After 2 years with my faithful Palm V (upgraded to 8 MB), two weeks ago I decided to take the plunge and get the new top of the line Palm handheld, the m505. The main reasons for my upgrade were expandability and colour. My Palm V was also driving me crazy with the Mad Digitizer Syndrome.
First Impressions / Cosmetics
At first glance, the m505 looks exactly like the Palm V. Upon closer inspection, I noticed some welcome cosmetic changes. The case is as solid as the previous handheld, but it is held together by 4 screws rather than glue. This will make 3rd party upgrades easier. The power button is now translucent and glows when the m505 is being recharged. It also acts as a silent alarm. There's even a vibrate function!
The screen has been the subject of much discussion, both on Epinions and elsewhere. The screen is definitely not as bright as other colour Palm OS handhelds such as the Palm IIIc, Sony Clie or the Handspring Visor. Of course, it is put to shame by Pocket PC handhelds such as the latest Compaq Ipaq and HP Jornada. The colours do look muted & milky, but I got used to it quite quickly. The screen is also perfectly legible in direct sunlight, which cuts down on frontlight (and therefore battery) use.
Expansion
Finally, two years of Visor Springboard envy, Palm introduces expansion options for its handhelds. Palm chose the industry standard SD/MMC, which I think is a good way to go. However, at the moment only memory expansion and backup cards are available. My guess is we'll have to wait awhile for Springboard-type add-ons like modems, cameras etc. I received a 16MB Panasonic SD card with my m505, so I was able to make use of this feature straight away. It feels good to not have to worry about juggling applications and documents due to memory constraints.
Palm also touts a new Universal Connector for the m500x and m125. This means new Palm handhelds are not compatible with older accessories and peripherals. I had to sell off all my Palm V accessories. It seems that accessories make Palm a lot of money!
Built-in applications
There are no major changes in the built-in applications. The Date Book, Address Book, To Do list and Memo Pad applications have no major new features. They don't even use colour that much. There are a few new applications such as the Note Pad (freehand note writing / drawing / doodling), Clock (alarm clock) and Calculator.
Bundled Applications
The m505 comes with several 3rd party applications:
1. Avantgo - popular online/offline web browser
2. Documents to Go Pro 3.0 - Word and Excel viewers & editors. You can upgrade to 4.0 by faxing proof of purchase to Dataviz. Version 4.0 adds PowerPoint viewing (but not editing) capability.
3. MGI Photosuite - image / photo viewer
4. Palm Reader - reads Palm Reader format ebooks and also standard DOC formats. You should download the latest version, which is faster and also can read files on SD/MMC cards
5. PowerOne Personal - a colour calculator. Lots better than the built-in calculator.
6. Mobile Connectivity Software (Formerly known as Mobile Internet Kit) - includes Web Clipping, SMS Messenger and Multimail SE (Email). Palm previously shipped a WAP browser as well.
Built-in 8 MB memory stores thousands of contacts, appointments, to-do items, and notes Displays over 65,000 colors--view photos, video clips, and mor...More at Amazon Marketplace
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.