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PRODUCT REVIEW
A communications accessory to do BackFlips over
By Jason Perlow
Last month, we reviewed Omnisky's Minstrel V wireless modem and wireless Internet service for the Palm V computer. While we thought the technology was cool, there are obvious disadvantages to accessing your email on a wireless handheld device, especially if you're inside an RF shielded building or not in a CDPD (Cellular Digital Packet Data) coverage area. Let's not even get into talking about the three to four hundred dollar expense of a wireless modem and the estimated forty to fifty dollar per month access fees.
Wireless isn't where it needs to be yet if you're a frequent traveler and you need to get your email from anywhere. For that need, a regular modem usually does the trick. But snap-on modems for Palm devices require hooking up phone lines, and typically you end up having to call long distance to your ISP to retrieve your email if you're on the road. If you want to use your cell phone, you need to be sure you have a specific digital cellular model that has a Palm cable accessory. Any way you slice it, it's a pain in the butt.
Enter the PocketMail BackFlip, shown in Figure A, a new device and service combination from PocketScience.
FIGURE A
 
The PocketMail BackFlip is self-powered and snaps onto any Palm III compatible device. Roll over picture for a larger image.
As shown in Figure B, the BackFlip snaps onto the serial port of any Palm III or PalmPilot device (you can even use it with a Palm V if you buy one of those Palm III device converter attachments that were recently released).
FIGURE B
 
Here's a back view of the PocketMail BackFlip on a Palm device. Roll over picture for a larger image.
The BackFlip allows you to retrieve your email through any kind of telephone connection (including office digital PBX phones, as well as analog and digital cellular phones, and pay phones) using an updated version of late 1970's-era acoustic coupler technology.
Return of the coupler
What is an acoustic coupler, you ask? Basically, it's a speaker and microphone combination that, when held over a telephone handset, allows you to transfer data over an analog phone line. At a 9600Kbps effective transfer rate, it's not the fastest thing in the world, and you can't browse the Web with it. But for email transfer, it's more than perfectly adequate. The technology is proven, and it works great.
Back in the early 1980s, field reporters used portable computers with acoustic couplers to file their stories over wire services and to bulletin boards from phone booths and land-line phones in remote locations. With legendary machines like the Tandy TRS-80 model 100, shown in Figure C, they could stand at a phone booth and transfer their news reports at a blazing 300 baud.
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