Tech review: Palm Wi-fi Card

I got a wi-fi card for my Palm Pilot (Tungsten T5) awhile back. I've finally gotten enough use out of it to give it a decent review.

The card gets hot and drains the battery at an incredible rate.

Almost nobody makes websites for compact devices. The browser home page is a list of websites that will display well. It can render other websites but you have to do a lot of scrolling.

The antenna is either small and weak or the signals are. I've found a few really strong signals, but you have to be pretty close to the transmitters. Mostly I'm just complaining about the lame signals in places where there's supposed to be free wi-fi. Places like Dupont Circle.
Also, I've seen a few places where the Palm finds a computer with wi-fi instead of a hub. It connects like it thinks I should have internet access but I can't get anywhere. This happened behind the Air and Space Museum and in that round restaurant in Union Station.

There's a separate application for Google Maps. It works fairly well but seems to be intended for a Palm Trio (the phone).

GMail accessed through your Palm is not marked as read. It'll still say it's unread when you get to your computer.

It works. It does. If you're someone who travels a lot you can use this to get your e-mail in lieu of a whole laptop. For me it's little more than a toy that I can't used 95% of the time.

They run $100 from Palm and most retailers. However, if you know how to shop, like I do, you can knock off $35.