OmniSky Updates Wireless Service for PDAs
OmniSky 2.0 expands to support Pocket PCs plus faster e-mail, color, and integration between Web and apps.Cameron Crouch, PCWorld.com
SANTA CLARA, CALIFORNIA-- OmniSky is updating its wireless Web service for the Palm V and will soon extend it to other handhelds, including Pocket PCs.
Launched at the CTIA Wireless IT show here this week, the new OmniSky 2.0 service for the Palm V includes a custom My OmniSky page, faster e-mail, and one-tap integration between handheld applications and the Web.
OmniSky 2.0 also moves OmniSky's service beyond the Palm platform to Pocket PC devices. Hewlett-Packard's Jornada 540 series will be the first Pocket PC to support OmniSky 2.0, starting in November. OmniSky is scheduled to be available on the Compaq iPAQ and Cassiopeia Pocket PCs early next year.
OmniSky previously announced service for the Handspring Visor, and that is expected to become available within two weeks. (See "Handhelds With No Strings Attached.")
Services for the Palm and Visor handhelds cost $40 a month and are distributed by OmniSky.
HP will sell the Novatel Minstrel 540 modem and $40 monthly OmniSky service for the Jornada directly from its site. (See "Pocket PCs Go Wireless With Parts.") Pricing for the Jornada modem will be announced upon its release, but the Novatel modem for the Palm V costs around $300.
More than 600 retailers across the country will carry products bundled with OmniSky.
A Personal Web Service
Similar to a My Yahoo or My Lycos, OmniSky 2.0's My OmniSky lets you create a personal start page for your personal digital assistant's Web service.
"You can edit the My OmniSky page directly from the handheld," says Barak Berkowitz, president of OmniSky.
Also new in OmniSky 2.0 is integration between certain OmniSky Web content and the Palm and Pocket PC personal information manager applications such as calendar and address book.
"With one tap, you can add Web content right into your Outlook calendar and address book," Berkowitz says. For instance, an OmniSky Web search for nearby bookstores generates a list of stores with addresses and phone numbers, plus an icon to mark locations in your address book. You can also save maps and directions in the Notepad, Berkowitz says.
The OmniSky 2.0 in-box integrates with the Outlook in-box on your Palm or Pocket PC. OmniSky says e-mail download speeds are significantly improved with this update. Also, OmniSky 2.0 makes Palm.net Web Clipping applications accessible on a Pocket PC.
"For us it doesn't matter if the content is a Web clipping PQA, an AvantGo site, or plain HTML," Berkowitz says. "We don't care what format a site uses; we've just picked the 1000 or so with the best content."
Differences With Devices
Initially, OmniSky's Pocket PC service will be almost identical to that on the Palm, except for color support. Over time, Berkowitz says, "we'll offer more services that take advantage of the processing capabilities of Pocket PCs."
On a Pocket PC, OmniSky leverages the built-in in-box and Internet Explorer browser to create a Mobile Channel, says Phil Holden, director of the mobile devices division at Microsoft.
And by opening Web clipping content to Pocket PC users, OmniSky makes the different strands of wireless Web content for handhelds more like the Internet from which it draws the information.