[From California Lawyer (February 2000). Posted with permission from California Lawyer. This file cannot be downloaded from this page.]

Note: This is the first of two articles on the Palm, a handheld computing platform. This month we concentrate on hardware. Tune in next month, when we'll do it all over again covering the software angle.

In a feat practically unknown to modern lawyering the legal profession has eagerly embraced the Palm (formerly the Pilot, then the PalmPilot) despite the fact that it's a computer. In the four years since its introduction Palm has sold 5 million of its gadgets, and a surprising number have gone to lawyers. In the American Bar Association's 1999 Legal Technology Survey more than 28 percent of respondents admitted to using personal digital assistants (PDAs), a category that includes Palms, and a little over 83 percent of those PDA-toting lawyers use some incarnation of the Palm.

Almost 79 percent of all lawyers who use PDAs said they'd have a difficult time running their lives and practices without them. One of those Palm addicts is Joseph Kornowski, the associate executive director and general counsel of the Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) and sponsor of the PalmLaw Web site ( www.palmlaw.com), the premier site for Palm-packing legal types. "A year ago," he says, "PalmLaw was averaging approximately 800 hits per week; today, the number of average weekly hits has risen to approximately 1,750 - a substantial increase that I think reflects the immense general popularity of Palm devices in the legal profession. Anecdotally, almost all of the members of the LACBA's board of trustees a year ago were using DayTimer-type [paper] calendars; today, half are Palm users. Clearly, the luminaries of the legal profession have begun to adopt Palm handheld devices as essential tools to help keep them organized and connected."

At its simplest the Palm is an address book, calendar, to-do list, memo pad, and calculator in a package that weighs anywhere between 4 and 6.7 ounces and is about the size of a pack of cigarettes (but half as thick). Depending on the model, this gadget will hold up to 12,000 addresses, 5 years' worth of appointments, 3,000 to-do items, and 3,000 memos, although if you cut back on the number of memos you might be able to have 4,000 or even 5,000 to-dos, you poor thing. You enter data either by typing it into your computer (unless it's already there) or by writing on the Palm's touch-sensitive screen or by tapping on its picture of a keyboard. You transfer the data between your computer and the handheld with the push of a button.

Palm gadgets have become so popular because they are simple to figure out and simple to use. But once you get over the novelty of a four-ounce diary, you realize that the best is yet to come. The Palm runs a whole lot of other programs in its single, tiny package - 4,000 in one estimate. Were I so inclined, I could also carry around in that same four-ounce diary sections of the U.S. Code or the Los Angeles County Superior Court local rules (applications that will allow you to download these are available on PalmLaw). Right now, among other things, I do carry a time tracker that links to my office time and billing software, a calculator, an expense tracker, the latest Bay Area Rapid Transit schedule, some Word documents I'm working on, and a couple of Excel spreadsheets, plus a few games, and, of course, my absolutely necessary Chinese-language software. I also scanned in the menus from my favorite take-out places so I can have my order waiting when I get there. Once or twice a day I attach a weather module to my Palm, which tells me the temperature and whether it's likely to rain, and, when I'm driving into unknown territory, I snap on my compass and mapping tool. When I'm traveling, I add the public transit maps of wherever I'm going, as well as a currency calculator, a clothing size converter, and a time-zone clock. And if I played golf - and I guarantee you that ain't gonna happen in this lifetime - I could carry along golf scorecard software all in that same little box that fits easily into a shirt pocket.

What's more, you can buy a snap-on 28.8 or 33.6 Kbps modem or a wireless modem for your Palm. There is even a Palm VII that has a wireless Internet connection built into it. If I'm trapped without my laptop, I can send and receive faxes, send and receive e-mail, and print out information from it to almost any available printer.

Yes, Microsoft also has a PDA standard it is promoting, called Pocket PC (formerly Windows CE). When Microsoft launched it two years ago and encouraged hardware manufacturers to build gadgets using it, many pundits assumed that the Palm operating system platform was a goner. However, Palm now owns about 75 percent of the handheld market and Pocket PC and miscellaneous devices divide up the remaining 25 percent. Pocket PC handhelds are neither powerful computers nor efficient handhelds. That doesn't mean Pocket PC is dead. It will thrive in machines such as television set-top boxes, refrigerators, and cars. Don't worry about Microsoft. It just doesn't look like it has figured out PDAs yet.

Palm is now licensing its operating system (OS) to other hardware manufacturers. The first new non-Palm-built Palm OS devices to hit the market are the well-hyped Handspring Visor and the less-noticed Technology Resource Group's TRGpro. The hype about Handspring began two years ago when the developers of the first Pilots left 3Com to start their own company to make handhelds for the consumer market. These handhelds were to be more versatile and sexier. So far, I see nothing special about their appearance - the three Visor models on sale at press time looked and operated just like Palm IIIs, although the high-end model, Visor Deluxe, comes in transparent orange, blue, green, or clear plastic cases, as well as the dark gray color used for the other two models. I'm sure the color models are cool and great for the consumer market, but to me they look like toys.

I found the Visor's Universal Serial Bus (USB) synchronization to be noticeably faster than the Palm's serial connection; otherwise it works the same as the Palms do. However, the screen feels softer than its predecessor's and more easily scratchable. Nonetheless, these gadgets promise to be versatile. Each Visor has a slot in the back for Springboard Modules, a type of removable card for peripherals, programs, memory, and more. Various manufacturers, including Handspring itself, are designing these attachments, but so far only a small sampling of Springboard Modules have been released. The ones out or in the immediate planning stages include extra memory cards, back-up modules, standard modems, pagers, heart monitors, games, wireless modems, global positioning satellite sensors, music players, and voice recorders, with more ingenious attachments being announced all the time. And the nifty part is that when you slip the module in, its software just appears on the handheld. Pull out the module and the software disappears. You install nothing; you do nothing, not even turn off the Visor as you're sliding things in and out. In response, I'm certain Palm will also have removable modules, probably by the middle of this year.

For the purposes of this article I tested a Palm IIIx, a Palm Vx, a Visor Deluxe, and the wireless Palm VII. (The TRGpro didn't arrive in time for this review.) All of these models contain an IR (infrared) port for beaming (transferring or receiving) files to another Palm or to an IR-equipped printer or computer. Beaming actually is cool among the younger set. You aim your IR port at my IR port (sounds risque, doesn't it?), press a button, and whatever information you selected - your business card or the address of your favorite pizza place - zaps its way into my machine.

Besides Palm VII's connectivity, there's not a whole lot of difference among the models. Most look and heft about the same. Only the Palm V series has shrunk, slimmed down, and developed rounded edges. The Palm IIIx has 4MB of RAM (storage) and is upgradeable to 8MB with 2MB of flash memory by TRG. (Yes, that's megabytes. These things have tiny memories, and everything created for them has been pared down for their puny brains.) The Palm Vx comes with 8MB of RAM and 2MB of flash memory that is unavailable to users unless they use TRG's FlashPro software. (Flash memory comes in the form of chips that store bits and bytes. It's good for storing information - such as programs - that doesn't change, because flash memory can be erased only in blocks or by erasing the whole chip.) The Visor Deluxe comes with 8MB of RAM, upgradeable with a Springboard Module by adding 8MB of flash memory. The Palm VII comes with 2MB of RAM and is upgradeable.

Except for its slightly larger size and few added ounces, the Palm VII looks and acts like any other Palm. However, lift its discreet antenna and you connect to your e-mail and the Web via the Palm.Net wireless service and others are soon to be onboard. Not the Web as you're used to seeing it, though. To spare your Palm's tiny memory, you download only the specific information you need, not the whole bulging Web page. Each site requires its own so-called Web Clipping Application (formerly called a Palm Query Application or PQA), but these miniprograms run between only 1 and 6KB, so you can install a lot on your Palm and not overtax it. The Palm.Net subscription costs between $10 and $40 a month, and there is no extra charge to use any of the PQA-connected sites, including ABCNews, ESPN, MapQuest (for address to address directions), and the New York Times.

Most of these services are too skimpy and slow to be of much use on a handheld device unless you are really desperate to read the latest NBA scores. Or unless you are surprised to meet an unknown opposing counsel who you want to look up quickly on Martindale-Hubbell. In addition, some of the free services give you only generic information. For example, Etak Traffic Touch gives you the most general San Francisco - or Los Angeles - area traffic reports. However, if you pay them about $60 a year or $99 for two years, you can specify the route you care about. If you need this level of connectivity, you can find the Web clipping programs of your dreams at www.palm. net/apps/ or www.Tucows.com/. (By the way, don't try to use Palm.Net services in the Midwest. There is a huge black hole in their coverage that extends from Nevada to Illinois with very few urban exceptions in between.)

At the end of last year OmniSky announced its wireless modem and service for the Palm V series for about $200 less than a Palm VII, and it uses Palm's Web clipping technology. (It began around press time.) Surely others have similar plans in the works. Thus, if you wait, you'll be able to get your wireless connection on the Palm you already own, in a Visor springboard, or on a less expensive, less clunky, brand-new Palm device.

Palm's great innovation was making it simple to send information from the computer to the Palm so you can take your data with you, and then making it equally easy to transfer any changes or additions - notes, new addresses, editing comments - back from your Palm to your desktop. This synchronization meant that any work you do on your handheld device gets transferred (and therefore backed up) to your mother computer. And any of the updates and new files you create on the mother ship flows onto your Palm. The two devices become extensions of each other. To get files from your desktop computer to your Palm device and back, or to install new programs onto the handheld, you connect the hot sync cradle to your USB or serial port (depending on the gadget), stick your handheld into said cradle, and push a button. It's that easy.

Well, it's that easy the second time and thereafter. The first time, you have a bit of software fiddling to do. If you use the Palm Desktop, the personal information manager (PIM) program that comes with the Palm operating system CD-ROM, life is simple. You either transfer your data from whatever PIM on your computer it currently resides in, or you type it in from the slips of paper in your wallet. Either way, it goes into the Palm Desktop PIM and then, yes, just push the button. The data from the Desktop calendar is transferred to the date book on the Palm device, the data from the Desktop's contacts are transferred to the Palm's address book, and so on.

If you use Microsoft Outlook, Day-Timer, or another PIM, you need a third-party synchronizer. Let's start with Outlook. Most Palm devices ship with a copy of Chapura's PocketMirror program. PocketMirror, which may have been updated by the time you read this, automates almost everything for syncing your Palm device to your Outlook data. If your calendar and contacts lists aren't overly complicated, PocketMirror is very reliable and by far the simplest to use of your choices. However, it works only with Outlook (97, 98, and 2000).

If you use Outlook or Microsoft Schedule+ and want a little more control over how your data passes between your computer and your handheld, or if your contacts and other information are set up with elaborate categories, recurrences, cross-references, or other enhancements, DataViz's Desktop To Go is more equipped to handle your data. Before your first hot sync, you may tell this so-called conduit which phone numbers to transfer, how to categorize them, which appointments to transfer, and more. This may sound complicated, but it isn't: A setup program walks you through the steps. And, if you like, you may complicate your life by customizing what information from Outlook goes where on the handheld.

If you want really tight control over the synchronization of your data, or if you use Outlook or any of 17 other PIMs, including Day Timers, Symantec's ACT!, Novell's GroupWise, Lotus Notes, and GoldMine, you need Puma Technology's Intellisync. So far, I haven't been able to create a file, no matter the size or complexity, that Intellisync can't swallow. The power of Intellisync lies in its filters. You can create ways of including or excluding only what you want and then tell the program under what circumstances to execute these orders.

Once you set up whichever of these programs you choose, then, yes, transferring and synchronizing the data among one or more Palms and your desktop computer is a push-button operation.

That's enough for today, boys and girls. Next time we'll talk about all the other nifty things you can do with your new toy. You may want to hook up a global positioning satellite receiver, or transfer your phone numbers from your Palm gadget onto your cell phone, or read the U.S. Congress's Floor Activities This Week report. All this and more. Next time, same place, same channel.

Palm IIIx, $299; Palm Vx, $449; Palm VII, $499. Palm Computing ( www.palm.com).

Visor Solo (comes without a hot sync cradle), $149; Visor, $179; Visor Deluxe, $249. Handspring, 888/565-9393 ( www.handspring.com).

TRGpro, $329.99; xtra xtra Pro memory board for Palm IIIx, $169.95; FlashPro, $29.95. Technology Resource Group, 515/252-7522 ( www.trgnet.com for information about flash cards; www.trgpro.com for information about the TRGpro).

Palm.Net monthly subscriptions, from $9.99 to $39.99 ( www.palm.net).

PocketMirror, $39.95. Chapura, 800/242-7872 ( www.chapura.com).

Desktop To Go, $49.95. DataViz, 800/733-0030 ( www.dataviz.com).

Intellisync, $69.95. Puma Technology, 877/738-2621 ( www.pumatech.com).

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