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February 1998


PocketNet

AT&T Wireless Services
Wireless Data Division
10230 NE Points Dr
Kirkland, WA 98033-7869
888-DATA-ATT, x200

Pricing: If you live in an AT&T Wireless Services market area, you get unlimited usage of PocketNet service, including e-mail, personal organizer, and your private Web site, for $29.99 per month in addition to your wireless voice plan. Five free fax pages per month are included. Additional faxing costs $0.20 per page. Both the Samsung and the Mitsubishi PocketNet enabled cellular phones retail for $299.

RATINGS (0-5)
Installation:  5
Documentation:  4
Features:  5
GUI:  5
Overall:  A+

Take this hypothetical scenario. You are on your way from your hotel to a business meeting, when suddenly you hear an alert from your wireless phone. You reach into your pocket, hit a few keys, and retrieve an e-mail that happens to be critical to the success of your meeting.

The e-mail informs you that you are missing one vital piece of information. You logon to the Internet using the wireless phone and retrieve the information, which you work into your presentation. At the meeting, your improved presentation rocks. You’re a star.

Farfetched? Not at all. You can play out this scenario today with PocketNet, a wireless phone that puts the Internet in the palm of your hand. PocketNet is equipped with specialized browser software that interacts with server software in the AT&T network to retrieve text-based information from the Internet and from private intranets.

With PocketNet, you can also access your personal calendar and address book from your personal (and secure) Web site. In addition, you can access information on Web sites that have been tuned to format and display information on the phone’s screen. Several popular Web sites have formatted their content to fit on the display screen of a PocketNet cellular phone. These include such big names as Bloomberg, InfoSpace, ESPN Sportszone, Mapquest, and others. You can perform “reverse phone number” lookups to find addresses, lookup phone numbers by name, access weather reports, get directions, find out the latest world or financial news, and get the latest sports scores.

SPECIFICATIONS
Specifications for a PocketNetenabled phone:

  • Weight: 9.2 ounces.
  • Dimensions: 6.06” L C 2.28” W C .85”

H. Minimum requirements for managing information from your private Web site:

  • Windows 95 or Windows NT.
  • Netscape Navigator 3.01, Navigator Gold 3.01, or Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.01/3.02 (soon 4.0).
  • Internet access.
  • 16 MB RAM; 640 C 480 video display; 14.4 Kbps mode.

PROS AND CONS
Pros

  • Simple, inexpensive alternative to using laptops and remote access servers.
  • Universal access to your email, no matter where you are.
  • Access to Internet information (such as directions, stock quotes, or phone listings), no matter where you are.
  • Allows travelers to be in constant contact with the office. (PocketNet is a messaging pager through email, plus a regular phone, all in one.)

Cons

  • No text-to-speech capabilities. (There are products that can read e-mail to you over the phone, and that let you respond by speaking. See our review of Octel’s Unified Messenger in the January 1998 issue.)
  • Unable to read attachments, such as Word attachments. You can, however, read text attachments.
  • Requires that you forward and “unforward” the contents of your existing e-mail account to the PocketNet e-mail account.

INSTALLATION
Installing a PocketNetcompatible cellular phone was very easy. In fact, when we received our Samsung Duette phone, we found that AT&T had already set most of the configuration options. For instance, AT&T had already programmed our own personal PocketNet e-mail address into the phone. Also, AT&T had already set up a private Web site URL, phone number, username, and password (which we could use to access our private Web URL).

In normal circumstances, you would purchase a PocketNet-compatible cellular phone in a retail store, and then you would call AT&T’s PocketNet division to set up your account. Even though AT&T had saved us this effort, we reviewed the procedures for entering the configuration settings. We found them to be very simple, so simple, in fact, that a PocketNet service representative would have no trouble helping you configure your personal account information over the phone.

One other setup item concerns an email option. Basically, you can elect to have e-mail automatically forwarded from your current Internet e-mail address to your PocketNet e-mail address, which looks like “[email protected].” If you are using some mail server programs, you can also forward internal/corporate e-mail. This would let you retrieve all your e-mail while you are on the road. Now, if you don’t have desktop e-mail, then PocketNet service gives you an e-mail box that doesn’t even require a computer.

DOCUMENTATION
The AT&T PocketNet manual contained step-by-step information on how to read attachments, send an email, create quick-replies, add contacts to your address book, and other details. Overall, the documentation was easy to read, and featured a good table of contents for looking up a particular feature. The AT&T documentation could have included more screenshots, however. By screenshots, we mean pictures of the LCD display. Ideally, these screenshots would have included arrows and labels describing the different features.

One of our other manuals did have such LCD screenshots — the manual for the Samsung Duette PocketNetenabled phone, which, thanks to its excellent screenshots, helped us quickly learn the different features and capabilities. That said, it almost pains us to point out that the Samsung manual didn’t specify how to perform a backspace. We tried hitting the Back key, but that ended up returning us to the previous menu screen. Next, we tried the left arrow key, but that didn’t work either, which seemed a bit strange. Finally, we tried the CLR button, which we thought would clear, or erase, the entire text we typed. We were wrong: The CLR button did perform the backspace function we were looking for. This function should have been described in the documentation. Incidentally, we noticed that all the arrow keys, except for the left arrow key, made a beeping sound. We suspected the left arrow was malfunctioning, so we called AT&T, and they confirmed our suspicions. (The technical support was fantastic.) They sent us another phone the very next day, and we were able to traverse the cursor back over letters without having to erase them.

FEATURES

  • Display: PocketNet displays up to five rows of text, with a maximum of 24 characters per row. Also, the phone offers bookmarking features similar to those of a PC browser.
  • Scheduling: With PocketNet, you can schedule appointments from a Web browser (or the cellular phone); then, you can use the PocketNetenabled cellular phone to review these appointments when you are on the road. In addition, PocketNet synchronizes with popular PCbased organizers. With additional software — namely, Puma Technology’s IntelliSync for AT&T PocketNet Service — the PocketNet phone can work with such programs as Microsoft Schedule+ 7.0/7.0a, Microsoft Outlook, Symantec ACT! 3.0.6, and Lotus Organizer 97.
  • E-Mail: The PocketNet phone is capable of two-way messaging using an e-mail paradigm. E-mails can be sent or forwarded to the phone, and the user can reply to these e-mails or originate a message to any Internet address.
  • Accessing The Web: Since the wireless IP (CDPD) network is interconnected to an Internet service provider’s backbone network, and since PocketNet is a wireless phone solution with a specialized, builtin browser, PocketNet users can access popular information sources on the Internet, including news, weather, travel, entertainment, and finance.
  • Accessing Your Calendar: PocketNet lets you access your calendar via a Web browser or the phone itself. (You can access your private Web site, which contains your personal calendar with appointments.)
  • Dialing: With PocketNet’s speed dial capability (dial by name), you can use the GUI to add entries to your Call List. For storing more detailed data, such as address, company, home number, etc., you can add information to the Address Book. You can dial anyone in your address book by selecting the name and hitting OK. PocketNet service also gives you access to white pages and yellow pages nationwide. You can call any number in these directory listings just by entering a person’s name.
  • Other: PocketNet displays call duration; includes 40-location alphanumeric memory storage; provides last number redial (up to nine numbers); combines analog (voice) and digital (CDPD) technologies; and includes fraud prevention (see the secure logon screen in Figure 6).

OPERATIONAL TESTING
Startup
When the PocketNet phone is turned on, it automatically registers and connects to the AT&T wireless data network. Once it is at its “home card,” PocketNet allows the user to navigate.

Response Times
Response times start at 1.5 seconds and increase based on network and Web server activity. According to AT&T, the PocketNet phone, in wireless IP mode, offers a raw throughput of 19.2 Kbps and an effective throughput of 14.4 Kbps. The applications sending information to and from the phone don’t come close to pushing this bandwidth envelope. Typically, messages sent to and from the phone consist of about 100 bytes of data, so response times are extremely fast. What is important is network latency. Since the wireless IP network provides sub-second latency, users will enjoy excellent performance when accessing Web server-based information.

Information Sites
We tried several of the information sites provided by the PocketNet service. We were able to review stock quotes, sports scores, and the latest financial news very easily from the display screen. Simply by using the arrow keys and a couple of buttons, we were able to scroll through lots of information. We also tested PocketNet’s nationwide white (and yellow) pages. To look up a person’s phone number, we entered the person’s name, which was simply a matter of pressing the DTMF keys. For instance, for the letter “C,” we had to press the DTMF digit “2” three times. (Clearly, three presses is the maximum for any letter.)

At first, we took a long time to enter long strings of alphanumeric characters; however, after a while, we were typing at a respectable speed. After keying in the person’s name, we hit a button, and less than a second later we had the person’s full name, address, and phone number on the display screen! Then we could click on the Call button to have the phone automatically dial the number. This is a great feature if you need to dial someone when you are on the road.

You can also look up corporations that have 800 numbers, as well as companies that are listed in the yellow pages. Other neat services include a restaurant directory, which lists over 247,000 restaurants, and which includes brief descriptions, directions, and even abbreviated menus. This service is perfect for road trips when you decide to invite a client to dinner!

Forwarding E-Mail To A Fax Machine
We were impressed with PocketNet’s ability to forward e-mail to a fax machine. Each fax automatically includes a cover sheet with your name, date, subject, user-entered comments, as well as the total number of pages. AT&T provides each PocketNet customer with five free faxes per month. Additional faxes cost 20 cents per page. Messages From The PocketNet Site This is a really cool feature. If someone wants to send you a message, he or she can visit AT&T’s PocketNet site, enter a message, and include a callback number from his or her Web browser. The person can also enter up to six EZReply entries (such as “1. Can make it by 6:00pm,” “2. Let’s make it for 8:00 instead,” “3. I’ll have to take a rain check,” …). After you receive the message on your cellular phone, you need only press a single key to quickly and automatically send a “canned” email response back to the person who sent the message.

Personal Calendar
PocketNet lets you enter appointments and schedule items into your personal calendar. You can do so from the PocketNet phone itself, or from the user-friendly Java applet running on your Web browser (Figure 8). Your calendar also integrates and synchronizes with many popular PIMs and scheduler applications, including Microsoft Outlook, Schedule+, Lotus Organizer, GoldMine, NetManage ECCO, Day-Time Organizer, and ACT!. This is perfect if you are on the road and you need to access callback reminders or meeting information entered into your desktop scheduling program.

Once you find your contacts, you’ll be able to dial them quickly, since they will be part of the PocketNet contact database. This functionality, which is a separate add-on to the PocketNet service, is sold by Puma Technology for $69.95. Puma’s software, called IntelliSync, is certainly worth the price.

ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
Support For A Broader Range Of Attachments
Although PocketNet can read text attachments, it cannot read attachments from Word, PowerPoint, Excel, WordPerfect, or other popular applications. The only alternative is to forward the e-mail to your regular email account on your PC and read the attachment from your PC. We would like to be able to read attachments from common applications, such as Word or Excel, from the cellular phone, perhaps via some sort of converter on AT&T’s wireless network server.

Such a conversion capability would let users view the contents of an attachment as simple text. A converter would also allow the user to forward an email with a Word attachment to a fax machine, and the attachment’s contents would be readable on the fax.

Ability To View Text From Any Web Site
With the PocketNet phone, you cannot view most Web sites. You can only browse those Web sites which alter their content to fit on the PocketNet display screen. Otherwise, you will receive an error message stating, “Invalid content type.”

We’d like to see some sort of converter engine that would parse out Web graphics, Java apps, etc. and just transmit the Web site’s text. This would allow you to view any Web site. One usability issue involves being unable to copy/paste into the Java application (your calendar/scheduler) on your personal Web site.

Larger Keypad/Faster Typing
Although we like the compactness of the current PocketNet models, we would like another, larger model with a “flip open” alphanumeric keyboard for faster typing. This would give the customer a choice between compactness and quicker data entry.

Voice Attachments To EMail
What if PocketNet let you skip keyboard entry of message content? Imagine: you could enter an email address, then talk into the cellular PocketNet phone. The voice would then be temporarily recorded on AT&T’s server and encoded into a WAV file. Then, the WAV file would be sent to the entered e-mail address. At the receiving end, the message could be played back on a multimedia PC. This addition would make it a lot easier to send long messages. Entering message content on the phone is tedious since you have to generate text by manipulating DTMF keys.

Support For User’s Existing E-Mail Account
When you’re on the road, you have to forward messages from your existing e-mail account to your PocketNet email account. When you return to the office, you have to reverse the process. Personally, we’d like to be able to use our existing e-mail account at all times. Some companies using wireless allow you to do this. For example, DTS Wireless lets you use your existing email account with a product called ZAP-IT Wireless Inbox. However, unlike PocketNet, this product works from a laptop, not a cellular phone. There is a third-party add-on, which we just recently learned about from Infinite Technologies, which will allow you to access your corporate network email while on the road from a PocketNet phone. Infinite InterCharge installs on your company network. An Internet or private connection to AT&T PocketNet service is required to communicate wirelessly with the InterCharge server using your AT&T PocketNet phone. The software starts at $299 for five users.

Browser Support
We’d like PocketNet to support Microsoft Internet Explorer 4.0. (In fact, support for this browser should be available by the time you read this article.)

CONCLUSION
If you’re often on the go, and you need to stay connected to people and information at your office or home, you will love PocketNet. With PocketNet, you will not only be reachable by voice, but also by e-mail, or by a page entered at AT&T’s Web site. And even though PocketNet gives you e-mail and Web connectivity, you won’t need a laptop, just your PocketNetenabled wireless phone.

There are many advantages to doing without a laptop. Who enjoys lugging a laptop everywhere they go? Or turning the thing on for the benefit of airport security? Or checking into a hotel only to find you can’t get a data connection for your analog modem? (Note: Hooking up your laptop’s analog modem to a hotel’s digital PBX can fry your modem.) For all these reasons, road warriors may well prefer to use PocketNet, and thereby gain 100% universal access to their e-mail, without resorting to a laptop.

Employers will like PocketNet, too. After all, not every company can afford to buy every traveling employee a dedicated laptop. Also, some companies may balk at installing remote access servers and dedicated phone lines to provide traveling employees email access. In addition, companies might like to avoid the administration and security hassles associated with a remote access server.

As matters now stand, the PocketNet phone is an extremely usable and fea-turerich product, notwithstanding all our Room For Improvement items. It’s all very well for us to dream up extra bells and whistles, but it’s PocketNet that has provided the foundation for these flights of fancy. Indeed, PocketNet is one of those products that is so good it inspires lots of ideas to extend its capabilities.

It’s very easy for us to imagine ourselves using PocketNet, and everyone else, too. TMC Labs highly recommends that any road warrior give AT&T’s PocketNet service a try.







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