Sorry, but new user

[dzt41j]

OK, I can get a Palm IIIx for $20 for my daughter in college. Some questions I have after blindly trying the unit for a little while are;
1. It has os 3.1. To hotsyync using infrared to her XP laptop do I need to purchase a new OS? It does have the cradle if I have to use it.
2. Is it easy to enter her school schedule, work schedule, etc. through her computer? It appears very difficult to me to put it in the palm unit.
3. Do you think this is worth it for $20? It wasn't working but in reading the forum someone told how to take it aprt and fix the video cable, which I did. It now works fine. I can see where the sylus would screw up that cable over time. I can get a IIIxe for $60 from an ad in the paper also.

I'm sure I will have other questions, but for now lets try these.

Thanks

[AlanG]

Hello dzt41j.

1. You should be able to HotSync a Palm III series handheld via IR to a Win XP box, but it will be slower then a serial or USB to serial connection.

2. The Palm Desktop software will install desktop versions of the four basic Palm applications. Your daughter will be able to update her calendar on the PC, and then send the changes to the Palm with a HotSync operation.

3. $20 for a Palm IIIx is a good value in my opinion. My first Palm was a IIIxe, so I'm slightly biased. If your daughter is really interested in using the Palm, spending the money for the extra memory would be worth it.

Alan G

[david52660]

I have a palm IIIxe and love it lots of memory and even have programs for scheduals and such

[dzt41j]

The $20 one is the IIIX. I can buy the xe for about $60. Is the only difference in the 2 the memory, and would a "rookie" user be OK with just the "x"?

Is the infrared that much slower that it is worth hooking up the sync each time?

I did find that I can upgrade to os 3.3 for free. Is it worth purchasing the newest os or will 3.3 be fine?

Thanks for the great answers.

[Ben S]

The IIIxe has 8MB of RAM and OS3.5, the IIIx has 4MB and OS3.1. Other than that, they're basically the same.

A cabled connection is significantly faster and less error prone than an IR connection -- I would recommend it.

[Jennifer S]

OS 3.3 is fine unless there are specific applications she'll want to use that require OS 3.5. Note that you can't purchase the OS 3.5 upgrade from Palm any more - you would have to purchase the OS 4.1 upgrade unless you can find a used copy of the 3.5 upgrade.