Palms m505 is at the top of the range when it comes to palmtop computers. The Palm V revolutionised palmtop computers, making them cool and desirable, as well as portable sources of information. Palm’s latest model is the m505, including all the style of a Palm V but with a lot of new features. The biggest change is the colours screen which certainly makes things look much clearer, but beyond that the advantages are hard to find. If cash is an issue but you want what the m505 has to offer, consider its £70 cheaper sibling, the rn500. Apart from a greyscale screen, the two machines are identical.
With a massive price difference of £330 The m505 is the first Palm to come with a USB docking station, as well as an expansion slot for MMC cards. This makes life just a bit easier. The latter can be used to boost the m505’s 8Mb of memory and extra applications will be sold on them too. The advantage of MMC cards is that they’re small and can be copy protected; the downside is their cost - a blank 32Mb MMC card costs around £15 more than a Compact Flash card. Palm has developed a new version of its operating system for it. Palm OS 4 is broadly the same as earlier versions with the same diary, to do list, address book, memo, calculator and alarm .
A Note Pad facility lets you draw directly on the screen and there are new views and options in many of the applications. For example, you can now set vibrating and silent alarms if you need to be discreet. It also retains the Graffiti handwriting-recognition system that has you write simplified letters in an area at the bottom of the screen. You also get software for internet connectivity, including a text messaging tool. The m505 is neat, cool and very functional. The m505 is sturdy but sleek, and the software is easy to pick up