FIGURE A


Here's a look at the Palm IIIxe. Its style is similar to other Palm III series devices. Roll over picture for a larger image.

So what's the Palm IIIxe all about and where does it fit in with the other Palm OS devices? Here at PalmPower, we're often asked "What Palm unit should I buy?" and "What's the difference between all the different devices?" In this article, you'll learn about the new Palm IIIxe and get an overview of how that machine compares to the others. Be sure to read on, because there's a wonderful comparison chart later in the article. For detailed information on the Palm IIIc, see Claire Pieterek's feature article, elsewhere in this issue.

Introducing the Palm IIIxe
The Palm IIIxe has very similar capabilities to the Visor Deluxe by Handspring, at the same price. In the next few paragraphs, we'll show you how these nearly identical devices compare.

Priced at $249, the Palm IIIxe is comparable to Handspring's Visor Deluxe. Both devices cost $249, both have 8MB of RAM, and both run on AAA batteries.

The Visor comes in all sorts of colors, while, for the Palm device, gone is the old gray color. In its place is that new, slick slate color (which looks a lot like black to the untrained eye).

Another difference is that the Palm IIIxe runs Palm OS 3.5. The Visor Deluxe is still based on Palm OS 3.1.

What's new in Palm OS 3.5?
While the older versions of Palm OS will work just fine, there are a number of new goodies that everyone will appreciate in Palm OS 3.5. In an interview we had with Paul Osborne, Palm marketing manager, we learned the Palm OS upgrade found in the Palm IIIxe and Palm IIIc contain these new features:

• An agenda view that shows To Do items along with Date Book items;
• Address record duplication;
• Snooze function added to alarm dialog;
• Integrated "command bar" in the upstroke (for cut/copy/paste/beam/security);
• Security has masking feature that puts gray over the data that's locked;
• Menus can be tapped open right on the screen rather than tapping the menu button;
• Faster HotSync and IR HotSync.

We don't consider the fact that the Visor has only Palm OS 3.1 as a deal-breaker, but the new features are certainly nice to have.

A Palm (or a Palm clone) for all occassions
So what's the difference between the Palm IIIxe, Visor Deluxe, and all of the other Palm OS devices?