Instant Messaging and Consumer Devices

Probably the first thing that would come to mind if you asked a typical consumer about wireless networking would be a cell phone, or perhaps a PDA-like device. These are wireless devices, and newer devices can do everything from accessing email to browsing the Web, in addition to providing voice communications. Technically, even satellite phones are wireless devices.

Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs)

These are some of the more popular PDAs:

• Blackberry (www.blackberry.net) ” The Blackberry PDAs use Java applications and are produced by a company called Research In Motion (RIM).

• Palm (www.palm.com) ” Palm uses an operating system developed in-house for the PDAs it manufactures. The OS has also been adopted by many other manufacturers, such as HandEra (formerly TRGPro) and Sony. Perhaps the most unique port for the Palm operating system is a wristwatch-size device available from Fossil Tech (www.fossil.com).

• Pocket PC (www.microsoft.com) ” Developed by Microsoft, you can get Pocket PCs from a large number of manufacturers, such as HP, Toshiba, and Dell. Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system commands the largest number of manufacturers at this time.

The Blackberry line is produced by Research In Motion (RIM) and uses industry partners to give you to many Internet services in addition to its standard PDA capabilities. Typical PDAs usually include a calendar, an address book, to-do items, a small notepad word processor, and other applications. Both Palm and Blackberry devices also work with third-party applications, so you can customize your device. Blackberry uses Java applications, whereas Palm uses its own operating system. These devices even have software applications for playing games .

The Palm PDAs come in several varieties (don't forget that wristwatch mentioned previously), and you will find a lot of third-party developers that produce applications for Palm devices. Although Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system has the largest number of manufacturers that use the OS at this time, competition is growing, especially with respect to Palm.

Microsoft's Pocket PC OS can be found on devices from a large number of manufacturers, and also commands a large contingent of followers who create software applications and programming environments. Because Pocket PC applications can easily interact with Microsoft's other operating systems, it is a natural fit for many users. However, that doesn't mean that it will continue to dominate the market.

Third-Generation Mobile Phones

The term 3G has been often talked about in the computer press, and it stands for third-generation mobile phones. This new generation of mobile phones incorporates many of the features found in today's PDAs. Indeed, depending on the phone you purchase, you might find it hard to distinguish between such a phone and a PDA. Beyond using typical wireless phone technology, 3G phones also enable Internet access, include a high-resolution screen, and, in some cases, include an MP3 player so that you can listen to your favorite music. To enable the multimedia aspects of a 3G phone, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has defined a 3G phone as one that operates at 144Kbps or faster.

Because security is one of the most important topics when it comes to networking today, a desirable feature of a 3G phone is GPS (global positioning satellite) capabilities. Using GPS, it is a simple matter to locate the phone if it is stolen. This is an important feature because this type of phone can be used to store personal information (such as your credit-card numbers ). Some 3G phones require you to enter a PIN in order to use them, further increasing security. Another important reason to employ a phone that includes GPS is that it can be very valuable in case of an emergency. If you call 911, for example, for whatever reason, the GPS functionality will make locating you a simple matter.

The investment required to build a 3G network, however, is quite expensive, so this technology is not widespread. Its future depends on increasing developing standards that are better than the current ones, because the target is for 3G phones to work worldwide. Another factor is that, as with the typical cell-phone market, it will be quite expensive to set up a network that covers large geographical distances. Cell phones still lack complete coverage, and the network they use is not compatible with 3G phones.

I don't want to sound too pessimistic. Any new technology that offers a lot of features over its predecessors usually takes time before it becomes widely accepted. Exceptions to this are Wi-Fi products, discussed in previous chapters. Yet Wi-Fi (802.11 standards) devices do not operate worldwide, and are now used to connect to other similar wireless devices, or to a wired network.