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Palm
m500 and m505 Handhelds unveiled
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SANTA CLARA, Calif., March 19
Palm today
unveiled the Palm, m500 series handhelds. Two new models --
the Palm m500 monochrome handheld and the Palm m505 color
handheld, with a 16-bit color screen -- pack the power of
flexible dual, plug-and-play expansion and mobile Internet
access capability into the next generation of the best-selling
Palm V handheld product design. A Secure Digital (SD) and
MultiMediaCard expansion slot about the size of a postage
stamp, a new Universal Connector for hardware add-on modules,
and Internet connectivity software make the m500 series handhelds
the most wearable, expandable and wireless-capable handhelds
on the market today.
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The Palm m500 series handhelds introduce Palm's dual expansion
architecture, which includes an SD and MultiMediaCard expansion
slot and a new Universal Connector, which supports add-on modules.
These new expansion technologies will be common across future Palm
handhelds.
"We selected SD and MultiMediaCard technology for our expansion
slot because its small size allows us to maintain the elegant, sleek
form factor valued by our customers. Users can now easily carry
additional memory, video clips, images, applications, games, backup
capability and more," said Byron Connell, vice president, Product
Management and Planning, Palm, Inc. "Its adoption as a standard
[by a broad variety of leading manufacturers], power efficiency,
low cost, fast transfer rates and support for I/O make it the best
choice for collaboration and sharing among Palm handhelds and other
consumer electronics devices."
The SD format also supports input/output (SDIO) connectivity for
future capabilities. With SDIO, manufacturers will be able to miniaturize
their technologies to create SDIO modules for scanners, radios,
modems, cameras and MP3 players. A number of manufacturers, including
Toshiba and Panasonic, have already announced plans to create SDIO
cards using technologies such as Bluetooth, a new wireless standard
that will enable seamless collaboration among handhelds and other
computing products.
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Palm's postage-stamp-size expansion slot offers plug-and-play
use of the industry's smallest expansion formats: SD and
MultiMediaCard media. The expansion cards, which range from
8MB to 256MB, can be easily carried and inserted in the
expansion slot for instant access to applications, content,
data storage and backup, images, video clips and more. Because
of the broad acceptance of SD and MultiMediaCard media,
the cards can be shared among a variety of consumer electronics
products as well, such as printers, digital cameras and
MP3 players.
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Vibrant Color -- The m505 offers a crisp screen without sacrificing
battery life. The m505 product's new color screen offers bright
and easy readability, indoors and out. The reflective screen is
designed to support more than 65,000 colors and color-rich 16-bit
applications for clear viewing of games, photos and video clips.
The new Palm m500 series handhelds use a powerful new lithium polymer
battery that easily handles the color screen demands of the m505
handheld. This small, light new technology provides three to four
weeks of average use on a single charge.
The m500 series products come with the latest versions of Palm's
popular desktop PIM software for Windows and Mac OS. The Palm Desktop
software v4.0 for Windows includes enhanced functionality as well
as conduit software for synchronizing with Microsoft Outlook's calendar,
contacts, notes and tasks. The latest version of Palm Desktop software
v2.6 for Mac OS and the USB HotSync cradle let Mac users get started
out-of-the-box.
Both handhelds feature a new Arctic Mist metallic silver color
as well as a new, gentle curve for easier gripping at the products'
waistline. The m500 handheld, weighing just four ounces, is scheduled
to be available in the United States in late April for an estimated
street price (ESP) of $399 (U.S.). International availability is
expected in May. The m505 handheld, the lightest expandable color-screen
handheld computing product ever designed, is scheduled to be available
in the United States in May for $449 (ESP). International availability
is expected in June. Outside the United States, users can choose
from six languages for both models -- English, French, Italian,
Spanish, German and Japanese. Effective today, the popular Palm
Vx handheld moves from $399 to $349 (ESP).
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