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Summary: Palm VII is great - for now
Review: I've had them all - call me a Palm compulsive. I love the interface underlying the Palm concept & making it wireless with the clipping approach to the web was genius. Downloading dozens of free web clipping applications - I'm able to locate the nearest Starbucks, look-up addresses - be advised on traffic (both automotive and airline) and even order a CDs or book from Amazon! Most of the shortcomings discussed are true on some level, but it is really a matter of perspective - it does what it does better than any other option available. The bottom line is that it is first and foremost a decent version of a Palm organizer and with it's wireless feature - it today offers you a peek into the future of how how such 2-way wireless information access will change everything. Eventually your phone, pager, watch, even car may all do this as well...it's a matter of whether you want to learn, experience, & benefit from it now - or wait.
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Summary: Internet access especially useful when travelling
Review: I've spent 6 months with the Palm VII my wife bought me for my birthday and I'm satisfied with it. In spite of being a disk pig who has used up over 4 Gigs of space on his laptop with data and programs, I've had no problem living within the 2 Meg memory of the VII. My favorite add-on programs are DateBook3 and STRIP, which I use to store passwords. I still have room for Tealdoc, a couple chapters of a book, and hundreds of contacts and reminders. I have installed dozens of web applets, but I'm not a heavy user of the Internet and rarely exceed the lowest rate of $9.95. The web clipping applets are very stingy with data, making them economical to use even with the relatively expensive per byte rate. I've found Internet access especially useful for checking traffic conditions, getting weather reports, and checking on arrival times for planes when meeting someone. I also use the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and sometimes use the GoNetwork translator as a 5-language foreign dictionary. Want to know what's playing in your neighborhood, but you don't have the newspaper? Look it up on your Palm on Moviefone. The VII really comes into its own when travelling. Having access to driving directions or phone numbers is a big convenience, and when returning to DFW, it helps to be able to tell the taxi driver what gate your flight is leaving from so you can be dropped off at the correct terminal building. Even if you do your reticketing through the airline or an agent, it is useful to pull down a schedule first. Ever been in a hotel room without "USA Today" and not known what was on TV? Look it on your VII with Rick-T-Land. I rarely use iMail, and normally limit it to outgoing messages. I've configured it so my return address is my normal work address, and only give my palm.net address out when I explicitly want someone to address mail to my PDA. (I have such a heavy volume of mail that it would be hopeless to ever use a Palm to read it). It's cool to send a message home when you are waiting to board a plane. Although I used Amazon's applet to buy a book once, I don't trade stock with my Palm. It might be useful to buy entertainment tickets, but I never have. I assume that someday I will need more than the 2Megs available in this device, but by then, there will probably be some newer color version (at a premium price). For now, having access to the Internet makes up for the reduced memory. You don't need to download that foreign language dictionary--just query one on the web. If you finish the book you brought, download another one. The VII really comes into its own when you are outside of the office, or don't have immediate access to a web browser. It also has major prestige value. The next time you get into an argument over what movie Minnie Driver was in before "Good Will Hunting," you can be the one to whip out the wireless PDA and impress your friends by finding the answer on the Internet Movie Database. To be honest, I think most people won't have the quality of their life greatly affected one way or the other just by having a Starbucks locator hanging from their belt, but it is fun. Not everyone will be able to live with the memory constraints of the VII, and it can't synch with your laptop using the IR port (carry the synch cable in your laptop case). I still have plenty of RAM left, though, and I have lots of calendar entries, notes, and contacts that I synchronize with Outlook. I'm very pleased with the Pocket Mirror synchronization applet, also. I was able to drill down into the configuration and set it so that the categories I had already defined on my Palm were uploaded to Outlook on my laptop. Very convenient. Favorite accessory: Black leather case on a quick-release belt clip.
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Summary: High Priced
Review: It is a good product but not worth the money paid
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Summary: A Good First Effort!
Review: Let me first admit that I've been a PDA (personal digital assistant) devotee since the beginning. I've owned several Apple Newtons, a Sony MagicLink and a HP 100LX. I've accessed email on those devices via landlines and wirelessly. During the last year, I've grown to love my RIM (Research in Motion) 950 wireless email pager. Why the obsession with PDA's? Because having ready, instant access to my schedule, to-do's, contacts and email is absolutely essential. Since Palms came out several years ago, I've owned five. I've purchased Palms for employees, family and for clients as gifts. With that said, where do I come out on the Palm VII? Mixed. As with any Palm device, the VII helps to organize my life. Because it is a Palm device, it is the most widely supported and successful PDA in the world. As a wireless device, however, there are pluses and minuses. On the plus side, it nicely integrates into one device the highly regarded Palm functionality with wireless capability. Second, it is very easy to operate, anyone can be up and communicating wirelessly within minutes. Other than wireless email, what can you do with the VII? You can buy and sell stocks (Fidelity Investment), track stocks (several), do your banking (BofA), locate ATMs (several), receive breaking news (ABC, BBC, ESPN, NY Times, The Street, USA Today, Washington Post and many others including specialty publications), track your packages (FedEx, UPS), find zip codes (several), find people (several), get driving directions (MapQuest), you can shop (Amazon, TicketMaster), locate the nearest StarBucks, receive medical information (several), travel information (many), restaurant and movie information (several), and the list goes on and on and on. By my count, there are more than 230 "web clipping" applications located at palm.net. Simply amazing. This abundance of wireless information highlights one of the shortcomings of the VII, memory or lack thereof. The VII comes with 2 MEGS of RAM. This is for all of your standard applications, data and web clipping applications. Granted, web clipping applications are small, some as little as 1KB, but I've had to delete many applications to make room for more frequently used programs. Other minuses, the Palm VII is expensive at around $500. The monthly service isn't cheap either and is based on message units received (no unlimited plan). Although the service begins at $9.99 per month, this is for 50KB worth of data. If you worked at it, you could use up this allocation in a day or two. The real "bargain," if you can call it that, is Palm.Net's introductory Volume Plan for $39.99 per month. This gives you 1000KB worth of data per month for six months. I tried to use all of my 1000KB data allocation last month and was unsuccessful. I was only able to use up 420KB. Additional "minuses" include not being able to receive your POP3 mail directly although ThinAirApps has a 3rd party workaround for this. Also, there is nothing to indicate "you've got mail," you have to put the antenna up to check. Otherwise, I'd view the Palm VII as the most widely marketed and supported wireless data solution to date. It has its shortcomings, but if you're comfortable with the cost, the Palm VII is a good wireless data solution for beginners and for advanced users. Pluses: Nicely integrated package. Lots of useful wireless content. 3rd party software support. Synchronizes with your desktop easily. Minuses: Cost. Memory or lack thereof. Difficult to access your POP3 email. Must have hardware / software for your VII: PocketMail BackFlip for wireline email from anywhere in the world. WeSync software for group scheduling. AvantGo software for "connected". GoType keyboard for entering those long documents.
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Summary: Essential Device Not Just for Tech Junkies
Review: My friends have always accused me of being a closet tech junkie. I used to deny that, but if you really think about it, there's that technophile in all of us. It's inevitable- it's the 21st century and that's the only way to go. The Palm VII is my first PDA (unless you can consider the Nokia 9000 a PDA) and I don't regret the $ that I shelled out to get this. It is worth EVERY cent. You may need this soon if you are: in college or working, somewhat always on the go, constantly running out of post-its, have deadlines to beat, tired of lugging around a laptop, or just simply, need to stay organized. But hey, that's the whole idea of owning a PDA. Even if you're not that much of an Internet user, the wireless services turn this PDA into an essential everyday device. It doesn't have its own browser, so you won't be able to key in URLs as you would on Netscape or IE- instead, you use web clippings that are pre-installed on the Palm VII which allow you to simply drag and pull information off the Internet. Picture this- you wake up and need to get dressed for the day- get the weather forecast to pick the right get-up, you get in the car to head off for a meeting and need directions- key in your starting address and the destination and you'll get step by step driving instructions, on the way, send out last minute E-mails to the office, etc. etc. Everything you need to get started is right in the box, and signing up for the wireless services took me a grand total of three minutes. There are a great number of resources out there, so if you need to add pre-installed web clippings, it only takes a while to do so. I only have minor complaints. Palm should come out with a lithium ion rechargeable battery for this unit. The transmitter uses up a lot of battery space. Also, the monthly service should be made a little lower. If you're a heavy user, you can pretty much use up the 50KB ($9 a month) in a matter of two days. All in all, this is a great product and will change the way you live your life. You deserve to have this!
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Summary: Never having had a Palm before...
Review: Never having had a Palm before I am not bothered by the bulk because it easily replaces the bulk of my laptop but gives me much of the functionality. I am able to check my email account at school in about five seconds as compared to the ten minutes it takes me to boot up my laptop and log on to my ISP. Moviefone is also used alot. Battery life was mentioned as a problem but since I have never had a Palm before this doesn't bother me. So far I have had mine for about three weeks and still have half the battery life left. Yes, the price is on the high side but I got it as a gift so again no complaints. Give me the bulk if I can have the Internet and all those Palm V users can have the sleekness and still use their laptops!
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Summary: One sweet device!
Review: OK, here is my scoop on this device.. I have seen some people saying that 2MB was not enough memory. BULL****. I have 88 applications on it and still have 900k free, which is a little under half left!.. I am an avid stock trader and use it to make my trades at work. Mytrack and Fidelity both allow you to trade via the palm if you have an account. I have one with Mytrack and recommend them. I also use it for weather, travel directions, email, news, movie times, white pages lookup, shopping comparison, checking flight schedules, UPS and FEDEX package tracking.. This device is SWEET! I had never had any interest in a palm device until I heard about the VII with wireless connection. I have had mine for a week now and can't put it down.. Very handy.. The internet connectivity through palm.net is a bit pricey but I am sure it will come down with time.. Unlimited access is 44.00 month.. They do have other plans available by the amount of data transmitted. Lifting the antenna gets you connected to the net in about 3 seconds.. The web clipping is fine, stock quotes, directions, phone number lookups, email, etc.. Granted this is not an Internet browser but a great second best, the email rocks, when you sign up with palm.net you get a free email account that you can check and send email from the palm.. Very cool.. I guess I only have one minor complaint, there is a bit of a glare sometimes when held at a certain angle.. Like I said a minor issue.. I bought it for the internet access but the built in address book and planner are nice too.. It is a little pricey at 450.00 but I do recommend it to anyone that has an interest in it but needs that confirmation from someone that has it already.. One last note, there are hundreds of applications for it that can be found on the Internet.. Some are shareware and some are freeware, Alot of the good one's are free.. Out of the 88 I have, there is only one that I have to pay for, a stock portfolio manager.. ENJOY!
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Summary: A must-have for travelers!
Review: Palm has hit the ball out of the park once again! This product is as well-engineered and efficient as all of their others have been. Palm has once again harnessed the power of an open-computing platform to inspire hundreds of programmers to provide their own software apps to do web clipping. I can get my email, track a customized stock portfolio, get directions, buy tickets! Incredible!
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Summary: Socks knocked off !!
Review: Product works great. It replaces one that I had for 2 years which I dropped and shattered the screen on. I ordered from the vendor on Friday afternoon. On the next Monday morning the PDA was delivered to my office, with a new set of alkalines installed. I was synched up within 5 minutes of opening the box! Great service from the vendor..at regular ground shipping rates. "Thanks"
Rating: 
Summary: Too much money
Review: Take a look at HPJornada for 500 bucks. It is in color with same functionality and 8 times more RAM. Wireless access burns batteries fast and it is outrageously expensive. Monochromatic screen drives me crazy. Should have bought HP.
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