Rating: Summary: Now this is something special Review: This is the PDA I have been waiting on. I fell in love with the Palm V many moons ago but the mono display has always been less that desireable. I had purchased the Palm III (XE model I do believe) for my wife to replace her day planner. She had wanted the IIIC but I didn't think color was worth the extra funds. Wrong. I tried using hers for a few minutes and my eyes were hurting. The mono screens are really harsh. Took the III back and got the IIIC. This PDA (M505) has a 16 bit color display (65000 colors). Beats the heck outta the Compaq Ipaq I had previously in all categories. This has to be the smallest PDA I have come across. The addition of the multimedia card slot is a definate plus. The Palm 4 OS has some great additions. Anyone questioning the backlight turnon/turnoff issue should know that Palm has a utility on their site for the 2 second turnon/turnoff of the back light. Just download it and install and you ar good to go. This PDA also has a vibrate feature. No idea what you would use it for but it is there. One other thing I like about the Palm OS is that there is a blue million programs that run on it. I definately go for the proven technology and that is what Palm is, PROVEN TO WORK. I had many issues with the Ipaq Pocket PC. Many errors trying to install software. Now the Ipaq is still the best Pocket PC, but I really don't care for the Pocket PC platform anymore. Just doesn't meet the hype. I would recommend any Palm (or other device that runs palm OS) device over Pocket PCs. Now, the one dissapointment. I went looking for a nice hard case for my new toy and was unable to find one. The aluminum molded cases (not the slider models) are not readily available yet. The cases for the Palm V do not work with the M505 either. The slot on the left hand side is smaller on the M505 than it is on the V. That is the only drawback, if that can be counted as a drawback. Rhino Skin offers a hard case but there are none available locally. Infact I have only seen them available at the Rhino Skin website.
Rating: Summary: The Best Palm Yet Review: I've had various Palms since my first 1000 and would not be without one. Palm have always produced solid products. They annoy you a bit changing connectors and making you buy new peripherals and I'm sure there must be some logic behind altering the diameter of one of the pen holders and making the other one shorter - but that's life. Although OS 4 might still not set the world on fire it's a good system, you know what they say - "if it aint broke don't fix it." I purchased a Palm M505 and a 32Mb SD card and would heartily recommend the machine to anyone who is in the market for a new PDA or an upgrade. Don't be too influenced by the anoraks and sad people who berate the screen unmercifully. It might not be the brightest on the market but the 16 bit colour is really good. Setup and transferring data from my old machine was a breeze and the new native USB connection is very fast. Pictures downloaded from SplashPhoto, providing you use good quality images and take a little care over adjusting contrast and brightness, are very pleasing and have received excellent feedback from colleagues and friends who have seen them. It's really nice to have digital images of your family with you all the time. Especially when you or they are away from home. I upgraded from a Palm 5 as memory was getting tight. The extra 6 Mb of memory plus the 32 on the SD card are already being put to good use. The machine is really fast although retrieving data from the expansion card does slow the system a little but not to any great extent. Colour programs such as City Time and AddressPro 6 are really good and add much pleasure when using the machine. It also fits in the Montblanc case I bought for my Palm 5 which was a great relief and it looks really great in it. If you are a Palm fan buy an M505, we live in a world full of colour not a monochrome one. Only go for the M500 if funds are really tight. You will not be disappointed with your purchase.
Rating: Summary: AWESOME CHRISTMAS PRESENT!! Review: I got this awesome palm piolot with a keyboard and it is great! I bought games and put a cool "Documents to Go" program on it. I write stories a lot so I can use it for that, and I can also write school things on it if I'm in the car and my handwriting won't be sloppy! This is very cool. I am 12 1/2 and this is one of the best palms I have ever used. You should buy it!
Rating: Summary: Best so far... Review: I've read the other mixed reviews, but the bottom line is this is the best Palm so far. Why? Let's start with the size. It is smaller than all the rest save the Palm Vx. It fits nicely in the hand and pocket. Then there is the expansion slot. On top of the built in 8 mb of memory, each SD expansion card offers another 16 mb! All told, that's three as much as either the Palm IIIc, xe, or Vx. That means you can save tons more software and really maximize the use of the m505. Finally, there's the color screen. Yeah, it ain't all that bright without the backlite on, but Palm now offers a software patch for free that allows you to have the backlite on when you turn hit the power button the first time. Sure it uses more battery, but so what? Hello, it's rechargable! And if you hot sync as much as I do to get updates to all the avantgo news and information, recharging ain't no big thing. Buy this machine.
Rating: Summary: Its true...... Review: Yes people, its true about the screen. Ive been loyal to Palm since the first PDA they introduced when it was 3Com, have owned 4 Palms, .... and was very excited to hear about the color m505. I bought it sight unseen over the net, and received it a couple of days ago. But I will NOT return it for many reasons...even though the display is ridiculously dim looking in mixed office lighting (flourescent lighting with sunlight through the windows ) and the color is sometimes there, and sometimes not...( depending on the ambient lighting ) The first thing you must know is the Palm m505 publicity photo is pure propaganda, the screen in no way resembles it. The screen is not able to produce a white background even while backlit under ideal circumstances. You will be using the backlit feature alot of the time while indoors, but read on to the pros of this unit. Why am I rating the m505 with 4 stars then? The most obvious aspect to this Palm is durablity in the field, and battery life. The screen problems everyone touts as the main reason to NOT buy is actually one of the reasons Im keeping it. After all, what good is a PDA if theres no electricity to power it? Palm knows this and gave us a color screen that can last up to two weeks of use before recharge. The battery life to me is more important than an insanely beautiful screen at this point of time with the technology available to Palm. AND, they have given us a REFLECTIVE screen, it actually is in full color and VERY bright in the sunlight or outdoors. With the Palm 4.0 OS, everything syncs perfect and FAST via the native USB cable, although not much new stuff in the OS. The software included is very valuable... deduct that off the sales price The palm cradle feels solid (although it has a plastic case). The m505 is a solid unit, buttons and case are incredible, feel good and the unit is FAST, moving through the interface is FAST. The bottom line here is that the color of this unit is a frill, not a great feature for anyone who is really interested in a super display. I personally dont have any problems reading the display... yes it appears washed out, but still its more fun to look at than a monochrome display... the unit functions perfectly, has a vibrator alarm, as well as better and louder sounds....the unit is trick but the display is not perfect. Just remember when deciding about buying it whether battery life is important, and that the reflective display is a different type of technology that views indoors differently.
Rating: Summary: Palm m505 vs. Handspring Prism Review: I purchased a Handspring Visor Prism in January of 2001 and then in early July, I purchased the Palm M505 after passing the Prism to my younger sibling. There were two major drawbacks to the Prism that was "fixed" in the Palm M505. First, the Prism does weigh a lot to be carried in a shirt pocket every day. The new M505 is light, thin, and is sleek compared to the overweight Prism. Secondly, I can actually see the screen in bright daylight. When I needed to check on a phone number outside on a bright day, the handspring's screen was invisible. (similar to most laptop screens being invisible under direct sunlight. I'm not sure why all those ads show people trading online on their laptops on beaches.) The M505's front lit reflective display solved this problem, which I believe is a very strong reason to buy the M505 over the Prism. This reflective display is also one of the biggest problems with the M505. It's too dark and I can't change the contrast. If anyone is upgrading from a Prism or a Palm IIIc to the M505, they will be disappointed indoors, but like I said, they will appreciate the M505 outdoors. Also, the screen on the M505 seems a tad bit smaller than the Prism screen. However, if you are used to the non-color screens, especially the pre-Palm V screens, you may not notice this darkness. In fact, when the front light is turned off, the M505 initially looks like it has a non-color display. The SD expansion slot for now is very limited. Hopefully when that SD association approves more I/O devices, more interesting things will come up. At the same time, most of the Handspring Springboard cards were useless to me. I had the MP3 module, the digital camera module, the Voice Recorder module, the Backup Module, and the 8MB expansion module. For the most part, I only used the backup and the 8MB expansion module, which are technically both available in SD versions for the M505. If you really want to take nice pictures, get a real digital camera. If you use your palm indoors for the most part, do not care about the weight, and require mp3 and other multimedia devices, I'd skip the M505 and go for the Prism (it is rumored that a new Handspring Visor called the Snap will be coming out this year with a color screen with something similar to the size of the Visor Edge) or the Sony Clie. However, if you want something light-weight that you will be carrying around EVERYWHERE you go, I would definitely suggest the M505.
Rating: Summary: Cool, very cool. Review: The new Palm m505 is awesome. What you get is basicly the same Palm Vx with color. THe only difference between them, as far as dimensions, is that the new 505 weights .9 oz. more. The Plus: Color, color, and yes, color. millions of them... The new Palm Os 4.0 has little added to it including a new keyboard layout and support for USB syncs among the more notable. The two included CDs are packed with features, do make sure and explore them! These apps include a very good picture viewer, an SMS sender (check for compatible GMS phones), an e-book reader (go to peanutpress.com for more details) among others. The IR file transfer works like a charm (I am downloading some e-books as I write this.) The shortcut buttons are now recessed, so they won't become damaged like in the V series when pressed with the leather cover. Finally, design is very nice. The minus: Does not come with a memory card despite its price. The screen is stiffer to write on. You'll use the backlit feature almost 90% of the time, since the normal setting is way to dim. The sync cable is not removable from the craddle, forcing you to buy a separate sync cable, AND POWER CABLE, when on the road. Some stylus will not work with the new m505 and therefore some expasion gadgets... The multimedia card expansion slot does not work with compact flash cards, absurd! They force you buy from them but don't... look for Kingston cards at half the price! And finally, the screen is 160x160 pixels... why they did not go for the 320x320 screen like the new clie from Sony is debatable. In conclusion: The new Palm is a evolutionay step up from the Palm Vx, and that is perfectly fine by me. I was more interested in the new color Clie from Sony, specially due to the higher screen resolution, but it seems to be bigger than the Palm and it weights 1.5 oz more than the Palm Vx, a turn down for me. The way I look at it, if you want multimedia and sound in your hand, get a watchman or an MP3 player! Palms are for getting organized, and the m505 solves that just fine.
Rating: Summary: Time Bomb Review: I got this model for myself because at the time, it was the best model available. It worked really well for quite a while, and I even told my dad to get it for my mom for Christmas. So far, she has had no problems (knock on wood). Mine bit the dust earlier this year after over a year of problem-free functioning. It just quit syncing. Nothing changed at all. It just stopped syncing one day. I went through numerous attempts to solve the issue through email technical support with Palm. Nothing worked. I didn't want to call them because I didn't want to spend money on tech support. Turns out they won't charge you because they know there is a problem with the unit! They sent me a reset card which didn't help. I called them again and they were going to make me jump through more hoops. I pulled out the attitude and said NO WAY. They finally agreed to take the unit back for repair. They turned around the unit quickly and it was fine for a couple months, and it just quit on me again. They are obviously having VERY serious issues with this model, and I feel as if I have suggested a time bomb for my mother. It's not worth the hassle to get this Palm. I don't know if all Palms are this problematic, but I would avoid any Palm model that begins with a "5." I'm sure they are all duds, and once you begin to rely on a PDA there is nothing, and I mean NOTHING more bothersome than having to go through these issues. You are left without a PDA for who-knows-how-long and you feel vulnerable. It's just not worth it.
Rating: Summary: Aweful! Don't buy it! Review: I own this thing for a year. After first 3 mo of usage it stopped hotsynching. Well, my Palm had a warranty, so I received a new "refurbished" unit. It worked for about 10 months, then I had this problem again. Had to change USB to a different cradle. It worked for a month, and then my PDA died all together. It will not start no matter what! Needless to say, I lost all the data, and as a small business owner, it was a major problem for me. STAY AWAY FROM THIS THING!
Rating: Summary: Great for a year, then no Hotsync Twice!!! Review: My boss and I both bought 505s at the same time. After one year mine would not hotsync. After several days working with support, I was told it must have taken a static electricity charge and will not work. It was just out of warranty. Palm offered me 20% off of a new PDA. Two weeks later the same thing happened to my boss. After investigating we learned this is a known problem and happens frequently. It was a great tool while it lasted. Without hotsync, it is worthless to me.
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