Carry the web in your Palm

In my previous installment on reading e-books on the Palm organizer, I touched briefly on a service called AvantGo. Maybe a bit too briefly, actually, since AvantGo is so absolutely cool.

In simplest terms, AvantGo lets you browse web sites off-line with your PalmOS device of choice (the service works with WinCE devices and certain cell phones as well, but for the purpose of this review, I’ll stick with the Palm). If you *do* have a modem or wireless connection to the Internet for your Palm device, then you can use AvantGo as a pocket web browser, but again, for this review, I’m going to focus on the off-line reading aspect.

There are three components to the AvantGo service:

First, the customized web page where you configure the ‘channels’ you wish to have saved on your Palm — that is, the web sites you will be carrying around with you everywhere you can take your Palm. You can opt either to translate an existing site as-is (with or without graphics and links), or you can choose from the cornucopia of channels that have been optimized for handheld devices — from the New York Times front page to DrinkBoy, the bartender’s reference.

To kick off my adventure in the portable web, I chose the optimized version of salon.com, and created my own custom channel for the Montreal Mirror movie listings (which you can add to your channel list by clicking here.)

The next part of the equation is the conduit software. This is the little program that lets your Palm download the pages from the Internet when you hotsync to your personal computer. Remember, you have to have an internet connection on your computer, or it won’t do diddly!

Finally, the AvantGo software itself. Presented as a sort of mini-browser for the Palm, you read your pages here. Within the program, you can mark channels to be deleted, and even add new ones from a short, predefined list, all of which will be deleted or added during your next hotsync. Forms are also supported, so you could conceivably shop, or fill out a web questionnaire off-line, and the info you entered would then be passed along during your next hotsync.

All of this may sound a little complicated, but the installation process is simplicity itself. Once you’ve downloaded the software from AvantGo, it takes you through the process of setting up an account, installing the software on your Palm, and configuring your first channels. In less than five minutes, you can have your fave ‘net magazine sitting comfortably in the palm of your hand.

The only real drawback I found with AvantGo was that it had trouble converting a few select sites. The multi-layered hilarity of The Onion translated poorly into AvantGo (hopefully someone there will create an optimized channel). And numerous attempts to get Mr. Showbiz’s Summer Movie Preview into the Palm failed; an ‘insufficient memory’ error occurred after seemingly successful synchronization every time.

But overall, AvantGo is a worthy companion to the regular ‘doc’ readers for the Palm. It excels in its ability to convert entire web sites, links and all, into portable documents. And who knows, it might not be too long until you see certain cheeky review sites available as their very own optimized AvantGo channels.

Stay synced!