McGarvey’s Words

I am sitting in a yacht on the Napa River in Northern California and, even though the ship lacks any kind of telephony, I am easily, effortlessly downloading, reading, responding to my email. The secret is my Motorola T720 phone – and a Motorola USB Data Kit (about $40 from Amazon). A cable along with software, the data kit lets me turn my cell phone into a wireless modem for my laptop and, at 14.4 speed, I am ready to tap into email using AOL's flashmail (aka Automatic AOL), a tool that's good in low bandwidth applications.

Bottomline: if I have a Verizon mobile phone signal -- and Verizon pretty much is there, wherever I go -- I am good to go and get email. Plug one end of the cable into the phone, the other into the laptop's USB port, and I'm in business just that fast.

Of course this Moto phone itself is capable of web-based access to email – but the only time I have ever made much use of a cell phone to Web browse was when I was waiting and waiting in a dentist's chair for root canal to begin and it is difficult to say which was more painful, the dental work or the tedious accessing of email using a device that was never made to do that and a keypad that most certainly did not want to cooperate. Sprint had sent me that phone to persuade me that the wireless Web was for real on mobile phones but after my attempts to get excited about looking at a postage-stamp sized screen – an exercise aggravated by the need to input data via the keypad – I remained unconvinced.

Using the Motorola phone plus dongle is different because I am reading and writing on my laptop, which sees the phone as simply a modem. So I have access to the full keyboard, a good screen, and of course the address books, files, and templates on my laptop. Talk about cool. And that's true whether I'm on a yacht, in a client's conference room, or passing away the minutes in an airport lounge.

Incidentally, this set-up also gives me access to the Web, albeit at 14.4. But if pressing need arises, I can and have booted up Opera and gone hunting for needed data. The Motorola kit will get you there.

Wouldn't Wi-Fi work as well? Probably – but, I must confess, even though I have a wireless PC card, I've yet to log onto a Wi-Fi network. Don't call me a troglodyte because I have been meaning to sample Wi-Fi, except in Tucson, where I'm based, hotspots aren't ubiquitous and when I'm traveling, now that I've discovered the Verizon phone trick, I'm gaining satisfactory access to email just by using my cell phone.

One gripe: as regular readers will recall, I've complained before about the Motorola T720's poor battery life – and power simply hemorrhages out of it during online sessions. My advice: watch the clock because when you've been online for an hour, the battery seems about to sputter into exhaustion. That cavil aside, however, the phone is a champ when deployed as a modem.

Is this set-up good enough to convince me to delay buying a wireless email device (such as Treo)? For now, definitely, and I'll tell you it has nothing to do with the few dollars the device would cost. Main reasons I'll delay is: who needs to carry yet another gadget? I'm already lugging the Moto phone and the laptop and the extra USB cable is no big deal to throw in the computer bag.

What I do want – unquestionably – is the convenience of being able to access email wherever I am, whenever I want – and this Motorola cable gives me that.

Will I eventually jettison the weighty laptop in favor of a smaller, wireless device? Smart money says that will happen – just not yet. Let my back get wearier, let my frustration with TSA laptop checks grow, and, maybe, I'll sign up for the wireless gizmo. But so far, this Moto cable is making me happy indeed.

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About Robert McGarvey

Author of How to Dotcom (Entrepreneur Press), and a onetime columnist for BizTravel.com, McGarvey is a frequent contributor to dozens of magazines, ranging from American Legion to Selling Power, American Way, and Rutgers. He has also contributed to Harvard Business Review. For the past five years, he has served as "The Ombudsman" for PORTHOLE Cruise Magazine. Still curious about McGarvey? Read up on him here.

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