Holding the world in your Palm

By ADAM GIFFORD

As any reporter will tell you, it is filing stories from remote locations that gives you the grey hairs.

In the dim distant past, I have stood in rainswept phone boxes shouting my prose to grumpy copytakers.

More recently, I have hauled laptops around the planet, straining my shoulder, and fussed with modems, adapters and connectors to squirt stories down the wires. Apart from weight, the fact that my laptop batteries would not even last the trip over the Tasman was a constant frustration.

I entertained hopes for the Apple Newton as a replacement travel tool, but that device was killed by Steve Jobs as part of his Apple rescue plan.

Similarly, the light, robust Apple emate, with its built-in keyboard, seemed to fit the bill. But while it could print, send faxes or link with my Macintosh when I got home (once I found the right software), it lacked web browsing and e-mail capacity.

So when I saw the Palm Portable Keyboard, I got excited. Particularly when someone told me it was possible to send e-mail out with a mobile phone, without needing a modem.

With that in mind, I secured what I thought was the appropriate combination and set out across the globe.

The Palm and keyboard arrived the day before I left. It had an e-mail application, MultiMail, already loaded, but no other instructions.

I used the flight to familiarise myself with the Graffiti writing system (easier than I feared) and read the manual.

Given the number of Palms around, I was able to find someone who helped me load the right software for the trip back. Be warned though - when I asked a computer retailer to load it, I was quoted $US40.

On the plane back, I was able to write the bulk of my stories. The keyboard fitted nicely on the seat tray, and the screen, though small, could be read relatively easily.

The keyboard is quite floppy, so travellers need to carry a stiff folder or large book if intending to use it on their lap in the waiting lounge.

The next challenge is to send the stories directly off the Palm, rather than synchronise with the host computer. For this experiment, I borrowed a Motorola L Series triband GSM phone, which can be used in the United States.

After the keyboard experience, I assumed there was some software to load, so I went looking. The palm.com site proved a frustrating experience, with the focus on selling products rather than explaining their use.

An e-mail to Palm support asking "how" brought the reply, "You can use MultiMail Pro to send and receive e-mail as long as you are using a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) phone with the IRDA port enabled."

That is what I already understood.

"You will also need a data service with the phone carrier activated."

Thanks for reminding me.

Another query brought the advice that I needed a third-party application such as Data4.me or Proxyweb to connect to an ISP. I downloaded Data4.me and installed it, but I am still not sure if it was even needed. I phoned Palm support, to be told Palm did not support third-party applications.

Fortunately, Mike at Motorola's Australian help desk was able to walk me through the set-up wizard in the MultiMail preferences panel. I had checked with my ISP beforehand, so knew the outgoing mail server was smtp, the mail type was POP3.

Actual Software, which makes MultiMail, has since been bought by Palm, and there is now useful set-up information at actualsoft.com.

I still wasn't able to dial out. I checked with my ISP to be told the 0867 number did not work, because Telecom's server strips a bunch of data from 021 calls.

I changed the dial-up number, but it still was not working. Time to call in the experts.

Luigi Capell at Rocom Wireless, the chairman of the Wireless Data Forum, has created an outsourcing service to support corporate wireless device users, which also develops bespoke applications.

When he put the phone about 15cm from the Palm and turned on the infrared port, the program dialled into the server and sent out the messages stacked up.

We were rocking. It only took a month.

"The experience you have had is the experience that has stopped many companies from going ahead and putting handheld computers in the hands of their people in the field," he said.

He added that IT departments did not have time to work out wireless technology or places to get the necessary qualifications.

Mr Capell said wireless data technologies were encountering a media backlash, because technologies like WAP (wireless application protocol) do not seem to have lived up to their initial hype.

But the work emerging from members of the Wireless Data Forum shows innovative New Zealand solutions being developed.