palm while charging it'll charge the Palm as well).

      You really need to decide what you want to do with this though. If you're looking to just do wireless network hotsyncs and update your address book and todo list once in awhile, the Palm works fine, otherwise I'd avoid them if possible.
      • Try Handspring Blazer, its supposed to be a very good web browser, not requiring an external machine. I live in a very rural area, and access isnt available for pda's anyway, so connectivity wasnt too big of a deal when i got my Handspring Prism, im going to College next year though, and im considering purchasing a Sharp Zaurus as a replacement.
        • Nope! The blazer browser goes though a handspring proxy that *cannot* be turned off. Look Here [handspring.com] for the truth (three questions in a row address this issue).
    • ...and you think linux on the IPaq will handle 802.11? I doubt it. It might handle bluetooth, but I don't think the development is far enough along for 802.11...

    • Re:Get an Ipaq (Score:2, Informative)

      by nick this ( 22998 )
      Or alternatively, try the Sharp Zaurus. It's more politically correct, more easily hackable (as it has linux already on it) and you don't have to pay the BillG tax.

      Battery life isn't great, but its a *way* fun toy. Not a lot of pretty graphical programs yet either, so it's not an end-user device yet, but if you like to hack, this is an even better toy than a tivo.

      Works with just about any prism2 cf wireless card, with pretty graphical setup. I've got the D-Link CF card, and it works fine with my linksys WAP11 AP. Completely plug and play. Once I downloaded and installed a terminal client, I could NFS mount my linux box and transfer files to it over the network.

      sshd? Got it. Samba? Got it.

      What a cool toy.

      Oh yeah, and it syncs stuff with windows boxes like outlook an whatnot. Or... it says it does anyway. I guess that's important for some. :)
    • One problem with the CF 802.11b cards an iPaq is that it draws a lot of power. You definitely do *not* want to leave the card in for any length of time if your unit is switched off otherwise you'll turn your iPaq on and the battery will be drained. It is okay if you want to use your handheld for a short amount of time wirelessly - but for anything longer you'll need to have your AC adapter plugged in, which kinda restricts your mobility. I'm not sure how they'd stack up on a Palm - but the amount of power these things draw is a definite downside to using them on a handheld for any length of time.
  • My school just got donated a bunch of HP Jornadas, and they've been trying them out in some of my classes. They work well with our 80211b network. I have to say, in general the devices pretty much suck, though. I used it all of twice, even with the convenience of checking my email without having to walk to a computer cluster. There's little use in having a wireless card in that small a device for most people. If you know that you need it, though, it's one to check out.

    • There's little use in having a wireless card in that small a device for most people

      We are just starting to roll handhelds for our production management system.

      We are using old Compaq Aero handhelds (a couple of hundred dollars on E-bay), SocketCom 802.11b CF cards for wireless networking, and delivery the system over IE on the handhelds.

      The screen size is perfect for our needs.

      The idea being that every one in our production facility will carry one for marking jobs off as done, etc, etc...

    • Someone donated Jornadas to CMU? Which department(s). BTW... I knew it was CMU when you said "computer cluster". =)

  • or (Score:1, Offtopic)

    by Joe the Lesser ( 533425 )
    Get a pad of paper.

    They have a very stable architecture, and you can read/write incredibly fast, as well as delete!

    • Re:or (Score:3, Funny)

      by PepsiProgrammer ( 545828 )
      Ah, but pad's of paper dont support 802.11b, mainly due to the fact that since the paper pad devices are so low power, they dont have the excess juice to power an addon to provide connectivity, but due to their low cost, and ease of use, they can be a viable alternative to those seeking a portable device, but dont have connectivity in mind.
    • I agree. I find a pad of paper to be a really great organizing tool. Without my "little black book" (unfortunately not filled with the phone numbers of hot chicks) I'm lost. That plus a thin dayplanner are invaluable.

      I tried a PIM for a bit -- it was even free! I stopped using it very quickly though. It offers no advantages over paper, but it does offer far more distractions. Just what you don't need it you're in need of time management tools in the first place :).

      • Re:or (Score:2)

        by dubl-u ( 51156 )
        I tried a PIM for a bit [...] It offers no advantages over paper[...]

        Aside from backups, you mean.

        William
  • I have a windows CE device and I've looked at cards made by Orinoco/Lucent WaveLAN. They seem to be very well supported and work with most any version of Windows CE. I know you talked about palm, but unless you have a reason to go palm (I can think of several good reasons), you might want to try windows ce. Simply put, palm needs it's own drivers, where as if you get drivers built-in in some windows ce stuff if you get the right cards.
  • I've got the above that I nabbed off ebay for $200. I got it because I wanted color, but if you insist on monochrome, you can pick those up for even less. The wireless adapter is like $50 and it works great with my school's wireless network.

  • symbol CF pricing (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Locutus ( 9039 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2002 @05:28PM (#3520497)
    At Palm Source, Handera was loaning out 330's with the Symbol 802.11 CF cards. When asked about purchasing one, they said they were thinking about selling the "used" ones for $300. He said it was $150 off the combined price soooo. Since the 330 was going for $299, that's pretty much $150 for the Symbol CF. On the Zaurus forums it's been noted that the Sybmol card is one of the best at power management.

    If you're not going for the Zaurus, I'd go for the Handera. Look at it this way, you can get a folding keyboard for $40 (new) and many other Palm III/VII based peripherals work. You said you have a Palm VII right?

    If you don't get rid of that Palm VII, you'll want to get THIS [charge-n-run.com] in-cradle charging kit for it. It's a must have for the Palm VII series. IMHO.

    Lob

  • Buy the HandEra (Score:4, Informative)

    by vrmlguy ( 120854 ) <samwyse@nOSPAM.gmail.com> on Tuesday May 14, 2002 @05:29PM (#3520501) Homepage Journal
    I was a beta-tester for the HandEra 330, so my view of the price is a bit skewed, but it is definitely one *sweet* device. HandEra (the company) had done a lot of specialized stuff for Symbol long before the 330 came out, and they went the extra mile to make sure that the 330 would work with every CF card that Symbol makes.
    • My experience as well.

      One caveat: make sure your browsing app supports the Handera's hi-res. Scaling just doesn't cut it for semi-graphical and graphical apps.

      Oh, and games. If you play a lot of games, check to see whether the current versions support the Handera -- if they don't, you probably won't want to play them on a HE. If you still want the game, the Sony CLIE line is very good, and still high-res (even though Handera's the more reliable company).

      -Billy
    • Yes but is it wise to buy from a company you've never heard of?

      • Re:Buy the HandEra (Score:3, Interesting)

        by dmitriy ( 40004 )
        > Yes but is it wise to buy from a company you've never heard of?

        There's a bunch of people who did.

        http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TRGPro_Users_Group /
  • Not a palm, but I remember using an ipaq(hpaq?) at my last job. With it's sleeve, you could use a standard pcmcia card. I remember using a netgear one. Was kinda cool being in the lunchroom reading /. And I vnc'd to another machine once. Was real weird, controlling this machine from the lunchroom. Too bad we junked the wireless lan, it was neat.

  • Xircom 802.11b Springboard Module... (Score:4, Informative)

    by jbuilder ( 81344 ) <(evadnikufesin) (at) (gmail.com)> on Tuesday May 14, 2002 @05:29PM (#3520503)
    It's for sale via the Intel website (backordered about two weeks).

    http://www.shop-intel.com/shop/product.asp?pid=SIN T1037&pfid=44&pindex=1&msc [shop-intel.com]

    Hope this helps.

  • Sounds like you're trying to fit a square block... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by switchfiend ( 218297 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2002 @05:29PM (#3520509) Homepage
    in a round hole.

    What exactly are you trying to accomplish via 802.11? Web Browsing? Email? Controlling MP3's? Email is about the only thing that using a sled attached to a Palmpilot is going to be useful for. Some people will difer on their definition of "useful". I have found browsing the web on a palm pilot to be pretty abysmal (its not that much better with a PocketPC device, although at least it looks better).

    The current generation Palm device doesn't really have a good integration of networking. Supposedly the newer ones (post PalmOS 5) will have integrated TCP/IP, and support for a bunch of different wireless technologies.

    You mention the Zaurus. You could pick up one of those, and then get a CF Wireless card (for about 80 bucks or so, I have 2 of the d-link ones and they work great).

    That really is no different then getting a PocketPC (your lack of mentioning one in your article suggests you want to stay away from Microsoft), as they fullfill the same function.

    I have not had a particularly good experience with handheld devices in general, and especially not handheld networking. My last attempt involved a Casio E-200 with the aforementioned D-link card (which worked great until about 30 days after I bought the PDA, when the backlight blew). It was "neat" but not particularly useful.

    I really don't have a problem wandering around with my Ibook with an Airport card built in (or substitute that for any notebook or subnotebook).

    It just comes down to what your overall goal is
    • I'm not sure the Zaurus would be a good choice. Compaq supports linux on the iPaq, and the iPaq is where things are really going these days. The zaurus is bulky and unlikely to succeed in a big way. Better to choose a supported platform. Especially since the iPaq is going to have (iPaq only) 144 kbps both ways worldwide(hah) internet for 40$ a month in the near future. DSL is dead >:)
      • The zaurus is bulky and unlikely to succeed in a big way.

        Okay, the rest of your post is debatable, but this is just dumb. Sitting here on the shelf are an iPaq and a Zaurus. The Zaurus is a little thinner and shorter (not much, quarter inch at most, but still). Don't forget that the Zaurus has a CF slot and a keyboard built-in, while the iPaq requires a bulky sleeve to use CF and for a keyboard you would have to use one of those folding jobs.

      • Compaq supports linux on the iPaq
        Yeah, after you've handed out your hard-earned cash to MS.

        The zaurus is bulky and unlikely to succeed in a big way
        I take it, you have some kind of proof to back that up? Another poster has already brought up the fact that the zaurus is a relatively small pda ( compared to other ARM pdas )

        Especially since the iPaq is going to have (iPaq only) 144 kbps both ways worldwide...
        I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you're just clueless. This service is most likely just another GSM/GPRS service. Sure you might have heard it from a compaq/hp rep, but all the wireless providers ( major ones ) are rolling out GSM/GPRS. And the CF cellular modems exist for zaurus, ipaq, journada, and most other pdas.

        I say don't buy another MS license, if you don't want too! If you want a linux pda, then get a Linux PDA [linuxdevices.com]

    • What exactly are you trying to accomplish via 802.11? Web Browsing? Email? Controlling MP3's?

      One word, War-Walking as opposed to War-Driving. Can't think of an easier way to look for open wireless networks than putting a wireless PC-Card in an Ipaq and going for a walk around the city. A little less conspicuous and bulky and a laptop, just keep it in a pocket and set it to make a noise when it finds a new network.
  • It appears they can be purchased online from Intel [shop-intel.com] for $269. Not cheap, but nice if you really want 802.11b.
    • Apparently at least two of us posted the link to the Springboard module on Intel, but *I* get modded as Redundant even though I was the first to post it. Check the timestamps, bitches.

      More Karma burn! Booyah!
      • I looked at the post just below that talks abut the same place, it looks to me like you have a bunch of accounts.

        (#3520515 is what I am replying to

        and 3520515 is just below posted at the same time 6:30 and looks verry similar, but a link to a different page,
      • Post 3520503 [slashdot.org] at 3:29pm beat you by 12 posts and one minute. Sucks, but he's [slashdot.org] first, thus your [slashdot.org] post [slashdot.org] is redundant.

  • On Handspring's website: SpringPort Wireless Ethernet Module [handspring.com]. Not cheap; MSRP US$269, but it looks nice.

  • Zaurus SL-5500 + D-Link DCF-650W (Score:3, Informative)

    by AntiTuX ( 202333 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2002 @05:31PM (#3520523) Homepage
    I use this combination at home, and at work. Being able to ssh and irc while in meetings is fun. Don't even get me started on pr0n browsing. it owns for that.

    The only problem I have with the wireless nic is that it's really wide, so I'm probably going to have to file down the edges so I can get at the audio jack/stylus when the card's in the slot.
    I have no complaints otherwise.
    • check my comment, the short form is that the SMC CF card fits just great(no filing necessary).

      http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=32613&cid=35 20 678

      Seeing as how you already own the other card, it's too little too late, but I figure, what the hell.
    • Is there a GPS card that also works on the Zaurus including routing software? If so, then this would settle which PDA is next for me.

      I'm looking for a device that will help me get from place to place, play my (mp3|ogg) files, and be 802.11b capable when I'm at home.

      note: by "routing" I mean I can pick a point on the map and the GPS device will give me point-by-point directions ... I know there is GPS software that will pinpoint my location, but I need more.
    • I've been looking at solutions for my Zaurus as well - I think that the Buffalo, Symbol, and Socket wireless lan cards all use the same chipset as the Linksys CF cards (Prisim 2.5) - but they do not have the annoying overhang that the d-link or linksys do.

      However I've been thinking of not doing 802.11 and just doing bluetooth as the support is coming along quite nicely - plus I have a T68i with Voicestream's GPRS ... 56k anywhere I go baby ;-)

      • I use the DLink card, which was only 90 bucks at Fry's. 802.11b is nice when you are at home, and makes data transfer to the pda very easy. Last week some X app took over my console and locked up, and I was thankful to have my handy Zaurus to ssh into my desktop and kill the offending process. Conveniently, the Zaurus was logged in to my box already from earlier, and just sitting idle on my couch (probably not recommended, the sucker gets hot).

        Bluetooth and GPRS is going to be awesome. What are your experiences with it? The Bluez (bluez.sf.net) Bluetooth stack supports quite a few cards and has been ported to the Zaurus. Notably, the howto mentions the Brainboxes CF card, however I would think any of the supported bluez cards should work. Toshiba has a really cool SD bluetooth card, but there is no Zaurus driver yet as far as I know.

        Fry's has the Socket CF card, which bluez says is supported. Thanks to their 30-day return policy, it should be very easy for me to give it a test whirl. Of course, I need a bluetooth phone first (got my eye on the Nokia 6310i).

  • Hello wireless, goodbye battery life (Score:3, Interesting)

    by GMFTatsujin ( 239569 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2002 @05:32PM (#3520536) Homepage
    I've never understood this fascination with the wireless world on a PDA anyway, but here's my two cents:

    If you've got an 802.11b wireless network card going, it's going pretty much all the time. And battery life suffers horribly, especially if you're using a high-drain PDA anyway, like a bright color screen. My boss has an iPac with a Xircom wireless LAN PCMCIA card, and it destroys his battery life - it goes from maybe 5-7 days between charges to maybe 5-7 *hours*.

    So here's my advice. Either get an adapter that has it's own little battery pack and won't cripple your PDA proper, or get one that's hot-swappable, tiny, and convenient to slip in and out when needed.

    That's if you really think you're going to get that much use out of the thing. Myself, I'm happy to just get in the habit of syncing every time I'm at my computer, and letting the information exchange happen then. Honestly, though, I still don't see the attraction.

    GMFTatsujin
    • Going wireless is a godsend for me. My Kyocera Smartphone allows me to sign onto the mainframe anywhere as a terminal, and I have been reasonably satisfied with the text-only Eudora browser and Blazer or Vagabond for pictures (although no darn online comics, proxy rendder servers screw them up).

      Yeah the juice gets sucked out, but 5-7 hours on a phone beats hell out of 4-6 from a laptop, plus I don't have to leave the game to fix an easy problem at work.

      Since I've been toting this around at work, most of my coworkers have been motivated to check into webphones. I don't know about the particular combination asked about in this article, but the demand for webphones will go through the roof.

      Hey, maybe the webphone will finally be the NC (Network Computer) Ellison, IBM and the rest have been lusting for.
      What Palm desperately needs is a fully-rendering browser without the proxy and tieins to other Palm apps. If AOL was smart they would be all over this, but hey this leaves an arena open for a smart developer that ties in the browser with a PDA suite.

      Consider that 90% of the bulletpoint features are not used by the average user, there is a lot of room for small apps that make the webphone the laptop.
    • This might be a good reason to look at the Symbol offering. Symbol have been working in the hand held computing area for a long time, and have developed a lot of very power-efficient hardware, particularly in the wireless arena. All of their radio cards have various power saving modes, many that you don't/won't see supported by other vendors.
    • This is a good reason to go with the Handera. It's basically a normal B&W PalmOS device, but it has four AAA batteries, specifically to cope with the power drain of any CF cards you might want to use with it. I've got a TRGpro and I really like it, though I'm not using it at the moment. If I get into 802.11 then I might see what I can do with it. It'd be nice to be able to use it to wirelessly control the DVD playback of my new notebook.
  • I've been using the Xircom 1130-NA with my Palm m505 for several months. It works pretty well, although you should know that it attaches to the serial port and imitates a modem with a PPP server, as far as the Palm is concerned. So it's not blazingly fast or anything. But it works well, and is very portable.

    You can charge the Palm and the sled at the same time, by plugging the Palm cradel charger cord into the sled. Since I got it, I've been hot-synching over the net and don't use the clumsy Palm cradel any more. However, I don't think it's as fast as hot-synching over USB, because of the serial interface.

    -Don

  • CF Wireless (Score:2, Interesting)

    by telamon2 ( 234636 )
    No matter what PDA you have, 802.11b is a battery drain. Partially from the radio and partially from the likelihood that your PDA will spend more of it's time actively being used than in standby mode.

    The Handera 330 does indeed support the Symbol Wireless Networker Type I CF 802.11b card. The Symbol lists for $180, but there are a few online places that have it for around $150 (including my webstore). None of the other CF wireless cards have Palm drivers (with the exception fo the Socket CF Type I which is an OEM of the Symbol)

    As for the Xircom 802.11b Visor and m500 series modules, pricey is the right word. Go to pricegrabber and do a search on Xircom Visor and you will find retailers who still have the Visor module.

    The nice thing about the Visor module is that it has it's own battery separate from the Visor, but web browsing from your Visor will eat batteries from the extended continuous usage.

    As for the m500 module, I've never used it, but it also has it's won battery.

    If you go with a Pocket PC based device, you have more wireless options. Either PCMCIA (Ipaq) or CF Type II and Type I. And you'll be able to run more things that will make having wireless access more useful. Like VNC, Windows Terminal Services, stream MP3s, access windows file shares. Pocket PC devices are meant to be laptop replacements, Palm devices aren't.
  • I'm very skeptical of bluetooth.

    802.11b works quite well, and I don't see the need for another incompatible, less powerful protocol.

    But the main reason I think Bluetooth is a crock, is that it's being heavily pushed by the SAME IDIOTS PUSHING WAP, who are a bunch of unmitigated MORONS and CHARLATANS with their heads stuck firmly up their marketing asses.

    -Don

    • Comparing bluetooth to 802.11b is like comparing USB to 100bt ethernet. They are not intended to fill the same niche at all. When was the last time that you saw an 802.11b headset, keyboard, or mouse? Now when was the last time you saw a bluetooth gateway for your LAN? Bluetooth is intended to replace cables between small, low-power devices (PDA > cell phone, MP3 player > headphones, etc.)

      • Well, true that they are not similar technologies, but BT access points are becoming increasingly popular. Here's one [axis.com]. Now, they seem to me to be limiting tchnologies, except that if you have a lot of BT already... Also the BT SDIO card for Palm handhelds is tiny, so people like that.

  • I've seen several posts on the Linux-Aironet mailing list of people using stuff with Linux on handhelds. http://csl.cse.ucsc.edu/mailman/listinfo/aironet [ucsc.edu]

  • Handera Quality Issues (Score:3, Informative)

    by Milkyman ( 246513 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2002 @05:44PM (#3520598)
    I don't have one but I've read many accounts of the handera's having problems with build quality. Many have complained about the stylus silo cracking or breaking, and i've seen several complaints about the screen failing to responde and black lines appearing on the display. You should probably go check out the handera forums at http://www.pdabuzz.com [pdabuzz.com] and http://www.brighthand.com [brighthand.com] and asking around there before making any big purchase.
    • My first TRGpro developed dead lines and Handera replaced it totally at their cost, postage included. They took a deposit from me and sent me the replacement first so I could migrate all my stuff across. I've also had to return one folding keyboard, but that replacement cost me nothing either. And I've had to replace a RioPMP300SE as well, and that time the replacement still had problems. Modern, portable, electronic equipment all has a high failure rate, the issue is how well the company deals with it and on that score Handera are the best I've found.
    • HandEra 330 is manufactured by Samsung. The case of the first batch of devices was too brittle - rumors are, somebody added black dye of the wrong type to the plastic. HandEra replaces devices with cracked cases no question asked.

      Recently they started to charge some money ($25) for advance exchange - when they send you replacement device first, and you send yours back after data transfer. It used to be you could do it for free. Good old days.
  • With 95 stories on wireless this year so far, /. is very wireless happy, shouldn't this merit it's own category? I notice there's a wireless(apple) topic, but there are so many other wireless products besides the apple airport...
  • Just curious, why would you only want a monochrome. Seems to me if there was a choice between color and monochrome most people would choose color. Not much of a demand for B&W TVs now a days

  • Xircom Reviews (Score:3, Informative)

    by libertynews ( 304820 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2002 @05:49PM (#3520623) Homepage
    According to this review over at Visor Central [visorcentral.com] and one at O'Reilly [oreillynet.com] its a pretty nice card.

    But I remember reading another review saying that its speed was nowhere near the 11Mbits advertised. This isn't really surprising considering the speed of the Dragnball processor that runs the Visor. But I'll be it beats the heck out of the VisorPhone's data mode (which is really an analog modem connection to your ISP over the cell network).

    Brian

  • Sysadmin Uses? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ||Deech|| ( 16749 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2002 @05:51PM (#3520631)
    We've played witht the idea off and on of putting a wireless network out in our plant for ease of our use (the sysadmins). It would be so cool if I could just whip out my iPaq (or whatever) and use many of my often used admin utilities over the network, such as Windows usermanager (playing with those stupid permissions) or a shell to see what my 'nix server is up to and if that damn 3Ware card has barfed all over itself again or running one of several custom apps that we've developed in house. I could see this being *extremely* useful in this situation, rather then having to either a. find a nearby computer to kick a user off of to login as admin or b. walk all the way back to your office because you need a utility there.

    I know there is a vnc client for WinCE.
    Anyone know of other useful admin type utilities that would make this venture worthwhile to us?

  • I would've said "Get an HP Jornada," but the idiots at SRCAM are discontinuing them. They're just as powerful and half the size of an iPaq, and they have a REAL PCMCIA SLOT. iPaqs require that you put your handheld into an enormous sleeve to plug PCMCIA into them.



    This has been another rant about Carly getting everything she can get her hands on utterly wrong.



    --Dave, yeah yeah, score: -1, Offtopic

  • Handera (Score:2, Informative)

    by swamp_water ( 208334 )
    Hi, I have a Handera and I was pleasantly surprised when I went into a London Drugs (Canada computer retailer) and saw a open box Linksys cf wireless card. I asked the clerk to try it and because I already loaded all the software upgrades in my handera for a demo a while ago, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had no troubles loading up and connecting at all.

    One thing you should keep in mind is if you can use your keyboard after you plug on the 802.11b sled from the Palm Models. It sucks chatting with graffeti.

    So I think you should get a Handera because they seem to work with more models then just the symbol card. Although I'd get it because of form factor. I wonder if you put it into a CF Card reader if you could use it in a PCMCIA slot? Also your batteries will die fast because of the power drain from the card so a Handera with all it's superior battery life is ideal. (i.e. 4AAA or Li-ion battery pack extra) Sorry but Pocket PC's just don't have Batter life. Even Palms too. Although the palm 802.11b sled I think has it's own battery pack. :)

    Paul
  • The Xircom springport for the visor is very, very buggy... the user interface to setup the SSID, DHCP, Ip, Routing, DNS, etc is all over the place. It took a good three hours to set the thing up correctly with linksys wireless router... then it actually crashed the router! no other 802.11 device could connect after getting a connection from the visor.

    On another router that didn't crash, the palm OS would hang at random, or disconnect for no real reason.

    Save your money if you have a visor, and are thinking about getting the xircom spring port 802.11 adapter.
  • If you go Zaurus, make sure you get the SMC compact flash card, it's the only one I've found that has an antenna that is only as wide as the CF slot. Why is this important? All the other cards I looked at block either the headphone jack, the stylus slot, or both.

  • I've got a Xircom Springport WiFi adapter.. and.. (Score:5, Informative)

    by irregular_hero ( 444800 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2002 @06:00PM (#3520681)
    I would caution you to stay away from it if you aren't certain beyond a reasonable doubt that it'll work with your equipment (e.g., borrow one and test it with your access points).

    Here's the deal with the WiFi Springboard module: It contains what is essentially a Cisco wireless card. The card is a fairly nice one (from what I've read), but it communicates to the Prism as if it were a PPP serial device. In other words, it emulates a modem under PalmOS. That means that you're limited to the highest speed the device can do -- and trust me, that's relatively slow.

    It's not all bad... Two nice features of the unit:
    1) It has a built-in Lithium Ion battery that powers the module itself when the wireless is active (in other words, it doesn't drain the Prism's internal battery).
    2) It has a bit of built in flash memory that you can use to load utility programs on -- I have the Blazer browser loaded into its memory so it's immediately available to be launched when I pop the unit it the slot.

    Beyond that, be aware that I've had problems getting the unit to work with most Linksys access points with WEP enabled. Trust me, folks, I know I got the settings right because I have other cards configured the same way that work fine. I've also had some oddities with D-Link access points.

    I've even tried to use an ad-hoc mode with the unit and a Linux-based wireless router. I can get a wireless link up (WEP included) and get a DHCP address, but after a while, the card starts ARPing for the router and _ignoring_ the replies that it gets. That pretty much wraps up your browsing, trust me -- when you can't see the router on your segment.

    Your choice of web browsers is pretty paltry, too. There's Handspring's Blazer, but it forces you to browse through the Blazer proxies that compress everything for you (and log everywhere you go, most likely). Then there's EudoraWeb, which doesn't support images. And a few more that are mainly forgettable, including a "screen scraping" browser client.

    On the other hand, when I was using the unit with VNC via the Cisco wireless APs in the office, the thing worked like a champ (albeit a slow one). And when I used it with Lucent APs, it worked very well, too.

    The combination of other problems and the fact that it seems that Intel (the owner of the product line now) doesn't intend to release any updates to the unit have made me move to a Sharp Zaurus and a Dlink CF 802.11b card. :>
  • in statements issued earlier this year (pdabuzz.com had it a while ago) Palm said they would have bluetooth and 802.11b palms shipping by the end of the year. they also will be switching (at least some models) to an ARM processor. From what i know, this will take the Palm OS to a whole new level. i have been waiting to see what this is before i replace my IIIxe. personally i have no interest in wince/pocketpc and can wait to hold out. if you are not in a hurry i suggest the same. the ARM chip will be so much more powerful, and frankly i wonder how much a current palm can really do over 802.11b to take advantage of the connection. obviously a lot, but in a few months it will do a lot more. they ran a demo of the upcoming Palm os for the ARM and the reports were very positive. guess something woke them up, they've been resting on their past breakthroughs for quite a while now (though i dig the i705).
    • 802.11B will be out shortly now the SDIO standard has been finalised. You can get the SDIO Bluetooth Card now and there is suppose to be third party 802.11B and GPS SDIO Cards Shortly. As for PalmOS for ARM this will be supported in PalmOS 5 which is already in beta -> if you go to the palmos web site www.palmos.com you can see a big panel on the right hand side of the site.

  • Xircom && Handspring Visor (Score:3, Informative)

    by Random Feature ( 84958 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2002 @06:18PM (#3520786) Homepage
    I have a Xircom 802.11b module for my Handspring.

    General impressions:

    Throughput sucks. You're stuck at serial speed because that's the interface to the module. That's great when you've got nothing else but it's worse than a 14.4 dialup.

    Connectivity is spotty. Generally I've had no problems with getting connected at home or work, but last week I was attending Networld+Interop and the damn thing locked up my Handspring.

    Tight. I had to reset. After the second time this happened (yeah, shoot me for being a glutton for punishment), I lost all my data. Yes, it was backed up, but that's not the point.

    Now, in the past I've had no issues. Blazer (the browser that comes with the Xircom module ) is sweet and if you've got a Visor the color is great and the quality is decent. I liked it, until last week.

    But after last week I'll not likely be using the module again. I just can't afford to lose everything on the road like that.

    As always, YMMV.

    • I too have a Xircom 802.11b module for my Handspring Visor Deluxe. Got the module on ebay. For me it falls into the rather populated drawer of "non-killer apps" (not sorry to have it but would be sorry to have paid anything like list price).

      Although our campus has wireless out the wazoo, I've used the module very little, because I rarely leave my desk (and as the poster above implied, throughput is low enough that if you're near your desk it seems faster to walk back to your desk), and when I do roam I usually find that I have left the module at home in the non-killer-apps drawer or in my other pants or something, thus resulting in a sort of "not useful enough to remember to carry it" feedback cycle.

      In many of the situations where I would "need" to access the web or other not-too-volatile online documents while stuck in a meeting, I actually know before I leave my desk what pages I would want to consult, which means I can just use Plucker to cache them on my Visor before I go. Your mileage may vary considerably.

      As for travel situations (business or otherwise), there aren't many places I go that would have wireless, though this will probably change in the future (possibly even before the advent of food pills, undersea cities, and lunar theme parks). I also have a Xircom modem and that has been somewhat more useful.
  • I've got my Handspring Visor Prism setup on the home network with a DLink Access Point and a LinkSys router. The access to the internet is via DSL.

    It works and works great - particularly for email, NNTP and wireless hotsync.

    The transfer speed is nowhere near 10 mbps, but I think that is due to the DragonBall 33Mhz processor. The reason I think this is because last week I installed AfterBurner 3.1, which overclocks the CPU and I saw a very noticable improvement in the speed of browsing and of downloading messages from the news server.

  • D-link offers a 11 mbps wireless CF card that is 802.11b (model # DCF-650W). They offer it on their website for $99. I've been using it on my Audiovox Maestro that runs Pocket PC (as long as you don't mind using M$ Outlook) and it works well. Good luck.

  • D-Link DCF-650W and the Zaurus SL5500 (Linux PDA) (Score:3, Interesting)

    by -tji ( 139690 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2002 @06:40PM (#3520937) Journal
    The Zaurus SL-5500 supports the D-Link DCF-650W out of the box. Just plug in the CompactFlash 802.11 card, and configure the SSID and WEP settings in the standard config app, and you're off and running.

    The included Opera browser does a good job of scaling pages to the small PDA display.

    And, since it's Linux, there is no end to the cool apps you can run on it. Check out Kismet [kismetwireless.net]. It's an 802.11 sniffer program, great for "War Driving". Between my office and home, I picked up 80 different 802.11 networks on one trip. I am in Silicon Valley, so your results may vary. But, it's great for finding public access points too (whether they are intentionally or accidentally public).

  • I've got one of each.... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by deanj ( 519759 )
    I've browsed the web on the Palm, iPAQ and Zaurus. They ALL suck for the all in one web browsing thing you're looking for. If you want to really do web browsing, wait a bit and get one of those oQo devices that are coming out later this summer. (Hopefully someone will gut the OS on the thing and get it to run Linux). Having said they all suck, they suck in varying degrees. Mostly it's the power consumption. The developer Zaurus absolutely sucks down the batteries big time. So does the iPAQ running WinCE. Believe it or not, the iPAQ running savaJeOS can browse the web for a Loooooong time. The other thing is that things just won't render the way they will with a "real" web browser. You can get the info from most pages, but some pages won't come up at all. (And clearly, something like Flash will just not work). having said all that...if all you're looking for is something to have to use during those boring meetings, just about anything will do. Just be aware of the limits all these devices currently have. They're not quite there yet. Oh yeah, one more thing. The Blackberry. Hands down, the best device out there. Problem with that is, no 802.11. And it's quite expensive (more than $50 per month just for the e-mail version, higher with the cell-phone e-mail combo). If they had one with 802.11, it'd be time to sell the Palm stock, they'd blow Palm away. It's that good. They're probably making money with the cell-phone networking stuff they have now, but it would pale in comparision to what they could do if they had an 802.11 device.
  • Palms are great at what they do, but if you want serious wireless and serious browsing, you need the speed and expandability of something like an iPaq.


    I've used the Xircom card with an m505 and you get max 112Kbps. It would be almost useless except if you're in an area with 802.11b coverage it's faster and cheaper than something like a CDPD modem. Also, lack of browser's a real concern (although I guess Palm's now selling something that might do the trick.)


    The iPaq, however, is a useable browser, and performance is good (I've used both the Compaq clone of the Orinoco and a Cisco Aironet 340 in my iPaq.) I have a double PCMCIA adapter, the second slot has a 5GB Toshiba PC Card. Using both the wireless and the card to listen to music I could get about 5 hours of continuous operation (the PCMCIA sleeve for the iPaq has additional batteries to power the slots, and to charge the main battery if necessary.) You generally can plug in to power before you need it.

  • Zaurus All The Way!! (Score:2, Informative)

    by seiotek ( 521782 )
    Spend the money and get the Zaurus. I just purchaced the D-Link 802.11b CF card for $99 at my local Fry's Electronics and it worked flawlessly with my Linksys WAP. The Zaurus is just a good piece of technology all around.
  • The Socket WL6000-320 [socketcom.com] 802.11b CF card is supposed to use less power than other CF cards when idle, has the smallest antenna stub that I've seen and is CompactFlash type I, while most other cards are the of the thicker type II variety, which cannot plug into as many devices. To me, these features would justify the $140 mail order price [pricewatch.com] ($180 at Fry's), even though I worry that the small antenna stub might translate into a weaker antenna.

    What has stopped me from buying, however, is the claim that this card does not work under current Linux drivers because it uses a currently undocumented MAC chip [bitshift.org], although the rest of the hardware is supposed to be standard Intersil Prism.

    Does anyone know if this problem is still the case? If the hardware were documented I would probably feel comfortable enough buying the chip and adapting one of the Prism drivers to it. (One the other hand, I would use a different card or do without rather than run a proprietary driver.)

    By the way, the SMC card the MicroCenter had for $140 looks identical to the Socket card from the outside. I would be intersted in knowing if they are the same, and if anyone has used the SMC card under Linux.

  • If you don't need the latest version of Pocket PC, there are some clearance prices available. I saw the often overlooked Fujitsu AudioVox Maestro at CompuUSA for $287 a few weeks ago. It has a CF slot, 320x240 color display, ARM processor, and 16MB of RAM.

    More recently, Fry's has had the Casiopeia E-125 on clearance for $200-225. The E-125 has a CompactFlash slot, a 150MHz MIPS R4000, 320x240 16-bit color display, USB and serial base unit. There is some magic file name my Casiopeia E-105 runs if it is booted with a CompactFlash card in its slot, which is handy for booting Linux, although I have only booted a precompiled binary that I downloaded.

    On the other hand, I should warn you that it looks like Linux-MIPS development has been pretty quiet for the past two years, and MIPS-based PDA's seem to be disappearing. Also, I think that you have to go through the base unit to plug it in a USB device, which impedes my interest in possibly using an E-125 as a USB analyzer.

  • prices and a plug for handera (Score:3, Informative)

    by xeno ( 2667 ) on Tuesday May 14, 2002 @07:42PM (#3521292)
    I'd recommend springing for the Handera 330. I did, and I haven't regretted it a bit. You say: Handera has a nicer, bigger screen, but is also more expensive. I couldn't locate a price for the CF card either.

    That's an understatement -- the Handera screen is very sharp and clear. The backlight is bright and clear in the dark, and because the grafitti area is part of the display (instead of being silk-screened on like all the other Palm devices) you can actually see what you're writing in the dark. In bright light, it's fantastic and quick to respond -- no screen artifacts. Folks used to rave about the b/w screen on the Rex units -- this is nicer.

    As for the price of the Symbol 802.11b card, I've seen ~$175us. Note that the Symbol card is significantly smaller and less succeptable to damage than the Linksys -- the dongle on the latter is huge. From outside appearances, the Symbol card looks to be the same as the Socket brand 802.11 card. (Anyone?)

    There are a lot of other benefits to the Handera 330 -- the battery life with the LiIon batter is great (important if you're using CF devices that require more power such as a microdrive or 802.11 card), the flexibility of the MMC/SD memory slot is great (and I'm hoping to see a bluetooth SD card soon). The power tap can rechange the battery while you're using the unit yet doesn't interfere with a Palm Portable Keyboard. The folks at Handera did a great job on this one; I'm very happy with it.

    Handera 330 ($300) + battery ($50) + Symbol card ($175) + charger ($40, or you can pick up a Nokia ACH4U charger for $2 at a discount place or thrift store) and you're set for around $550us.

  • Xircom "sled" (Score:2, Informative)

    by mattfusf ( 43660 )
    I have a Palm m515 and the Xircom 802.11b sled. It works pretty well. It has its own battery, so it doesn't drain from the handheld itself. The biggest limitation is speed; it connects via RS232 serial and basically acts as a PPP "server" for the Palm.

    One neat feature is that no software install is required; you simply attach it to the Palm and it installs its driver automatically. I did download and flash a firmware update for it; it corrected a few bugs and limitations of the software that came with it. (main one I noticed was that you HAD to specify a SSID - with the updated software this isn't necessary)

    Overall, it works pretty well. Web clipping is a heck of a lot faster than with a Palm VII, and browsing via things like AvantGo and Blazer isn't all that bad. I also setup network HotSync which is obviously slower than USB HotSync via the cradle but works well. I've used it with a few different access points from Linksys and Cisco, and the range is pretty much the same as I get with my laptop.

    I purchased mine from eBay for under $200

    Matt
  • I recently got the Xircom Springport wireless module for my Visor (Manos, the Handspring of Fate). It has worked well in most all of the situations I have tried it in, and is a lot of fun. The built-in battery makes things easier too. The only setup I have run into where it didn't work with the default settings was on a friend's Linksys with a Win2k computer acting as a DHCP server. In that case I had to give it a static IP and other information. However, since that same setup gives that friend troubles with his Macs too, I won't blame the module quite yet.

    Overall, it was a great buy. By the way, I got it NEW IN BOX!!1! from Ebay for $100 instead of for the $300 or so it tends to be at other places.
  • I've got a Xircom SpringPort Wireless Ethernet module (SWE1100) and a Handspring Visor Platinum talking to a Cisco Aironet 340 access point with 128-bit WEP.

    Network hotsync is slow, but adequate. PalmVNC [berkeley.edu] and Top Gun ssh [www.ai] both work, but they're not usable enough to be more than curiosities on that tiny screen. The only browser I've found that works at all is the one that comes with AvantGo's mobile Internet service [avantgo.com]. I've never managed to get a static IP address to work, but that's a minor problem; the DHCP client works fine. More serious: the MultiMail email client built into the 802.11b module won't talk to a recent UW IMAP server [washington.edu]; it doesn't grok the server's CAPABILITY response.

  • I have reports [geocrawler.com] confirming that this driver [red-bean.com] works on Sharp Zaurus with Symbol Spectrum24 and Socket Communications' CF cards.

    This is a modified orinoco_cs driver with firmware loader. It supports wireless extensions. I use it on i386 and ARM systems every day without any problems.

  • Whatever you do, don't make the mistake of not buyng a Zaurus. This is the highest quality device of any type that I have purchased in the last five years. The Zaurus is built to last, from the rugged, incredibly cool built-in keyboard (thumb-board) that is exposed when you slide down the bottom cover, to the world-class color screen built by Sharp, to the Linux operating system that comes pre-loaded. I am running my own personal Python applications on my Zaurus right now, form the Bash shell command line. (You can download them for free, their new, their GPL'ed, and their crafted especially for the Zaurus, just go to http://www.awaretek.com ) This device is more expandable than the IPAQ, having both a Compact Flash slot and an SD Card slot. You can buy digital cameras taylor made for it, wireless LAN cards, extra memory (although I am having trouble filling up my full 64 MB RAM with programs, the Linux operating system by Lineo is so compact and efficient that the Zaurus gives a lot more room in RAM than the IPAQ). Running scritps from the BASH shell is way-cool. The machine is based on Trolltech's Qtopia desktop, with full Trolltech QT toolkit developer's platform, plus the standard JEODE JVM Java environment. Not only Python has been ported to the machine, but also most of the Python libraires and also PyQt. This baby rocks!!! Developers all around the world are busy coding new applications for the Zaurus. New apps appear every day! Lastly, why in the world would you want to support Microsoft by buying an IPAQ running Windows CE, even if you do plan on loading Linux on it? Do youself a favor, buy a Zaurus! And then download my Python programs for the Zaurus at http://www.awaretek.com rs

  • Price Delusion (Score:2, Informative)

    by MythosTraecer ( 141226 )
    If you think $220 is pricey, and the HandEra 330 too expensive at $300 (MSRP; it's widely available for less), then there's no way you're going to be able to afford a $499 Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 plus the extra cost of an 802.11 wireless card. Or any of the Pocket PCs for that matter, which can run from the $400 range up through almost $700.

    If you want wireless LAN connectivity on the cheap, the HandEra is the cheapest (and one of the best) solutions out there. In addition to a well-designed device, they have great service and support. And frankly, if you don't like the HandEra, your only other option is to spend lots more money.
  • The handspring wireless ethernet modem is compliant with the 802.11 standards. It's expensive though.
  • WooHoo! I can already hook up my Apple Newton MessagePad 120 [everymac.com] to any 802.11b network with readily available 5v PCMCIA cards!

    10 years old and still ahead of the game!! :)

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