The chief operating system vendors, Microsoft and Palm, and their hardware partners, are piecing together the elements that will make the marriage of handheld computers and the Web a happy one. Palm announced software to let most Palm users access its Internet portal with a built-in wireless link.
Users are limited to the applications and services that have been adapted for Palm.
Net, a technique Palm calls Web clipping. Palm will change its software to support a range of add-ons, including those that offer wireless connections or a cable to a cellular phone, which then acts like a wireless modem. Handhelds running Microsoft's PocketPC software don't have built-in wireless access. In both cases, users pay for a wireless service, and that doesn't come cheap. Initially it will focus on laptop users because the external Ricochet modem attaches via a Universal Serial Bus or serial port.