Registered: Feb 2002
Location:
Posts: 1

Treo? Visorphone? Other? Fax, Data, and Voice solution needed!

I am trying to find a workable solution with little background knowledge. I have never had a cell phone before, nor a modem for my current Palm IIIx. I find myself in need of a cell phone and PDA solution so that I can:

1. Have a Palm OS PDA,
2. Receive and make voice calls and voice mail,
3. Check email by dialup through ISP and LAN server,
4. Receive and send faxes, and
5. Not have several overlapping devices and services.

Ideally, I would like a one device solution that could distinguish between incoming voice calls and faxes, that could synch faxes with my laptop (maybe through Docs to Go?), and would wake up upon receiving a fax or voice call. Does this exist?

I am not adverse to a 2 device (i.e. cellphone and PDA) or 3 device (i.e. cellphone, laptop and PDA) solution, but need to be able to receive faxes as well as send faxes. Help! I am a very confused person...

So, I would like to know from others what works for them or what might work for me, including as appropriate:
1. What PDA?
2. What Cellphone or Communication device(s)?
3. If needed, what kind of modem for a PDA?
4. What software for my PDA or laptop or cellphone?
5. What ISP? (Is there an ISP that would allow you to receive faxes and translate it to email?)
6. What phone service (I'm in Seattle if that helps)? And do I need to "activate" fax and/or data to make it work?

What will work?

Jim
Interweave Associates
[email protected]

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Misplaced Canuck in Charleston SC
Posts: 257

AFAIK, I don't think there's any one device that will do everything on your list.

Something like the Treo or Visor with Visorphone might do 1,2,3,5 but not 4, although Handspring's springboard modem (discontinued) and (I believe) the Xircom Springport modem do faxes. I don't think the thinmodem does fax.

So maybe a Visor with a modem and VP module would do the trick for you.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 3034

quote:

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Originally posted by imabug
AFAIK, I don't think there's any one device that will do everything on your list.

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Don't be so sure.

quote:

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Something like the Treo or Visor with Visorphone might do 1,2,3,5 but not 4, although Handspring's springboard modem (discontinued) and (I believe) the Xircom Springport modem do faxes. I don't think the thinmodem does fax.

So maybe a Visor with a modem and VP module would do the trick for you.

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Check out this page for some ideas. If anyone has a Treo and can run an "AT+FCLASS=?" on it and produce the results, then it may do everything mentioned. Worst case, a Visor with a Sprint Digital Link (or an all in one like the Kyocera QCP6035) would seem to fit the bill.

Registered: Jan 2001
Location: Misplaced Canuck in Charleston SC
Posts: 257

quote:

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Originally posted by Toby
Check out this page for some ideas. If anyone has a Treo and can run an "AT+FCLASS=?" on it and produce the results, then it may do everything mentioned. Worst case, a Visor with a Sprint Digital Link (or an all in one like the Kyocera QCP6035) would seem to fit the bill.

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ooo, if that worked, that *would* be very cool.

I'd forgotten about the sprint digital link phone.

oh, if only i had the $ to play with all these neat toys

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Registered: Jun 2000
Location: Santa Cruz, CA, USA
Posts: 44

Why fax from Palm OS?

What use is faxing from a Palm device? Just curious :-) Is the interface not too small to be useful or is it for outbound faxing that it it is most useful.

Meta D.

Registered: Feb 2001
Location: Them Twin Cities
Posts: 1758

There is fax software for the treo (as Toby mentioned). I recommend it (the treo) highly. Fax 1.0 d18 is also here (same thing as toby mentioned). I have no particular need to fax (yet), so I can't speak to its quality. there is also a subscription servce, P-fax. there are others, just search for "fax" at www.palmgear.com

...there aren't any ISP's that convert fax to email, that I know of, but there are many web services that do, ex. www.efax.com .

the treo may well fit your bill perfectly, so long as you're comfortable with GSM and daily battery charging.

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Registered: Feb 2000
Location:
Posts: 1571

High Quality Fax

The Fax program from Instep Group (www.instepgroup.com) works liek a charm. It also sends high quality faxes. You would have no idea that the faxes are coming from a PDA. I use it to send my resume as a test (from WordSmith) and the resume looks just as if I printed out from the computer! And no I know no one at InstepGroup.

Registered: Feb 2002
Location: Miami
Posts: 6

All in one

With the Treo , Visor Phone or Sprint phone you can do it all. The only limitation I can see would be the size of incoming faxes. You can use the fax programs mentioned above, and quick office which lets you do word and excel docs with use of a choice of fonts.

I have the sprint phone with a color prism and love it. I don't need to fax so I don't have that software. In six months sprint will upgrade and the data transfer will be 5x faster than the 14.400 they have now.

Sprint also has a wireless device available on their web site for your laptop. This would allow you to surf, fax receive and everything else but of course not call on the phone or have the convenience of the small size.

Good luck.

__________________
Mike

Registered: Apr 2001
Location:
Posts: 24

A Cheaper Alternative

If you really think about it, you will be using/carrying your phone all the time, and you probably won't have your PDA connected to the Internet all the time. You may want to consider using a PDA Internet Access Cable which goes between your cell phone and your Handspring PDA.

This way, you can keep your phone nice and small (since it's with you all the time) and when you need to connect your PDA to the Internet for e-mail, faxing or web browsing, you will always have that capability. Best of all, you don't need to sign up for a separate service plan as the minutes are deducted from your regular Mobile phone plan that you already have.

Gomadic has cables which connect to all Handspring PDA's and work with most major CDMA based cell phones. The cables are much cheaper than most Handspring wireless solutions, but work just as well. Give them a look at http://www.gomadic.com.

Thanks!
Cayeldo