PalmOne offers Wi-Fi card; Microsoft publishes Smartphone whitepaper

Ever since the technology has been available to put Wi-Fi wireless LAN technology onto a Secure Digital card, we've been waiting for this announcement.

PalmOne announced last week that it has launched a Wi-Fi card, providing 802.11b connectivity for some of its handhelds. The new card ($129 estimated street price) will be available at PalmOne's online store and in retail shops worldwide by early September, the company said.

The card works only with Tungsten T3 and Zire 72 handhelds, so if you have an older Palm device and you want Wi-Fi, you are still out of luck (time to upgrade!). The Tungsten T3 and Zire 72 also have Bluetooth technology, so you now have two wireless technologies on those devices if you buy the SD Wi-Fi card. The company also offers the Tungsten C device, which includes built-in WLAN capabilities (no card needed).

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Ever since the technology has been available to put Wi-Fi wireless LAN technology onto a Secure Digital card, we've been waiting for this announcement.

PalmOne announced last week that it has launched a Wi-Fi card, providing 802.11b connectivity for some of its handhelds. The new card ($129 estimated street price) will be available at PalmOne's online store and in retail shops worldwide by early September, the company said.

The card works only with Tungsten T3 and Zire 72 handhelds, so if you have an older Palm device and you want Wi-Fi, you are still out of luck (time to upgrade!). The Tungsten T3 and Zire 72 also have Bluetooth technology, so you now have two wireless technologies on those devices if you buy the SD Wi-Fi card. The company also offers the Tungsten C device, which includes built-in WLAN capabilities (no card needed).

The card will support 64-bit and 128-bit WEP encryption, and come bundled with a PPTP VPN client from Mergic. Other third-party clients available for the Tungsten C, such as LEAP clients, should also work, Palm said.

Because Wi-Fi has been around on Microsoft Pocket PC devices for a while, I'm not sure whether the PalmOne Wi-Fi cards will suddenly cause people to go out and buy a bunch of Palm devices for WLAN connectivity. However, those who have the devices already (well, the new ones at least) may now be able to join the Wi-Fi world with their devices.

Speaking of Microsoft, the company has published a free whitepaper on its Smartphone technology.

The whitepaper is basically a plug for all the different ways a Smartphone can make your life better, but if you've been considering buying one, or want to learn more about the system, it's worth a look.

If you already own a Smartphone, the paper includes links to applications available that you might not have heard of, including a subway map system application (Tube, from Visual IT) and a real-time financial data access application (MarketWave from weComm).

Best of all, there's no registration needed to get the whitepaper. Enjoy!

Read more about wireless & mobile in Network World's Wireless & Mobile section.