After hundreds of PDA installs I like the Palm Vx best

I work in the word of technology, recently for lawyers and brokers. What do these two very different people have in common? The both have lots of money, and both love toys. This is good for me because I love the latter and don’t have so much of the former.

Having the opportunity to work with devices ranging from Palms to Visors, REXs to RIMs has given me the opportunity to be completely impartial in deciding which devices are best for which applications. After many hand me downs and a couple of hand me ups*, I have settled on the Palm Vx as my personal assistant of choice.

There is no doubt that the Palm Vx is sexy but what sets it apart from the crowd?

Style:

The first reason myself and others have liked this device is the 4oz hard anodized aluminum case, it just looks cool. In addition to the silver case there are two new limited edition cases Champagne, and Millennium Blue. Everyone I have ever worked with who got a Palm 1000, 5000, Professional, III, or whatever said “when can I get one of those?”, “soon” I reply knowing they don’t stand a chance in hell unless they make partner. Installing a Palm V is one of the few times I get to work with happy people (ask any one who works with computers what I mean).

Battery:

If you have ever had a Palm, you know about battery life. Early in my career as a Help Desk Application Support Specialist (that’s what they prefer to be called) I got many calls from VIPs to fix their “broken” Palm. I always brought extra batteries, what do you say to someone who graduated from Harvard who didn’t know that an electronic device needs batteries? The Palm V changed my life, well not really, but I didn’t have to buy batteries for my beeper for a long time after they arrived. The V series has a Long-life lithium ion battery, which is recharged by simply leaving it in its cradle. Palm claims the charge will last a month, which might be true if you only use the standard software. If you are like me and install additional software you may find it lasting up to a week at most. This is irrelevant if you sync often as the device charges pretty quickly in the cradle. The exception to this is the first time charge, which can take a few hours.

Memory:

There is not a lot to say about memory; it has 8 MB. This is 4 times as much as its predecessor, which makes a big difference if you install lots of software. If you don’t plan on using more than the basic software save your money and buy a Palm V.

OS:

The Vx comes with Palm OS V3.5. The differences between this OS and lower ones found on other devices are minor. You may notice the battery life indicator looks nicer and some of the system menus have changed but that’s about it. The standard applications included are Date Book, Address Book, E-mail, To Do List, Memo Pad, Expense, Calculator, and HotSync.

HotSync:

One of the things that made Palm devices so popular is the HotSync application. This allows you to synchronize your data seamlessly between your hand held and your PC by placing the device in the cradle and pushing a single button. The data is synchronized to a program called Desktop Manager, which contains the four basic applications Date Book, Address Book, To Do List, and Memo Pad. Email can be synchronized with outlook. You can compose, reply to, and delete emails on your palm but they wont take effect until you synchronize (this may seem obvious but many people think that they can email from their palm).

HotSync manager keeps track of additions and deletions and will prompt you with any conflicts; i.e. you change the date of an appointment on both your PC and the palm. It is quite intuitive and works 99.99% of the time. The exception is when you try to re-map fields, if you change key fields HotSync will think all records are new and duplicate them in both directions. Tread carefully before you try to change the field mappings. If you want to synchronize your palm to programs other that Desktop Manager I would recommend IntelliSync. This acts as a redirector and allows you to synchronize with dozens of other programs like ACT, Outlook, and Schedule+.

Third party applications:

There are thousands of applications written for the Palm OS platform. There are translators, games, financial applications, cookbooks, an application that makes your palm look like a Star Trek tricorder (it does nothing), there are even application that use the IR port to make your palm a working remote control! Web sites that have palm applications include but are definitely not limited to: Download.com, Tucows.com, and PalmTown.com. To install software you simply open the Install Tool on your desktop, select the file (palm applications have a .prc or .pdb extensions), then synchronize.

Functionality:

Lastly, I want to say a few words on how the Palm Vx is actually used in practice. As with anything, if you don’t invest the time in learning how to use it properly (your VCR may be a good example) you wont get the full benefit out of it. For example, I have many people who did not know they could synchronize directly to Outlook with a third party redirector. After many months of having their secretaries duplicate their data from Outlook to the Palm desktop I waltz in, change a few settings and viola! Their secretaries can edit their boss’s schedule/contacts anywhere they can log on and the bosses walk in to work between meeting, synchronize and in less than a minute all their data is in their hands. Bottom line, if you have the money, get one but spend the time to learn how to install software and really use it because nothing beats a good game of chess on the train ride home.

* Hand me up: When someone trades a Palm Vx for a REX because he never paid for it in the first place and never learned how to use it.