I just found a demo of the Lenovo Constant Connect card on eWeek that I thought was worth sharing. I learned a few more things about the device that make it slightly more useful but still I just don’t understand why RIM spent any time on such a project. Just as a reminder, the Lenovo Constant Connect PCI ExpressCard is a little card with 500mb cache that periodically syncs your mail between your laptop and your BlackBerry over Bluetooth.
What I learned from the video:
- Mail you send from your laptop will be queued to be sent out over your BlackBerry if you do not have an internet connection.
- The Constant Connect card will not be Constantly connected. Rather it will try to connect every once in awhile to sync with your BlackBerry. (Read still going to kill battery life)
- It will also cache all email you receive on your BlackBerry also on the Constant Connect card. Not sure why you would need this since it is already on your BlackBerry. I also wonder if it will automatically download attachments… (This is starting to read like more of a battery drain)
The idea seems to be that you will compose an email on the plane when you have no internet connection and it will queue the email to be sent over your BlackBerry. Then you shut down your computer before landing and the Constant Connect will automatically send the email from your BlackBerry when you turn your BlackBerry on after landing. They seem to think this will save you time.
Now this just raises one HUGE question. How is this constant connect card running Bluetooth allowed to be constantly broadcasting on a plane? Will you have to turn it on an off manually due to flight regulations? If so this is just one more thing you will forget to do if you are as busy as Lenovo thinks you are to even need a Constant Connect card in the first place.
Second of all practically every carrier in the country is planning a Wi-Fi rollout on many of their planes in the next year or two. If these emails are so important that you need a constant connect card you should just pony up the $12 and use Wi-Fi and send it immediately from the plane… Talk about a solution that will be obsolete before it is released in the second half of 2009.
Why was this project not scrapped along with the Palm Folio? You can do even cooler stuff with your BlackBerry over Bluetooth with Bayalink for $99.
