This Pack is Almost Here!
Compaq Computer Corporation's GSM/GPRS Wireless Expansion Pack
Compaq Computer Corporation's GSM/GPRS Wireless Expansion Pack
April 4, 2002
Article by: Adam Z Lein, Guest Editor
A NEW TOY
March 26, 2002, I received my new GSM/GPRS Wireless
Expansion Pack for the iPAQ Pocket PC. It was shipped
to my place in New York from England where it was
originally released in March. The US release
is not slated until June 30, 2002.
Out of the box, there are a few warnings that you should update your iPAQ's ROM to the latest version before connecting the expansion pack. This is mostly for H3800 users (presumably to fix a problem with the wake-on-ring feature), and the ROM installers are included on the CD that comes in the box along with an auto-start application that detects to see if you do need a ROM upgrade. My old H3600 with PPC 2002 SP1 did not need any upgrade. I removed my SIM card from the old Nokia 3390 phone and put it in the new Expansion pack. The tray and tiny eject button seem like they could break pretty easily, but this shouldn't be a problem as long as you don't go switching SIM cards everyday.
The expansion pack includes its own ROM where all of the software resides. There is no need to install software on the iPAQ and take up the iPAQ's valuable RAM. Upon first connection, the GSM/GPRS expansion pack does install drivers on the iPAQ's RAM. It also places a small application in the Program Files directory along with data storage and preferences files for storing your Call History and SMS (Short Message System) messages. The SMS application will also allow you to move all SMS messages saved to your SIM card into the iPAQ's RAM. This is good because then you can backup those data files to your desktop hard drive. One problem is that there's currently no easy way to import these messages into a more useful place such as the Outlook e-mail folders.
Another issue with the Wireless
expansion pack is that its drivers (installed into
the iPAQ's RAM) can interfere with using other expansion
packs such as the Compact Flash sleeve. To resolve
this, a dialog box appears when connecting a different
expansion pack that asks if you want to remove the
drivers for the GSM/GPRS Wireless Pack. If you say
"yes", then the iPAQ will do a soft reset
and your Compact Flash cards and other hardware should
work fine. This can be pretty annoying but hopefully
will be fixed in future versions of the software,
which is fully upgradeable since the expansion pack's
ROM is flash-able.
When you attach the GSM/GPRS expansion pack, the drivers launch the software required to interact with it. A new title-bar application shows up at the top of the Pocket PC interface. The icons here show the GSM (Global System Mobile) signal strength, new messages, GPRS (General Packet Radio Service) registration, iPAQ battery life, Expansion pack battery life, and expansion pack power/connection status. These icons also give you access to the Voice Center and phone book.
The Voice Center application, who's only purpose is to provide links to the Voice and SMS applications as well as "Help" and Internet Explorer, seems entirely unnecessary. The phone book application (accessible via the title icon's pop-up menu) allows you to choose contacts from your contacts database (sync'ed with Outlook) and then either call or send an SMS to those people.
Both the Voice application and the SMS applications are proprietary Compaq versions (not Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition). They are accessible from the Wireless Pack "Voice Center" software. The Voice application has a telephone-style user interface which includes the 12 button number digits just in case you might ever actually need to dial a phone number manually ever again. You can choose different skins for the Voice app's Simple Mode by going to Tools--Voice Settings--Skins. The "Misty" one is what appears in most advertisements, however the ugly "Gray" skin is what appears by default. You'll want to change this right away.
- Various Skins -
- Voice Settings
-
The Voice application's settings menus allow you to change the ring tones as well as the GSM network bandwidth, call forwarding, security, speed dial settings, etc.
- Caller Logs and SIM utilities -
The Voice Application also includes a Call History. Here you can view a list of all the incoming and outgoing calls that were made on your phone. You can also see the date, Time and Duration for each call. There is also a SIM card utility that will let you copy phonebook entries on your SIM card into Outlook or vice-versa. You can also edit SIM card entries manually and save them from here. This is mainly for those that already have a SIM card full of phone numbers since the Voice application software primarily uses Outlook for dialing.
The Voice application also has an Advanced mode which you can switch to via the menu at the bottom. You can use Advanced mode if you don't care about the cool skins and also want to use a few more features. In Advanced mode, when you make a call, it will appear as an item in a list. You can tap 'n hold on this item and choose different options from a context sensitive menu. This allows you to put the call on hold and then make another call. The second call will appear as another item in the list. You can then tap 'n hold on the call that is on hold and add it to the conversation with the other caller using the Conference command. This seems to be a really great interface for making conference calls. Each participant's caller ID phone number appears in the list along with their name, provided the software can associate the ID# with a phone number in your contacts database. Which brings me to another software bug. Usually in the states we store phone numbers in the format (800) 555-1212, however caller ID#s often come in as +18005551212. The added "1" and different format seems to cause problems associating the number with a caller's name, however, I hope this will be fixed before it's released in the US.
Speaking of caller ID, when an incoming call is
received a dialog will appear on the iPAQ screen
with buttons for "Answer" and "Reject".
The dialog will also show the caller's phone number
and their name if the number is in your contacts
database. The same will happen with incoming SMS
messages. If you are in the Voice application, this
dialog will not appear, but the information will
be shown on the Voice app's interface and you'll
have to use the Answer button to answer the call.
- SMS Application - The SMS application is not integrated with the Pocket PC Inbox, however it works in much the same way. One excellent advantage to using a Pocket PC for SMS messages is that you can write them using any type of input method. So while my friends are struggling with typing messages using their 12 button cell phones, I can write them out easily using Calligrapher, Transcriber, Fitaly or whatever! (Whenever I see those commercials for AT&T's mLife text messaging or Verizon text messaging, I laugh at their pathetic attempts to make numeric digits a valid from of text input!)
In addition to SMS and GSM voice capabilities, the wireless expansion pack also includes GPRS and GSM-CSD Internet access. Here in New York, however, I have been unable to get a successful GPRS connection. Normally, a "G" will appear in the signal strength icon when the wireless pack is able to register on a GPRS network. However, this "G" has only appeared a few times on my device and it is not dependent on my location nor connection settings (the settings don't matter if the G isn't there). Voicestream has been very helpful in trying to get this to work on my device. We tried many different settings attempts. They tried changing certain network settings on their end and in my SIM card. The manager of my local Voicestream store even let me try my SIM card in other phones to see if I could get a GPRS connection there (which was successful over WAP).
If I could get GPRS to work then this would be great
because you can still receive incoming SMS and phone
calls while connected to GPRS (The GPRS connection
will be dropped upon answering an incoming call,
however). Meanwhile, I can still access the Internet
using GSM-CSD. The problem with this method is that
you have to dial out to an ISP and the billing is
applied to the amount of time you're connected rather
than the amount of data transferred. As it turns
out, according to the Compaq engineers, the European
ROM included with the GSM/GPRS expansion pack is
not yet fully compatible with the US networks (hence
the delay in the official release, and my problems
with establishing a GPRS connection).
USAGE
Over the weekend, I took this out to the International
Car show in New York City to test things out. I didn't
see the "G" once while in the City; however,
the voice and SMS was working great. It seems there
are still a few bugs in the software though, since
occasionally the expansion pack will lose its connection
with the iPAQ at which point I would have to disconnect
and reconnect the expansion pack. I've also experienced
the need to soft-reset the iPAQ when such things happen.
These sound like some more bugs within the current
ROM version.
The iPAQ will wake up when an incoming call or SMS is received, though it takes about 3 seconds for the wake up to occur and then announce the incoming call. If you wear the hands-free headset, you'll have more advanced warning of an incoming call since this will beep in your ear before the iPAQ wakes up. By the way, the ring tone can be customized to use any WAV file located on your Pocket PC. So it's easy to change your ring tone to Woody Woodpecker's laugh or the Dukes of Hazard's General Lee car horn (not included). There's also a battery vibration call indicator, however it seems to be quite weak compared to my Nokia 3390's vibration feature. And since I was carrying it in my modified Compaq Expandable case, I wouldn't have noticed anyway.
I took a razor blade to my Compaq Expandable case in order to make room for the Wireless Pack's antenna and headset jack. A little black tape should hold it together just dandy.
I took a razor blade to my Compaq Expandable case in order to make room for the Wireless Pack's antenna and headset jack. A little black tape should hold it together just dandy.
Another good thing about the Wireless expansion pack is that it can function as a handset if you flip it over. Yes, it is kind of annoying to have to flip it over and put it up to your head to use, but it is good that your cheek doesn't get marks on the screen.
Now for those complaining about the thickness this will add to your iPAQ... Yes, when you add more hardware to an existing device, it does tend to add more mass and volume given the laws of physics. However, this expansion pack is thinner and lighter than the PCMCIA expansion pack! The Wireless pack is wedge shaped on the back, so at the top it's about as thick as the PCMCIA sleeve, but it tapers off to be about as thin as the Compact Flash expansion pack. So, since I used to be carrying around the iPAQ with a wireless CDPD PCMCIA card, I've actually slimmed down my iPAQ by getting the GSM/GPRS Wireless pack. Not only did I slim it down, but I've added quite a lot of functionality! And I also don't have to carry a cell phone anymore! That's even less thickness and weight for the same amount of functionality, if not more.
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Some other people will argue that it's better to have two devices: a Bluetooth-enabled cell phone and a Bluetooth-enabled iPAQ. The problem I have with this method, (other than the fact that I don't own a Bluetooth cell phone or iPAQ) is that you still have to carry two devices. I like to keep my keys in my pocket, and I don't want those banging against an iPAQ and a cell phone. And it seems if I taped a cell phone to the back of an iPAQ it would be much thicker than the integrated GSM/GPRS expansion pack. Also having two devices means having one more thing to remember or lose. The one time I went out with just the cell phone, I was lost when I needed to look at Pocket Streets to find my way. I couldn't bear to do e-mail on the tiny cell phone screen and then only use the 12 button number digits to type something. Why do people still use numbers to call others anyway? It seems to me the original interface for using digits with telephones was a workaround since calling people by their actual name was not possible with the automated hardware at the time.
Overall, the iPAQ GSM/GPRS expansion pack is a great new device and I would recommend it to anyone who already has an iPAQ and a GSM cell phone account. If you don't have an iPAQ already, you might want to wait for the Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition devices to come out. And if you're in the USA, wait for June when the GSM/GPRS expansion packs will come with software to make it work properly here. Integrating cell phone communication abilities with personal information management and mobile Internet applications is an excellent step forward. Next, we need integrated global positioning systems, too!
