I'm someone who has seen both the highs and the lows of consumer life... Starting a new life in Not...
I'm someone who has seen both the highs and the lows of consumer life... Starting a new life in Nottingham with Shushy, my fiancee.
Member since:16.08.2001
Reviews:90
Members who trust:8
I'll be honest, I never thought I'd become so attatched to a gadget (with exception to my mobile phone), but I have. I wasn't really planning on getting a PDA as I was perfectly happy with the glorified Boots calculator I bought in 1995. It had a radio, stored my phone numbers and did pretty much what I expected. However on the day that I got my new mobile phone (see my op about Orange) this all changed.
Link were doing an offer on the Palm series, and I decided that I'd take the oppurtunity to get the Palm M100 at half price. My mate had got a Palm device and had used it every available chance so why not me? After all at least I could synchronize my
address book and calendar with the PC...
The unit itself is pretty small and lightweight and has a handy flip top cover to stop the monochrome touch screen from getting scratched. I do have one gripe with the cover and it's because it's not spring loaded or lockable. If you put the unit in your bag or pocket with loose change or small items that are likely to move about then there is a chance that something will get in between the cover and the screen. I've occasionally had coins managing to knock the on button and then move about over the screen which makes the Palm think it's being used and thus negate the auto-off feature to stop the unit from powering down if not in use. A small niggle though.
As I've mentioned the M100 is touch screen and you use a stylus which fits into the back of the unit to navigate around and enter data. The stylus does feel a little too light, but it is bareable. If your just navigating and not entering data I've found fingers work just as well to push things, but you will end up with prints all over the screen quickly. Entering data can get problematic though and this is nothing to do with the stylus. All Palm units use something called Graffitti to enter data. The idea is that you 'write' on the lower section of the screen using the special alphabet that the Palm implements and the unit recognises the squiggles and turns them into characters. This can be tricky especially if you try and write fast or while on the move. Most of the characters resemble pretty much the normal alphabet with the exeption of K, T and a few others, but it's when you start using non-standard characters such as @ or other signs that it gets tricky. Trying to remember all the characters can be a pain, and you'll end up popping up the onscreen keyboard to do it most of the time.
You get the usual applications as standard such as address book, calendar, memopad, notepad and to do list, but where the Palm comes into it's own is the ability to download applications from the net. You can download loads of programs and games for free from the Palm or C|Net website and then install them and use them when you next synchronise the machine with your PC using the software and link cable provided. One I have discovered and love is the AvantGo system. AvantGo will take up around 700K of the 2Mb memory, but you can download entire newspapers or websites onto your handheld. This is great if your favourite newspaper or site offers this service as you can just sync and then read at leisure. The AvantGo isn't just limited to the M100 or Palm, but other handhelds as well. It's just a feature I love though.
The unit has a backlight for reading in darkness, but it will run the batteries (2 x AAA batteries) down pretty quickly, as will extended use of the infrared port. The IR port allows you to share data with other handheld devices and phones, although I found the M100 wouldn't talk to most Nokia phones which was a small problem. The battery life assuming you don't use the backlight or IR port is pretty good and you can get about 1.5 months of average use out of them.
You can also customise the look of the M100 from it's standard black to other colours by buying face plates and covers in pretty much the same way you can with mobile phones, and also a foldable keyboard should using the stylus get too much.
I consider this as one of my best impulse purchases ever made, and once you start using one you'll rarely want to stop.
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Handheld - 128 MB RAM - Screen: 4 in inch - Display: TFT active matrix - CPU: XScale PXA310 - Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi - Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0, Microsoft Windows Mobile 6.0 Classic
Advantages: Efficient, good price, nice design, reliable, easy to use Disadvantages: Not enough memory, screen is a bit small, difficult to read in some lighting conditions,
pwr00 09.12.2000 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Palm M100
Advantages: Cheap, easy to get to grips with, plenty of additional applications available Disadvantages: More memory would be nice, stylus is less than brilliant
JimThorley 13.01.2001 ·
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Review of Palm M100
Advantages: Cheap, easy to get to grips with, plenty of additional applications available Disadvantages: More memory would be nice, stylus is less than brilliant
JimThorley 13.01.2001 ·
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful
Review of Palm M100
Advantages: Small, light, smart and v.useful. V. easy to sync with desktop PC Disadvantages: Cannot expand memory or put extra cards/tools (Camera/MP3) in.
paz2000 06.02.2001 ·
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Review of Palm Vx
Aug 28th, 2001
very helpful by (100%):
