Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Hauppauge, NY USA
Posts: 43

I saw a friends VII today and it was incredible. She can send a e-mail from any where, any place. That is the main benefit. Avantgo solves my quest for inforamtion. So what if the information is not realtime. But the e-mail thing is great!

The other thing that was really cool is the connectivity was instant. As soon as she lifted the entenna, the palm was connected.

I am now scratching my head, should I have spent the extra money a purchased a VII?

It woulld be great if HS could come out with a springboard which could emmulate this wireless feature.

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Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 434

Essentially all handhelds can do it for cheaper than the VII, if you get a cable that connects to your cell phone. The Europeans have been doing it for quite a while, using the built-in infrared transmitter, but alas, our North American phones don't have that capability.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 52

Even Better:
http://www.omnisky.com

See this Discussion on VII vs the OmniSky. They both have its own pro's and con's
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=...amp;mode=thread


10 days and counting for my OmniSky

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 52

the disadvantage of using the VII is that your stuck with palm.net as your service...I dunno about you, but I like to have options....

Harry

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 48

I read a review of the VII that said "the best thing it does is move money from your credit card to the Palm account." A friend of mine used one and said the coverage areas were s**tty and, if you travel, unreliable. Granted, it worked well when you had good service, but indoors and outside the city look out.

I bought a modem for my Palm and was very happy. And as someone said, you can connect any handlheld with a modem to a cell phone with the right cable. Personally, I'm looking forward to the Six Pack. Let's hear it for Springboard modules! (hopefully sonner rather than later)

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 434

What I was talking about was without a modem, directly to the cell phone, using appropriate software.

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Maplewood, NJ USA
Posts: 48

I aggree, the "ooh-aah" factor on the VII is impressive, and I would look for omni sky to release a relativly inexpensive springboard wireless connectivity module.

On the e-mail note, there is a 10/month service that calls an 800# and sends and recieved e-mail. The best part of it is that all you have to do it hold it up to ANY telephone and it does everything for you. In my opinion, its a great solution. the drawback, its only available in 1 or 2 standalone devices, and soon it will be a clip on for the palm III. I'd be intrested to see if they develop a similar springboard.

Thats all for now
-Mike

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Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
-Ferris Beuler

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: College Station, TX
Posts: 143

Check the coverage map at

http://www.palm.net/coverage/index.html

before you get too excited. As others have said, the question is whether others will provide better options through cellular or other methods by the time the Palm net gets reasonable coverage...reasonable being entirely in the eye of the beholder of course!

Here in Texas, there's no way I'd get a VII...too many big coverage holes. If I spent all my time in Silicon Valley or the Northeastern corridor, maybe.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Hauppauge, NY USA
Posts: 43

In NY there is no problem with the VII coverage. Today I was with this my friend again. We were in a restaruant and she was e-mailing my office back and fourth.

As far as connecting a cell phone, talk about combersom. the VII is so convienet.

Do you think there will be a springboard with a wireless modem?

OR is bluetooth the answer to this.

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: Kutztown, PA, USA
Posts: 106

how much does that service cost. i heard that it was like 20 bucks for only sending and reciving 30k or something like that.

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Greg Moore
[email protected]

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: Hauppauge, NY USA
Posts: 43

the omnisky looks really cool. Hopefully there will be a springboard for the omnisky service.

I e-mailed them to ask them if it was in the works.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location:
Posts: 52

check this out:

http://www.xircom.com/vpr/news/archive/999980a.html

You can find out a full list of springboards at visorcentral.com in the modules section (which include the wireless modem that's being developed by same company as above).

Harry

[This message has been edited by Harry (edited 01-04-2000).]

Registered: Nov 1999
Location: California
Posts: 108

Actually, the springborad module on the visor would give you multiple choices. You could, as listed above, connect a special cable to your cell phone to transmit, you could get a wireless modem for the visor (probably the best way if you use it a lot), or another neat thing to do is get a blue-connect (bluetooth card) for the visor and then get a bluetooth cell phone. Keep the phone in your pocket, backpack, briefcase, wherever, and the visor would wirelessly connect to the cellphone to connect to a local ISP. From there, load on ProxiWeb and a couple others, and you have wireless access to the whole web, whithout any cables.