Indispensable Programs not Included
Written: Aug 11 '00 (Updated Aug 12 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Low cost, good entry-level PDA,
Cons: ugly cover
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| silencery's Full Review: Palm IIIe Personal Organizer |
A while back, I broke down, succumbed to corporate marketing strategies, and bought a palm IIIe. I have always been the type that just kept track of stuff in my head, but lately I have been missing many appointments largely due to the failure of my memory. It's not that I'm getting old (denial), it's just that I have a lot more to keep track of lately.
That's what caused me to finally buy a Palm organizer. The standard practice of writing notes on paper just doesn't work for me; I always forget to write things down or lose all my notes. The only reason I'm ever motivated to jot things down in my Palm is because it's so cool! Perhaps the novelty will wear away sometime soon, but I don't forsee it anytime in the near future.
Initial Contact
The box includes The Palm IIIe w/ 2MB of RAM, 2AAA batteries, an ugly plastic cover, a serial hotsync cradle, various software CDs, and all the manuals for operation. Once I had the box open, I jammed the batteries into the appropriate slot and powered on the machine. After completing an initial calibration program, I was ready to go. In retrospect, reading the manual might have expedited my Palm learning experience, but hey, I wasn't having any problems. After mucking around w/ graffiti (the input interface for all Palm PC's), I was having no trouble entering data with the supplied stylus (plastic pen used to input data). Pretty soon, I had entered a decent amount of my friends' & colleagues' information into the machine. I had known about the hotsync feature which syncronizes the Palm's address book with the address book from Microsoft Outlook, but I never used Outlook in the first place so there was nothing to syncronize. The size of the actual machine without the cover is actually pretty small; it fit in my khaki's fairly nicely. I would not advise carrying the Palm IIIe around w/o a cover, however the screen seems like it'd be fairly easy to break.
Features
Feature-wise, the Palm IIIe is a bare-bones PDA. With its two Megabytes of memory, it will store a decent amount of programs, messages, contact, appointments, and various other data. What it WON'T do is run anything too extravagant including the gameboy emulator (www.palminfocenter.com) for Palm Operating Systems, Sim City (it will run, but not without taking about 70% of your memory), or any other crazy games. If you're frugal with your applications, you shouldn't have any problems with running out of memory.
Battery life with this unit is about a month running off two AAA batteries. Considering you buy rechargables, the maintenance cost shouldn't be too high. In case you were wondering if you can recharge the Palm IIIe via hotsync cradle... No, you can't. The hotsync is only used for transferring information.
Applications
Games are a huge plus for the Palm OS. If you're ever forced to stand in a huge line w/ no apparent end or hold on the phone for three or four hours waiting on a customer service representative to pick up, you'll understand what I mean. Nothing beats the convenience of pulling out your PDA when you're in the middle of nowhere to offset your boredom.
I didn't like the default datebook that came w/ my PDA, so I immediately got on the Internet and downloaded DateBookIV for my Palm. This datebook is much more extensive than the original datebook and it gives you the option of combining your memos, contacts, or appointments w/ the calendar effectively acting as an all-encompassing solution.
Not only is the Palm IIIe a handy organizer to keep track of your appointments, phone numbers, and such, but you can use programs like Avant Go to download news and e-mail to your handheld when you start your day and read them throughout. Avant Go's web page download function puts almost an entire newspaper on your PDA.
Indispensable software like this is what keeps my attached to my Palm IIIe. If not for such programs, I probably would have started out with a Pocket PC machine or something else. Here is my list of favorite Palm programs:
Datebook 4 (www.palmgear.com)
Replaces the default Palm date book with much more organized functions, easier navigation, and more detailed events.
Launcher 3 (www.benc.hr)
Overrides the Palm OS's menu w/ a tabbed system which is easier to browse.
Hackmaster (www.daggerware.com)
Various hacks to the Palm OS's default values.
The Breakdown
The Palm IIIe is basically a Palm V except it comes in a cheesy plastic case that doesn't look nearly as cool, isn't rechargeable, costs less than half the price, and is a bit bulkier/heavier. If you're looking for style, you should probably pick the latter. If you're the value-conscious consumer however, picking up the Palm IIIe is a good idea.
My personal opinion is that, low cost, ease of use and available applications work in tandem to keep Palm's PDAs at the peak of market share for the time being. Without such features, people would probably turn to Pocket PC devices. Keep in mind that if these options aren't in your list of PDA criteria, the Palm IIIe is probably not the right choice for you.
Overall, a good machine that I could recommend to almost anybody that needed to get organized and have fun while they're at it =) This is very good product for teenagers beginning college or attending high school.
P.S. Palm released their new PDA earlier this week which is targeted towards teenagers. I have only seen pictures, but I was not impressed with what they came up with; the m100, which is what they christened it, is very round and bubbly-looking. From the images, I can only derive that the m100 is a little too large for my taste, but I would like to see it in person before I can make an accurate assessment. From press releases, I have deduced so far that it is a Palm IIIe in a case that can be changed around. Might be worth looking into...
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 100.00
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Epinions.com ID:
silencery
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Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
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