I used to be a paper guy...I would write notes on yellow post-its and on scraps of paper all the time. This was bad for two reasons - (1) sometimes I would look at the note and have no idea what I wrote, and (2) I never seemed to have important information with me when people asked for it.
I also used to own a Palm Pilot Professional, but never fully utilized it because it was too bulky, had only 2MB of memory that I filled very quickly, and I couldn't beam things to people. So, it stayed in my bag as nothing more than a glorified address book.
Then I bought the Palm IIIxe, and my life changed. I know carry my Palm with me everywhere, no longer write notes on tiny scraps of paper, and have information at my fingertips whenever it's required. Plus, my friends can beam me cool games to play when we're in meetings.
Let me take a few moments to get the "cons" of this product out of the way. The biggest issue I have with the Palm IIIxe is the backlight. When you look at it, it's as though the screen have been negatively inverted, which actually makes it pretty hard to read. I prefer the old backlight of the Palm Professional. In addition, there is only 8MB of memory - while quite a bit, I'm sorta an application collector, and so they probably couldn't put enough memory in it for me! These two things are the only real issues I have with the Palm IIIxe at the point, and I've owned and lived with mine for about 3 months now.
There is plenty of good to say about the Palm IIIxe, so here goes :
(1) 8MB of memory is quite an advancement from the 2MB I used to have. I have tons of stuff on my Palm, and have just recently came up against the memory boundary. For the average users, 8MB is plenty of space.
(2) Palm OS 3.5 seems, to me, to be very stable. I've only had to reset my Palm once, and that was after I dropped it.
(3) Speaking of durability, the IIIxe is very durable. I dropped mine from about 6 feet, and suffered no problems, save for a reset. I also keep mine in my back pocket, so it readily accepts the abuse of sitting all day in a slouched position at my computer.
(4) The HotSync process is very easy to set up and get going. When I got my new Palm, I simply put it in the cradle, performed a HotSync, and all my data and applications from my old Palm were now in my IIIxe. Amazing!
(5) There are so many great applications out there to put on your IIIxe, you'll soon find yourself running out of space. You can pretty much find an application for almost anything you are interested in.
(6) While the IIIxe is not Internet-ready like the Palm V, you can connect to the Internet if you use a Palm Modem. I have one of these, and it works great! I can retrieve and send email, IM with my friends, and even use other TCP/IP related applications. All that connectivity in such a small package.
(7) I also use my IIIxe to sync my mail and appointments with Lotus Notes (which I dislike very much - Go Exchange 2000!). You can also sync with numerous other programs like Outlook, Eudora, and Yahoo! Mail. This is great for always having your information close at hand.
(8) Beaming is cool! You can beam notes, address book entries, applications, and even play head-to-head games with your friends. Very cool!
There is just so much good to say about the Palm IIIxe, but the only way to truly understand is to check it out yourself. Once you commit to using it, you'll wonder how you ever got by without it!
A quick note about expansion boards. There are more available for the Handspring Visor than there are for the Palm IIIxe. But, let's be honest - do you really need an MP3 Player/GPS/Camera handheld? For most people, the answer is no. In fact, I have numerous hardcore Palm and Handspring users, and not a single one of them owns any sort of expansion board/snapin module (except for a modem). Realize the Palm IIIxe for what it really is - a connected organizer - and you'll be fine.
Same size and weight as earlier Palm III models 8 MB RAM (4 times that of the popular Palm IIIe connected organizer) Upgradable features and operating...More at Amazon Marketplace
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