From travel planning to movie tickets and from stock quotes to sports scores, wireless applications are getting closer and closer to providing nearly the same functionality that you can get from fully-blown Web sites. PC Magazine takes a look at the some of the top wireless sites. Wireless portals, or aggregators and formatters , work with device browsers to present preselected menus of content. These formatters can often be accessed from the first preloaded menu a wireless service provides on its devices.
Companies compete for top menu billing, often with only two or three prime positions available.
In June, for example, AOL took over the number-three spot on the Sprint PCS Wireless Web menu. By selecting an included portal or keying the URL of a compatible portal, you can access different content menus. These portals let you access specially formatted sites or applications . The number and diversity of these wireless content sites increased daily as we worked on this story. All of these can be accessed using the aggregators and formatters we reviewed, and some may be menu entries on your device's own built-in portal.