Mobiles Review

The Treo 700p, the counterpart to Palm’s popular Windows-based model released in January, is the company’s latest smartphone device, and the first to run Palm OS since the release of the Treo 650 in 2004.
This review was done on the Sprint version of the Treo 700p, but most of the commentary also applies to the Verizon version of this device.
Design & Construction:
Design wise, the Treo 700p is nearly identical to the rest of its extended family. It maintains the basic form-factor of the 600 and 650, while adopting the slightly sleeker lines and new button styling of the 700w.
The arrangement of buttons above the keyboard has been changed around a bit, rearranging the keys according to, well, nothing that I can discern. Some of it maintains compatibility with the 700w, other parts??“such as moving the Call and End/Power buttons from the outer application buttons to where the 700w had its softkeys??“seems to be just shuffling things around for aesthetics’ sake.
The keyboard itself hasn’t changed much. The buttons are small and rounded, with a solid white backlighting when pressed. Text input isn’t as fast as on the larger keys of some of the HTC devices, but the Treo’s keyboard is much easier to get at.
Processor:
Palm hasn’t changed the processor from the Treo 650 one bit. The 700p is still being driven by the 312 MHz processor found in the 700w, 650, TX, and most other recent Palm, Inc. units. Maybe someone in Procurement made a mistake and instead of ordering 500,000 such processors, they accidentally ordered five million of them. It’s as good an explanation as any as to why Palm has stuck with one processor for so long, without even incremental upgrades.
Seriously, though, after all this time I don’t get why Palm hasn’t implemented some form of speed-stepping. If they just took advantage of the built-in scaling controls on the Intel processors they could have a 624 MHz processor with barely any more power drain than a 312 MHz CPU.
Operating System:
I can’t say that Garnet has changed much since the last time I saw it on a new Palm Inc. device. The look and feel of the OS is the same as usual, despite the change over to Access branding ??” visible on most of the built-in applications’ “About” menus.
There have been a few new additions, though. For instance, Palm has added the option to decline a call via text message, originally seen in the Treo 700w. Also, you can file the number of a call into your contacts, even if it’s for an existing contact. There are a number of small interface tweaks of this kind.
For reasons I can’t begin to rationalize, Palm continues to ship their devices with the Blazer web browser and VersaMail email client, despite the fact that these two programs account for an unnaturally large percentage of all complaints about the Treo family of devices. However, it’s not all bad. Palm has, at the very least, done a bit of work to soup up Blazer. While it’s still hugely lacking in terms of page rendering and visual style, it has gotten a significant speed boost, as well as some new multimedia functions.
The latter includes support for streaming a half-dozen or so major multimedia formats including MP3, WMA, WMV, and MPEG4. Technically, Blazer itself doesn’t actually handle these, but rather it grabs the relevant information out of the web page and feeds it to the Kinoma media player that’s in the Treo’s ROM. This is the only way to access the Kinoma player, since it doesn’t have an application icon of its own. Consequently, you can’t directly open a streaming media URL: it has to be invoked from the web browser.
There are limitations to this of course: not all formats can be streamed, and some fairly major outlets like Google Video are unsupported. But it remains a big step over all previous streaming media options for the Palm OS, and even allows you to use things like XM Satellite Radio’s online streaming service ??” albeit through a mobile portal like MiniXM.com or XStreamXM.com.
Last but not least, the biggest good news in this category concerns the polish of the OS. I’ll qualify this first by saying that I haven’t loaded up the 700p with dozens of apps or extensively tested it under duress. So it’s quite possible that I’m just not giving the thing a reason to behave badly. However, my experience would seem to indicate that the 700p is considerably more stable than the Treo 650 was at launch. Palm has been doing a lot lately to correct the compatibility problems first introduced in the T5/Treo 650 generation of devices. Of course, it’s not perfect, and there’s still a huge amount of Palm OS software that isn’t compatible with the 700p. However, the existing stability problems are much improved.
Display:
The 320 x 320 display of the 700p is far superior to the 240 x 240 screen of the 700w, although the 700w’s ability to use sub-pixel font rendering and TrueType fonts evens things out a little bit. Standing on its own, the 700p is crisp, bright, and quite pleasant to view.
Memory:
Memory has always been a stumbling block for the Treos. The 600 came out with less than 32 MB when Palm’s standalone handhelds had 64, and the Treo 650 actually had less memory available than the 600, a paltry 24 MB. Finally, with the 700 series, Palm has moved in the direction of correcting this. The 700p features 128 MB of flash memory, split between housing the OS and user storage. This leaves about 62 MB available for programs, files, and the like, which is the same amount as on the identically specced Treo 700w. While not overly spacious, it’s a lot better than before.
The amount of real RAM has also been increased substantially, The 700p has 32 MB, up from approximately 12 MB in the 650. While you can’t see or directly access the Treo’s RAM, the increase is still a boon. More available RAM means more space for programs to run, larger buffers to increase performance, and overall increased system reliability. In many ways recent Palm models have been somewhat starved of RAM, which has resulted in some issues with stability and performance. Boosting the RAM should help with that.
That’s not to say that there’s no downside??“with a larger quantity of memory to chew through, some functions are actually slower than on the Treo 650, such as indexing and some application switching.
Size & Weight:
In form-factor terms, the 700p is an exact clone of its last two ancestors, retaining the thick and narrow profile first pioneered by the Treo 600. It’s much bigger and heavier than your average phone, but less bulky than carrying two separate devices??“although there are more compelling arguments in the classic one device/two device debate than bulk.
While it was one of the smallest phone-integrated devices on the market when the design was first debuted, the Treo has been gradually one-upped ??” or should I say one-downed? ??” in the size department. Compared to newer devices like the Motorola Q or HTC Faraday, Tornado, and Apache, the Treo is somewhere between average and bulky. On the other hand, though, most of those other devices don’t have touchscreens, and only half of them have full keyboards. However, with all the options on the market today, the Treo’s form-factor isn’t as compelling as it once was.
Audio:
Audio quality on the Treo is good. Although the speakerphone isn’t the loudest, it’s quite sufficient if you’re not in a terribly noisy environment. Volume and clarity for both calls and music are more than acceptable.
Battery:
The 700p has an 1800 mAh battery, compatible with those found in the Treo 650 and 700w. This means that you can use any of the existing third-party battery replacements for the existing Treos. The standard battery is rated at up to 4.5 hours of talk time, or 300 hours of standby time. Talk time is, of course, measured with the screen off, so if you’re using the device for Internet access it will be somewhat less than this. From my experiences, the estimates are roughly accurate, although battery life will tend to vary heavily with usage. For all that it packs in, the 700p delivers acceptable battery life ??” not as much as you might get out of a dedicated phone, or even some of the more long-lived phone devices from HTC, but quite adequate for day to day use.
Conclusion:
On some level, it’s disappointing that Palm didn’t do a little more with the 700 series. Seeing as it is currently the 600 pound gorilla of the smartphone market, it could have gotten away with a bit more, like adding Wi-Fi or a VoIP suite as standard. This speaks to design as well ??” the overall Treo styling hasn’t been significantly altered in two and a half years. While it’s still competitive, it would be nice to see a sleeker and more modern Treo, or perhaps a range of designs akin to HTC’s lineup.
All that aside, the 700p is a significant improvement over the 650, and alleviates a lot of the major problems with the last generation Treo. It’s not an enormous upgrade, but is probably enough to tempt many Palm faithful who don’t want to jump to the 700w. Compared directly to its Windows-based sibling, the 700p has its own set of advantages and disadvantages. As always, the best way to judge is based on individual needs. The 700p lacks the Exchange connectivity features and Wi-Fi options of the 700w, but does have a better screen and the classic Palm OS interface. I suspect that despite its flaws, the 700p is going to be a good performer for Palm.

Intro
The wait is over. PalmOne’s golden egg has finally hatched, and the LifeDrive is here. The firstborn in the company’s new Mobile Manager line, the LifeDrive is the first handheld to have an integrated hard drive??“4GB, to be exact??“for all your storage needs, and lo and behold, this baby finally has built-in Wi-Fi. Like the HP iPaq rx3715, the LifeDrive aims to converge productivity and digital entertainment into one slick device, and overall, it does it well. It lets you store and work on your Microsoft Office files, check e-mail, surf the Web, listen to music, and organize your photos, to name just a few capabilities. While these features are impressive, at a costly $500, the LifeDrive isn’t necessarily ready for prime time. The idea of PDAs as portable media devices is just starting to take off, and though the PalmOne LifeDrive is sure to garner lots of interest, only hard-core gadget hounds or early adopters may be willing to part with that kind of cash.

Design
Chock-full of features, it’s no surprise that the PalmOne LifeDrive is larger and noticeably heavier (4.7 by 2.8 by 0.8 inches; 6.8 ounces) than the company’s earlier endeavors. Still, it won’t take up too much room in your bag; plus, it feels solid in your hands and has a stylish silver casing to boot. The LifeDrive’s 3.7-inch-diagonal screen grabs your attention with sharp, crisp text and images, thanks to its 320?—480-pixel resolution. Plus, colors jump, as it display 65,000 hues. Unfortunately, as with many PDAs, the screen looks washed out in direct sunlight.

Below the LCD, you’ll find four ample shortcut keys to Home, Files, Media, and one unassigned application. They can be customized to open different applications, and they surround a five-way navigation toggle with a center Select button. All the controls are easy to manipulate, but you have to firmly press the OK key square in the middle; otherwise, it acts like one of the directional keys. On the left spine, you’ll find a voice recorder button and a very handy key that lets you switch between Portrait and Landscape modes. The top of the LifeDrive is home to the SDIO/MMC expansion slot, the power/hold switch, and the infrared port, while the 3.5mm audio jack (which accepts Walkman-style headphones), the multiconnector, and the power adapter connection sit at the bottom. We found the headphone jack’s placement to be odd, but when we asked PalmOne about this, the company said it simply ran out of room. It’s definitely not a deal breaker, just a minor design quirk.

Features
The PalmOne LifeDrive is filled to the brim with features, and topping the list, of course, is the integrated 4GB Hitachi hard drive. It’s the same microdrive as those found in today’s MP3 players and digital cameras. While this all sounds impressive, what does it actually mean for you? In short, there’s ample room for all your data storage needs. Of the 4GB of available memory, 3.85GB is user accessible. This allows you to carry approximately 1,200 Office documents, 6,000 e-mails, 10,000 appointments, and 10,000 contacts, and on the multimedia side, 300 songs (1,000 songs if used solely as a music device), 1,000 photos, and 2.5 hours of video. Not too shabby, right? But wait, there’s more. As with the Tungsten T5, you can use the LifeDrive as a USB drive. Just switch to Drive mode and connect the PDA to your PC via the USB cable. All of this functionality is nicely complemented by the device’s easy drag-and-drop transfer method and the LifeDrive’s Smart File Management, which lets you keep an entire folder’s organization and structure, convert photos and videos to formats best suited for the LifeDrive, and select files that you want automatically updated whenever you sync with your computer. In our tests, we moved documents, music, and whole folders between our PC and the device with no problem.

The hard drive is certainly big news, but we’re equally as thrilled to see that PalmOne finally got the message and integrated Wi-Fi into the LifeDrive, in addition to Bluetooth. Even better, both features are easy to use (you can instantly access either via the taskbar at the bottom of the screen) and can be operated simultaneously. Under Wi-Fi Preferences, you can set the time for clocking out, check signal strength, and add VPN clients and WEP encryption for added security. Meanwhile, the Bluetooth utility lets you set up Bluetooth-enabled devices, from phones to PCs to LANs, for all your wireless connectivity needs.

One of the main focuses of the company’s Mobile Manager line is the customer who craves “digital everything,” including music, photos, and videos; the LifeDrive should satiate their needs. The LifeDrive comes with a new application called Camera Companion that allows you to copy photos directly from your camera’s memory card or your computer. It also lets you simply view the images on the SD/MMC card without copying files onto your device. While that’s all well and good, we’re more excited about the LifeDrive’s ability to create slide shows with background music??“we had a blast with this feature. The slide shows are simple to create and customizable, as you can choose the photos and videos to display, set the transition time and effects, add background music and voice memos, and more. And music lovers, the LifeDrive now comes with PocketTunes with support for MP3s, and it allows you to create and manage playlists. Also, beginning in June, you’ll be able to use the LifeDrive with the Real Rhapsody subscription and get a full version of PocketTunes with support for DRM-protected WMA files. The LifeDrive also plays MPEG-4 videos. That said, the LifeDrive’s form factor and the power drain of these advanced multimedia features would prevent us from using it as our primary MP3 player or PMP.

Last but not least, the PalmOne LifeDrive runs Palm OS 5.4 and features Documents To Go 7.0 for viewing, creating, and editing Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files and for opening Adobe Acrobat files. Software goodies include VersaMail 3.1, Expense, World Clock, Handmark Solitaire, and Memos, among others.

Performance
Powering the PalmOne LifeDrive is a 416MHz Intel XScale processor that provides good performance overall but not the best numbers. Like the Tungsten T5 and the Tungsten E2, the LifeDrive shows a noticeable lag in response time when switching between applications and loading any multimedia files.

Videos were watchable, but the quality suffered some during action sequences, when images became pixelated and somewhat blurry. Viewing photographs, however, was a treat, with sharp and bright images. Audio playback was relatively clear and quite loud, even in noisy environments, but we asked CNET senior editor and portable audio expert James Kim to lend us his expert opinion. Compared to today’s MP3 players, the LifeDrive was one of the best handhelds to emulate a standalone MP3 player in terms of interface and features such as playlists, but the sound was thin. There was audible hiss at loud volumes, and bass was weak.

The LifeDrive’s wireless functions were admirable. In our tests, the LifeDrive immediately found our test access point, and we connected to the Web in no time, although viewing graphics-intensive pages will test your patience as they upload at a poky rate. We also had no problems connecting to a Bluetooth-enabled Pocket PC and transferring contacts wirelessly.

Battery life was decent. In CNET Labs’ tests, playing a looped MP3 playlist, the device petered out after 6 hours, 40 minutes??“not bad as far as PDAs goes but below par compared to today’s microdrive MP3 players, which average about 15 hours of battery life. We repeated the same test with a video using Kinoma Player and the LifeDrive lasted for 5 hours, 15 minutes.

The Palm T|X is Palm’s new wireless handheld. It features a improved 320 x 480 pixel screen, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth wireless and 128MB of nonvolatile memory. The T|X drops the Tungsten sub-brand moniker but adds Wi-Fi at a very competitive price.

The T|X and Z22 are the first new models to return to the Palm name, after the company reacquired the rights to the Palm name. Palm has decided to drop the Tungsten sub brand, in order to highlight the strong Palm name brand.

Design
The T|X has solid body and finish. It is black plastic, though it is very rigid and almost feels like a metallic shell. The T|X is physically identical to its predecessor the Tungsten T5 besides the new black color. It has the exact same dimensions and body.

Overall the T|X has a very simple and smooth design reminiscent of the Palm V. The rectangular display makes up the majority of the front of the handheld. A white painted Palm logo is pressed along the top. The sides are smooth and the corners are nicely rounded. The left side functions as an attachment rail for the flip cover and the right rail doubles as a slightly open stylus silo.

Two sets of black customizable application buttons border the rounded rectangle 5-way navigator in the center. The buttons are flush with the case and have a sturdy feel. The 5-way is solid and has a smooth finish and is easily to pressed in each direction.

The top of the handheld is made of a glossy black plastic. On the left is the SD expansion slot, which unfortunately lacks a dust cover. To the right is the IR window, the standard 3.5 mm headphone jack and the power button. The bottom is slightly curved to the font and holds the multi connector in the center.

The back of the handheld is mostly smooth. The reset button is in the mid center and is now large enough to be pushed with the stylus tip. The speaker is also located on the center of the back, with a 5?—5 hole grid. Below that is the standard sticker label with the Palm T|X logo and the usual logos and serial numbers.

The T|X has physical dimensions of 4.76 x 3.08 x .61 inches (120 x 78 x 15.5 mm) and weighs 5.25 ounces (149 g). It is just slightly larger and taller than the Tungsten E2. It is both shorter and thinner than the LifeDrive.

The handheld comes with a pleather black flip cover. It has a white stitching border that says “palm” centered on the bottom. It is a little different from the T5 flip cover as it has a more suede like feel. The stylus is polished steel metal and has a nice silver barrel with a black plastic tip. It is the same stylus as the T5 and is fairly comfortable with a good weight and size.

Hardware
The Palm T|X is powered by a 312 MHz Intel XScale (PXA270 family) processor and runs Palm OS Garnet v.5.4.9. It has 128 MB of nonvolatile memory, of which 100 MB is user accessible. It has both Bluetooth (v1.1) and Wi-Fi (802.11b) wireless technology. It also has a SD expansion slot for SD, SDIO and MMC memory cards.

Screen
The T|X has a 16bit color, 480?—320 pixel transflective TFT screen, which measures 3.25??? x 2.2??? inches. It is the same improved display that the LifeDrive is equipped with. The display is 30% brighter and has 40% better color saturation than previous models. The screen is very vibrant and holds up extremely well both outdoors and in direct sunlight. There is an on-screen slider to adjust, but it does not turn off the backlight. The display supports both portrait and wide-screen landscape orientations and switches with a touch of the icon on the status bar.

Processor
The Palm T|X uses a 312 MHz Intel XScale processor. While not the fastest chip on the market the T|X performs very well and the lower clock speed helps increase battery life. Listening to an mp3 and browsing the web over Wi-Fi was no problem and every game I threw at it ran very smoothly. Benchmark v3.0 rates the performance at 515%.

Dual Wireless
The Palm T|X has both Bluetooth v1.1 and a WiFi (802.11b) wireless radio’s built in. The T|X is one of the most affordable PDA’s on the market with integrated dual wireless. Both radios can be used concurrently.

Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi is controlled by a signal strength indicator on the status bar. Setting up a network connection is a fast and easy. There is a network scanner that shows all networks in range. If the network is open all you need to do is tap connect and wait 2 seconds to establish a link. The Wi-Fi signal range on the T|X is quite good. It supports both WEP and WPA wireless security.

Bluetooth
Bluetooth can keep you connected on the road via a compatible mobile phone if you can’t find a nearby WiFi hotspot for internet access. With Bluetooth, you can dial out contacts from your address book, send and receive files and applications wirelessly, send sms and photos from your phone, link up to a Bluetooth GPS, hotsync wirelessly, and connect to the internet from a bluetooth mobile phone, computer or a bluetooth access point. Palm includes setup wizards that make connecting to a bluetooth phone and dial-up network connection very easy.

Memory
The Palm T|X has 128 MB of nonvolatile flash memory, of which 100 MB is available. This is a pretty ample amount of internal space, given its price point. There is no usb drive mode, as seen on the T5 and LifeDrive. Because the unit uses nonvolatile flash memory, it will always preserve its data even when the battery completely runs out. TCPMP reports the dynamic heap as 4 megabytes.

Audio
The T|X has a rear mounted mono speaker. The speaker is adequate for games and alarms. You can also play mp3’s though the speaker but headphones (not included) will provide a much better experience. It has a standard 3.5 mm stereo headphone jack. Unfortunately, the T5 does not include vibration support or and LED for silent alarms and does not have a microphone. I was disappointed to discover the T|X still uses the same old fashioned pilot 1000 alarm sounds for the calendar.

Mulit-Connector
The TX has the now standard Palm multi-connector for hotsyncing and recharging. The T|X hotsync runs at usb 1.1 speeds. Unfortunately, the T|X does not ship with a cradle. Instead it comes with a USB cable and a separate AC charger, that can plug directly into the handheld or into the dual USB cable connector. The USB cable alone will not charge the handheld from the computer, you must attach the AC cord. The supplied USB cable has a button on the connector that can be used to initiate a hotsync.

Battery
The TX has a non-removable 1250 mAh lithium ion rechargeable battery. Palm states the TX will have a 5 day battery life with normal usage. Normal usage according to Palm would be approximately 40 minutes/day (20 mins of Wi-Fi, 20 mins of non wireless use such as PIMs, Photos and Docs). The Palm TX can play continuous mp3 audio for about six and a half hours. I was able to average around 5 and half hours of various use per charge while using wireless a couple times a day. If you plan on using the Wi-Fi often, you will definitely have a shorter life span.

Software
Of course the Palm T|X includes Palm’s excellent enhanced PIM applications. The PIM apps more closely resemble Microsoft Outlook for better compatibility. Calendar features an agenda view that lists your upcoming schedule, tasks that are due and shows the status of your VersaMail inbox. You can also select a background image for the agenda view. You can also set a background image in the launcher and favorites application. You can assign colors to different categories, add appointment location details and a there is year calendar view. Palm also made it possible to have events spanning midnight, separate calendar support and the ability to beam multiple appointments and categories.

Contacts has all the latest enhancements including contact photo support. You can have multiple contact addresses, such as work, home, other. The are more fields for additional phone numbers, email addresses, website and instant messaging accounts. There are a total of nine custom fields and a birthday field, which will keep track and remind you before someone’s approaching birthday.

Office Compatibility
Palm bundles the latest v7.006 release of Dataviz’s Documents to Go in the device ROM. Docs to Go supports creating and editing native Microsoft Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents. You can access files received from email attachments, Bluetooth, stored on SD or beamed to the device. It also includes DocSync to sync with documents on a Mac or PC. Dataviz is currently working on support for native Adobe pdf files and expects to release it later this fall.

Multimedia
The T|X includes Palm’s media application for viewing photos and videos. The media application has been greatly speed up to display photo thumbnails, even from large megapixel digital cameras. You can manage and create photo albums on the device or an expansion card. The program can also display slide shows with a number of different animated transitions. The video player has been updated with full screen mode, but still does not support many video codec’s such as Divx. Fortunately there is a more than excellent free media player available, TCPMP to pick up the slack.

Palm includes Pocket-Tunes v3.09 for digital audio. This is a much nicer player than RealPlayer and offers support for background play, on device playlists and skins. It supports MP3, WAV and Ogg Vorbis files. Unfortunately this version does not support WMA files or the windows based music stores.

The T|X includes Palm’s Blazer web browser v4.3 for wireless web surfing. Blazer is an excellent and very speedy browser. It renders web pages significantly faster because it displays the text first, before loading the formatting and images. Sometimes its rendering leaves a bit to be desired and I wish it would support smaller fonts. It has both an optimized and a widescreen mode and supports javascript and VPN connections (with VPN software). The browser also has excellent support for bookmarks and offers proxy and proxyless browsing modes.

VersaMail v3.1 is the included email client. It supports both POP and IMAP email servers, users can download mail wirelessly or by synchronizing with their desktops. For Enterprise users whose companies run Microsoft Exchange Server 2003, VersaMail has built in Microsoft Exchange Server ActiveSync that will directly import and enable corporate email and calendar synchronization.

One Handed Navigation
The Palm T|X incorporates the one handed navigation system that debuted on the Treo series for a superb one handed user experience. The 5-way navigator and new code make it possible to perform many tasks without using the stylus or needing to tap the screen. There is a light blue glow that highlights dialogs and form elements, that acts much like an on screen cursor. It really makes using the handheld with one hand easy and much more intuitive. It works well within many of the included apps and also works on many existing third party programs.

The one-handhed experience has further been improved with the addition of a dedicated Home button that can link back the launcher or the favorites application. Holding down the home button for a few seconds will also bring up a list of your last six apps used.

To make room for the Wi-Fi icon on the status bar, Palm removed the home button from the status bar. That omission makes stylus navigation a bit more cumbersome. You are forced to either bring up the input area, or hit the home button with your finger or stylus. It would have made more sense to keep the home icon and move the find option somewhere else, instead of dropping more useful navigation function.

With all the reported instability of the Tungsten T5 and Treo 650, the T|X seems to corrects a lot of issues. I found the T|X to be a very stable machine, and it hasn’t crashed on me yet. Also gone is the status bar flicker bug from the T5. The TX also has an improved reboot time over the T5. The T5 took a ridiculous 32 seconds to reset, while the TX cuts it in half to 15 seconds.

One the desktop side of things, Palm includes their Quick Install program for Windows. Quick Install simplifies installing programs and converting documents and photos for handheld use. Users simply drag zip files, prc application files, photos, videos and even MS office files into the app and it will preform the necessary conversion and install the the files on the next hotsync. The software CD includes the Palm Desktop for windows and Mac as well as the Outlook synchronization conduit.

The full list of applications on the device include: Quick Tour, Addit (for news headlines and adding software), Calc (with Advanced mode), Calendar, Card Info, Contacts, Dailer, Documents to Go, Expense, Favorites, HotSync, Media, Memos, Note Pad, pTunes, SMS, Solitare, Tasks, VersaMail, Blazer web browser and World Clock.

On the included CD is the Palm Desktop for Windows and Mac OS X, Adobe Acrobat Reader, Audbile player, eReader, a trail of HandMark Express and WiFile for accessing files on a PC over Wi-Fi.