Hardware Review of:
3Com Palm VII 
Connected Organizer 

The Getting Started booklet is only 12 pages long and gives you all the information you need to get started, but be sure to follow it exactly. I will point out its importance later. 

Best of all, if you have a earlier Palm organizer, just installing the Palm VII software in the same directory will make all that information available to you new system. 

I bought this system to work on an IBM compatible PC, but another selling feature was that it works with my Delorme EarthMate GPS and its Street Atlas USA software, but more on that later. 

The "Get to know your new . . . ." section was pretty good about telling you how to install the batteries and what all the buttons and screen areas on the front of the organizer were for, but it did not tell you about the brightness control thumb wheel on the left side. Other than tat, it was very complete. 

After you have gotten it started there is a tour that gives you a pretty good demonstration of its capabilities. I found going through this first and then referring to the 293 page Handbook for anything you did not understand and a feature you could not find was sufficient. The only feature I have had to go to it for is repeating occurences of items in the Date Book. Other than that, most functions, like the Address book, Memo Pad and To Do List are fairly intuitive. 

There are two other features in the Main Menu category, Expense and Mail, that you may have to go to the handbook for, but I have not found a reason to use them, so you are on your own with them. 

There are eight categories. All shows you every thing, Games has nothing in it, but there are some the CD-ROM you can download to it. System has four applications. Prefs is how you want time, dates and numbers set up, Security lets you secure your system and HotSync allows to you exchange data between the organizer and your PC. The most interesting feature is Graffiti, which is their shorthand for entering information into the system using characters that are, sometimes, unique. Of course, if you are having trouble with this system, you can easily change to a keyboard or keypad templates. Either way of entering information is really interesting, but after awhile , it gets tedious, so let's go back to the HotSync feature. 

It is very important to install the included cradle just as it says, before you turn your computer on or load the Palm Desktop software from the CD-ROM. If you do not, as I said above, you may have some problems synchronizing information between your PC and organizer. It has a nine pin serial connection, but it does have a 9 to 25 pin adapter. Also, make sure the organizer is not in the cradle while you are installing the software. I believe these are mistakes I made and it just kept me from HotSyncing the first two or three times I attempted to do it. 

During the software installation, it will ask you if you want to load any of what it calls query applications. Also, it lets you know what applications, other than its desktop software, it can exchange with, such as most versions of Microsoft Outlook, even version 2000. These query applications and information from supported Personal Information Managers (PIMs) for extracting from and importing to (I have done a cursory look through the Handbook and the Desktop software help files and cannot find a listing other than different file formats). Guess you will just have to wait until you install the software. 

The Utilities category just has a calculator in it. There are Unfiled and Palm.net categories and an Edit Category selection that lets you move things around and make new ones that are more to your liking. I have one called Travel where I put all the programs related to what I use when away from home. 

You might be wondering why this is in the Internet issue and I have not mentioned much of anything about connectivity. First of all, this is the only Palm Organizer that has a modem built into it. I guess that it why it is called a connected organizer. It is a wireless modem and the antenna for it rotates up from the right side and is hinged at the top. 

There are 17 Palm.net query applications. iMessenger is the e-mail program and there are news, sports, financial, ATM locator, weather and travel query applications that you can use. 3Com has its own ISP, Palm.net and you just go to that web site and provide your credit card number. There is a $9.95 setup fee and the least expensive monthly fee was $9.95 a month, which limits you to downloading 50 KBs of information. I did three or four test e-mails, some weather inquires and a few other things, and only used 2 KBs the month I used the 3Com ISP. 

This is probably a very good service if you are on the road all the time. You can even have your e-mail forwarded, but you have to leave your home PC on all the time you are gone, you better have an UPS and some intrusion detection software. I tried the Visto.com software, but it warned it may not work with Outlook 2000 — and it did not, so I could not test out this feature. 

At the top, I mentioned using it with Delorme's Street Atlas USA and their EarthMate GPS. I could get the directions feature to work, but not the Map part. The downloading is done using a package called Solus Pro 1.5, which loads on both your PC and organizer. You do not have to load a trip to use it. There is a location feature that gives you your latitude, longitude, elevation, date, time and speed in mph. Of course, do not pay too much attention to it or you might have an accident. 

On a trip (see below) for a family wedding I used the information in Contacts to answer quite a few questions and provide quite a bit of information. Sort of like entering your cellular number in a friends cellular telephone type of thing. 

Also, my wife's best friend's son is going to graduate school in the same town and we could not get a local telephone number for him, so I just sent him an e-mail using iMessenger. He contacted us the next morning and we were able to get together. 

The only place I was not able to connect was in the basement of the ten story building where I work, but that is expected unless 3Com were to put repeater transmitters throughout the building, like has been done for our paging system. 

I used the travel direction software on a trip from San Antonio to Lafayette, Louisiana, and the only drawback was that without being able to use the mapping software, I was not able to seek alternate routes if there were any traffic problems. Other than that, it worked like a charm and was much less cumberson than using a notebook computer. Also, it comes with an alternate power source adapter for in car use for the GPS, instead of draining its four AAA batteries. When I ordered this setup from Delorme Mapping, I also got a "rhino skin" carrying case that holds the GPS, organizer and the connecting cables just fine, but not the alternate power source adapter. 

I hat ve only had one problem with it and that is the batteries keep quiting on me. You have to add new batteries restart using a paperclip in a hole in the back of the case and them get all your information back using HotSync (an incentive to do this frequently). The real bummer is that the travel software that I loaded to work with DeLorme Street Atlas USA is not backed up, so it has to be reinstalled. I let 3Com know I did not feel that was very smart on their part. Maybe that capability will come out in service release sometime in the future. 

Now, what about using it on other platform, like a (heaven forbid) Macintosh? No problem. Just call 3Com on their 1-800  sales number and for $9.95 plus shipping and handling, you get a serial adapter and a CD-ROM and it accepts the data into and out of about 10 different applications, besides what you imported from your PC. Also, as long as you do not use the "speedier transfer" software, you can continue to HotSync with both your PC and Apple systems. 

You can read all about this and other PalmPilots at <www.palmpilot.com>. The suggested retail price is $449; since this is their newest product, expect to pay full price. It is available everywhere, including CompUSA, OfficeMax and Office Depot. 

So, all in all, I really enjoy it, but since my work is primarily at a desk, I really have to work at it to use it. On trips or away from a computer it is great.