Now there's a new choice. The jazzy Palm IIIe Special Edition, with an iMac-inspired see-through case to pair up with optional fruity covers, was a bit tougher to find, but for at least a while it'll be available to consumers.

What about non-Palm organizers?
There are definitely other choices out there, and not all of them are bad. Although I prefer Palm devices, one of the others may be for you. I hear the Palm-centric gadget geeks in the crowd muttering mutinously, but it's true. And it's a good thing for all of us, because competition helps bring prices down.

The option you're probably aware of is the stable of palm-sized PCs running Microsoft's Windows CE operating system. One of these, Casio's E-100, shown in Figure B, has a bright, crisp color screen that is truly a thing of beauty. Okay, it costs $450-plus, but it puts the Palm's dim little black-on-green screen to shame.

FIGURE B

The Casio E-100 may cost a lot, but its color screen puts the Palm's black-on-green screen to shame.

But beautiful or not, these things are not for you, and that's the real shame. The Windows CE units all suffer from one insurmountable defect: they use Windows CE. I'm not a Palm zealot, and I really wanted to like the Windows CE units when they came out. 3Com certainly needs the competition.

Unfortunately, the Windows CE operating system is just too burdensome for a tiny PDA. The screen is cluttered and confusing, the "Start" button makes no sense, and the hard buttons don't seem to do what you expect. If you want proof, drop by your local retailer and compare them side by side. Even some hardcore technical people have decided that the Windows CE machines are too hard to use.

Microsoft is said to be working on a new, simpler version of Windows CE. When this unit shows up, you can consider it. But I wouldn't wait that long.

Then what about some of the lower end units?
The best known and most widely available of these are the Casio Pocket Viewer and the Royal DaVinci. Both are generally similar to Palm devices in layout and use. Although neither one is up to the level of the Palm devices, a non-technical user should seriously consider these.

The Pocket Viewer is designed to run with Microsoft Outlook. Figure C shows you what the Pocket Viewer looks like. Although the list price is $180, Internet pricing is in free fall. I've seen it as low as $75. At that price, you have to ask yourself some hard questions about whether a Palm device is worth an extra hundred bucks. If you already use Outlook, you might decide that it's not.

FIGURE C

Casio's Pocket Viewer is designed to run with Microsoft Outlook.

The Royal DaVinci, shown in Figure D, now has an ample 2MB of memory and costs only $100. It's clearly aimed at us regular folks because you can find it at discount stores like Target. With calendar, address book, lists and memo pad functions, it's the most Palm-like of the alternatives.

FIGURE D

Perhaps the Royal DaVinci is a little too Palm-like. Click picture for a larger image.

Perhaps it's a little too Palm-like. In August, 3Com/Palm Computing obtained a court order preventing new shipments of the DaVinci, claiming the designers had copied the Palm operating system code. The judge noted that even some of the typos are the same. Although Royal says it will excise the Palm code and continue the DaVinci, I'm doubtful. The existing DaVincis might wind up orphans with no tech support.