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While perhaps not the sexiest aspect, the most important feature of the m500 series from an enterprise perspective is the new pair of standard interfaces. One of the major hassles with any previous large-scale deployment of Palm PDAs has been the plethora of incompatible device form factors that, along with equally incompatible interfaces, made the purchase, use and support of peripherals significantly complex.

Just consider the most recent generations of Palm devices: The smaller Palm V series has a completely different form factor and hardware interface from those of the Palm III series, which means add-on modems, wireless devices, keyboards and even basic docks are incompatible. While at least sharing the same interface with the III series, the Palm VII (wireless-integrated device) and IIIc (color Palm) both have a sufficiently variant form factor, which can often require different add-ons. Adding in other brands of PalmOS PDAs, such as those from Handspring, Sony Corp. and TRG Products (now HandEra), makes the equation even more complex. This is not a positive selling point for organizations wishing to purchase and manage large numbers of handhelds.

The two new interfaces in the Palm m500 series, however, will be standard for all upcoming Palm PDAs, and this standardization is welcome--except perhaps by those organizations that have already made significant investments in the previous generation of products. The first new interface is a small 16-pin connector, located at the base of the device, used for data synchronization, I/O and battery charging, for example. This is where sled-based add-on peripherals connect. These new peripherals are starting to appear; one of the first is a Novatel CDPD modem. The immensely useful folding Targus/Palm Portable Keyboard will also be available for the m500 series.

The second new interface is a tiny slot on the top of the units that accepts the postage-stamp-sized (32 mm by 24 mm by 2.1 mm) SD (Secure Digital) or MMC (Multimedia Card) expansion cards. Using the SD/MMC specification instead of the older and larger but more common CF (CompactFlash) card form factor allows for a fully integrated slot in a PDA as slim as the m500. A small but growing number of preprogrammed cards are available, as are flash memory cards (16 MB now, up to 256 MB soon).

Personally, I'd love to see a Bluetooth card, but I may be waiting a while. An I/O spec now being finalized should allow for a wide range of nonmemory devices in the MMC format to ship by year's end, but for now the lack of I/O devices is a limitation.

My test unit shipped with a "European Cities Travel Card," with travel applications, multiple city information and a simple multilanguage phrase book. Applications can be run directly from the card, but they were noticeably slower than when running locally. By comparison, the HandEra 330, another new PalmOS unit, includes both an SD slot and an industry-standard CF slot, but it is significantly larger than the m500/505, using the older Palm III interface.

Ergonomic Correctness

Physically, Palm delivers a mixed bag: user-friendly size but small screens. Still, one of the primary reasons Palm devices continue to drastically outsell more feature-rich Pocket PC devices is the attention to ergonomic detail in the Palm line.

While not critical from an enterprise perspective, the ergonomics of the m500 series is probably the most important factor for end users. The slim Palm V-style m500 form factor hits the bull's-eye--it's the perfect size. After lugging around various Pocket PC units and a Palm IIIc for a while now, I would find going back to those comparative behemoths to be frustrating. At 4.5 inches by 3.1 inches by a half-inch and weighing a mere 4.9 ounces, the m505 is the smallest and lightest color PDA on the market. The m500 PDAs fit comfortably in a pocket without making it look as though you jammed a paperback book in there. The attention to detail is excellent: Controls are well-placed, and the general impression is one of tremendous durability.

The screens are another matter. The monochrome display in the m500 is generally sharp, clear and perfectly adequate but is limited by its 160x160 resolution, which makes some images look blocky and pixelated compared with those on the larger screens of a Pocket PC or new Sony PDA.

The 16-bit color screen in the m505 clearly makes another compromise, and it's one with which some users may be unhappy. Palm's choice of a transreflective LCD screen means that unlike most of the color LCD screens in use, that of the m505 is perfectly sharp and visible outdoors and under bright light. But indoors, where most PDA use tends to occur, the colors look dull and washed out, and the nonadjustable contrast setting of the screen can be very hard to read without the backlight. Turning the backlight on improves the situation significantly (and backlights the writing area as well, which is a nice touch), but the brightness of the screen is roughly equivalent to that of a Palm IIIc set to one-quarter brightness at best. I got accustomed to the m505 screen and found it fully usable with frequent use of the backlight, but compared with that of a Compaq Computer Corp. iPaq or a Palm IIIc, the screen is not nearly as readable indoors.

Palm has held the line on battery life versus screen size for years now, a point that pits Palm against competitors whose products have much larger screens. Palm defends its choice in that the battery in the m500 lasts a very long time between charges (Palm claims three to four weeks), even with heavy use. The battery life of the color m505 is much better than any color Pocket PC device I've used, even with the backlight on most of the time. I went three or more full days between charges with frequent and intense use--try that with any other color unit.

Additionally, the built-in lithium-ion battery in both units charged quickly in the USB cradle (serial-port cradles are optional). You can get a PDA with a brighter or larger screen, or with features like multimedia-quality sound and voice annotation, but you'll pay a distinct price in decreased portability and battery life.

Memory and Add-Ons

The m500 and m505 both come with 8 MB of internal RAM (2-MB ROM), which is as much as the Palm Vx they've replaced has but is still a bit of a disappointment in a field where more memory is common. The 33-MHz Motorola Dragonball VZ processor driving an upgraded version 4.0 of the PalmOS is speedier than many of the faster processors used in Pocket PC devices.

A built-in vibrating silent-alarm mode will keep your users from being made unpopular in restaurants and theaters, and bundled software provides much-needed America Online and Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook integration, as well as a viewer for pictures and movies. The only application I tried that wouldn't work under PalmOS 4.0 was Brayder Technologies' JackFlash (a utility for storing programs and data in unused Flash ROM). An update to JackFlash is supposed to be available soon.

One crucial addition to the Palm line of products for the enterprise market would be a Palm Ethernet cradle enabling simple and fast synchronizing to a central server for the new universal interface. So far, the cradle is available only for the Palm III series.