---------- ---------- PC Pro Realworld Computing: Paul Lynch - PDAs

Palm V



Palm V
Palm V

Palm have, as expected, announced a new line up of models in advance of CeBIT, that will be available before the Palm VII wireless model that ships later this year in the USA. Why announce the Palm VII at the developer conference in December last year, but not the much closer new range? Palm wanted to keep sales at Christmas as high as possible, which would not happen with a new model release only two months later.

The new models are the Palm IIIx and the Palm V, which was covered by a full review in PC Pro issue 54; IV is skipped over, as it was by Psion, to avoid connotations of bad luck in China and the Far East. Both models share the same faster Dragonball processor and much clearer display. The software is effectively unchanged on both models from the PalmOS 3 available on the Palm III, although an Outlook conduit is added to the desktop software. These two new models will have been available from early March.

The Palm IIIx is otherwise identical externally to the current Palm III, but internally the 2 Mb RAM has been upgraded to 4Mb, and is installed on the main board, leaving the standard slot free for upgrades. Palm hope that this model will be taken up by their vertical market partners and resellers, who may use the slot to include embedded applications in flash RAM. The extra memory will be valuable for these applications, and for use by large database programs.

The Palm V is the all new, ultra slim Palm that has been rumoured under various names for the past twelve months. It is slightly shorter than the Palm III, but is the same width and only a little more than half the thickness. As with the move from the PalmPilot to the Palm III, the Palm V offers a significant perceived decrease in size. Earlier Palm models were the first pDAs that were a comfortable fit in a jacket pocket, and for most users were the first PDAs that could be carried at almost all times. The Palm V has broken the barrier to become the first true PDA that can comfortably be carried in a shirt pocket without bulging, drooping, or running a great risk of bouncing out; its impact should be that of the sports bra. And just like that article of clothing, it is intended as much as a fashion item as a highly functional article.

The Palm V has two identical channels down either side; each are suitable to hold a restyled, all plastic stylus, or the plastic mounted leather cover. This should be suited for right or left handed use. I found that the relatively sharp edges of the open channels were slightly uncomfortable on my fingers. The flap cover can be held open like a book in one hand, or can be folded behind the Palm; either way it is convenient to use, although it doesn't provide as much protection against dust and lint as the previous slip cover for the Palm III.

The casing is a gunmetal coloured metal sheath, giving the overall impression of a vastly reduced titanium Philips Nino. Unfortunately this means that the Palm V is slightly slippery, especially when cold. On the top edge of the case is a new button that activates an on-screen contrast slider, replacing the contrast wheel that could occasionally be activated by inserting or removing a Palm III from a case or pocket. Inside the case is a rechargable LiIon battery; battery life should be roughly the same as for the Palm III, and it recharges whenever replaced on the HotSync cradle.

The main functional difference of the Palm V is that it only has 2 Mb of RAM, but no expansion slot. Two Mb is certainly plenty enough space for normal amounts of contact data, memos and email; it is even enough for a reasonable number of typical additional applications. In reality more RAM isn't of any great compelling use, except perhaps to compare against the specifications of the far more highly equipped palm sized PCs running Windows CE. This isn't fair taken as a straight numerical comparison, as PalmOS is far more efficient of storage than CE.

A number of fashion accessories will be available at the launch. One rather more interesting accessory won't be available until a few weeks later; this is the dual analog/GSM modem. The modem clips onto the back of the Palm V, making it slightly greater in total volume than the older Palm III. It bulks so much to provide space for an analog phone socket, and for space for its own battery supply. Cables for mobile phones from Nokia and Ericsson can be bought separately to plug into the side of the modem. Phone with infrared support, like the Ericsson SH888 and Nokia 8810, can be used for communications without requiring the modem.

I can't help but think that Palm have slightly misjudged the Palm V by conceiving of it as an image toy and restricting the available memory, eliminating it from consideration by "power users", including corporate users with requirements for large databases held on the Palm, or with embedded applications. The much smaller physical size is worthwhile in itself to treat the Palm V as a serious candidate for upgraders, as it increases portability, still an important target for PDA designers.

The other important issue raised by the launch of the Palm V is that the operating software is essentially unchanged from the original launch of the Pilot 1000 several years ago; and Graffiti itself is unchanged since Palm first released it for the Newton in 1993 (note to Dick: Palm have verbally confirmed to me that they wrote G. in house, with no connection with Berkeley/GEOS). Some minor revisions have been made, including the addition of networking support and a Mail application, but in all important respects there have been no changes. I recognise that there is no reason to change a well accepted product without pressure from the market, or as the result of technology change. If it works, don't break it, and Palm certainly works. However, the available technology for building PDAs is changing, and in a way that Microsoft is capitalising on with Windows CE. This is the availability of colour LCD displays. Palm say that the current crop of displays are still too expensive, too large and too power hungry for their needs, but there has to come a time soon when this will change, and I believe it will be difficult for Palm to adapt. Making proper use of a colour display should mean shifting the basis of the user interface from a text display to a graphical one. Windows CE has used this from the start, and has proven that a conventional windows (with a small "w") and file browser approach is a poor match for a small device. making effective use of colour displays is likely to be the biggest challenger that Palm have had to overcome.



Words and design by:
Paul Lynch
Last updated: August 18, 1999

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