Get Unplugged

Do you want to browse the Web, read the news, track stock quotes, and check email while you're on the go? If you want wireless access to important personal and work information so that you're not tied to your home or office PC, you're not alone. According to Forrester Research, the number of mobile Internet users in the United States is forecast to grow from 2 million today to 23 million in 2003.

If you're in the market for an unplugged PDA solution, you have many wireless connectivity options from which to choose. Before you select a solution, you need to think about how you plan to use the PDA. Will you need nationwide or local coverage? What's an acceptable speed for that coverage? You also need to consider memory, storage, and expandability. Will you want to expand the capabilities of your wireless device by adding memory, storage space, and accessories? Perhaps my experiences with this gadgetry can help guide your selection.

My experiences lie with a popular type of PDA, the Pocket PC, which is a device that runs the Microsoft Pocket PC OS. Pocket PCs typically have large color displays and offer well-lit screens and resolution. They have excellent multimedia support and usually provide fast processor speeds and enhanced storage capacity.

A few of the popular Pocket PCs are Casio's CASSIOPEIA E-200, Compaq's iPAQ H3800 and iPAQ H3700 series, and Hewlett-Packard's HP Jornada 560 series. For a quick review of these and several other PDAs, see the Web-exclusive sidebar "Popular Pocket PCs," http://www.winnetmag.com, InstantDoc ID 25207.

When you select a Pocket PC, you need to know which wireless card format you want and the type of connectivity you need. The main types of wireless card formats for Pocket PCs are CompactFlash (CF) and PC Card, which both come in Type I and Type II. The types of connectivity fall into two categories: wireless WAN (WWAN) and wireless LAN (WLAN).

Wireless Card Formats
To determine which wireless card format is appropriate for your PDA, you need to understand the differences between the formats. CF cards and PC Cards provide the same data storage and I/O functionality and compatibility. Thus, the difference lies in the cards' size. CF is a small, removable device that weighs a half-ounce and is the size of a matchbook. PC Cards are about the size of a credit card. You can purchase adapters that let you use CF cards in a PC Card slot.

The difference between Type I cards and Type II cards is the thickness. Type I cards are 3.3mm thick, whereas Type II cards are 5mm thick.

WWAN Connectivity Options
WWAN connections let you stay connected outside your home and office. The coverage area is limited only by the extent of your wireless service provider's network. However, the connections are excruciatingly slow: typically 14.4Kbps or 19.2Kbps, depending on the type of connection. Fortunately, you can use optimization software such as BlueKite's BlueKite to increase the speed. BlueKite works by either reducing the amount of bytes transferred or increasing the browsing speed.

Nationwide WWAN connectivity is possible through the multiple antenna sites that a wireless service provider maintains. Currently, wireless service providers use either Cellular Digital Packet Data (CDPD) or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology.

CDPD is currently the most popular PDA wide-area wireless Internet connectivity technology. With CDPD, you're connected as long as your modem is on. However, CDPD is slow at 19.2Kbps, with actual throughput about half that speed. CDPD service is available through nationwide wireless data network carriers (e.g., AT&T Wireless) or resellers (e.g., GoAmerica Communications).