.FLYINGHEAD SPECIAL REPORT
.TITLE Palm III hardware, a detailed first look at the new design
.AUTHOR David Gewirtz
.SUMMARY Learn all about 3Com’s new Palm III hardware in this in-depth special report. Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz got to play with two of the very first Palm III device prototypes and shares with you the results of his extensive examination. This article also includes 13 exclusive, detailed photographs you won’t see anywhere else.
.FEATURE
.SPOTLIGHT FIGALT p3hard-cover.gif
.EDNOTE Three days ago, we were issued two Palm III devices by 3Com — just days before the official, scheduled product announcement. The devices examined here are not final production models, but are quite similar to what will eventually reach store shelves. Since we’ve had only three days to completely examine these devices before going to press with this special report, we’re giving you our subjective impressions along with early test results.
If you use a PalmPilot now, you’re going to like the newly designed Palm III device, shown in Figure A. It’s sleeker, rounder, and more comfortable. Plus, it’s got some nice, new features that we think nearly all Palm device users will enjoy using.
.FIGPAIR A The slick, new Palm III.
Available at a list price of $399, the Palm III is a souped up PalmPilot with a new, sexier look, 2MB of RAM, a built-in infrared port, some useful new software features (described in-depth in "Palm III software, a first look at Palm OS 3.0"), and even a cool new flip-top cover.
The new Palm III also has 2MB of flash memory. This allows for software upgrades to be made to the Palm OS operating system without requiring the memory card to be replaced.
.H1 Pricing and availability
Before going into detail about the new features, let’s look at pricing and availability. 3Com will be announcing the Palm III on March 9, 1998 and will be shipping it, they say, in April. The PalmPilot devices also remain available, at substantially reduced prices. Here are the numbers:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET Palm III: IR port, 2MB of RAM (approx 6000 addresses, 5 years of appointments, 1500 to do items, 1500 memos, 200 email messages). Suggested retail is $399.
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET PalmPilot Professional: 1MB RAM (approximately 4000 addresses, 4 years of appointments, 750 to do items, 750 memos, 100 email messages). Suggest retail is $299.
.END_LIST
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET PalmPilot Personal: 512K of RAM. Suggested retail is $199.
.END_LIST
Although we think the fully-equipped Palm III is the choice for serious users and the price remains accessible, we think a hidden "big news" item is that a new PalmPilot Personal can be had for under $200. This becomes a really affordable option for casual users.
There are also reasonable upgrade options. For around $130, you can upgrade to Palm III functionality. We discuss this in more detail near the end of the article.
.H1 The new look
No question, the new Palm III is a cool-looking little beast. Even though its dimensions are exactly the same as the previous versions (4.7 inches tall, 3.2 inches wide, 0.7 inches thick), the new Palm III seems thinner. That’s because the Palm III body is tapered and rounded. Without the cover, the new device weighs the same as the previous PalmPilots, although the plastic cover may add an indiscernable increase in overall weight.
3Com calls their new look a "New Industrial Design". We just call it more comfortable. Without question, the new device is more comfortable to hold. As shown in Figure B, the bottom of the device is tapered. There’s a smooth bevel on the bottom, right side (on the left of the image).
.FIGPAIR B The bottom of the Palm III is comfortably tapered.
If you notice on the left side of the image (what would be the bottom, right of the device when handheld), there’s a rounded ridge. This is where the pen goes. It also serves as a nice grip point for the fingers of the left hand when holding the Palm III device.
Of course, if you’re a left-handed individual, you won’t benefit as much from this design. It’s not uncomfortable to use (feels just about the same as the earlier PalmPilots), but the taper will be on the wrong side when you hold the device in your right hand and write with your left.
According to the manufacturing label on the back of the device, production has moved off-shore. The label on the Palm III indicates "Made in Malaysia", while the PalmPilot Professional states "Made in USA".
.H1 The flip cover
This is the first Palm device with a built-in cover, as shown in Figure C. The cover is plastic, and attaches with two pins to the side of the device. It is easily removable, but we wouldn’t advise getting into the habit of constantly taking it on and off the Palm III or the pins might wear down.
.FIGPAIR C The Palm III has a protective cover.
The Palm III cover has two natural flip-points. The first flip-point, shown in Figure D, keeps the cover at an angle slightly forward of the device face.
.FIGPAIR D The cover can stay partially open.
The second flip-point has the cover at an angle that points down and back from the device, as shown in Figure E.
.FIGPAIR E You can flip the cover to the back of the device.
We kind of like the cover. It looks cool. But it sometimes gets in the way, especially if you haven’t remembered to remove the stylus before flipping the cover. Remember: remove, then flip. Remove, then flip.
Because the cover is detachable and because the Palm III has two mounting holes, we expect third parties to create custom covers that attach to the Palm III. We would have liked to see a lid that flipped completely around to the back of the device, like with the later MessagePad devices. Third party developers, are you listening?
.H1 Recessed contrast knob
The leather case that came with the PalmPilots is not included with the Palm III. That case had an inconsistent reception among PalmPilot users. Some, like your editor, had no problems. Others found it too tight. Still others had problems with the contrast knob. The fit was often so tight that the knob would adjust as it went in and out of the case.
The Palm III avoids that problem in two ways: by trading the case for the cover, and by moving the contrast knob. On the PalmPilots, the knob is on the side of the case and it can easily be spun as a result of insert/extraction friction. As shown in Figure F, the knob is recessed substantially on the Palm III.
.FIG F The Palm III knob is recessed from the edge.
.H1 Infrared beaming
The Palm III adds an infrared (IR) port, shown in Figure G, that you can use to share information with other Palm III users without wires and without doing a HotSync. We discuss the software aspects of beaming in detail in the companion article "Palm III software, a first look at Palm OS 3.0".
.FIGPAIR G The IR port makes beaming possible.
If you look closely at Figure G, you can also see clearly how the flip cover attaches to the Palm III body.
We did not test beaming extensively (we’ve only had a short time with two machines). Even so, beaming appears pretty solid. We first tried beaming head-to-head, about 3 inches apart. That, of course, worked fine. Then we tried across a desk (about 18 inches), and that worked well. Our final set of tests was across the distance of a restaurant table (about 2 feet) and although it took a second or so for one device to find the other (which also included one of our testers holding his hand still!), the beam seemed to go well.
3Com says that beaming is supported for distances of 2 inches to 40 inches. This seemed to be verified in our informal tests. We were also quite pleasantly surprised about the overall speed of data transfers. Everything seemed to beam nearly instantly.
As we state in the software article, you’re either going to love beaming or just not care. For those of us in organizations with more than one Palm user, we’re going to love it. For individual users who don’t interact with other Palm users, there’s less of a need for the IR port.
Oh, and for those Newton users considering the Palm device: beaming seems easier on the Palm III than the Newton. Beamed objects don’t go to an inbox. Instead, when something is beamed to your device, you’re just asked if you want to install it. On the Newton, we found beaming required conscious thought. On the Palm device, we found that beaming was a natural action.
.H1 New stylus
There’s a new stylus in town and it’s a welcome improvement over the original PalmPilot stylus. The new stylus, shown in Figures H and I, is much more comfortable to hold.
.FIGPAIR H The stylus slides fits securely.
.FIGPAIR I The new stylus has metal shank.
3Com says the new stylus is "ergonomically designed". We definitely found it more comfortable. The metal shank makes the stylus feel more substantial, and it looks more professional as well. We did not use it for long enough to determine if the finger cramping common to the original stylus has been somewhat relieved.
For those of you who are Black Nail users, we tried to insert that stylus into the slot of the Palm III. It fit moderately well, but didn’t look nearly as good as it does on the PalmPilot, because it does stick out a bit. Since the new Palm III stylus is slightly thicker than those of the PalmPilots, the Black Nail didn’t hold securely enough to make us feel safe.
Overall, we consider the new Palm III stylus a big win.
.H1 Updated buttons
There have been some minor changes to the button design, as shown in Figure J. Instead of the two scroll buttons, there’s now one, stylized up-down scrolling button. In keeping with the swoopy nature of the whole design, the Address and To Do buttons are just slightly lower than the Date Book and Memo Pad buttons, subtly accentuating the curved design of the bottom panel.
.FIGPAIR J The Palm III has a bigger power button.
To a user, industrial design is a subjective thing. To the designer, it can be tough trying to please millions of users. For example, my thumb might be larger than that of someone else. So something that annoyed me because my thumb was larger might have been "Ju-u-ust right" (as Goldilocks might have said).
But in the case of the PalmPilots, the green power button was slightly annoying. I sometimes had to move my finger around to get it to fit ju-u-ust right. But the new power button, to my thumb, is perfect. It’s slightly wider. It’s on a slight angle, and it seems to depress in a much more natural way.
OK, so it’s not a reason to throw a party. But the small touches can make your day just a little bit nicer.
.H1 New serial port door
If you look at Figure K, you’ll see the serial port on the Palm III. This is where the cradle connects to the Palm III to HotSync. Using my PalmPilot, I’ve always been a little paranoid about having the contacts open like this. I mean, who knows what’s been in my pockets. Eek!
.FIGPAIR K We wedged open the door so you could see the contacts.
But the new Palm III has a door, shown in Figure L that covers the serial port and protects it from pocket lint, cough drops, loose change, and other things too scary to imagine. The door is hinged and slides up into the Palm III when inserted in the cradle.
.FIGPAIR L The new door protects from scary pocket scruff.
Also, if you look closely at Figure K, you’ll see the new battery door, which snaps out when you fiddle with it enough.
.H1 New cradle
The Palm III includes a new, Batmanesque cradle, shown in Figure M. It doesn’t do anything new. It just looks, well, like something that would have been designed for the third or fourth Batman movie.
.FIGPAIR M Batman would love the new cradle.
Obviously, the new cradle is much more rounded than its predecessor. But while the earlier cradle design could accomodate both the PalmPilot series and the Palm III, you can only use the Palm III in the Palm III cradle. The older devices just don’t fit.
.H1 Upgrading
That about wraps up our tour of the new hardware. Now let’s discuss what’s involved if you want to upgrade your older devices.
In our opinion, the IR option makes upgrading much more important. If some members of your workgroup get the new Palm III devices and others are still using their trusty PalmPilot Professionals, then only some people are able to join the Beaming Club.
But what if your workgroup decides that beaming is an important element of the business process? Then everyone needs to having a beaming Palm III.
Fortunately, that will be possible. Although we don’t have final details, including availability, 3Com will be offering an upgrade for existing Pilot and PalmPilot devices to the new Palm III.
This is done through an upgrade card that contains:
.BEGIN_LIST
.BULLET 2MB RAM
.BULLET 2MB Flash
.BULLET 3.0 OS and new software
.BULLET IR transciever
.BULLET New back door
.END_LIST
The door covering the memory area will be replaced with one that has a very tiny (not enough to block the pads) bubble window for the IR beam. So, if you upgrade, you’ll get everything but the new industrial design.
We’re told the upgrade price will be "around" $130. This seems pretty fair. You’ll be able to install the upgrade yourself.
One final note: You’ll either be able to upgrade to a card with the new pager on it, or with the IR port, not both. If you want an IR-equipped Palm device, along with a built-in pager, consider hand-me-downing your current device to someone who doesn’t need both.
.H1 Conclusions
Overall, the new Palm III "feels" like a nicer machine. It’s slicker looking, has nicer features, and seems to work better. There’s nothing revolutionary here, but everything seems to fit together just a little bit better.
That translates to very subjective impressions of writing area, screen, and processor. The screen seemed just a little bit clearer and a little bit brighter, and the writing surface seemed just a bit easier to write on. It could be because these devices are new. Or it could be because 3Com has moved to the latest rev of the existing components. In any case, things seemed to go just a bit smoother. Since 3Com has not upgraded any key components (screen, processor, etc), your mileage may vary and it could all be in our minds.
We are, however, concerned with the Palm III name. It’s going to be darned hard to describe these devices. Do you have a Pilot? A Palm? A Palm Computing platform device? And what about the newsgroups? It’s going to take a while to change comp.sys.palmtops.pilot to something new.
A brand is a very important thing. We understand that 3Com is reinforcing its Palm brand (against the somewhat obvious poaching of Microsoft for "Palm PC"). But three name changes for a platform in three years is confusing.
Otherwise, it’s a nice little upgrade. Not revolutionary. Not breath taking. But nice and solid.
.BIO
.EDNOTE Photographs by Stephen Amontis.
.DISCUSS http://www.component-net.com/webx?13@@.ee6bad1
