What if I have a Mac?
In the PalmPilot world, as in much of the rest of computing life, Macintosh users are pretty much left out in terms of email. Direct mail programs should work just fine, since they don't rely upon the HotSync drivers. To paraphrase Gertrude Stein, "A PalmPilot is a PalmPilot is a PalmPilot". However, HotSync-based mailers definitely lack native Mac support. One bright spot on the horizon: Actual Software will release the MultiMail Conduit for Mac soon.

HotSync-based mail
HotSync-based mail provides a conduit between your PalmPilot and the email application on your PC. Think of a conduit as a "pipeline" to get data to and from your PalmPilot through the HotSync process.

The built-in Mail, MultiMail Conduit and Palmeta Mail offer many options for getting your mail to your PalmPilot. The built-in Mail package supports any MAPI or VIM compliant client, and runs only on Windows 3.1, 95, or NT. Palmeta syncs your mail to the Memo Pad, and supports any MAPI-enabled system. Like the built-in Mail program, Palmeta also runs only on Windows-based desktop systems. MultiMail Conduit does not require MAPI, and a Mac version will be available early this summer. Table A compares these three HotSync-based mail programs.

AOL users are currently limited to TransAOL, although there are rumors that Catamount Software (see http://www.catamount.com) will be rewriting Aloha, a direct mail product that links AOL to the Newton, for the PalmPilot.

Desktop Email Client	Built-in Mail	MultiMail Conduit	Palmeta Mail
Any MAPI client	X		X
Any VIM client	X
Built-in Mail		X
ccMail 2.5, 6.0, 7.0	X
Eudora Lite 3.0.1 or later	X
Eudora Pro 3.0.1 or later	X
Eudora*		X
Exchange 4.0	X		X
GroupWise 5.x			X
Lotus Notes 4.x			X
Microsoft Mail 3.5 for W3.1	X
MultiMail Discovery		X
MultiMail Pro		X
Netscape Communicator 4.0			X
Netscape Navigator*		X	X
Outlook 97	X		X
Outlook Express*	X	X	X
Pegasus*		X
Windows Messaging*	X		X
*No version number listed

Direct mail
If you want to send and receive your Internet email on your PalmPilot Professional or Palm III without performing a HotSync, the two most widely used programs are MultiMail and HandStamp.

MultiMail offers connectivity to both kinds of standards-based post office--IMAP4 and POP3. HandStamp comes in two versions. As mentioned above, Pilot and PalmPilot Personal users can use HandStamp 2.x, because it includes its own built-in TCP/IP stack. HandStamp Pro requires a PalmPilot Professional or Palm III, because it uses the TCP/IP stack built into PalmOS 2.0.x Pro and PalmOS 3.0. HandStamp supports only POP3.