FIGURE G

iMessenger provides the Palm VII user with email capabilities. You may want to use a smaller font to fit more of the message on the screen.

If you close your Palm.Net account and later decide to reopen it, you will not be able to get the same email address or user name again. This appears to be a Bell South, rather than Palm.Net limitation, but the effect is the same.

One other concern is that it might be possible to confuse the normal Palm mail application with iMessenger. Only time will tell how much of an issue that becomes.

Getting started
Activation of the Palm VII's advanced capabilities is non-threatening and foolproof. Once the included AAA batteries are placed in the unit, the transmitter battery begins to charge. About an hour later, the Palm VII is ready to connect to the world. When you lift up the antenna for the first time, the Palm.Net registration application starts. Within minutes you can have full wireless capabilities.

Rolling your own PQAs
Using tools provided by 3Com, basic Palm VII query applications are easy to create. They are written in HTML and then converted into a PQA. Without spending a lot of time, I tried my hand at writing a couple of PQAs and was pleasantly surprised. The one that was most successful is called Nihon. It lets you access an on-line Japanese-English/English-Japanese dictionary. You can download it from http://www.bergen.cc.nj.us/faculty/rfreud/nihon.pqa. Palm Computing has provided excellent Windows and Macintosh tools for PQA developers. What's more, there are tutorials geared for those coming to the development from the traditional programming or the Web development worlds. The style guide helps developers create PQAs that are both intuitive and elegant. The guide is a model of clarity and reminded me of the Apple Human Interface Guidelines. Bravo Palm Computing!

Bonehead batteries, bites and bills
After three days of pretty active wireless usage, I was about to check email. I found that I couldn't. I got a message that my transmitter battery was being recharged and would not be ready for an hour. There was no warning about this. The Palm VII has a no transmitter battery monitor. My needs were not mission critical, but a delayed stock trade or business email might have been critical for the financial user. 3Com needs to address this issue in their next iteration.

Billing is fairly straightforward, but many users will find it pricey if they cannot "write it off" or if their company won't pick up the cost. Palm.Net has two service plan options available. The $9.99 plan lets you transfer 50 KB of information a month. How much is 50 KB? As an example, this article would be about 10KB, not counting the graphics. Palm "guestimates" that this is about 150 Palm screens. The $24.99 plan lets you transfer 150 KB of information a month (about 450 Palm screens). Each additional kilobyte transferred is charged at $.30. This is approximately a dime a screen for each screen that exceeds your service plan.