palmOne’s latest PDA, the
Tungsten T5, sports a lot of cool features—256MB of
non-volatile memory being the most notable. Unfortunately, unlike many of
today’s high-end Pocket PCs, the T5 doesn’t integrate Wi-Fi, a major
oversight for many.
To make matters worse, when the T5 shipped a couple of months back, there was
no way to add Wi-Fi to the device: It didn’t even support palmOne’s Wi-Fi Secure Digital (SD) card.
Well, that situation finally changed this week with introduction of a software
driver to allow the T5 to use the SD card. Now, if you shell out an additional $95 to
$129 dollars—depending on where you purchase the Wi-Fi card—you’ll be able to
access 802.11b networks and hotspots at 11 Mbps and up to 300 feet away.
Other PDAs supported by the card include the Zire 72 and the Tungsten T3.
The company hasn’t confirmed whether it will or will not deliver a driver to
allow the Treo 650 smartphone to use the Wi-Fi card.
A number of competitors, including Hewlett-Packard, Motorola, and Nokia
either offer or will soon offer smartphones that support both Wi-Fi and cellular
wireless communications.
Reprinted from Palm Boulevard.