The Palm Bluetooth Card [US$129] is now shipping. The tiny adapter is a Secure Digital Input/Output (SDIO) card that is compatible with the Palm i705, m515, m505, m500, m130 and m125.
The card allows you to wirelessly connect your handheld to any other Bluetooth-enabled device located within a 30 foot (10 meter) radius. With it you can connect to other Palm handhelds, mobile phones, laptops, printers and a host of wireless LAN access points. With the release of the D-Link DWB-120M Bluetooth USB Adapter from Apple you can now Hotsync your Palm to your Mac using the new Personal Area Networking (PAN) technology.
With the included Palm software you can also send SMS messages to friends and co-workers, schedule meetings, send documents to the printer or share information securely without skips, breaks or loss of data.
Included with the Palm BT card are the following applications:
- BlueBoard – lets you use your Memo Pad application to share ideas with up to four users simultaneously.
- BlueChat – carry on up to four different one-on-one chats.
- Bluetooth – an application that allows you turn BT on and off, and setup a new connection with a phone, pc or LAN.
- BtPrint995c – allows you to print via BT to the HP Deskjet 995C
- SMS – chat with others using the Short Message Service (SMS) protocol, similar to paging, SMS is a service for sending short text messages to mobile phones.
- WAP – used to connect to Web sites using Wireless Application Protocol, a secure specification that allows users to access information instantly via handheld wireless devices such as mobile phones, pagers, two-way radios, smartphones and communicators.
At CTIA Wireless 2002 Palm also announced a marketing alliance with Sony Ericsson to develop Bluetooth programs for cellular carriers and their customers. This is great news for you if you are in the market for one of the new generation of Bluetooth mobile phones like the Sony Ericsson T68i.
[Update 11/10/2002] Amazon.com is selling the Sony Ericsson T68i color, Bluetooth mobile phone for only US$50 for a limited time.
