Reviews
SanDisk
SD WiFi Card
Finally you can get online with your Tapwave Zodiac or
Zodiac 2!
And
yea, verily, in early December 2004, Nirvana came to Tapwave Zodiac
owners in the form of a two-inch long plastic card and a software
driver for it. Okay, maybe not Nirvana, how about bliss? Ecstasy?
Really cool? It's good. It's very good. It's really good. It's
fast. It's fun. If you have been aching to put your Zodiac online,
welcome to WiFi!
When
I first whipped my shiny new Zodiac 2 out of its box, and after
turning it on and admiring it, the first thought that crossed
my mind was ãHow do I put this beastie online?ä As an Internet
junkie, as someone who works online and spends more time online
than I want to admit, this capability was a must. Having a cutting-edge
device like this that wasn't on the net, that couldn't make a
connection for a web browser, or an email program or whatever
really bothered me. So I investigated the possibilities. Could
I cable it to my old cell phone and use that as a wireless modem,
like I've done with my old Handspring Visor Prism for a couple
of years? Nope. No such cable for the Zodiac exists. Drat. Oh,
it has Bluetooth. All I need is a Bluetooth enabled phone. After
checking out the prices and plans for those, and waking up from
fainting, I ruled that out. So what's left? WiFi, a.k.a. an 802.1
lb high speed wireless connection. Wifi isn't infinitely portable
like a cell phone as modem is, since you have to be within a couple
hundred feet of an access point, but it's the next best thing.
Best of all, it's much faster and a lot cheaper. Life is sometimes
full of trade-offs.
I
have a home network with a LinkSys 802.1 lb router, so my desktop
and laptop can both share my cable modem. Friends with wireless-enabled
laptops visit and blammo, their machines see my router's broadcast
(buzzword: ãAccess pointä), and they're on my cable modem too.
So how about the Zodiac?
After
talking to Tapwave last Fall, I learned that you couldn't just
shove a Secure Digital (SD) WiFi card into the black beauty; it
had to have a driver installed first. It wasn't built-in like
Blue-tooth radio, and they were working on a driver. Ahha, there's
hope yet. Just wait and squirm for a while and it will come.
Tapwave
released the driver. And it was good.
A
couple of months later, voila! Tapwave announced the free WiFi
driver's release on their web site and put up a page about it
at www.tapwave.com/wifi. An easy URL to remember. So remember
it÷you'll need it. The WiFi card driver is a free download, accompanied
by nicely illustrated setup instructions. A free email program
is there too, and the web browser was already on my Zodiac. It's
probably already on yours; it's installed when you do a sync after
installing the Zodiac's custom version of Palm Desktop. So all
I needed was the WiFi card and I'd be in business.
But
you can't buy just any SD WiFi card. While a couple will work
with the driver (and by the time you read this, the driver might
be revved so other cards can be used), Tapwave recommends and
sells one made by SanDisk. A call to SanDisk's PR folks had a
review unit in my hands in a couple of days. I recommend it. If
you go with a SanDisk, the card says ãWiFi SD Cardä on its package,
but do not buy the combo card that's also a memory/storage card.
It won't work with Tapwave's driver. Zodiacs have two SD slots,
the only Palm that does, and the SanDisk card goes in the right
hand ãSDIOä slot, leaving your left hand slot free for a storage
card, and those are up to 2 Gigabytes now!
My
SanDisk card says ãH/W 2.lä on a tiny label on the back. Its blister
pack calls it the ãConnect Low Power WiFi Card.ä It's of vital
importance that you buy the right card, whether you shop around
online for a lower price or walk into a store. Don't let some
sales droid try to sell you something else, and don't let him
tell you ãThere's no WiFi card for the Zodiac.ä In fact, were
I you, I'd print out that Tapwave page and take it to the store
with you, in case you run into a salesperson who isn't hip to
this yet.
Driver
installation and setup is painlessly fast. Once installed, if
you already have a home network with an 802.11b router connected
to a DSL or Cable modem, you'll need to configure your router
for broadcasting; turn on its antennas if they're off, and for
security's sake (you don't want a neighbor stealing your signal
and your bandwidth) change your router's default SSID and use
at least one WEP encryption key. More keys make it more secure
but also slow things down. One should be fine. Configure the Zodiac's
driver likewise. This may sound like Martian to you, but most
home networking broadband routers come with built-in web pages,
like my LinkSys does, so you can configure them with your desktop's
browser. Also make sure your router is running the latest firmware
its manufacturer supplies.
Driver
configured. Router configured. Now you're ready to put your Zodiac
on Just push the WiFi card into your right-hand SDIO slot, and
run a net-aware application like the built-in browser. By default,
the WiFi driver will search for available networks. Give yours
a unique name on the router side and if you're with a 100 to 300
foot range of it, give or take, its name should appear onscreen.
Tap [connect] and you're in business! The driver will remember
your network, so you only have to do the setup once. The SanDisk
card has a tiny green LED to show it's acquired a signal. If you
did everything correctly, you've just opened up the world to your
Zodiac and the possibilities are virtually limitless. Browse the
web. Send and receive email. Instant message with AIM. Get a Telnet
client if you want to talk to a shell account. Basically, any
program that wants to make an internet connection can now do it,
and if you don't grow a huge smile on your face the first time
you see your Zodiac load a Web page, there's some seriously wrong
with you÷seek medical attention.
A
couple of caveats are in order here. The SanDisk WiFi card is
about 50% taller than a regular SD card, so if you use the Zodiac
leather case as I do, you can't close it with the card in the
slot. Big deal. Just pop the card out and tuck it into one of
the case's tight pockets. SD cards are hot-swappable. While the
card is tiny and weighs next to nothing, it is a $100 piece of
gear, so when you carry around your Zodiac, use caution and be
mindful of the card sticking out.
Try
it around town. ãHot Spotsä or public WiFi access points are springing
up all over the place, and Tapwave's driver will scan for them
wherever you are÷coffee shops, bookstores, malls, restaurants
or schools. If a network's name is found but has a little lock
icon next to it, it's protected and you'll need the key to get
in. But if you use an 802.1 lb broadcasting router at home, like
I do, you're all set.
There
are many cool web portals that provide links to scaled-down versions
of popular sites formatted specifically for small PDA screens.
Even though the Zodiac has a lovely hi-res, half VGA screen, these
special sites load a lot faster than their full sized versions.
Try www.tapwave.com/ mobile/links.html or www.pdaportal.com. And
if you find PalmOS .prc and .pdb files online, you can just tap
and download them and they'll auto-install on the Zodiac. No HotSync
needed! The web browser's default home page takes you to Tapwave's
site. Tap the ãDemosä link and you can download demos of a dozen
Zodiac games which will self-install.
Now
that my Zodiac is online, look for upcoming reviews of programs
that take advantage of an internet connection. The SanDisk SD
WiFi card in a Zodiac is light and just too cool. It's what Zodiac
owners have been waiting for.
öHarv
Laser
Home
