From Palm Infocenter <a href="http://www.palminfocenter.com/view_Story.asp?ID=3816" target="_blank">Article Link</a>
According to an anonymous source, Apple and Palm Inc. are working together to develop an 802.11 access card for the next generation of Palm's handhelds. As often happens with rumors, details are extremely sketchy, not even including what form the device will take. It could be designed to plug into the SD port like Palm's Bluetooth SD card or connect to the Universal Connector like the Xircom Wi-Fi sled.
If Palm was looking for a large company to work with on producing and marketing a Wi-Fi product, Apple is a reasonable candidate. Apple was the first large computer maker to embrace Wi-Fi, which it calls Airport. It makes a line of access stations and PC cards for its Mac models.
The main disadvantage of Wi-Fi for handhelds is it draws a great deal of power, greatly limiting the amount of time it can be used. This is why the Xircom Wi-Fi sled for Palm models has a built-in battery. The Toshiba e740, which has a built-in 802.11b radio, can only use if for 2 hours before its battery is drained.
While there are some concerns about whether a Wi-Fi radio can fit in something as small as an SD card, SyChip is confident enough that it has announced it will have one ready by the end of this year.
Wi-Fi isn't the only option for wireless networking. Palm's Bluetooth SD card or Sony Bluetooth Memory Stick, which are already available, in conjunction with a Bluetooth network access point, can do it right now, albeit with less range and slower access than 802.11.
About 802.11
802.11, also called Wi-Fi, is used to create a wireless, Local Area Network (LAN) and allows connections across ranges as great as 100 meters and speeds up to 10 Mbps, depending on power level and objects interfering with transmissions. Connections are made via access points and consequently multiple devices can be connected to the network through an access point, provided they are within range.
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