.KEYWORD personality
.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE Personality Packs help your Palm V stand out from the crowd
.OTHER
.SUMMARY Does your Palm V need a little individuality? Want to be on the cutting edge of handheld fashion? Claire Pieterek has a review of Parallel Design’s Personality Packs, just what you need to liven up your Palm V-series handheld.
.AUTHOR Claire Pieterek
Are you feeling funky today? Maybe a little somber? Perhaps you just want to break out of the mold and make your Palm V-series device stand out from the crowd. Well, you can add a little personality to your Palm V with a Personality Pack from Parallel Design at http://www.paralleldesign.com. The various models are pictured in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A Here’s the entire spectrum of Personality Packs.
Personality Packs are to the Palm V what the flip lid is to the Palm III-series. However, Parallel Designs has made the Personality Pack much cooler than the Palm III flip lids and much more useful than the leather flaps Palm includes with the Palm V and Palm Vx. The Personality Pack is curvy and sleek, like the Palm V itself. It’s made of durable polycarbonate plastic, similar to the kind of plastic a certain eyewear company used in its line of durable eyeglass lenses. Remember the commercial where they dropped ball bearings onto the lenses to demonstrate their strength?
You can also leave the Personality Pack attached and still fit your Palm V in many different cases, adding an extra layer of screen protection as you travel. The only case I have that required me to remove the Personality Pack is the Palm V Organizer from Coach at http://www.coach.com/shop/product.asp?product_no=1211. This case has a plastic clip that holds the Palm device in place against a curved frame at the bottom.
.H1 A color for any mood
The Personality Pack comes in seven varieties: Palm Blue, Blueberry, Lime, Grape, Tangerine, Strawberry, or Carbon. You can opt for a gel, which has a colored lid with a black accent and stylus holder, or you can go for the regular version, which has a black lid sparked with a colored accent and stylus holder, as shown in Figure B.
.FIGPAIR B Be conservative and show just a flash of tangerine.
If you’re feeling really stealthy, opt for the carbon Personality Pack, which is completely black, as shown in Figure C.
.FIGPAIR C Be mysterious and go for the carbon look.
I prefer the gel lids, which are translucent, as you can see in Figure D.
.FIGPAIR D Here’s the attractive lime gel lid.
I like the gel lids because they allow me to read alarm messages when they pop up. I didn’t find it easy to read much else through these lids, though. I’d like to see a clear lid with a colored accent, or perhaps some kind of polarized lid that might make it easier to read the screen when you’re using the backlight.
.H1 Installation
Installation is easy. Just snap the Personality Pack onto your Palm V, ensuring that the clip snaps into the slot on the back. The lids are friction-hinged, so access to your Palm device’s screen is easy. These hinges also allow you to position the lid as you like it. You can beam. You can HotSync. You can do just about anything you would usually do with your Palm V while the Personality Pack is attached. One thing you can’t do is use other accessories that require the utility slot, such as the Palm V Modem Accessory at http://www.palm.com/products/palmv/modem.html or the OmniSky modem at http://www.omnisky.com.
The other part of the Personality Pack is the stylus holder, which is a small triangular piece that slides into your Palm device’s stylus silo. This is best suited to hold your stylus for easy reach when your Palm V is on your desktop, but you may have to take it off when you slide your Palm V back into its case. To be honest, I didn’t use the stylus holder very much.
.H1 Conclusion
Maybe the reason that the Personality Pack looks so cool, yet is so durable and reasonably priced, is Parallel Design’s pedigree. Parallel Design has helped bring to market some of the world’s most recognizable products, from such companies as Apple Computer, SGI, Oakley, Cisco Systems, US Robotics, and Sun Microsystems, to name a few.
The Personality Pack really makes your Palm V a lot more eye-catching. It enhances the understated beauty of the Palm V while adding some pizzazz. While I don’t really care what my case looks like when it’s in my purse, I do like the ability to protect my Palm V and have it look good when it’s in my hand or on my desk. Parallel Design’s Personality Pack fits that need elegantly.
Personality Packs are reasonably priced at $17.99 each and can be ordered from http://www.paralleldesign.com.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on Personality Packs, visit http://www.paralleldesign.com.
For more information on the Palm V Organizer from Coach, visit http://www.coach.com/shop/product.asp?product_no=1211.
For more information on the Palm V Modem Accessory, visit http://www.palm.com/products/palmv/modem.html.
For more information on the OmniSky modem, visit http://www.omnisky.com.
For more information on Apple Computer, visit http://www.apple.com.
For more information on SGI, visit http://www.sgi.com/homepage.html.
For more information on Oakley, visit http://www.oakley.com.
For more information on Cisco Systems, visit http://www.cisco.com.
For more information on US Robotics and 3Com, visit http://www.3com.com.
For more information on Sun Microsystems, visit http://www.sun.com.
For more information about Palm computers, visit http://www.palm.com.
.H1 Bulk reprints
Bulk reprints of this article (in quantities of 100 or more) are available for a fee from Reprint Services, a ZATZ business partner. Contact them at reprints@zatz.com or by calling 1-800-217-7874.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?50@@.ee6efac
