BIOS: Technology Means Business

The Tungsten C PDA is Palm’s most powerful hardware to date. It’s also Palm’s first PDA to integrate 802.11b wireless LAN connectivity and the first to ship with a 400MHz Intel XScale processor, which is designed to provide significant speed gains and improved power management.

The Tungsten C also offers 64MB of RAM (51MB actual storage capacity.) and runs Palm OS 5.2.1, which makes it much more of a compelling package for power users that don’t need the built-in phone functionality of the Tungsten W or the built-in Bluetooth connectivity of the Tungsten T.

The Tungsten C is similar in size (7.8x1.7x12.9cm) and weight (178g) to the Tungsten W, but lacks the wireless phone aerial at the top of the device. It does, however, use same QWERTY keyboard as the Tungsten W, which is relatively usable even for those with large fingers. A lot of the keys have multiple uses too, but you can still use Graffiti. Directly below the keyboard are four quick-launch buttons and a five-way navigator. The SD/MMC slot and IR port are found at the top of the PDA and the mono speaker is located at the rear of the device. There’s no built-in microphone. The high-resolution, 320x320-pixel transflective colour screen is backlit.

The Tungsten C allows you to connect to a wireless access point, wireless router, or wireless network card that supports Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) encryption. WEP encryption, if available on your Access Point, will provide you the option to generate a 64-bit or 128-bit encryption key. In order for your Tungsten C handheld to communicate with an access point using WEP encryption you must enter the generated WEP key into the Wi-Fi settings on the Tungsten C handheld. The PDA provides 40-bit WEP and 104-bit WEP encryption, which are the same as 64-bit and 128-bit WEP encryption respectively.

The PDA also comes with a PPTP VPN client which allows you to connect to a secure LAN, such as your office network. Other VPN clients such as IPSEC and LEAP are not included with the Tungsten C, however they are available from third-party software manufacturers. A VPN Setup wizard guides you through the process of connecting the Tungsten C to a PPTP protected network.

Palm ships a lot of applications with the Tungsten C, including Acrobat Reader for Palm OS; PrintBoy, for printing over wired and wireless connections; WorldMate, a world clock and data conversion program; PowerOne, an advanced calculator; VoiceMemo, for managing voice notes; AvantGo; Colligo Calendar, for wireless sharing of schedules and Kinoma video player. The standard Palm bundle is also present, comprising Address Book, Calculator, Card Info (for SD Cards), Date Book, Memo Pad, NotePad, To Do List and World Clock. You also get an e-mail client in the form of VersaMail 2.5, PalmSource Web Browser 2.0, a Wi-Fi setup utility, Documents to Go Professional Edition and Palm Photos for viewing digital images. Documents to Go Professional Edition lets you create and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint files, as well as view Acrobat files and synchronise with Microsoft Outlook (PC only).

The Tungsten C is the ideal handheld for professionals who spend a lot of time on the move and need to access data wirelessly from the office LAN and public 802.11b hotspots in places like airports, railway stations and exhibitions. It’s also packed full of the latest technology, which the Tungsten W isn’t and the Tungsten T offers in much smaller doses. It’s not really designed for multimedia use though because it doesn’t include MP3 software and only provides mono output from the headphone port. There’s no microphone port for making digital annotations either and Palm doesn’t include a headset/earpiece. However, fast processing speed, a lot of onboard RAM and a greatly improved screen makes the Tungsten C one of the best Palm devices to date and almost matches its Pocket PC competitors spec for spec. If you’re after a Palm for playing MP3s, taking pictures or watching movie files, take a look at the Palm Zire 71.