Palm + wireless phones = Web access

Government personnel with a Palm Inc. handheld device and a mobile phone

can now use those two pieces of technology to wirelessly connect to the

World Wide Web.

Palm announced this week at the Comdex Fall 2000 trade show in Las Vegas

that it is shipping its Mobile Internet Kit, a software product that enables

most Palm handhelds to connect wirelessly to the Internet using a data-enabled

mobile phone, said Dan Glessner, director of business and government marketing

for Palm.

"The Mobile Internet Kit turns a Palm III or Palm V into a Palm VII with

the help of a cell phone," Glessner said. "As an individual needs to access

a corporate intranet or a dot-gov site to pull information — or election

results — they can now get to that information very quickly."

The Mobile Internet Kit has a retail price of $39.95 and should be available

on the General Services Administration schedule shortly, Glessner said.

Palm also unveiled the public beta version of its MyPalm portal, which will

provide Palm users with wireless access to personal accounts and Web sites

without having to be tethered to their desktops.

The portal, which will be up and running by Dec. 25, will enable government

users who use their Palms for myriad forms-based applications to incorporate

the speed and availability of the Internet into those tasks, Glessner said.