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PALM READING
Palm announcements: the Palm Vx, better pricing, and more
By Heather McDaniel
We must be approaching the holidays once again. It seems lots of companies are making big announcements or are releasing new products. Well, Palm Computing is no exception. Not only did they announce that they are going to be a separate company last month, today (October 4, 1999) they announced a new product, the nationwide launch of two recently previously restricted products and price cuts on several Palm devices.
Introducing the Palm Vx
The first announcement from Palm Computing is the availability of the Palm Vx Special Edition. The big deal about the Palm Vx is that it comes with 8MB of memory. This is four times as much RAM as the Palm V. For many power users, the availability of more RAM in the Palm Vx makes this a much more practical device to buy.
The Palm Vx has an improved HotSync feature, which now (in a perfect world) lets you HotSync at 115.2 KB per second. Palm claims this is a 40 percent increase over the previous HotSync speed of the Palm V.
Palm Computing added a new interface element to the Palm Vx so you can set up a HotSync through the device's IR port. The Palm Vx is now available in the U.S. through selected retailers for $449.
Introducing the, er, "iPalm"...
Palm Computing also announced the Palm IIIe Special Edition. This was originally introduced in August at certain colleges and universities across the U.S. Due to its popularity, the folks at Palm Computing decided to release the device nationwide for $179.
Wait a second, didn't they just come out with the Palm IIIe? Yes, the Palm IIIe was released in July. What's the difference? Well, there really isn't one in terms of functionality. The only difference is that the Palm IIIe Special Edition has a translucent case, as you can see in Figure A.
FIGURE A
 
Taking a cue from Apple, the Palm IIIe Special Edition comes in a clear case. Roll over picture for a larger image.
To make your Palm device seem even more like a handheld iMac, Palm Computing released the Palm Colour Shades accessory pack. Yes, Palm did spell it "colour", rather than the United States' more common usage of "color". The accessory pack includes three flip covers in lime, blue, and aqua and three black styli. Check out Figure B to see the Palm IIIe Special Edition with a blue flip cover. The Palm Colour Shades accessory kit is available for $12.95.
FIGURE B
 
You'll flip over the flip covers included in the Palm Colour Shades accessory pack. Roll over picture for a larger image.
To see what else the Palm IIIe Special Edition can do, check out Claire Pieterek's in-depth review of the Palm IIIe at http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue199908/three001.html.
For the record, Palm doesn't call this device the iPalm, but it does seem appropriate.
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