Palm
III
Technical Summary
Processor: 16 MHz 68328
Memory: 2 Mb
Screen: 4-bit greyscale, backlit,
160x160 resolution.
Operating
System: PalmOS 3·0
Form Factor
The
III adopts the “classic” PalmOS device case, residing inside a grey plastic
case. It’s not an especially attractive
design, but it is functional and looks professional enough (at least until
one looks at the Palm Vx,
m500 and m515). The four
hardware buttons are arranged under the screen at the bottom of the device,
with the power button immediately to their left. On the right hand side of the device, you’ll
find the hardware contrast wheel. At the
base of the personal digital assistant, you’ll find the serial port used for Hotsyncing the III with a desktop computer and at the top
edge resides the infrared port.
Screen
The
Palm III’s 4-bit greyscale screen is, to all intents
and purposes, perfectly functional for the primary duties of personal
information management although it is noticeably inferior to later monochrome PDAs having that old fashioned “transparent” nature about
it. It uses the classic backlight
function, which although not especially useful in ordinary lighting, is
preferable to the IIIxe’s backlight in dim
lighting and is as effective as the m500.
Under
office lighting and outdoors, the III’s screen is
perfectly usable. It’s arguably an
older, and less effective, screen compared to the IIIxe, but the difference is largely
academic. Indeed, thanks to the
backlight, one can use the III under a wider range of lighting conditions, even
if it is less effective in some.
Sound and Notifications
Like
the Palm IIIxe,
the III uses a simple speaker in conjunction with various beeps and bleeps.
Storage
The
Palm III ships with 2 Mb of memory, which I believe is the most that the
processor can access. Even so, this is
enough to store a lot of personal information management, but if the user
wishes to add “heavyweight” applications (such as Datebk
5, QuickOffice, and similar), the III is not the
best choice.
OBD-II Scanner
Although
the III uses an older version of PalmOS, 3·0·3, which means it is unable to run
with the latest version of my OBD-II Scanner software. However, it can still communicate with the
OBD-II hardware using an older version of the software.
The
III’s backlight is also effective at night, although
it’s especially draining of the batteries.
The
Palm III’s trump card is in battery longevity. With a 16 MHz Dragonball
EZ processor and only 2 Mb of memory, the III’s AAA
batteries do not have much work to do (at least, until one uses the
backlight of course).
Expansion
The
Palm III has an internal memory upgrade slot, although at this juncture I know
very little about it.
Summary
I
purchased the Palm III primarily as a means of getting hold of an inexpensive
serial lead. Although it’s an older
generation device, with little memory and processor power, it can still do the
basic Palm thing - and do it well. A
useful backup machine, then, providing ones personal information database can
fit into memory.
Dervy’s Palm III Uses
For
years I didn’t bother archiving my personal information database and it reached
over 4 Mb. Although this would easily
fit into an 8 Mb or larger memory device, for the longest time I was unable to
use the Palm III for these duties.