The Palm V comes with two styli--a metal one with a built-in reset pin in the right silo and a plastic one in the left silo. Although it distinctly resembles the original Pilot stylus, the Palm V stylus is significantly smaller and lighter than previous models. The best option might be the Palm Dual Action Stylus, which sports a combination pen/stylus design remarkably similar to TTools' Throttle.

Overall, the Palm V is a very attractive device. Many hard-core Palm fans are torn, however. Choosing between the attractive look and size of the Palm V vs. the extra memory of the Palm IIIx will be a really tough decision.

The Palm IIIx hardware: beauty is only skin deep
Outwardly, the Palm IIIx is a twin to the Palm III. Inside, it sports many of the same components as the Palm V, but offers 4MB of RAM and 2MB of flash, plus an open expansion slot for forthcoming devices, such as pagers and memory upgrades. TRG has already introduced the "xtra xtra Memory Board" and announced the "xtra xtra Pro Memory Board" for the Palm IIIx. Both boards fit in the open expansion slot to double the Palm IIIx's memory to 8MB. The "xtra xtra Pro" (which is currently slated only for the Japanese market) adds an additional 2MB of flash memory to the 2MB onboard the Palm IIIx. If you're like me and you'd really like to see an "xtra xtra Pro" model with additional flash for non-Japanese speaking markets, please email info@trgnet.com).

Other than the screen, one of the most immediately noticeable differences between the Palm III and Palm IIIx are the silkscreened icons on the Graffiti area. The Palm V's icons are identical to the earlier models, but the Palm IIIx's iconsare somewhat smaller, do not have labels, and the pictures are drawn in more of a straight-on view, rather than curved. As shown in Figure E, the Applications silkscreen, formerly denoted by an arrow, has been changed to a house. The Menu silkscreen now sports a downward-pointing arrow to denote the pull-down nature of Palm device menus.

FIGURE E

Check out the new silkscreened icons! Click picture for a larger image.

Because the Palm IIIx uses the same housing as the Palm III, any peripherals or cases that fit the Palm III will work with the Palm IIIx. Screen dimensions remain unchanged from the Palm III, at 81mm long (including the Graffiti area) x 60mm wide.

The software: No big changes here
Unlike the introduction of the Palm III last year, there are no big changes in the Palm OS. There is a new Welcome icon that pops up the first time you turn your new Palm device on, to walk you through digitizer calibration and country/date/time setting, and a brief Graffiti tutorial, which you can also access through the Graffiti icon.

Perhaps the most welcome changes for many users are included in Palm Desktop 3.0.1 and HotSync Manager 3.0.2. An Outlook conduit (which the folks at Chapura tell us is a licensed version of their PocketMirror product) is now included in the box. When you install Palm Desktop, it will give you the option to link to either Palm Desktop or Outlook. US users will note that Network HotSync is automatically installed with the new version of Palm Desktop. And, Mac users will be happy to note that the long-awaited upgrade to their version of the Palm Desktop will be officially available as by the time you read this. The Palm Desktop and HotSync Manager incremental upgrades are not yet available for download from Palm's Web site, though.