Rand Wacker

As my vacation got closer and closer this week I came to the realization that it was probably a good idea for me to be able to check in on work email while on the road (timing for this trip was unfortunate because of some very high priority projects at work, but in reality most of the projects I seem to work on are very high priority).

Not wanting to take my full laptop (although compared to the amount of scuba gear I’ve got this thing is nothin’), I looked into the possibility of doing mail from my Palm Tungsten T. I know there are a couple of good email clients out there: PalmSoft’s own VersaMail and SnapperMail from a company down in New Zealand.

First order of business was a thumbboard. Grafiti is great for little notes, but untenable for longer messages. When I was wandering around Fry’s with shac I picked up the TKB160P Micro Datapad from Micro Innovations. It’s exactly the form-factor I want, and connects to the Palm Universal connector. Unfortunately, the driver doesn’t work with my T running PalmOS 5.0. I’m not sure I would want it to anyways, since it requires you to manually enable/disable the driver whenever you connect/disconnect the device. Come on, can’t we do better than that! (I’ve mailed Micro to see if they have anything to say, we’ll see what comes back). Possible backup is the Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard, which is about the size of a Tungsten W or C when closed but folds out to full size. It’s a nice device, but it’s a hundred bucks and I think a full-size keyboard w/ a Palm on it looks as silly as the old typewriter I had with a full keyboard and a 20-character readout…

Second step [would have been] to get connectivity. I see a clear path for this one, get a phone with Bluetooth and a reasonable data plan (T-Mobile now offers unlimited GPRS data on top of your voice plan for $20/month). In lieu of getting the phone (I’ve still got a few months on my AT&T plan, which puts me right at the cut-off for number portability), I could have picked up the Palm Modem, which is actually bigger than the T itself, runs on it’s own set of batteries, and has all the drawbacks of a normal modem connection (it’s almost impossible to get a dial-up connection in airports these days, and hotels cost you at least a dollar per call).

Why am I bothering with all this? Well, first off, work won’t just get us Blackberry’s (and their software isn’t necessarily all that compatible with our systems or security model), that would be one simple choice. Why not get a Palm Tungsten W (I think that’s the AT&T version) or a Treo? I like to have different levels of portability, and the all-in-one devices are just too big. Being able to carry just a tiny phone is most portable, followed by phone+Palm for light-duty connectivity, and thumbboard for even more capabilities without adding a lot of size.

Besides, with Bluetooth built in to my laptop, I’ll be able to use a phone as the internet gateway for laptop or Palm, whichever I happen to have with me.

Double bonus is that my Palm acts as a really good MP3 player. Although I’m kinda wishing for a small digital camera on the phone as well. (Nokia 3650 perhaps?) The Treo 600 will, of course, change the game, and I look forward to it’s release with great anticipation.

On a side-note, using NetNewsWire’s offline editor, I’m convinced that moblogging or just a decent little thumbboard that I can dump random thoughts into a MT-posted email will be a killer app. I wonder if there is an RSS aggregator for the Palm yet?