Wireless Liftoff Mandan ND

Posted by : Sara Aase TV commercials for wireless products seem a lot like campaign ads: They paint in broad strokes, make outlandish promises, and leave us feeling more confused than enlightened. Take that Nortel commercial showing a woman prompting her colleague with speech lines over a handheld screen: She appears as a flawless live-video image, but that's a reality several years in the future.

Right now, only 2 percent of the U.S. population--a veritable secret society--uses any kind of wireless device, be it a cell phone, pager, or Palm. The rest of us hear and see only glimpses of what it must be like to be in that club. Has your average person on the street heard of Handspring, AvantGo, or Yada Yada? As I was reading news on a Palm IIIc during the bus ride home from work one day, the woman sitting next to me finally leaned over and said, "Excuse me, but what is that?"

Anybody who has a personal digital assistant (PDA) has heard of Palm and AvantGo. Palm first introduced its Palm Pilot digital organizers in 1996, providing a small, lightweight way to take your day planner, to-do lists, and contacts with you. Many early adopters of these devices quickly became converts. Put the device in its cradle (hooked up to a desktop computer), press the Sync button, and all of your data is updated and ready to go. You can even read and send e-mail this way, although the device depends on syncing with a desktop computer for updates.

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