Last week at the coffee shop I met my friend Susie; a woman who some years back could barely operate the VCR and the remote control on her TV. But, my friend's come a long ways. Now, instead of being a customer service representative for the phone company, she has her own business fixing up houses before owners put them on the market for sale. The business is doing quite well too. Our of a sheer necessity to keep in touch with her clients and manage all the appointments Susie confessed to me over a double latte that she went "techno", she had to, and even worse for her to admit she liked it. In fact, Susie bragged so much about using the PDA with her cell phone, that at first I thought she meant the other kind of PDA, the one known as a public display of affection. Of course when I teased Susie about that, she admonished me and told me to get my mind out of the gutter.
Susie explained how fast cable surfing was and again I thought she meant something else other than technical version, so I launched into a story about body surfing and winding up stuck in some rip tide and getting so tired my arms and legs felt like they'd gone swimming in a washing machine. Of course Susie laughed and the little dimple on the side of her cheek flared, then she got this serious look on her face and said, "I mean my PDA talks to my Cell Phone."
"Oh," I feigned dumb, "What do you mean," curious if she really knew what she was talking about, but she did.
Susie told me with her Pocket PC she could surf the net at broadband speeds and that it is all possible because of a small cable attached to her cell phone. Using the web browser she checks out movie listings, the weather, road conditions, restaurants and more. I tried to do the same thing on my own cell phone, but the web pages took to long to load and I lost patience.
She mentioned how she went to the website Gomadic (www.gomadic.com) and ordered their Wireless Internet Cable, which matched her LG5350 cell phone to her HP iPAQ 5555 Pocket PC and spent all of $39.95, plus $9.95 for an Add-on Laptop Adapter, which is less than Susie, spends on her monthly mocha latte allotment. Susie liked the fact that Gomadic offers a lifetime warranty on their products and offers a cable exchange program. Plus, if you end up getting a new cell phone or a Pocket PC and require a different cable, all that's required is for you to ship back the old cable and Gomadic will send you a new cable for free. Susie said, "They believe in service and for them it's not some dying dinosaur." That's my gal, always one to spin the sarcasm yarn when it's well deserved.
I asked Susie how tough it was to hook up and she snapped her fingers. I said, "That quick", and she said, "Yep". She explained how the Wireless Internet Cable is comprised of three components: a cable connecting to the cell phone, a different cable that connects the Pocket PC, and what's known as the patented "ComQube" adapter, which connects the two cables. Instead of creating one cable for each possible Pocket PC/cell phone combination Gomadic uses the ComQube technology to create an interchangeable cable system.
A benefit, which I told Susie which she didn't know is that Gomadic cables do not require the installation of additional software drivers in order to work. Of course, I'm the "techo guy" as Susie calls me and I did test it out; Gomadic's cable worked just fine on an HP iPAQ h5555 Pocket PC running Windows Mobile 2003, an iPAQ h5455 running Pocket PC 2002, a Sony PCG-SRX77P laptop PC running Windows XP Professional, and a dell Inspirion 8000 laptop running Windows 2000 Professional.
"The thing to remember," Susie said while sipping the last of her mocha latte which she said in a serious tone, "Is that all your devices have to be configured properly." I laughed and she asked, "What's so funny?" I told her I love it when she talks techie, that's its real sexy." Susie rolled her and said, "Enough lattes for you buddy."
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