Rating: 
Summary: How did I survive without it?
Review: For years I've been using one of those little 32KB "digital diaries" to store all my phone numbers, shopping lists etc. I debated getting one of the Palms but could never convince myself to spring for one. Then, when I was able to expense one on the company dime, I thought I'd go for one of the III series or maybe the VII. But luckily a co-worker convinced me to get the Vx, citing all the usual reasons (more memory, looks cooler, rechargeable battery). After a few days of using it, I couldn't even fathom going back to the digital diary. Not only is it now a snap to transfer all my appointments, contacts, and notes into a portable medium (one press of the Hot Sync button versus entering it all manually on the digital diary's keyboard), but the Palm can do so much more. I get news, sports, Rolling Stone, weather reports and movie listings on my Vx with every Sync. I can play games. I can beam my business card to someone else (weird the first time you do it, sort of like Star Trek) and receive one in return. Plus there is a lot of Palm software out there for almost any purpose. The Vx allows you to have this wealth of capabilities literally at your fingertips, and the 8MB of memory means you have room for lots more. And the V series is much more stylish and professional-looking than the VII and the III series which are also physically larger and thus less convenient to carry in a pocket. If you have even the slightest need to be organized, or to have useful information close at hand, then the Palm Vx is for you.
Rating:
Summary: The PDA for those who shun toys and gadgets.
Review: I outgrew my spiral-bound DayTimer books after 22 years -- the need to keep notes from month to month, place extra pages on busy days, and keep "project note" folders became overwhelming. So late last year I got a DayTimer ring binder that was also pocket size. It fixed the problems with keeping notes, but I still had the problem of finding specific notes, getting info from previous months, and remembering appointments. I also discovered, at age 42, I have ADD -- and I'm trying to better compensate for it now that I'm aware.Many in my company use Franklin-Covey products, and I went looking for one of their planners. I was offered a 64MB color Cassiopeia, but turned it down because I needed a planner, not a pocket toy. Returning to my desk, I found a colleague had left a Franklin-Covey catalog open to the Palm section. Hmmm... The plan was to put the Palm on the left of the daybook, with paper pages to the right. I spent some money getting that binder, but in the end, all I use is my Palm. I do have the Franklin-Covey desktop software, as I prefer their style and philosophy to others (check them out), but the Palm itself does the work. And I've found other software that has really helped me get my life, both business and personal (like those are that well separated!), into better shape. Learning Graffiti writing hasn't been that hard, but I'm still having trouble with R, B, D and P after a couple of months. But my handwriting has always been nearly unreadable, so I suppose the little Palm deserves credit! I don't have Doom on my Palm, as does a colleague on his WinCE brick. I gladly trade that and the ability to do "cool" stuff like play MP3 files for the ability to carry this thing wherever I go. There's a fine belt clip in which the Palm Vx fits. I strongly recommend this or a hard case as one fix to the problem of the Palm's buttons getting pressed in your pocket, turning on the unit and wearing down the battery. The belt case is very secure, and protects the unit well. The Palm Vx is the way to go, in my opinion. I expect this unit to serve me for several years, quite a stretch for any electronic device. The 8MB memory is worth the cost up from the Palm V's 2MB, as I've already used almost 3MB (though a meg of that is documents and books). This unit is SO much smaller than a Cassiopeia, half or less the thickness, and smaller in both length and width! It's quite visible in bright daylight or very dim light, only giving me trouble in "twilight" such as when the wife's watching TV. I don't know how long a battery charge lasts, but it got low after 4 days with about 4hrs/day use and an evening of the kids playing with the backlight on. The Vx has rechargable non-replaceable batteries, so if you're on the road get a charger cable rather than travelling with the chunky cradle. The things I wouldn't give up: WriteRIGHT screen overlays protect from scratches. HandyShop freeware for shopping lists (I always forgot something). PocketQuicken, so the receipts don't build up in my wallet anymore waiting for me to enter them (just a HotSync now). BigClock freeware, great clock/timer. iSilo Free doc reader. I'm trying Vindigo, an interesting 500k NY city guide. Things I'm still looking for/evaluating: A better handwriting system than Graffiti, though I've learned to take acceptable notes with that. A secure (encrypted) notepad. Louder/longer alarms. All of these exist, it's just to sort out which is best. If you're looking for the coolest gadget with games and surfing the net while driving and talking on your cellphone (eek!), I can't help you. If you need something better than the paper dayplanner you've used for years, then check out the Palm Vx for a tiny, powerful tool that'll do more than you expected.
Rating:
Summary: WOW
Review: I have been a dayrunner junkie for years. The problem is I stopped carrying it everywhere (especially afterhours) because it just got so big. I got the Palm Vx a few months ago and it has completely replaced my dayrunner. It totally syncs with my outlook so I have the one schedule at the office and on the Palm. I have more than 300 contacts with phone, email, addresses and notes. I have the last 30 days worth of email messages. I have the latest fodor's guide for my home city and the ability to download any city I am visiting. I have the a daily listing of the current movies, which theaters are showing, and the times. I have hearts (a favorite card game - with jack of diamonds is worth -10). I can take short notes and make reminders. It beeps to let me know when the next appointment is going to happen (let's see a dayrunner do that!). And I have barely scratched the surface of what this thing can do. If you are considering getting a PDA -- I cannot recommend this device enough. Oh, and it is so small that I take it everywhere...
Rating:
Summary: Good Stuff for New Users
Review: Not having owned a Palm Pilot before and being one whoconsiders [this] a lot of money, we spent many hours and trips to thestore before purchasing the Palm Vx. I can't be more glad that we took the time to shop and that we ultimately bought this particular device. There are several schools of thought when considering Palm computing. What it boils down to is this, "What are we going to use the thing for?" The answer to that question should dictate any Palm purchase. As a business person the Vx is perfect for your organization of tasks schedules. Its's compatibility to Microsoft Outlook makes it a champ at work. As a teacher the mammoth memory of the Vx has made easy the ability to download enormous amounts of data i.e. lessonplans, textbooks, and outlines. In the Palm world, different readers and programs are required to run certain Palm applications. The Vx allows you to run mutiple programs without chewing up all your memory. Screen and style have been adressed in a myriad of on-line reviews and I concur that the Vx is an attractive machine. However, the face of the screen does not handle the glare from overhead light very well and sometimes viewing is difficult. I have also found that extended use on the writing pad had caused it to scratch and become worn. We can only hope that 3Com addresses that issue. These are minor concerns and all things considered one would do well with the Vx. END
Rating:
Summary: Can no longer live without
Review: Best business investment I (actually my company) ever made. I now have a powerful calendar and address book that is convenient and small enough that I actually carry it with me everywhere I go. Sure it would be nice to have color, but for the way I use it, color is not really necessary. Looks very sleek, also.
Rating:
Summary: Very Cool Tool
Review: HotSync works like a dream. The unit is so flexible, it was very easy to make it accommodate my needs. The ability and ease to add new applications is great. The available applications and additional accessories make this a tool I will be able to utilize and enhance for years. I don't know why I never bought one before. Definately worth the price.
Rating: 
Summary: Why I don't use my Psion anymore
Review: I was a Psion 5 freak! Here was a UK-develped product that left all the competition standing and has done for the last 3 years. I was so enthusiastic that I even tried seting up a Psion 5 club here in Chile. The problem was (is) a lack of marketing and technical support outside of Europe. However, I bought a second machine for my wife, so we could beam things back 'n' fro and use the very handy dictionary/thesaurus functions. The Psion has everything going for it - it's a micro PC with 8 Mb (!) and full (but light) ofice software thrown in. I used mi macine for about a year and am sorry say that I have just not picked it up for over six months. Although it worked well with Outlook 97, I simply could not get it to synchronise it with Outlook 98 or Office 2000. But that's not the real issue! The truth is, it's just too big to be a PDA and not sufficiently powerful to replace my Thinkpad 770. The keyboard is marvellous, but you just can't use it without putting it down on a spare surface. There's no way you can carry it on you, unless you have a Jacket with big pockets - average temperatures here in Santiago make that a very syicky proposition for most of the year, so it simply gets left behind. So after all the enthusiasm and the time and money invested I have given up and joined the masses - not unlike my quixotic reaction to being steamrollered into using Widows, Word and Excel. I'm sure I was not alone in defending Quatro and Word Perfect in the face of impossible odds, but I now use Windows 98 / Ofice 2000 convert. After this painful experience I have been hestitant about jumping into a new technology and emigrating to a new machine. I have done a lot of shopping around and talking to friends. I made my decision a few months ago. Palm Vx is a ready substitute for the best of the Psion 5 and, as with most things, when you set your mind to it, it has really taken me no time to learn to write on the screen and make a full switch.
Rating:
Summary: Currently the best PDA on the market
Review: The time arrived for me to upgrade from my trusty old Palm V. I was running short on memory, so that left the Palm IIIc, Vx and Jornada 540 for consideration. I tried the IIIc for a month. Found the color screen a pleasure to work with. There are not that many 3rd party apps in color yet, but that appears to be changing fast. I liked the TinySheet Excel compatible spreadsheet in color. The black on white screen is very readable for e-books. Battery life was acceptable. On a 3 week business trip I had to recharge it only once. The downside for me is size, the comfort factor. You can NOT comfortably carry a Palm in a shirt pocket. I carry it in my pants pocket, with the V I would forget I had it until I needed it. The IIIc, it was just always 'there'. The only other gripe I have is that it's almost impossible to read the screen outside. Something I took for granted on the monochrome V. Bright daylight however fully washes out color screens. I REALLY like the small updates to the new PalmOS. Eg. the little shortcut bar that appears at the bottom of the screen for menu shortcuts is an excellent innovation. It makes cutting and pasting as fast as with the PC using the keyboard. I used the Jornada for 2 weeks before I returned it. As my expectations weren't that high from my previous exposure to the platform I can't say that I was dissappointed. However, I still don't think MS is up to par. On the balance still more 'clicks' are needed than on a Palm. I couldn't find those easy to use 3rd party freeware apps such as the NY crossstreet finder, on PocketPC. On face value I liked Excel, but I found it's small differences with the PC version annoying. Knowing one, I made assumption about the other that didn't always pan out. The high resolution of the screen is nice. For e-books the Jornada would be good, if not for the poor passive matrix screen. For example, on the plane, I could put the IIIc on the tray in front of me, and read at an angle. This is impossible with the Jornada screen. For basic PDA functions it is adequate. I feel the apps still are a bit sluggish. Playing MP3's is fun, but with 2 songs at CD quality, memory is depleted which makes it impracticle for multimedia, unless you spend more to expand memory. Forget playing MP3's in the background while doing other work, the device slows down to a crawl. Size wise, the Jornada is a bit bigger and heavier than the IIIc, which to me is a problem as I already explained. Battery life seemed shorter than the IIIc, though it may be subjective because it was on a lot, while learning the PocketPC platform. The Palm Vx is basically a faster Palm V with more memory. Just got it yesterday and I already love it. This is the one I'm keeping. I suppose that after getting used to the size and weight of the Palm V, there is no going back. However, I'm glad that I went through the hassles of trying out the other 2 models. I learned a few things: 1) Size matters. 2) Until technology for multimedia matures, color screens do not add significant value to justify their impact on size and battery life. 3) PocketPC looked good on face value, but didn't go the distance, however, I do believe that as technology advances, multimedia such as MP3 playback will be great to have. I hope that by that time Palm will have the capability. 4) 3rd party apps add tremendous value. Something I forgot until I couldn't find my favourite little add-ons that make life easy, such as AccountManager, cross street finder etc. All in all, the best favor you can do yourself is getting one. Got my parents a Palm V 2 months ago, now I have to get them another one so they stop fighting over it.
Rating:
Summary: Palm Vx vs Psion 5mx - My great "PDA Shootout"
Review: OK. So I'm getting a PDA. It's a shootout between the Palm Vx, the Psion 5mx, the Psion Revo, and the HP Jornada 545. The Jornada ruled itself out almost straightaway, because although it's colour and can do all sorts of amazing multimedia things, I found it hard to read the screen. (It's a passive matrix screen, so if you look at it at slightly the wrong angle, you can't see a thing). Also it's fairly thick. And only has 8 hours of battery life. Because of these faults, I didn't look into it further. The Psion Revo is smaller (though still bigger than the Palms). But the keyboard is VERY small and fiddly, and I wouldn't want to have to use it every day. So that leaves the 5mx and the Palm Vx. I put the two through some thought experiments to see what would be most useful for me personally. Scenario 1) - You wake up in the morning and attach your PDA to yourself while getting dressed.... For me this means slipping the PDA into a belt clip and forgetting it's there till I need it. (I'm a sound engineer who lifts heavy boxes, and I don't want to get anything crushed in my pocket.) The Palm wins hands down because you can get a neat little belt clip. The Psion on the other hand is very large and heavy for a PDA. I don't think I'd want it weighing down on my belt, even if I could get a belt clip for it (which I can't). Scenario 2) - You get to the office and work out what you're doing that day with to-do lists and calendars. The software that comes with the Psion is actually much nicer to look at. There's a bigger screen, so there's more room for more information. The Palm's to-do list and calendar are okay, but there are numerous hacks and different calendars on the net to make them better. Scenario 3) You're in the car on the phone, and someone tells you something that you have to write down. With the Psion, you push a button and start using it as a voice recorder - which is a lot easier to do than scribbling away madly while driving at the same time! On the other hand, with the Palm there is no voice recording built in (bummer). Trying to write with the Graffiti handwriting programme while driving would be beyond me. However, there is a third party voice recorder sold separately that can be clipped to the Palm. Scenario 4) You're out on site and want to do a quote for a client. So you whip out your PDA, type up a cover sheet in Word, work out an equipment list in Excel, and fax it off to the client. The Psion has a pocket version of Word that allows you to add pictures, graphs, bold/italics/underline. Palm's Word is more of a basic text editor. The Psion has a spreadsheet that does many things, including filtering, so you can have a list of all the products on your database, and then mark only the items your client wants and filter the rest away. (Although there is no macro to do this easily). The Palm on the other hand, neither filters nor has a macro. The one good thing about the Palm is that you can buy a full sized keyboard for it that folds up four times, which can be taken out when you really need to do some heavy typing. It's much nicer to type on than the Psion's built in keyboard. Scenario 5) You're on a train, or have some free time, and want to ... play a game / find the nearest restaurant / read a book. Both the Psion and the Palm have developers making software for their platforms. A lot of it is freeware and shareware. But because Palm is way dominant in market share, there are also way more bits of software floating about on the net for this platform. In summary, the Psion 5mx seems to do what I want it to much better than the Palm, and without having to buy a whole pile of third party add-ons. The screen itself looks better as well! But to be honest, it's too big and bulky to carry around effortlessly. And that's the most important criteria for me. And a lot of the things the Palm lacks can be made up with third party products that don't significantly add to it's size (which is it's best feature). So what I'll do is buy a Palm Vx with the additional voice recorder and belt clip, and hope someone out there will write a good version of Word & Excel for it. Given that Palm have 76% market share, and there are heaps more developers working on Palm software than Psion software, I'm pretty sure we'll get one in the end. In the meantime, at least I'll have it on me all the time and will actually use it. I hope I'm making the right decision here!
Rating:
Summary: The Best Organizer on the market, hands down
Review: If you've been doing you're homework on all of the PDA's out there now then you probably have heard all about those "palm"top computer systems. What I've found that is most disturbing about those palmtops is that they have so much more than you need, are larger, have reduced battery lifes and are about twice as expensive as the wonderous piece of equipment I am reviewing now. The Palm Vx is the latest and, in my opinion, the greatest Palm of all the ones that 3Com have produced. Using the latest version of the palm OS, this device comes loaded with 8 megs of ram, a battery that will last up to a month on one charge, enough programs to organize your entire life, and an easy to learn writing technique called graffiti. And although it may not be quite as accurate as on the more expensive PDA's, it does the job, and there is also a built in keypad that can be used to input information. Syncronization with your computer or laptop is simple too. Just place the palm in it's handy-dandy charging station (which is included) and hit the HotSync button. All of your days notes, scheduals, information, and whatever is easily backed up to your hard drive. And anything that you add to the computer transfer program will be uploaded to the palm Vx. In short, the setup is easy, the programs are user friendly, and did I mention it only weighs 4 oz! Also, unlike it's palm bretheren (mainly the Palm III's), which have a hokey plastic casing, this palm has a very sleak magnesium casing that is both stylish and that just feels damn good in your hand. However, it does have it's downsides. For starters, the built in IR (infrared port) is almost useless beyond 4 inches away which means that the transfer function between two palms, although nice, isn't very useful in most real world situations. Hell you can't even beam a signal across and empty room. Second, unlike it's cousin, The Visor, which was produced by the company who had the original idea for the Palm, it has no extra memory slot and therefore cannot have extra memory added to it. However, since there is not much that would use all 8 megs on the Palm Vx, you wouldn't need to expand your memory anyway. And thirdly, expect to buy a real case for the Palm immediatly after your initial purchase since all the palm comes with is a cardboard cover in leather that is attached to a stylus pen and that fits in one of the two pen slots on the palm. In general, I find that the palm Vx surpasses it's more expensive competitors in every way; from price to simplicity, from form to function. And if you need to get your life in order without dropping a boatload of money on a color screen and useless extras, then this is your best bet. And to put it simply, I wouldn't trade my Palm for any "palm"top PDA if you paid me. If you're still curious about the more complex PDA's, go check out my review for the Cassiopia E-115. Enjoy! Revuman: Hey! Can ya let me outta the screen please? peace!
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