What this means, we think, is that you can update your Palm III device from a corporate data source simply by doing a HotSync. Presumably, your corporate information source would need to export a data file, drop it in a pre-determined location, and then, when it's HotSync time, the Palm Desktop would intermix data from this external file into the normal HotSync data stream.

At first glance, this seems intriguing. For example, it might be possible to download a statistics report, a list of addresses or whatever from a data source and have updated information readily available. It might be a way that all salespeople have an updated price list, for example.

There may be gotchas. Apparently the feature only works with the Address Book and Memo Pad (which has a 4K limit per entry). It would be interesting to see if third party applications Palm-based applications can take advantage of this.

Macintosh
What can I say? Macintosh users aren't going to be all that happy. There is no new version of the Pilot Desktop for Macintosh at this time. The good news is we're told that the current Pilot Desktop is compatible with Palm III devices. Of course, that's still discouraging to loyal full-fare Macintosh users who aren't getting the entire Palm Computing Platform experience.

Here's the official 3Com party line about the MacPac:

The Palm III organizer is compatible with Windows 95, Windows NT and Macintosh operating systems. A MacPac connection kit including desktop software is sold separately for Macintosh connectivity. An upgrade to the currently available version 1.0 MacPac, is expected in summer, 1998. 3Com will provide a Web download of the upgrade for registered users from http://www.palm.com upon release.

This MacPac upgrade is being written specifically for the Macintosh OS and will provide an extensible conduit architecture. The architecture will enable third party companies to develop Macintosh OS specific conduits and desktop applications that seamlessly integrate and synchronize with any Palm Computing platform based-device. A prerelease version of the conduit software developer kit (SDK) is already available.

It's not the answer Mac users (including your editors) want to hear, but at least it's something.

Palm III Bonus Pack
The Palm III is bundled with a Bonus Pack from MacMillan Digital Publishing, a CD-ROM containing a collection of third party applications.The CD-ROM includes a financial calculator, a world clock, a document viewer, a Web channel manager, a drawing application, conduits to leading PIMs including ACT! and Outlook 97, and an assortment of games.

Our understanding is that many of these are demo or "lite" applications. It's also not clear whether those upgrading to the Palm III will get this CD-ROM.

Conclusions
Overall, this is a respectable upgrade. The Palm III device is highly usable and the addition of certain features (in particular beaming) will make it more useful in environments where co-workers all have the devices.

The new Applications Launcher adds a much-needed capability to the product, but we're rooting for the independent developers of LaunchPad and other launchers to bring out even better tools.

There are further improvements we'd like to see. In fairness to 3Com, there's always room for improvement in any product. That said, we'd like to see much better desktop integration with third party products. It's a shame we can't edit outlines on the desktop, for example, and have them drop into BrainForest or ThoughtMill. We'd like to see a new version of the Palm Desktop with support for plug-ins that would allow this kind of capability. We'd like to see better integration between the Date Book and To Do list, a better way to schedule follow-ups, and a much improved Macintosh desktop.

There's no question in our mind that it's worth spending the $130 or so to upgrade to the Palm III or, for new users, to go out and buy a device.

One final note: we haven't spent any time comparing the Palm III with the various Windows CE based Palm PCs. While whiz-bang features are always a turn-on, it's our intent to look at all the devices from a pure usability standpoint. Over the next few months, we'll look at the other players and help you keep score.

Mark Moeller is a 14 year veteran of Microsoft. After shipping the first version of the Auto PC he left Microsoft to found AutoPCWare, a company focused on helping manufacturers and software vendors build Auto PCs or products for the Auto PC. Mark was the design architect of the first version of the Auto PC and has a number of patents pending or awarded on the Auto PC. You can visit his Web site at http://www.autopcware.com, or email him at markmo@autopcware.com. To read more of Mark Moeller's work for Windows CE Power, visit http://www.zatz.com/authors/authorpages/markmoeller.html.