With Each Generation, the Palm Gets Handier
Let’s face it, not everyone gets excited about the computing devices they use. But some machines seem to bring out enthusiasm more than others. A lot of Mac users, for example, aren’t merely pleased with their computers, they’re enthralled with them.
The same can be said about users of the hand-held Palm III and other Palm organizers from 3Com. The Palm, which was first called the Palm Pilot when it debuted in 1996, has enjoyed a loyal and growing following. There are even clubs where enthusiasts gather to exchange tips and “beam” data from one person’s device to another’s via the Palm’s infrared data port.
The Palm comes with software you can use to store phone numbers and addresses, your calendar, personal expense records and notes. It also comes with games and, if that’s not enough, you can buy more software or download shareware from the Web. 3Com’s Palm site (www.palm.com) lists other sites where you can find software.
Paul Kipnes, a rabbi at Temple Beth Hillel in North Hollywood, downloaded a copy of AportisDoc, a document and book reader that he uses to access an English translation of the Torah that he stores on his Palm. With the software, he can quickly find passages from the scriptures, which serves him well during religious classes and intense discussions with other rabbis. The Palm is his constant companion.
“It helps me organize my entire life,” he told me as we exchanged “business cards” by beaming data between our respective Palms. In addition to storing his personal contacts and schedule, he also has a Jewish-calendar program that tells him about upcoming religious holidays and the appropriate portions of the Torah to read each week.
I’m not sure whether it’s kosher for rabbis to exhibit envy, but Kipnes couldn’t help but admire the sleek new version of the Palm that I had with me during our visit. The Palm V is one of two new units that 3Com recently unveiled.
All Palm models are small enough to slip into a shirt pocket, but at 0.4 inches, the Palm V ($449) is about 40% thinner than the Palm III. At four ounces, it’s also two ounces lighter and slightly smaller in its other dimensions. The unit has nicer-looking molding and a brighter and easier-to-read LCD monochrome screen. It also has grooves on the sides to make it easy to attach peripherals or secure it in an optional leather or plastic case.
Also, instead of using AAA batteries like the other versions, the Palm V has a built-in rechargeable battery that juices up while the device is in the docking cradle used to transfer data between it and a PC. According to 3Com, it can run up to a month on a single charge.
Palm’s other new machine is the IIIx ($369), which looks and feels like the older Palm III, only with four megabytes of memory instead of two, a sharper screen and a connector slot that makes it easier to expand the unit.
All Palm organizers are controlled by a stylus rather than a keyboard. You can enter text by clicking on a virtual keyboard that pops up on the screen, or you can block print using a special alphabet called Graffiti that for most characters is similar to regular capital letters. It takes a while to get comfortable using Graffiti, but to my surprise, I’m getting pretty good at it.
The Palm comes with Palm desktop software, which you install on your PC. The software is a reasonably good personal information manager with an appointment book, an address book, an expense-report form, a to-do list and a memo pad. It mirrors the software built into the Palm so that anything you enter either at the PC or in the Palm is synchronized with the other unit when you place the Palm in the docking cradle. The Palm V and the Palm IIIx also come with software that lets you synchronize the device with Microsoft Outlook 97 and 98.
Despite the improvements, neither the Palm V nor the IIIx is dramatically better than the older Palm III. The one I’m waiting for is the Palm VII, which is expected to be available later this year for a whopping $800. This model will have a built-in wireless modem that will turn the Palm VII into a two-way pager and an e-mail terminal.
The unit will also feature “Web clipping,” which 3Com describes as “a means of extracting only a specific set of needed information from a given Web site, eliminating the extraneous information prevalent in the Internet browsing paradigm.” That’s PR speak for software that helps compensate for the limitations of a slower wireless modem and a smaller screen. Another unit, developed with Qualcomm, will integrate the Palm with a cellular phone.
I spent a few minutes using a prototype of the Palm VII, and I must say that it was nice to be able to send and receive e-mail as I was walking down the street. Of course, there’s also something to be said about having peace and quiet and being able to escape technology. That’s why I’m happy to report that all versions of the Palm have an often overlooked but really useful feature called an on/off switch.
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Lawrence Magid can be heard at 1:48 p.m. weekdays on KNX 1070. He can be reached at larry.magid@latimes.com. His Web page is at https://www.larrysworld.com or keyword “LarryMagid” on AOL.
