The Mobile Internet Kit (MIK) is aimed at Palm owners who have earlier Palm (or compatible) devices without the wireless extensions which ship with current models. The programs included are an email Client (Multimail) SMS (HandPhone) a WAP Browser (NeoMar) and a set of Palm Query Applications (PQAs).

On installation the program asks if you are running Palm OS 3.5, if not it will upgrade your machine. As the Palm 3.5 upgrade costs pretty much the same as the MIK this makes the package good value for money of you need this upgrade anyway. The installation program then adds a new connection in your preferences depending on how you will connect to your mobile phone.

So far so good. The applications are then installed and your Palm reset.

On first use, however, you will find some serious shortcomings in the supplied software. Firstly the Neomar WAP browser (which has to be manually installed). The WAP gateway address is fixed and cannot be changed. Effectively this rules out connection through any number of service providers who will only allow connection through their own gateway. A pointless restriction and one that Neomar support say was forced on them by Palm.

Restricted from using WAP you can switch to the PQAs to find your information. Unfortunately the number of PQAs and the way they must be preloaded to your machine is far too restrictive. There is no questioning the quality of the PQAs but wireless access should be more free-form and spontaneous than this.

The Mail application is a good compromise for a handheld device, however there doesn't appear to be any support for any multiple POP mailboxes - another needless restriction.

Finally, frustrated by the restrictive nature of the other programs in the set, try the SMS program. At last something that really works well - compared to writing SMS on a phone keypad (even with T9 support) HandPhone is excellent. Unfortunately the program won't allow you to select multiple recipients for a single SMS but tactical use of cut and paste make this less of a chore than it might otherwise prove.

To sum up, if you need the Palm OS 3.5 upgrade then rush out and buy the MIK as the extras are well worth the price different.

Otherwise think carefully over what parts of the MIK you will use and how the shortcomings will affect you.

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