Wireless Communities?
Hi,
I have a Palm VII; I've been following the last couple of posts
with interest. I'm intrigued by the idea of handheld electronic
publishing, a niche market for Palm-friendly 'zines, etc.
Reliable connectivity hasn't been a major issue for me; I'd say
it's 90% or better, which strikes me as pretty reasonable for the first
generation of wireless Internet devices. There are a couple of other
caveats to be mentioned, though: first, the Palm VII (which actually
runs off of Bell South's wireless network; it doesn't have an IP
address) is US-only in coverage, with lots of rural areas still
uncovered. But the real bottleneck is the data itself: the Palm VII is
9600 baud text-only device; it's not bad for email, but using it to
browse Web pages is a lot like using the text-only lynx browser. Note
that users pay for the service
by their air time, but rather by the amount of data transferred.
My current rate is $10/month for 50 KB. That's fine for sending and
receiving a couple of wireless email messages a day, but two or three
pieces from ebr would easily max out a user's allotment for the month.
(One can, of course, always opt to pay more for the privilege of
receiving more data - but it can get expensive quickly.)
Still, I'm fascinated by the possibilities here; Palm-friendly
e-publishing that aspires to something more than Stephen King is a
consummation devoutly to be wished.
Best, Matt
