Wireless Modem Lets You Connect to the Web From the Palm in Your Hand

If you do a lot of writing, research or heavy-duty number crunching on the road, there’s no substitute for a laptop or notebook computer. But if all you need is quick access to your e-mail or informational Web sites, you can save a lot of weight and a bit of money by carrying a Palm V Connected Organizer equipped with a new OmniSky wireless modem.

The 4.6-ounce device, which clips to the side of the slim Palm V, costs $299, plus $39.95 a month for the wireless Internet service. If you don’t already have one, you’ll also need a Palm V ($329) or Palm Vx ($399).

The monthly fee gets you unlimited access to e-mail and the Web. The 19.2-kilobit-per-second modem isn’t as fast as the one on your desktop, but it’s fast enough for e-mail and the information services designed specifically for hand-held devices. Unlike Palm’s own wireless system (the Palm VII, which has an integrated modem), OmniSky doesn’t require you to pick from a pre-selected group of Web sites. You can visit any site on the Web. Although most sites aren’t optimized for viewing on a small screen, you can nevertheless access them.

The OmniSky service also offers links to sites that are optimized for hand-held devices. Many of these are designed with travelers in mind. They include the Travelocity travel reservation service, MapBlast mapping and driving direction service, Weather.com, Frommers City Guides, Fodors.com dining and hotel guide, and 10Best.com guides to lodging, dining, attractions and sightseeing. Some travel services, such as Etak traffic reports, telephone directory assistance and the various dining guides can be useful when you’re out and about locally as well as when you’re out of town.

OmniSky has links to several financial services, including Fidelity Investments, Ameritrade, E-Trade and CBS MarketWatch. Ameritrade, in addition to providing quotes, lets you place trades with the device.

I often need to check up on the latest technology news so I can file reports for CBS radio, which is why I like the fact that the device not only provides news of the world, U.S., finance, technology, sports and entertainment, but allows me to quickly search by subject matter. If I need to find out about the latest twist in the Microsoft antitrust trial or the virus du jour, I can click on Tech News, which provides links to technology reports from a number of sources.

As good as the news and information services are, OmniSky’s best attribute is its e-mail program. Although OmniSky assigns you a free e-mail address, it also allows you to access your regular account on most Internet service providers and corporate e-mail systems. That means not having to give out a special e-mail address for people who want to reach you when you’re mobile.

Getting e-mail on a small device with a relatively slow modem can be a problem, especially for those of us who get hundreds of messages a day. Fortunately, OmniSky lets you preview the sender’s name, subject line and first 500 characters of text before you view the entire message. That saves having to view spam or messages that can wait till you get back to your PC. By default, the mail is left on the server, so you can also get it from your PC, but you have the option to delete it from the server. You also can set up filters that will sift through your mail before it’s transmitted, allowing you to see only messages from certain people or companies or messages with specific text in the subject line.

You can respond to incoming mail or generate new messages, which you enter using the Palm’s stylus. You can access your regular Palm address book, which means you don’t have to peck in the e-mail address if you already have the person listed.

The service, which uses the AT&T; cellular network, is available in most major metropolitan areas in the U.S. There are no cellular air time or roaming charges, and you don’t have to have an AT&T; wireless account to use the service.

Speaking of being on the road, most business hotels these days have a clock radio, but I still ask for a wake-up call. For some reason, a ringing phone gets me out of bed faster than a radio or alarm clock. I’ve seen late-night TV ads for a company that charges $2 for “hotel-style wake-up calls,” but thanks to a unique Web site, you can get a free call from “Mr.WakeUp” (https://www.mrwakeup.com) any time of the day or night.

The service, which is offered by IPing.com, can be programmed to call in a number of ways: just once, every day, just on weekdays or weekends, weekly or monthly. Mr.WakeUp calls our house every weekday at 7 a.m. but leaves us alone on weekends. He’s also programmed to call on mornings when I have an early flight.

When you set up a call, you can have it read you a text message (the Web site’s software converts text to speech), headline news, business news, your horoscope, a joke or fitness tip. You can also program Mr.WakeUp to deliver a voice message of your choice, and you don’t need a PC microphone to record it. The service calls you and lets you record your message over the phone.

Mr.WakeUp has several helpful cousins. IPing.com also offers Ms.Reminder, Mr.Notify, Ms.FollowUp, Dr.Dose and Mr.Dollar. All of these services are variations on the same theme. Ms.Reminder is designed to call you or someone else on the phone to remind you of an anniversary, birthday or other special event. Dr.Dose will call to let you know when it’s time to take your medication.

Mr.Notify will notify others about meetings or events. You can specify up to five groups with 10 people in each group. You also can request a yes-no response from each person (such as, “Are you coming to the party?”).

Not surprisingly, IPing’s pages show advertisements, and you may have to listen to a short commercial before you hear your message, but if all you want is a wake-up call, you can just hang up.

I worried about the service being abused by someone to harass others. But the service lets recipients block their numbers. Whenever an IPing service calls someone, the system tells them to press 1 to continue the call or 9 to block the service. I wish it were that easy to stop telemarketers.

* Technology reports by Lawrence J. Magid can be heard between 2 and 3 p.m. weekdays on the KNX-AM (1070) Technology Hour. He can be reached by e-mail at larry.magid@latimes.com. His Web site is at https://www.larrysworld.com.