Builders embrace wireless tools

Internet phones, pocket computers now in tool belt

The latest round of technological changes at Hall-Irwin Corp. was spurred by a Christmas gift.

In just a few months, the Greeley construction company acquired companywide electronic mail. It also brought in Aims Community College to train employees on Microsoft Outlook, a software program that functions as a calendar, address book and e-mail provider.

But Hall-Irwin can thank Karen Mack, wife of the company’s vice president of construction Adam Mack, for the last nudge toward the techno frontier. She gave her husband a Hewlett-Packard Co. Jornada pocket personal computer.

“I thought I’d better figure out…