Getting up and running with AvantGo.com
Getting connected with AvantGo.com is easy. Simply log into http://www.avantgo.com/frontdoor, as shown in Figure B, and click on the Download link, where you'll read about the system requirements, and then click on the Get Started link, where you'll be asked if you have Palm organizer or a Windows CE device.

FIGURE B


Now, you log into AvantGo.com. They capture names and you can now HotSync from multiple desktops. Roll over picture for a larger image.

After choosing which version of AvantGo.com you wish to install (presumably the Palm version), the Web site prompts you to download the client software--the Mobile Application Link (or MAL) conduit and the AvantGo browser--and install it on your machine. Once you've installed the client software, you will need to sync your Palm organizer in its cradle to automatically install the AvantGo browser, which takes up about 200K of memory.

Syncing and creating AvantGo channels
AvantGo channels are simply Web sites that are cached into the AvantGo.com server's database. They can be static Web pages, or they can even be dynamic, forms-based applications. When a new channel is created, the Web site data can be refreshed every time you HotSync your mobile device.

After you install the MAL software and the AvantGo browser, you return to the AvantGo.com web site, create your account name and log in. At this point, you can choose to HotSync a wide variety of content services, as well as create your own custom channels, as shown in Figure C.

FIGURE C


I've signed up for a number of interesting channels. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Once those channels have been sent down to your Palm device, you've got a similar menu, shown in Figure D, that you can use on your Palm device.

FIGURE D

When you're on the road and bored, choose from any interesting topic you want.

There is a wide variety of premium content topics available, including world news, technology news, financial news and stock tracking services, only to name a few. You can see some of the business channels in Figure E.

FIGURE E


If you're into business topics, there's loads you can download. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Likewise, there are a bunch of available channels on other topics, like sports news (shown in Figure F) that you can download daily.

FIGURE F


There are loads of sports options as well. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Keep in mind that the standard-issue Palm Pilot Professional and the Palm III have only 1MB and 2MB of RAM avaliable, so you may want to be conservative as to how many channels you want to HotSync right away.

Types of Web sites
While the AvantGo browser on the mobile device is capable of displaying any HTML 3.2 compliant Web page (without frames), AvantGo has published a set of guidelines on their Web site for authoring pages so they display well on a small form factor. In our February 1999 issue of PalmPower, Marty Kacin, Director of Professional Services at AvantGo, wrote an excellent summary of these guidelines. While this piece was written with the Palm Organizer version of the AvantGo browser in mind, any Web site designed according to these guidelines should display equally well on both the Windows CE and Palm versions of AvantGo, should you care about Windows CE AvantGo users viewing your channel.