Setup was smooth, although I found after the fact that reading the manual would have been a good idea. The setup application uses somewhat different names for the wireless network settings than those I know; after I skimmed the manual, setup was a lot easier. There are some additional settings, such as one for power management, which you can change, and the manual describes this better than the application does. The setup application could do with a quick interface overhaul, adding help to each of the dialogs and including the ability to look for wireless networks in operation instead of forcing you to enter a specific network's name. While functional, the application just doesn't mesh with accepted Palm OS interface guidelines, leaving me with an odd taste in my mouth.

The module comes from the factory with a partially charged battery, letting you set up the module and test it before fully charging it. I quickly depleted the battery running around the house checking wireless coverage, before I'd even had a chance to launch the Web browser or mail client. The module itself charges while in the Visor when the Visor charges, which is a nice touch. Xircom includes a Handspring travel charger you use to charge the module in the original Visor handhelds. Either way, it takes about two hours to fully charge the battery. Once charged, the module battery appears to outlast the Visor Prism's battery, and quite possibly will do the same in a Visor handheld running on AAA batteries.

Software
Xircom thoughtfully provides Handspring Blazer 1.1 (at http://www.handspring.com/software/blazer_overview.jhtml) and Palm MultiMail (at http://www.palm.com/software/multimail/) on the module, along with an added bonus: the card is flash RAM, not ROM! The module includes FileMover, with about 100KB of free space, so you can update these applications if it becomes necessary. Moreover, there's no reason why you can't tuck another small application on the card, too.

Both Handspring Blazer, shown in Figure F, and MultiMail have been covered in the press before, so I'll only touch on the high points here.

FIGURE F

Handspring Blazer is included.

Handspring Blazer is an excellent Web browser, able to display most pages with no difficulty. Of course, pages for the desktop can be hard to read, but that's the price you pay for a wireless browser that fits in your pocket.

Blazer truly shines when showing WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) content. Intended for small screen phones, WAP pages load quickly on the device and fill only one or two screens, letting you read without perpetually scrolling. In fact, the marriage of WAP and handheld computers may be better than with telephones, as the slightly larger display and faster performance makes WAP far more pleasant to use.

Palm MultiMail is a good email client, supporting both POP (Post Office Protocol) and IMAP4 (Internet Messaging Access Protocol 4). Unlike its fully featured kin, it only supports one email address. That's sufficient, especially if you already use Palm's Mail application and HotSync application anyway. I put it through its paces with the wireless card and found it was up to managing my email quite well. It's great around the house and office, letting me quickly check for new messages and go back to my desktop to reply to the longer ones. Of course, with both POP and IMAP4, you pull your email; there's no notification of incoming mail until you check for your email.