Good things come in palm-sized parcels

By ADAM GIFFORD

Paul Leeper loves the Palm.

Sure, a lot of other people love the pocket-sized personal digital assistant - seven million sold, a million in the last quarter - but his devotion is exceptional.

Some comes with his job - senior business development manager for Palm's consumer market group - but even in a day packed with interviews he radiates real joy as he demonstrates each feature and accessory.

Star of this dog and pony show is the new m100 consumer handheld, which will be available here shortly for around $US149.

The shape is slightly rounded, easier to hold in the hand than the IIIe, which it will replace. The flip cover folds all the way back, and can be taken off if not required.

"We've listened to consumers and delivered in the m100," Mr Leeper enthuses. "They say, 'You've got a great device, but you hide things from us."'

With that in mind, the cover has a window so the clock can be read at the touch of a button.

The Palm can be used as a full alarm clock, with a menu of sounds to choose from - if you want to be awaken by the Flight of the Bumblebee, you can.

There is a new Note Pad function right there at the touch of a button, able to take handwritten notes. The notes can be transferred to a computer desktop as stickies.

If the black surround seems too drab, you can replace it with a colour face plate. The choice now is ruby pearl, Pacific blue metallic, blue mist, green mist and silver mist, with more coming soon.

The m100 is the first Palm to feature a plastic digitiser screen.

"One of the parts which gets hurt most is the digitiser," Mr Leeper said. "People hold it in their hand to write something and they drop it. With the plastic digitiser, we have yet to break one."

Palm is also providing the top-selling accessory, a hot sync cable, as a standard with the m100. A hot sync button is included on the cable.

Now the good bits start coming out of the travel bag: the foldout keyboard, which will soon be available for all Palm models; the MP3 player (still in development but due soon); the backup module from Northstar Systems; the Kodak digital camera that snaps on the side, using the Palm as its viewfinder; the modem.

Yes, the modem. That's the bit that takes Palm to a whole new level of utility. The internet connectivity unveiled in limited markets by the Palm VII has been extended to all models with the Palm Mobile Internet Kit, available with the upgrade to the Palm OS 3.5 operating system.

This means most Palms in use today can be connected to the internet through a modem or an infrared-enabled cellular phone.

Mr Leeper said the main use for Palms at present was personal information management through address books and calendars, but internet connectivity opened the door to a vast range of applications.

"Palm and wireless capabilities have given me my life back. They've given me the ability to control my life and allow me to do things when I want to do things.

"I go to meetings 12 hours a day. I don't go to my desk, so if I didn't have a Palm I wouldn't know what's going on"

Among the applications available for download from palm.net is an e-mail client, so e-mail can be received and sent direct from a Palm.