Palm m500

The Palm m500 could be confused with a Palm V at a distance, but not up close: its shape is a tad more curvy, though the bottom portion of the case is slightly less flared than the V. More important, the m500 is a bit shorter and lighter (the latter largely because the back half of the case is now plastic, not metal).

A tremendous improvement, at least for those of us who've regularly carried Palm V units, is the use of two small indented nubs for the scroll buttons, which means they won't press against the fold-over cover and keep the unit powered on (and drain the battery) following an alarm. The power button feels more sturdy than the Palm V's switch, and now it lights up when the m500 is charging in its cradle or, optionally, when an alarm goes off. Another welcome addition to alarms is a built-in vibrating alert for those times when you don't want the handheld to chirp loudly.

The Palm m500 also sports an expansion slot, which accepts MultiMediaCards (MMCs) and SecureDigital (SD) cards, for increased memory storage and future devices like digital music players. The range of expansion cards is limited at the moment, but early tests on those available suggest they are simple to use and a huge boon. Stick in the PalmPak Games Card and it is instantly recognised and you can start playing your favourite games as if they were installed on the devices internal memory.

Another hardware change in the Palm m500 is the USB-based Universal connector, which provides for much faster data synchronization and the promise that this design will be the standard connection port used on successive Palm devices.

The Palm m500 runs Palm OS 4.0, the latest version of the operating system, but most of the software changes are either under the hood or incorporated as subtle tweaks. For example, the Date Book application appears virtually unchanged, though overlapping alarms are summarized on one screen instead of forcing you to dismiss multiple reminder screens. The Palm m500 also now comes with Palm's Clock application for quickly checking the time (though you can't view it through a window in the cover like on the Palm m100 series models).

The other notable software addition is Palm's Mobile Internet Kit, which lets you transfer e-mail, check the Web (using Palm's Web clipping technology), and use SMS text messaging on any GSM-compatible cellular phone with infrared capabilities.

In all, the Palm m500 represents a good step forward for the Palm line. It's the lightest ever Palm device and the potential of the expansion slot makes it a worthy successor to the Vx.--Nelson Finn