Email On The Road
Adding a "big screen" to your cell phone.
Newport's
RoadStar
March 2003
By: John Bendel, Technology Editor
Wireless companies want you to send photos, play long-distance
video games and message the tiniest details of life to friends
over your cell phone. That's all very nice, but
email is still the communication medium of choice and, while those
snappy new wireless services offer email too, there are
limitations.
For one thing, most tiny phone
screens are difficult to read. Even if you have 20-20 vision, you
have to scroll through a message. For another, digital coverage is
still limited to metropolitan areas and some interstates. While
you can make voice calls outside digital coverage — if you have
a dual mode, analog/cellular phone — you can't access email
until you return to a digital area.
You can get around both of
these problems by linking your laptop computer to your cell phone.
It's an old idea — at least in technology years — but if you
already have a laptop, it makes all the sense in the world.
The first, most obvious
advantage is that big screen. No matter how big they make those
phone screens, they'll never approach the size of your laptop. You
can easily read most emails without scrolling and you can deal
with attachments, though they may take a while to download over a
dialup connection. Second, you access the Internet using a modem
and old-fashioned dial-up service like AOL or Earthlink.
For example, RoadStar
driver-columnist Dave Sweetman has his Hewlett-Packard Pavillion
ze1110 laptop outfitted with a US Robotics 56k PC Card modem that
connects to his Nokia phone on the AT&T Wireless network. Dave
said he has used this combination everywhere — even at the top
of Battle Mountain, Nev.
"Pretty impressive in my
book," he said.
Another solution comes from
Ositech Communications, a Canadian company that specializes in
linking laptops with phone networks. Ositech offers products that
enable laptops to access email and the Internet through cell
phones. Ositech claims its CellFlex
technology provides all the benefits of digital connections where
available, and connects over analog service where digital is not
available — as long as you use it with a dual-mode phone.
Ositech offers what it calls
Trumpcard kits with all you need to marry your cell phone and
laptop. Each kit contains a card that fits in your laptop's PCMCIA
slot and a cable to link the card with an appropriate cell phone.
Each Trumpcard kit also contains a cable to connect the card with
a regular land-line phone, plus documentation and necessary
software for your computer.
Trumpcard kits come in two
essential versions. The
King of Hearts
PCMCIA card includes a modem, while the King of Clubs
card uses the laptop's built-in modem. If your computer does not
have a built-in modem, you'll need the
King of Hearts. Each version comes in models specific to
either Nokia or Motorola phones. The
King of Hearts
costs about $200, the King of Clubs
around $140. Sources are also listed on the Ositech web site.
Trumpcard kits connect to a range of phones made by Motorola and
Nokia. You can find a list of supported phones on the Ositech web
site at www.ositech.com.
Ositech also offers a kit that
connects supported cell phones to your computer's USB port. This
kit differs from the Trumpcard kits with advantages, disadvantages
and a much longer name. It's called the USB
Cellular Data Kit with Integrated Cell Phone Charger.
One way USB connections differ
from older connections is that they can also provide power to some
devices — cell phones among them. So you can charge a cell phone
battery from your computer as you access the Internet, which is
especially handy if you run the laptop with your truck's DC power.
That's the advantage. This disadvantage: The USB kit only works on
digital cellular networks.
Pick the solution right for
your own circumstances.
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