Word: merlin
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...fell in love with the Merlin wireless modem the first time I saw a picture of one in an ad. It is so adorable. The modem is built into one of those PCMCIA cards that fit into a credit-card-size slot on a laptop computer; a teeny, 2-in. antenna--so cute!--pops up to send and receive data at 19.2 kbps. That's a fairly pedestrian speed, but if it meant I could do e-mail and even browse the Web while riding the Long Island Rail Road, I'd happily put up with it. Imagine...
Novatel, whose Minstrel line of wireless modems is popular with Palm users, has just begun shipping the Merlin, which works on most PC laptops, to retail stores. The company says that at $279, it is the cheapest wireless modem around (I haven't found a cheaper one--others tend to cost $400 and up). Another plus: the Merlin draws roughly one tenth the power of a typical laptop modem. That's good news for road warriors and anyone else trying to conserve their laptop's battery...
...Merlin connects to the Net using Cellular Digital Packet Data (also known as CDPD, which is my favorite abbreviation to say, since it sounds like Seedy Petey). Unfortunately, Seedy Petey is not my favorite service to use. You can get it in most metropolitan areas from cellular carriers such as AT&T. But, unlike cellular-phone service, which is billed by the minute, you pay by the bit: it costs around $15 a month to send 500 MB of data; unlimited service is available for $54 a month. That would be reasonable if it always worked. But it doesn...
...sends data over constantly changing unused frequencies in the cellular network, a juggling act that succeeds when the user is at rest. Indeed, when I was sitting at my desk 23 floors above the streets of Manhattan, the connection was just fine: data moved easily to and from the Merlin, and even Web pages could be loaded within a reasonable amount of time. But when I was not at rest--when I was, in fact, hauling along on an eastbound train--two tin cans and a string would have made a tighter connection. I found it all but useless...
...sorry for the deaths of three young people and for their families, who grieve for them. But I am appalled at the extravagant outpouring of adulation. MERLIN ANDREW Toronto...