A bought a m100 for one main reason, so that my girlfriend would stop borrowing my Palm IIIxe to play Dope Wars. (You can get Dope Wars form Download.com). As an added bonus, I would have an m100 to test my software on. When you test software, it's important to test it on as many different models as possible. This helps catch bugs that only appear on some models and not on others.

I got it from CompUSA. I tried BestBuy and Circuit City first but it was around Christmas time and they were both sold out. I guess the m100 was a popular gift this year. CompUSA was giving out a free CD with 5,000 Palm programs when you purchase a Palm Pilot. In all the stores that were selling Palm Pilots, the m100 was always priced at $149.99. Since chances are that you won't find it any cheaper anywhere else, try looking for a store that is offering something for free when you purchase one. This is a good idea when buying any computer. Sometimes mail order companies offer things like free RAM or a free printer when you purchase a computer. This helps them compete with brick and mortar stores. (Brick and Mortar is a term used to describe stores that customers can come to to make purchases, in contrast to stores that are mail order or online only.)

We opened up the box, installed the batteries, which were included (a nice surprise), and I beamed Dope Wars to her from my palm IIxe. That was all very simple and quick. The problems arose when we tried to sync it with her iMac. You have to back up the Palm Pilot's memory to your desktop computer in case the batteries die or an errant program erases some of your data. The m100 doesn't come with a cradle, just a HotSync cable but the cable is designed to plug into a PC serial port. If you want to use a USB port, which is faster and is what an iMac uses, you have to buy a special serial to USB adapter, which costs about $45. Instead of going back out to buy an adapter, I used the infrared port on the m100 to sync it to my PowerBook G3, which also has an infrared port. Palm's lack of support for Macintosh is disappointing, but at least the m100 comes with Mac software on the CD-ROM, unlike my Palm IIxe, which only came with Windows software. I had to purchase the Mac software separately.

The first thing that I noticed when I turned the m100 on was that the screen was so much smaller than my Palm IIIxe but that is understandable when you consider that the m100 is designed for a new and low-end users. More advanced users would benefit from purchasing a more expensive model.

The m100 has some unique features that I should mention. The first is the price. I have not found another PDA (Portable Digital Assistant) on the market that is as inexpensive. Especially not one that runs the PalmOS, which is the most popular PDA operating system. The protective flip cover as a neat two hinge design that allows the user to fold the lid to the back of the device, so that it can be easily gotten out of the way. In the lid is a clear window that displays the date and time when you press the up button. The m100 shuts off automatically when you use this feature. You can also purchase different colored cases for the m100. At $20 each, they are a bit pricey but some of the more aesthetically conscious users out there would appreciate it.

Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 150