For those who are unfamiliar with it, WyndMail is a service which allows
you to send and receive email and voicemail, and to send pages and faxes
from your OmniGo. You can use it wirelessly (using a Megahertz AllPoints
PCMCIA wireless modem, which costs around $500), or you can also dial in
using a regular modem and a toll-free number. The pricing of WyndMail is
based on the "message unit", which is 150 characters. The basic service
price is $29.99 a month, which includes 200 "message units", and
additional message units are charged at $0.05 each. There are some
additional service charges for non-email messages (for instance, sending
a page is $0.39 + the applicable message unit charge).
INSTALLATION:
After deciding to sign up for the service, I took the plunge and ordered
the AllPoints card. This card, which looks like a PCMCIA card with a little
box on the end that sits next to the PDA and contains the 9V battery which
powers the card, adds about 1/2 a pound or so to the weight of the PDA, and
sticks out about 2 inches to the right of the machine when it is installed.
It has a small gold-colored telescoping antenna on top, which extends to
about 8 inches high when unfolded. The card comes with a fairly good manual,
as well as the WyndMail software.
Installing the WyndMail software was very easy. The software was distributed
as a .GPK file, and the installer was included on the disk. It was a simple
matter to download the software to the OmniGo and get it installed.
Configuring the software basically involved opening the WyndMail application
and entering my password. (It uses the serial number of your AllPoints card
to identify your user name, so you don't need to enter that). There are a
couple of other configuration things you need to do if you plan to use the
dial-up option either instead of or in addition to the wireless modem.
USING THE SOFTWARE:
Using the software is also quite easy. To start the software, tap on the
"WyndMail" icon. Once the main screen comes up, you simply select "Turn
modem on", and the modem automatically connects to the wireless network and
downloads all of your new email. You can then read it, reply to it, save
it, and so forth.
Also, you can create and reply to messages off-line. If the software does
not detect a connection to the wireless network when you tap the send
button on a new message, it puts that message in your outbox, and you can
send it later.
Sending pages, faxes, and voicemail messages is similarly easy. To send a
fax, you address it to "XXXYYYZZZZ@fax", to send a voice mail message, you
address it to "XXXYYYZZZZ@phone", and so forth.
PROBLEMS AND GLITCHES:
There were, however, a couple of very minor things I did not like about the
software, and which I hope will be improved in future releases. They are as
follows:
1. If you compose a message off-line, the software does not appear to
know to automatically transmit those messages when it connects. When I
tried this, I had to go into my outbox, select the message, and tap the
send icon to get the PDA to transmit that message.
2. Some of the icons in the software are a bit non-intuitive, and the
documentation which comes with it is very sparse (mostly a readme file
detailing how to install the software and how to tell if the modem is
working OK). It only took me a few minutes of experimentation to figure
them out, but a bit better documentation would be nice.
3. This is more inconvenient, and I don't know if it is a problem with
WyndMail, or a bug in the PCMCIA driver in the OmniGo. Namely, I have
found that if you turn off the OmniGo while the AllPoints card is in the
machine, when you turn it back on and try to run WyndMail again, it
claims the modem is not connected. The workaround to this is to remove
the card (using the F4 key from the home screen) and then turn the
OmniGo on for a few seconds (so it sees the card has been removed) and
then off again. Then, reinsert the card before the next time you use
the software. This is a bit of a hassle, but solves the problem.
On the whole, I would have to say that, for what is really a first generation
product, Wynd has done an admirable job. There are a few minor bugs, but if
you need to be able to communicate on the go, WyndMail fills the bill
quite well. For more information on their service, go to their home page,
http://www.wynd.net/wynd/
DISCLAIMER: I am not in any way affiliated with Wynd Communications, except
as a satisfied customer.
/MC
-- Matthew Cravit, N9VWG Technical Support Specialist, DePaul University Libraries, Chicago, IL E-Mail: mcravit@condor.depaul.edu or mcravit@wppost.depaul.edu <A HREF="http://condor.depaul.edu/~mcravit/index.html">My Home Page</A>