Newest Palm models inspiring envy
Published Sunday, February 28, 1999, in the San Jose Mercury News
New York Times - But PalmPilot III accessories don't fit Palm IIIx, Palm V
It is easy to admire the two new Palm Computing hand-held personal organizers
introduced last week, the Palm IIIx and the Palm V, but it is also easy to be envious of
them.
The PalmPilot and its successors are the most popular hand-held computers ever, with
more than 2.5 million sold in the past few years. They are small enough to fit in a shirt
pocket, cheap enough to buy without having to hide the receipt from one's spouse, easy
enough to use without memorizing the instruction manual and just techy enough to be the
only fashion accessory worn proudly by programmers.
Like their predecessors, both the Palm IIIx and the sleeker Palm V include a date book
that can store five or more years' worth of appointments, an address book that can hold
thousands of names, phone numbers and addresses, a to-do list that can occupy all of
your free time for months to come, a memo pad that would satisfy the most entrenched
bureaucrat, an expense account tracker and a calculator. Information, including text, is
entered easily by writing on the screen with a penlike stylus.
The new models can also hold scores of electronic mail messages transferred from a
desktop computer. The built-in Hotsync software synchronizes files between the Palm
and its desktop or laptop computer at the touch of a button, to keep contact and calendar
information up to date. The new Palms work seamlessly with Microsoft Outlook as well
as several other programs, both Windows and Macintosh. With an optional modem, the
Palms can send and receive data, including e-mail.
And that's just the start. More than 2,000 other application programs, most of them
available free or at low cost from the Internet, have been written for the Palm operating
system by people who love the little pen-based device that was first introduced in 1996.
The new Palms are to be admired for improving with age, and that is where my envy
comes in. For example, while my eyesight is beginning to dim, making it hard to read in
low-light situations, the new Palms have an improved screen that is much brighter and
easier to read indoors and out.
While I get thicker around the middle, the Palm V is getting thinner -- in fact, only half
the thickness of the original Palm Pilot. My batteries tend to run down more quickly
these days, but the new Palms can go for days, or weeks. The Palm V has a
rechargeable lithium-ion battery instead of the twin AAA's used in the Palm IIIx.
There was something else, but I cannot remember what it was. Perhaps I should have
written it down. Oh yes, the Palm IIIx has twice the memory of the Palm III that it
supersedes, 4 megabytes as against 2 MB. Palm Computing has also repositioned the
memory chips to make the newest Palms more rugged, which is important on a device
that some people carry everywhere.
In short, 3Com Corp.'s Palm Computing division has revitalized its lineup, just in time,
perhaps, to stave off a flurry of copycat devices based on the rival Windows CE
operating system.
More on those in a bit.
The Palm IIIx, which has a list price of $369, is pretty easy to sum up: it has a better
screen, a faster operating system (Palm OS 3.1) and more memory than the year-old
Palm III, at the same original price. Meanwhile, 3Com has cut the price of the Palm III
to $299, making it more attractive to PC owners on tighter budgets. The price of the
Palm Pilot Professional organizer has been cut to $199 from $249.
The fancier and more expensive new model is the long-awaited Palm V. While it is less
than a half-inch thick, the Palm V carries a fat $449 price tag. That makes the Palm V
roughly $448 more expensive than the simple paper notebook and pencil I have been
using in a futile attempt to keep my life organized. Is being organized digitally worth the
extra $448? After several days of testing the Palm V, I'm not sure I can justify it
logically.
But when I pulled out the Palm V during a meeting this week with some Silicon Valley
hot shots and flashed its new brushed metal case, the ooohs and aaahs were certainly
worth a few bucks.
With just 2 MB of memory and a shorter battery life, the Palm V offers no performance
advantages over the less-expensive Palm IIIx, which, by the way, will also fit in a shirt
pocket. Although a few minutes in its desktop cradle each morning will keep the Palm V
charged for even the longest workday, it was no problem to pop a couple of fresh AAA
batteries into the older versions every few weeks.
The $80 price difference between the two new models buys style. The 3Com folks refer
to the Palm V as the ''executive'' model, the kind of functional status symbol that will
appeal to people who must have the tiniest cell phone at the conference table.
Current Palm owners will be envious of the Palm V's sleek design, but their enthusiasm
may fade when they discover that none of the Palm Pilot III accessories, including the
stylus, modems, cases and so on, fit the skinnier device. A new 33.6-kilobit-per-second
modem for the Palm V is $169. A Palm V travel kit, including a power adapter for
foreign countries, is $50. Elegant leather holsters for the Palm V are available from
Coach and Dooney & Bourke.
Programmers and engineers may also object to the Palm V because, unlike the Palm IIIx,
the case cannot be cracked open easily to facilitate clever technical hacks, like
transforming the Palm into a television remote control, a global positioning system
device or an electronic book. The ability to reprogram and tinker with the original
PalmPilot was a major factor in its popularity among the technical elite.
As always, style is not always compatible with functionality. The leather cover flap that
comes with the Palm V presses down on the device's new, raised scroll button. Even the
lightest pressure, like laying it face down on a desk or putting it in a shirt pocket while
its power is on, causes the Palm V to chatter like a tiny, rabid chipmunk.
Such gripes aside, a lot of people will probably be cashing in a share or two of their
favorite Internet stock to get the Palm V, just because it is cool as well as genuinely
useful.
And I will try to justify buying one, too, because I've just discovered a $20 program
called Glucopilot, which enables me and other Type I diabetics to use a Palm computer
as a way to track and chart my daily blood glucose, insulin and carbohydrate information
much more efficiently than with a paper notebook. Glucopilot and more than 2,000 other
Palm OS programs are available at www.pilotgear.com , one of the best of
many Internet sites that have sprung up to support Palm users.
Until recently, the Palm organizers have not had much serious
competition. That is about to change. Compaq next week is going to
unveil its Aero hand-held computer, which will join Hewlett-Packard's
Jornada 420 as a rival to the Palm organizers. Both the Compaq and the
Hewlett-Packard hand-helds have color screens, one of their main
advantages over the Palms. Color-screen rivals will also be coming from
Casio, Everex, Philips and others.
Some other features planned for these new challengers sound impressive,
like microphones and speakers for voice annotation, vibrating alarms and
so on. The question is whether they will be able to match the Palm's ease
of use, battery life, size and weight, cheap and plentiful software supply,
and price.
o~~~ O |
