Newbie Question: PocketPC-Phone Edition & WiFi capability

[dans2]

I bought my PPC-PE in Jan 2003, moving on from the Handspring Treo 180. At the time, I didn't know much about WiFi, but having since equipped my home with wireless connectivity, I naturally want my PPCPE to ActiveSync, e-mail, surf the web, etc. at wireless bandwidth speed at home and at T-Mobile Hot Spots, airports, etc.

I guess my question is, cost considerations aside:

1) is it going to be physically possible to "upgrade" my T-Mobile PocketPC 2002 to be WiFi enabled---is there a SDcard+802.11b (or g) combo card similar to the compact flash card combos, if so, can the hardware support this? or

2) would it be easier just to look around and find a PDA+phone+WiFi enabled device, i.e., I guess, the HP IPAQ Pocket PC H5455 or Toshiba PPC E740, or

3) sit back and wait a few months and see what advancements are made which may solve my issue?

Any help/opinions/comments would be helpful.

Thanks,
Dan

[Jason Dunn]

All indications are that the XDA will never be able to use SDIO.

It would appear that Pocket PC 2003 is coming "soon", so I'd want to see what comes out.

[Qman]

I bought my PPC-PE in Jan 2003, moving on from the Handspring Treo 180. At the time, I didn't know much about WiFi, but having since equipped my home with wireless connectivity, I naturally want my PPCPE to ActiveSync, e-mail, surf the web, etc. at wireless bandwidth speed at home and at T-Mobile Hot Spots, airports, etc.

I guess my question is, cost considerations aside:

1) is it going to be physically possible to "upgrade" my T-Mobile PocketPC 2002 to be WiFi enabled---is there a SDcard+802.11b (or g) combo card similar to the compact flash card combos, if so, can the hardware support this? or

2) would it be easier just to look around and find a PDA+phone+WiFi enabled device, i.e., I guess, the HP IPAQ Pocket PC H5455 or Toshiba PPC E740, or

3) sit back and wait a few months and see what advancements are made which may solve my issue?

Any help/opinions/comments would be helpful.

Thanks,
Dan


Suggestion for 3) eCost.com has Manufacturer reconditioned E740's going for $278.
http://www.ecost.com/ecost/shop/countdown/default.asp

BTW I'm in the same boat with my T-Mobile PPCPE

Good Luck!

[possmann]

ON the same line with this post... Let's assume that with PPCPE2003 coming out in the next couple of months we will see a couple of new devices coming out - the i700 already there with SDIO.

Having said that - are there any WIFI cards in the SD format yet? I've lost track on the development of WIFI in this form factor.

Also I'd love to hear any news on anything coming out of HTC - specific to any new PPCPE devices. Hopefully they will beef up the screen and add-in a SDIO slot...

[Monty Gibson]

ON the same line with this post... Let's assume that with PPCPE2003 coming out in the next couple of months we will see a couple of new devices coming out - the i700 already there with SDIO.

Having said that - are there any WIFI cards in the SD format yet? I've lost track on the development of WIFI in this form factor.

Also I'd love to hear any news on anything coming out of HTC - specific to any new PPCPE devices. Hopefully they will beef up the screen and add-in a SDIO slot...

T-Mobile recently (two months ago) e-mailed those who currently have their Pocket PC Phone Edition models (made by HTC of course). They wanted our feedback on what we would like to see integrated in the next version. So, hopefully by the end of the year or beginning of next year we should at least hear something? Fingers crossed... er --> 0X <--as close as I can get to crossing something.

[Sleeve]

Socket is releasing an SDIO WiFi card next month, and in Q4, a combination WiFi and 256MB card. Their Bluetooth card isn't behaving 100% perfect with an i700, but we'll give them a rev or two of the drivers to get things sorted. Socket wrote their own drivers over the Drakar BT stack rather than licensing Widcomm, so it'll take awhile for non-Socket devices to talk to Socket's cards.