Socket's new Secure Digital Wi-Fi card is thinner and lighter than existing Wi-Fi cards. Sold through Synergy Hong Kong, Socket's SD wireless LAN card pops into SDIO-enabled PDAs and mobile phones to allow them to easily connect to private and public 802.11b networks. SDIO-enabled PDAs are devices with SD slots that can take third-party application cards.
The new Wi-Fi card, however, works only with Pocket PCs and not Palm devices, although a Palm compatible card will be released before the end of the year.
We tested the Socket SDIO Wi-Fi card and connected with ease to several wireless networks, including the 802.11b network at home and the PCCW Netvigator wireless hotspot at Pacific Coffee in Taikoo Place.
One grumble we had was that the card sticks out about half-an-inch from the device, so it could quite easily snap. Otherwise, it was simple to set up, worked the first time, and provided an excellent range. The Socket SD Wi-Fi Card maintained a strong signal up to 100 feet from the access point.
There is another SD Wi-Fi card on the market from flash memory king Sandisk, which also works only with Pocket PCs. Sandisk is to release an SD combination card with 256 megabytes of flash memory and Wi-Fi. That would be worth getting.
Socket SDIO WLAN card