Email On The Road
Adding a "big screen" to your cell phone.
John Bendel
Technology Editor
Wireless companies want you to send photos, play long-distance video games and message the tiniest details of life to friends over your cell phone (see sidebar). That's all very nice, but email is still the communication medium of choice and, while those snappy new wireless services offer email too, there are limitations.
For one thing, most tiny phone screens are difficult to read. Even if you have 20-20 vision, you have to scroll through a message. For another, digital coverage is still limited to metropolitan areas and some interstates. While you can make voice calls outside digital coverage — if you have a dual mode, analog/cellular phone — you can't access email until you return to a digital area.
You can get around both of these problems by linking your laptop computer to your cell phone. It's an old idea — at least in technology years — but if you already have a laptop, it makes all the sense in the world.
The first, most obvious advantage is that big screen. No matter how big they make those phone screens, they'll never approach the size of your laptop. You can easily read most emails without scrolling and you can deal with attachments, though they may take a while to download over a dialup connection. Second, you access the Internet using a modem and old-fashioned dial-up service like AOL or Earthlink.
For example, RoadStar driver-columnist Dave Sweetman has his Hewlett-Packard Pavillion ze1110 laptop outfitted with a US Robotics 56k PC Card modem that connects to his Nokia phone on the AT&T Wireless network. Sweetman said he has used this combination everywhere — even at the top of Battle Mountain, Nev.
"Pretty impressive in my book," he said.
Another solution comes from Ositech Communications, a Canadian company that specializes in linking laptops with phone networks. Ositech offers products that enable laptops to access email and the Internet through cell phones. Ositech claims its CellFlex technology provides all the benefits of digital connections where available, and connects over analog service where digital is not available — as long as you use it with a dual-mode phone.
Ositech offers what it calls Trumpcard kits with all you need to marry your cell phone and laptop. Each kit contains a card that fits in your laptop's PCMCIA slot and a cable to link the card with an appropriate cell phone. Each Trumpcard kit also contains a cable to connect the card with a regular land-line phone, plus documentation and necessary software for your computer.
Trumpcard kits come in two essential versions. The King of Hearts PCMCIA card includes a modem, while the King of Clubs card uses the laptop's built-in modem. If your computer does not have a built-in modem, you'll need the King of Hearts. Each version comes in models specific to either Nokia or Motorola phones. The King of Hearts costs about $200, the King of Clubs around $140. Sources are also listed on the Ositech web site. Trumpcard kits connect to a range of phones made by Motorola and Nokia. You can find a list of supported phones on the Ositech web site at www.ositech.com.
Ositech also offers a kit that connects supported cell phones to your computer's USB port. This kit differs from the Trumpcard kits with advantages, disadvantages and a much longer name. It's called the USB Cellular Data Kit with Integrated Cell Phone Charger.
One way USB connections differ from older connections is that they can also provide power to some devices — cell phones among them. So you can charge a cell phone battery from your computer as you access the Internet, which is especially handy if you run the laptop with your truck's DC power. That's the advantage. This disadvantage: The USB kit only works on digital cellular networks.
Pick the solution right for your own circumstances.
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