Along the way to finding the gear that bests suits my job -- whether converged PDA/phone device or notebook computer -- I've learned that a solution will continue to elude me unless I've correctly identified the problem. As a journalist who must be able to file a story from anywhere, anytime, to any editor, my problem is relatively simple. But the solution has been elusive.

To satisfy my requirements for quick note taking, rich text, and networking capabilities, I came to the show with three devices: a Compaq TC1000 and a Toshiba Protégé 3050 (both based on the TabletPC edition of Windows XP), and Handspring's Treo 300. Both tablet devices are convertibles that can be used either in keyboard-enabled notebook mode, or as tablets capable of accepting my handwriting. Both tablets have built-in Wi-Fi adapters for 802.11 connectivity and the Portege has built-in Bluetooth. The Treo 300 is provisioned by Sprint's PCS network for wireless voice and data.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

All three devices are capable of producing rich text documents and sending them as attachments to an Exchange server. In Windows XP, this relatively straightforward process relies on commonly used software such as Microsoft Office, Outlook, and Windows' built-in PPTP VPN client for tunneling into the firewall.

But could I ditch my notebook and tablet systems altogether? For the Palm-based Treo300 to achieve comparable rich text and e-mail capabilities, it needed three third-party products.

For Word-compatible rich text capabilities, I used Cutting Edge Software's QuickOfficePro. (Previously, I had tried Documents To Go, but it was incapable of saving the documents it created as local files on the Treo that could later be sent as attachments.)

To regularly check my e-mail and to send the QuickOffice documents as attachments, I used SnapperMail's namesake POP3-compatible e-mail client. SnapperMail is one of the few products I found that was capable of attaching documents saved in the Treo 300's file system.

To connect SnapperMail (via POP3) to CNET's Exchange servers through a secure tunnel over Sprint's PCS network, I used MergicVPN, a Palm-OS compatible VPN client that works like the PPTP client built into Windows.

With all three products capable of working with and sending the sort of documents on which my colleagues and I collaborate, there remained the "anywhere" issue: wireless connectivity.

For documents created with and stored on the Treo, the default method is to leverage Sprint's CDMA 1xRTT-based PCS network. Alternatively, I probably could use Palm's HotSync utility to transfer files to one of the tablets and then use a conduit available to one of them, but that seems so antithetical to my sought-after nirvana.

As a side note, CDMA 1xRTT-based networks are not the only choice for wide-area voice and data connectivity. I could have selected a device based on GSM (for voice) and General Packet Radio Service (GPRS, for data). Handspring has a version of the Treo that's enabled for GSM/GPRS (Treo 270). Several other converged phone/PDAs are similarly enabled, some of which run the phone edition of Microsoft's PocketPC 2002. My choice of the Treo 300 had to do with the availability of a thumbboard, a must-have in my estimation, and still a rarity among handheld devices.

Another issue when comparing CDMA 1xRTT to GPRS is coverage and speed. When available, CDMA 1xRTT has proven to be much faster than GPRS. Although speed isn't that important to me, it's a plus when I'm transmitting a lot of data or trying to grab all my e-mail just before the flight attendant tells us to shut down all personal electronics. However, as a criteria item, coverage supercedes performance. If the high-speed wireless WAN (WWAN) isn't available when you need it (my "anywhere" criteria), then your effective throughput is zero.

Fortunately, many Las Vegas locations, including the convention center, were extremely hot for Sprint's PCS network. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the 802.11b Wi-Fi connectivity that I was expecting to find at Networld+Interop. Last year, most of the convention center was one big, free hotspot; this year, only a few free hotspots were available. I can't imagine anyone wanting to pay SmartCity's extortion-like rates (4.95/hr, 24.95/day, 650.00/week), which were available at the convention center. Finding the free hot spots and connecting to them wasn't easy, either. Although Windows XP provides a user friendly interface for discovering all of the wireless networks floating about, it doesn't tell you anything about them except for their names. This omission points to a flaw in the specific metadata presented when a wireless network is advertising its availability to clients. It would be nice if something more than the name - such as fees or the word "private" -- were presented.

With no widely available free hotspot in the Las Vegas Convention Center, my fallback plan was to figure out a way to give the tablet PC access to Sprint's high speed WWLAN through the Treo 300. This is not an idea that Sprint endorses. Given the limited data bandwidth that WWLAN carriers have, they try to restrict data usage by keeping you on devices like Treos that aren't capable of generating or holding huge amounts of data. Or, if you insist on pumping megabytes of data through their WWLAN, they'll sell you a card with a separate wireless account that you can put in your PC and that gives you access to the high-speed network for a price that could not be described as affordable to most users.

		Reader Resources Mobile & Wireless ZDNet White Papers

Bridging the PC onto the PCS network through the Treo requires a bit of sleuthing. The Treo maintains the various services you get billed for as a single account, and, since all of the voice/data plans that Sprint has for its phones and converged devices (like the Treo) come with all-you-can-eat data, there's no per megabyte charge or outrageous rates. So far, I haven't seen a voice/data plan in the GSM/GPRS world that offers reasonable voice rates and all-you-can-eat data like Sprint's.

After searching high and low for a program that bridges Windows-based PCs onto Sprint's PCS network using a Treo, I found a small utility from June Fabrics PDA Technology Group called PDANet that works over the same cable used to HotSync the Treo with the PC. Although PDANet didn't work on the first try every time, I was always able to get it working after a couple of attempts. Once my Tablet PCs were connected to the PCS network, I was able to do anything that I might normally have done while connected to an 802.11 network or a standard Ethernet connection. I was shocked at how fast I was able to send and receive e-mails (including the Word documents that I had to send to my editor), and the page load times when I tried to access my favorite Web sites were quite acceptable. This was proving to be a great combination, which I used to file my stories.

Will this approach work using Bluetooth or Infrared instead of the HotSync cable? I haven't looked into Infrared yet, and I don't know of a CDMA 1xRTT-based converged PDA/phone that supports Bluetooth. One question remained: Which of these devices was ideal for note taking and creating or editing rich text documents? On the Treo, this was a challenge. I had an expandable keyboard to help speed the input of text over the built-in thumbboard, but I couldn't get comfortable working with the Treo's display size.

Another advantage of the larger displays found on PocketPCs, coupled with the availability of Pocket Internet Explorer, is the ability to access the Web. Most Internet access in the PalmOS-based world is accomplished through a technology called Web clipping, which reminds me a lot of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol). It requires specific formatting on the Web site side of the equation beyond that of the regular HTML that most Web sites provide. Even if I could browse the Web on the Treo, the display would be too small. (Even the PocketPC is a challenge for Web surfing.) Even so, I created one rich text document on the Treo, and attached to a message with SnapperMail, and sent it through our Exchange servers using MergicVPN to tunnel through the firewall. It all worked surprisingly well.

With the Treo ruled out as a rich text machine, how did the Tablet PCs do? Although the tablet functionality certainly garnered a lot of oohs and ahhs, the pens almost never came out of their cradles. I am still finding it difficult to take a lot of notes (let alone write an entire column) without a keyboard.

Meanwhile, while I search for the killer pen-based application that changes my mind about needing a tablet, the Portege 3050 suffered a catastrophic keyboard failure after getting a few droplets of water on it. This column is being composed on HP's Compaq TC1000. The TC1000's unique industrial design has at least one major flaw that I've been unable to overcome. To save battery life as I walked around the convention center floor, I would put the system into standby mode. However, because of the way the back of the system's display makes contact with the keyboard when the device is folded up, the TC1000 kept waking up out of stand-by mode, unbeknownst to me. I've yet to figure out a way to stop this behavior. As a result, the battery was prematurely depleted on the first day of the show.

Speaking of battery life, power consumption is still a challenge when it comes to industrial design and wireless network access. The Treo's battery will easily last you all day - provided you are only making some voice calls and sending a bit of data.

Midway through my day, after using the Treo to connect the PC to Sprint's PCS network several times, and after doing a bunch of e-mails with SnapperMail, the Treo ran out of juice. When that happens to a converged device like the Treo, you're not only dead in the water for data, but for voice as well.

Making handheld devices without a replaceable battery is a huge no-no. The Treo does not have a replaceable battery. I also wish the Treo had an expansion slot so that I could enhance the device with more memory. This would be especially useful for supporting heavy volumes of e-mail and the storage of all that data. Many Handspring devotees have written to me complaining about how the Treos are missing the innovative SpringBoard slots that were found on the company's Visor devices.

Tablet PCs can't escape the battery issues either. When I was able to find a free 802.11 hotspot and I activated the radio on my tablet, the battery life was noticeably affected. For this reason, the PC-Treo combination started making even more sense because I would operate the tablet PC with the 802.11 radio completely disabled, and then just connect through the Treo when I needed to access the network.

Have I found nirvana yet? No. I'm still not crazy about the tablets, so I'll be looking at other notebooks. But the Treo connection helped me get a lot done. Does the Treo represent the best in converged devices? Perhaps it does--today. But, just around the corner are converged PDA/phones supported by a CDMA 1xRTT network, with large color displays and thumbboards. The one I have my eye on is the Hitachi G1000. But, with that power-hungry display, it had better have replaceable batteries. Also, I'll need an external, full-size keyboard and a way to use G1000 to give my PC access to the Sprint PCS network. With these attributes, the G1000 could be my next best hope for converged nirvana in the near future.

What's your mobile nirvana? Use TalkBack to share your dreams with your fellow ZDNet readers. Or write to me at david.berlind@cnet.com. If you're looking for my commentaries on other IT topics, check the archives.

As part of our year long Wireless that Works special report, we want to hear your tales from the frontier that highlight the successes and failures of wireless technology deployments. To have your company considered for a "Wireless that Works" case study profile on ZDNet, send us an e-mail. We need the name, phone number, and e-mail address of a business contact at the company, and ideally a technical contact as well.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]

[an error occurred while processing this directive]