Palm PDAs: becoming the standard
Written: Sep 09 '00 (Updated Sep 09 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: most widely used OS therefore the most software. good small PDA
Cons: bulkiest of the Palms, no rechargeable batteries, and no flash ram.
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| that's Full Review: Palm IIIe Personal Organizer |
After I wrote this review I realize that it is very long so I decided to create a shorter review at the beginning which just highlights my thoughts. Please read my full review if you have the time! Thanks!
The Good
The most widely used OS for all PDAs. This is good because it means that most of the software will be written for the Palm OS. I believe because of the high percentage of Palm users that this will be the standard like Microsoft is with the computer OS market.
Durable PDA. I think that the IIIe is one of the most durable PDAs on the market. Sorry I’m not going to test it by hitting it or dropping it from five stories but all that I have read on PDAs state that the IIIe is one of the most durable.
Nice and small compared to the typing mini laptop PDAs. This allows you to enter data without having to set down the PDA. If you want a laptop get a laptop.
The number one reason: cheap.
The Bad
Flip top cover design. Makes the Palm awkward to use.
The stylus is flimsy and light. I feel like I could easily loose it.
No rechargeable batteries. You have to purchase your own and you will lose your information after you change you batteries until you hot sync again.
No flash memory. Because of this you can not update to the higher OS.
Software that comes with the Palm not as good. But easy to download better software online.
My Review
I believe that Palms are going to change our world. I’m seeing Palms everywhere, from the business world to high schools. As the technology continues to improve on this great product all I can think of is how this is going to become a large part of our lives. Not only is this product already inundating the market, but it just gets cheaper and cheaper making it more accessible to the average person. This is going to make the once gadget a vital part of this world. Because the Palm OS is taking over the market most software companies are only making Palm software for PDAs. And just as Microsoft has taken over the computer OS by making windows the most used OS and therefore having all the software companies focus on making programs for the windows OS, I believe that the Palm will be the standard as well. Can you imagine everyone being accessible by a press of a button? As the prices of wireless internet and wireless communication also reaching a new low, we are entering an age where we will all be connected – and this could very well be the product (like the phone did with telecommunications) that glues us all together. Just a thought, now on to my review!
As a college student I thought that the Palm IIIe would be a great addition to my life. I could add all my assignments and never have to buy a new day planner. But now that I actually own this product I realize that I use it more as a web viewer and a notepad than for a planner!
What is it?
The Palm III (like all Palm products) is a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA). Generally its first and foremost use is as a planner. You can enter data into your calendar of events as you would in any planner. Of course there is also an address book like in any planner and a calculator. Initially it was just as it was labeled – a digital assistant. But now it is used for so much more (which I will get to later in the review).
The Palm IIIe comes with a plastic stylus (a four inch plastic stick that you use to write on the touch screen), a hard plastic cover (to protect the screen that is attached to the top of the Palm and used as a flip top), the hot sync (needed for your Palm and your computer to communicate) and of course the actual Palm. The Palm IIIe comes with two mb of ram and software to run it. The original software is the date book, the address book, calculator, a to do list, an expense program, a lot of different other small programs that calibrate your Palm or introduce you to your Palm. There are also games and other programs on the CD-ROM that comes with the Palm which are optional to add to your Palm.
The Good
The Palm IIIe is a great PDA. I think as a student, the Palm IIIe is all that I will need. I was initially going to get a Palm V, but a lot of my friends which had their own Palms realized after they bought it, that they didn’t use it to it’s full potential and that perhaps buying a three hundred dollar Palm V might not be worth it. So I decided a 150 dollar Palm might be a good starter PDA for me, considering there were already a lot of hype about the new series of Palms as well as a Sony Palm coming out. I thought that if I used my Palm IIIe enough and if it was a good part of my life then I would invest in a better Palm later in my life.
There are so many good things about this product. Whatever you need to do I am positive that there is a way to do it with a Palm. Want to be able IM someone anywhere? You can do it when you get a modem and pay for the service. Want to have a remote control? You can download the program that makes your Palm into a remote. This thing can do it all. If you’re connected I think you can do whatever you want that you can do at home on your computer. I have written a few epinions on some Palm software.
When I was thinking about getting a Sharp tripod like PDA. But I realized how inconvenient it would be to have to put my PDA down every time in order to enter data because of the keyboard. I didn’t want a laptop, I have one of those already. What I wanted was something small and easy to use to enter my calendar items as well as notes.
PDAs are becoming similar to computers. The more and more they advance the more they are becoming handheld computers. The main reason I think the Palm IIIe is a good buy is because of the Palm OS and all the software you can get with it. Because PDAs are becoming more like computers, choosing one is a very personalized experience. You have to know what you want before you buy it. If you are a student (high school or college and I guess if you’re rich middle or elementary school student) then I think the IIIe or new m100 is a great buy. At 150 dollars or even less if you can find a good deal online I believe that this is all you will really need. A new OS won’t really help if all the software that you need will work on the Palm IIIe’s current OS. All the software that you will use can easily fit on your PDA as well as lots of fun applications (games) on the two mbs.
Also the Palm IIIe is very durable. The Handspring is also the same price yet you get more memory (8 mb) as well the springboard which allows you to add modules into your PDA (like a gameboy) so that you can do more things with your PDA like make it into a MP3 player. But the Handspring is known to break easily. And as a result I think that it isn’t the best buy for a student that has to quickly throw things into a bag.
If you are going to buy a planner and you think you’re going to buy one every year for maybe three years, then the Palm IIIe is going to be a good buy. Because the price of the normal planners are a bit high if you add up three years of planners I think it would be higher than 150 dollars. Value alone makes the Palm IIIe a good buy. But you can do so many more things with it as well.
I don’t know what else to say about the Palm IIIe but if you are the person who wants to try out the Palm series or a new PDA I think a great place to start would be the IIIe. It is cheap and durable and very similar to all the other Palms. Everything is good about the Palm series. If you are thinking about a PDA I highly suggest you lean toward the Palms. They have the software and the advantage of being the most widely used OS. The Sony, IBM and Handspring PDAs all use the Palm OS.
The Bad
First off I don’t particularly like the flip top cover. At first I thought that it was a nice to have since it would protect my Palm a lot better than the soft leather cover that the original Palm IIIs came with. But I realized that it was awkward to write and use the Palm with a flip top creating a wall between you and whoever you are talking to.
Of course I hate the fact that there is no flash ram. All the other higher Palms have flash ram which enables them to update their Palm OS. I just worry that without the newest OS I might not be able to use the most recent programs for the Palm.
I don’t particularly like the bulkiness of this device. It is rather thick (which was the main reason I was going to buy the Palm V instead of the IIIe) which makes it hard to carry around. What I decided to do was to get a wallet like carrier for it since I can’t put it in my pocket. But then I was stuck with this huge wallet which I don’t particularly like either.
The stylus is really flimsy. I thought that I would get the metal ones that were standard on the original Palms. But instead the IIIe comes with plastic one that feels really cheap as well.
Also the Palm IIIe does not have a rechargeable power unit. This I really didn’t like. It doesn’t really matter that all your information is on the computer and that all you have to do is hot sync to get all your information back the way that it was before you replaced the batteries. It’s just the idea that you have to buy batteries for your device. And the idea that if your batteries ran out unexpectedly you could lose everything until you hot sync again.
I don’t really like the date book that is provided. You can’t really put in things that need to be done on that day which have no time in which they were due. So if I have a report due or just general project due, there is no area to add it to. I have to put it under a time slot in order to have something there. Perhaps I just haven’t figured out the software completely but I still think that it’s bad. I’m sure that there is a better program that you can download in order to have an area to add small things to do. You can put things in the to do list and have a due date there, but if you just look on the calendar you will not see it.
Final Thoughts
This turned out to be a really long review, and I apologize for that, but there is a lot to be said when it comes to a hardware review. When there are so many alternatives you need to have a good argument in order to understand why one product is better than another, especially when they are very similar. Thanks you very much for reading this!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 150
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