Handheld Reviews

I have been sailing for some time now and received the watch as a long awaited sailing gift.
It is a little big, but I got over that very quickly. I had the watch for about 9 months and was preparing for an ocean voyage. I was looking forward to the compass feature. Two days before the voyage the compass went crazy and has not worked since.
The really annoying thing about the watch is the necessity to look "directly" into the face. If you look at an angle, you might see any array of numbers imaginable, fives are sixes or eighths, and ones become eleven. The date 9-15 becomes 8-16. It is really maddening.
I admit I haven't been back to the manufacture yet, but these problems should not occur to begin with.
Be advised.

This thing is amazing, but on the pricy side but for computer in watch it's worth it. i reccomend this for someone with a little extra money lying around.(-:

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One of the reasons I selected the Palm Vx was for its slender and streamlined style. I liked the way it fit comfortably into my coat pocket without adding too much bulk.

With slots for credit cards and businees cards this case represents a great concept. However, after filling each of slots with credit cards and adding some business cards, the case became so bulky that it defeated the entire purpose of owning a streamlined Vx.

Also, I found the loop closure very cumbersome and inconvenient.

very sleek. OS somehow is more stable.

This is the top of the line of the pocket pc. Get this, and you will have many bragging rights. No other handheld can say it has bluetooth, wlan, and a fingerprint reader included. But make sure you know abut how those features work before you buy.

Bluetooth- you can buy a usb bluetooth adapter for your computer. If you're wondering what bluetooth is, it's a new tpe of wireless connection (to put it simply). The usb adapter allows you to activesync your handheld from anywhere within a hundred meteres (also alows for internet). There are also bluetooth printers, GPS units and headsets. It can be a little tricky when you first use it, there are not much instructions (but there is a basic overview)

WLAN- Get internet on your handheld! Large pages are hard to scroll, it's more of a special feature than a useful one. Does allow email to be sent directly frm your handhed, which can be useful.

Fingerprint reader- 007 style security. If you need security, this one's for you. But it isn't easy. Reader is finicky at times, and depending on how you set it up, a certain number of bad scans results in a complete hard reset. Hasn't happened to me, but sometimes I get scared when it won't take my print. (can be turned off, it asks for print after soft reset, and an amount of time you enter in). Other security methods include password, pin number.

The Bluetooth and WLAN can be used on the Ipaq 3955, all you need is the card for them, which ends up being cheaper. It all depends on if you relly need the features or if you want to brag.
The ipaq 5455 does freeze up from time to time, a soft reset is necessary, not a major problem, though. The windows media player allows for mp3 playback (buy a secure digital memory card and you're ready to go!) which is nice to have. Other things that are good are an extra battery, becasue battery life is good, but not the best, especialy on WLAN, and a keyboard for extensive typing. Inputs are okay, but not for alot of typing. Can use keyboard, grafitti (palm)-like block letters, or it can recognize your handwriting.
There isn't much documentation with the unit- just a pamphlet on wlan, bluetooth, and fingerprint reader. But t isn't too difficult to set up. As for weird power errors- it did hard reset itself for no reason after i first got it (so it wasn't turning on, had to re-activate battery). Hasn't hapened since (2 months ago). The ipaq 5455 is the first to have all the features, so there are a few bugs, like some of the other power issues in the other reviews.
Overall, i am pleased with the unit. Don't expect perfection and you will be happy too. 4 stars because of price/function ratio.

These guys who are palm lovers just have a hard time switching to the Pocket PC! I am a switcher. The transition was tough at first back a couple of years ago. The Palm OS is surely faster and more user friendly but has much less to offer. This IPAQ is a powerful one and the screen quality, handwritting recognition and wifi options are unmatched by any Palm device. I have not found much use yet for the Bluetooth and the security features are good but I don't know that I need them. Still, what a great tool for word processing, spreadsheets, web surfing and more. Lighten up Palm boy!

I picked up this PDA mainly to streamline my business(contacts, appointments, to-do list, etc.) after seeing review in PC Mag, but it has proved so much more. Utilizing bluetooth(IFR) wireless connection between my SE T68I phone, desktop and PDA all the data entered throughout the day is automatically downloaded into my home computer as I walk in the door(systems actively searches for each other to communicate when they get within 20 feet or so line of sight). By the time I grab a beer
it's done and I did'nt have to do a thing. There are a couple of other Compaq models that have a higher rated display, but this model has the feature of programing all my remote home electronics and I get to play "KING OF THE REMOTE". Very cool.

It's good to be da'king...

In theory, I really liked the idea of this PDA case. Pleanty of room for your cell phone, modem card, cables, PDA, Pens, Paper, Keys, etc. When I actually received the case however, I found there was really no way to securely fasten my iPAQ except with the included rubber band straps. To hold the PDA even semi-securely you need to pass the bands over the top of the screen making it ineffective to use unless you remove the PDA from the case. This defeats the purpose for me. The photo's are deceiving! I finially purchased some industrial strength Velcro to attach it to the left side. The rest of the case features I really like, however, if it wasn't for Velcro, I would have returned this product.

I have this product for over two years for Palm and Sony Clie PDAs. This product stands out for its high quality and exceptional durability. It has an excellent belt clip (which allows "clip to belt" or "put belt through" modes). I wear it every day as wallet&PDA case on my belt. In this way my hands are free and I do not worry to loose it. It has three roomy pockets for credit cards and similar items, extra pocket for stylus, external mesh pocket and four rubber bands that hold PDA (but no PDA pocket). Despite heavy use, none of the pockets or two side zippers ripped as was the case with other products.
I would give this product five stars if not for its two inconvenient features: (1) its largest credit card pocket opens inside of the case, which forces you to fully unzip the unit to access it (other two pockets are very convenient and are easily accessible) and (2) rubber bands in the corners do hold firmly PDA but only if you strap them on a PDA; hence, if you forget to strap them on and open the case, PDA can fall out. It would be much better case, if there would be a pocket for PDA.

Don't the name of this product fool you...it works with just about any PDA out there.

The RhinoPak is a wonderful carrying case, especially if you have a lot of add-ons for your PDA. I use it to carry an iPAQ, a Targus folding keyboard and adapter unit, a CF ethernet adapter and a FlashPath floppy disk adapter. All of that in a case that is just a little larger than a medium length paperback novel.

The main compartment is well padded and allows you to secure the PDA with either velcro or with the elastic corners sewn in. The opposite side of the main compartment contains a mesh pocket that wil hold everything else. The front cover contains a zippered pocket flap, which covers another mesh pocket and the back cover has a zippered pocket that runs the length of the unit. This is definitely made for the PDA packrat.

In short, if you have a lot of other devices, cards, accessories for any PDA, look into this.

In theory, I really liked the idea of this PDA case. Pleanty of room for your cell phone, modem card, cables, PDA, Pens, Paper, Keys, etc. When I actually received the case however, I found there was really no way to securely fasten my iPAQ except with the included rubber band straps. To hold the PDA even semi-securely you need to pass the bands over the top of the screen making it ineffective to use unless you remove the PDA from the case. This defeats the purpose for me. The photo's are deceiving! I finially purchased some industrial strength Velcro to attach it to the left side. The rest of the case features I really like, however, if it wasn't for Velcro, I would have returned this product.

I have this product for over two years for Palm and Sony Clie PDAs. This product stands out for its high quality and exceptional durability. It has an excellent belt clip (which allows "clip to belt" or "put belt through" modes). I wear it every day as wallet&PDA case on my belt. In this way my hands are free and I do not worry to loose it. It has three roomy pockets for credit cards and similar items, extra pocket for stylus, external mesh pocket and four rubber bands that hold PDA (but no PDA pocket). Despite heavy use, none of the pockets or two side zippers ripped as was the case with other products.
I would give this product five stars if not for its two inconvenient features: (1) its largest credit card pocket opens inside of the case, which forces you to fully unzip the unit to access it (other two pockets are very convenient and are easily accessible) and (2) rubber bands in the corners do hold firmly PDA but only if you strap them on a PDA; hence, if you forget to strap them on and open the case, PDA can fall out. It would be much better case, if there would be a pocket for PDA.

Don't the name of this product fool you...it works with just about any PDA out there.

The RhinoPak is a wonderful carrying case, especially if you have a lot of add-ons for your PDA. I use it to carry an iPAQ, a Targus folding keyboard and adapter unit, a CF ethernet adapter and a FlashPath floppy disk adapter. All of that in a case that is just a little larger than a medium length paperback novel.

The main compartment is well padded and allows you to secure the PDA with either velcro or with the elastic corners sewn in. The opposite side of the main compartment contains a mesh pocket that wil hold everything else. The front cover contains a zippered pocket flap, which covers another mesh pocket and the back cover has a zippered pocket that runs the length of the unit. This is definitely made for the PDA packrat.

In short, if you have a lot of other devices, cards, accessories for any PDA, look into this.

The iPaq 1945, with "Mobile Windows 2003," is an updated version of the landmark 1910 model. The 1910 model was significant in the history of Pocket PCs because it was small and stylish, a first in the PPC world. Unfortunately, the cool factor of the 1910 wore off pretty quickly; I initially loved my 1910 and gave it 5 stars. After two weeks I started getting frequent crashes, and the unit was very slippery and quite uncomfortable to hold, and HP didn't even both to include a case!
The 1945 introduced some new additions, but has one big huge drawback: it uses a Korean-made Sumsung CPU, which implements the ARM architecture at a low speed and also a low cost (to HP, that is). The CPU is reported to generate more heat than Intel offerings, and personally I don't trust a company that makes DVD players that don't last more than 6 months. Anyway, the 1945 is not even that cheap. A faster and better built Zire 71 with more features is cheaper, and since Palm can do videos and music these days, the incentive to get such a half-baked product like the 1945 is pretty small.

Also, even though 64MB of RAM is included, you can still only access about 46MB of it. In my 1910 experience this is actually adequate, unless you want to install Microsoft Reader, Pocket Streets, Money, and other software. PPC software titles tend to be huge (think "bloatware"), so I think going forward if you are buying a PPC, be sure to get at least 64MB of *useable* RAM. Check out Toshiba's e750/e755 offering, which as 96MB of RAM, 32 of which is non-versatile, meaning the content stays on even when the battery completely dies. (The e75x also has wi-fi.)

In terms of additions, the 1945 offers Bluetooth -- but nobody I know uses BT so most of you potential buyers would be paying for something you'll never use (kinda like the mic feature on all the PPCs I've owned...) -- and also SDIO compatibility, something sorely missing in the 1910. A few manufacturers including Toshiba, Sandisk, Lexar, etc. are coming out with SD wi-fi cards (finally), so at least the 1945 can potentially use them. BUT... wi-fi is a battery killer, and the 1945 uses a small-capacity battery. My prediction is on a full charge and at level 2 brightness (out of 5), if you have the wi-fi on, the 1945 won't last for more than 30 minutes. Also note that you cannot use a wi-fi card and SD memory expansion at the same time as the 1945 only has one slot. So a few extra bucks, you'd be much, much better off with a Toshiba e75x model, which has both SD and CompactFlash expansion slots (and built-in 802.11b wi-fi).

While the 1945 is still stylish and kind of "cool," you must keep in mind that its slippery metal surface makes it hard to hold or take out of the case. The application buttons are also stiff. I test-drove a 1945 in a local computer store and was totally unimpressed since none of the complaints I had was addressed at all, including the small and awkward stylus.

Even though I still use my 1910 as my primary PDA, I'm looking to replace it completely (maybe with a Palm, after all these years?), both as a result of disatisfaction with the hardware and some frustrations over the software (no "tap-and-write" calendar appointments, all-too-frequent problems with ActiveSync, constant soft resets, etc, etc.). So my finally thought is, get a Palm if you want something simple and reliable, and if you want a PPC, stay away from this underpowered, ergonomically incorrect 1945 and get a Toshiba e755 instead.

The iPAQ 1945, also sold as the iPAQ 1940, is the first in a line of planned successors to the iPAQ 1910. HP has addressed many of the concerns that 1910 users had, namely that the 1910 was too slow and lacked hardware expansion options. The 1945 is powered by a new 266MHz processor from Samsung which rivals, and sometimes surpasses, the usable speed of many XScale chips from Intel. Other features of the iPAQ 1945 include 64MB of RAM (56MB of which are user accessible), a crisp, bright transflective color screen, onboard Bluetooth wireless, and a Secure Digital slot which can use SD flash memory cards and SDIO peripherals such as 802.11b WLAN cards.

Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC replaced Pocket PC 2002 as the most current Pocket PC OS in June 2003 and comes installed on the 1945. While the version of Windows Mobile 2003 pre-installed on the iPAQ lacks a few minor applications (such as Microsoft Reader), each can be downloaded for free. Because HP left the choice to the end-user, the iPAQ File Store - unused space on the ROM - has over 13MB free for software, files, etc.

As I mentioned before, the Samsung processor keeps the 1945 moving along very well. Having recently used an iPAQ 5450 (400Mhz PXA250 XScale), a Toshiba e755 (400MHz PXA255 XScale) and a Toshiba e355 (300MHz PXA255 XScale), I can say that, from a casual use point-of-view, the iPAQ 1945 surpasses the speed of the iPAQ 5450 and Toshiba e355 and feels basically on level with the Toshiba e755. One of the touted benefits of the Samsung processor is long battery life, and while I didn't get the eight hours that HP suggested I might, I got almost seven hours use out of the 1945 with the backlight on its lowest setting before I had to recharge; a very good result.

There is only one real drawback to the iPAQ 1945, as I see it, and it's relatively minor and completely fixable: the 1945 ships with only a USB Sync cable, not a cradle. While some might actually prefer this, I miss not having a cradle to rest the iPAQ in while it's not in use. The good news here is that there is a cradle available (the same cradle that works with the iPAQ 1910), and you can purchase if you want it.

All-in-all, the iPAQ 1945 is an amazing addition to the Pocket PC family. If you like small, light PDAs with oomph, the 1945 might be right up your alley.

The Pros
Value- The HP 1945's price is hard to beat for the quality and features. With integrated Bluetooth, a 266Mhz CPU, 64MB RAM, 32MB ROM, and up to 14MB for the IPaq File Store; the HP 1945 is the best bang for the buck!

Size- This PDA is tiny, but still has a decent size screen at 3.5". It is very slim and even with a case, it is still smaller than most of the others on the market.

Performance- The HP 1945's performance is actually quite shocking. It outperforms all slower processor PDA's and outperforms several with faster processors. It opens all applications fast, and data transfer is smooth and error free.

Screen- The screen is bright and brilliant. Colors are beautifully displayed with video and pictures looking crystal clear.

Bluetooth- The integrated Bluetooth in a PDA under $300 is awesome. I use the Bluetooth to surf the web and check my email from my couch. I have had no problems syncing or with data transfers. This is a great feature, and I am now going to start buying more Bluetooth peripherals because of the ease of use.

Software- I love Windows Mobile 2003 for Pocket PC. It is seemlessly integrated with other Microsoft apps like Word, Outlook, Excel, and Powerpoint. This makes life alot easier for me. Another thing I like is using the Microsoft Theme editor to make my own customized desktops (Today screens). Finally, software plus is the availability of some great PocketPC freeware []

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Audio- The MP3 playback is very nice, and the speakers sound good. I have seen some complaints about the headphone jack adaptor, but I don't see it as a big issue. They had to make the jack smaller to keep the PDA as slim as possible. The voice recorder is a great feature that allows you to instantly make voice recordings with just one click.

The Cons-
No Commercial Grade IR - To make your PDA into a Remote Control. No biggie, but that would have been a nice feature.
Small center button - Makes games a bit difficult (but who really plays games, right?)
Documentation - The PDA manual is weak, and I had to search the web to figure out how to use some of the functions.

Conclusion -
If you are shopping for a PDA at a great price that is packed with features and performance, look no further than the HP 1945. It has features that are comparable to PDA's priced at $400, while it is priced under $300! This is a top-notch PDA!

I've owned a few Archos products, and I still use the slim 20GB portable hard disk on a daily basis. But I cannot recommend Archos products, because, two years after they started selling here stateside, their quality control and customer support are still very, very poor.

While not a looker, the Jukebox Multimedia looks good on paper, with MPEG4/DiVX support (although you need to convert the files, a tedious process) and expandability. As you can tell from the picture it's quite bulky. What's interesting is, it's actually smaller than it looks, but heavier, too, the exact opposite of the RCA RD2840 40GB Personal Jukebox, which I recommend for its 40GB capacity, great price point, and good quality. I cannot recommend the Archos at all, read on.

First, the screen on this thing is really small. Tiny! Don't expect to watch video more than a couple times. Once the novelty factor wears off -- and it'll only take a few minutes -- you'll want to shun watching anything on the small screen, even JPEG pictures. (Sorry, Larry, no carry-anywhere porn viewer for you yet.) There are no details on the videos and pictures, and the LCD screen eats battery fast, very fast.

Second, Archos really, really, really needs to improve their quality. I bought my first unit on a Saturday, it broke the next day, I took it back for an exchange, then by Tuesday the second one would not turn on. I went back for another exchange, but the very next day the third unit developed a heavy vibration midway through a song. That's it, I returned the unit to store for a full refund.

All this time, I did not bother to call Archos tech support, because from my past experience I knew them to be rather useless. With my compact hard disk, for example, it came with an instruction sheet that had whole sections missing! When I contacted tech support, they asked me to refer to the missing information on the sheet! You should take a look at the support section of their website, and you'll see they are not very serious about keeping their customers happy. (Archos is a French company, FYI.) If their products were reliable this could be forgiven. But unfortunately the products are not high-quality at all.

So I think if you buy this product you are basically playing with Russian roulette. You might get a reliable unit; my Archos hard drive and one previous Studio jukebox work fine. But, then, if you take my advice and check out the RCA 40GB Jukebox, I think you'll save yourself lots of frustration over a not-cheap purchase.

I've owned an Archos Jukebox Multimedia 20GB now for about a month, and appreciate it more and more as time goes on.
The positives:
* For what it is, and compared with other MP3 players, this is a wonderfully versatile gadget.
* Great sound, especially with Sony MDRV300 headphones
* Very easy to download and organize MP3 files
* Makes a great portable hard drive
* With camera, takes reasonable photos and videos of brightly-lit scenes
* Internal microphone makes for a very inobtrusive digital sound recorder
* With the SmartMedia adapter, provides pocket-storage for digital camera photos without requiring the use of a host PC
* Rubber corner bumpers do an effective job of shielding unit from damage

However, there are some negatives:
* Peculiar construction and packaging is not as polished as Zen or iPod - lots of tabs, poorly finished holes, and flaps.
* Playback skips or stops when exercising vigorously and the Archos is belt-mounted
* Camera module is not "fast" enough to capture moderate- or low-light scenes
* Internal microphone picks up internal hard-drive noise
* Audio-In does not adequately pre-amplify some external microphones
* Battery life is not fabulous, though OK with LCD off.
* Some gaps in supplied software, particularly for DVD capture and conversion to displayable format on internal LCD
* Occasional "hangs" when using USB 1.1 cable; far fewer experienced when using available USB2 / Firewire cable.
* Sound suffers when connected to a component system, etc., using supplied audio/video cable

I bought this product specifically to drive almost cross-country. It was a perfect device for this. I was able to share photos and home videos with relatives I had not seen in a long time. I was able to listen to the 2000+ songs in my digital library during the drive. I could store my resume for job interviews and plug the device into nearly any computer and it was recognized as an external hard drive. Perfect, right?
Almost. TOUCHING the device when not connected to a power supply killed it after less than 2 hours. It was better NOT TO FOWARD a song I was not in the mood for, but to just let it play. TOUCHING the device would mean that until it was powered up again, it was useless. Wish I had known that before a 24 hour drive, of course. But, at the worst, it is a completely recognizable external hard drive for space. At best, it is a fully functional multimedia device with many, many quirks.

If you have not been able to tell from all the other comments, this will no longer be a portable once the battery dies. It will die and VERY Soon after you buy this DVD player. Mine lasted two uses, it is junk and the product support is misserable.<br /> <br /> Buy a Sony or something else but stay away from the Toshiba Players.

Yea, great picture-bad sound but even worse if you can't even take it on flights or trips that depend on the battery because the AC adapter to recharge the battery is a lemon. I have had this REPLACED by Toshiba THREE TIMES! And, I am on hold YET AGAIN with Toshiba right now because-you guessed it-it won't recharge! On a positive spin-they have replaced it and are fixing it yet again! But what a whip.

I'm giving this player only three stars for several reasons. The physical design of the device is certainly attractive, and it does meet my basic need for a hand-held DVD player. However, Toshiba has made some design choices that might make sense if this were your first and only DVD player, but which hamper its utility as a portable player. I think for most buyers a portable will a second, third, or even fourth DVD player that will rarely be plugged into a TV.

The most annoying thing by far it the player's inability to remember where you left off watching a DVD. If you don't watch a film all the way through in one sitting, you have to find your way back to the point you left off each time you re-start the player (This is not, by the way, a flaw unique to this Toshiba product; I have a Toshiba 9" TV/DVD combo with the same failing).

This lack of memory is especially irritating because, as some others have noted, the player can easily lose tracking and then has the re-load the disc (I've found that keeping my thumb on the disc cover while moving seems to help prevent this; perhaps if the disc cover locked down more securely, it might not happen at all). Maybe this lack of shock resistance is a reflection of Toshiba's apparent assumption that the unit would usually be used while connected to a TV.

My other main complaint is that there are separate fast forward and reverse buttons on the remote, but not on the player itself. You can get up to 32X from the remote, but only 2X on the player (by holding down the Skip buttons). This probably would not be so much of an issue if the player could remember where it left off when you stopped or it lost tracking. This seems to be another decision made assuming it would be used as a set-top player as least as much as a portable.

Finally, there is the matter of the latch, which has the problems of being both flimsy and hard to operate. This is just poor ergonomics.

Having said all of that, however, I have to admit I do like the unit. I wanted a portable player about the size of a book that I could use in bed when I don't feel like reading, and this is an adequate solution. It's too bad Toshiba did not put more attention into making this a really great portable DVD player instead of just a great-looking portable and set-top DVD player

Man, I got my self a PDA very recently. Toshiba e740. . .and it being a very costly thingy. . .thought I'd buy a pack of Fellowes WriteRights. My sincere advise - DONT BUY THIS (...). I just burnt (...) bucks man . ..down the drain. It was a traumatic experience.

I tried the tip someone gave me about using the "old-style page protectors" to make static-cling screen protectors. When it didn't cling, I knew that was a waste of time. So I bought a package of these.

They were a little disappointing for the price. They don't precisely fit the Palm IIIxe's screen ... there's some exposed area around at least 2 of the sides, and the narrower bottom results in part of the sheet hitting the case, no matter how hard you try. (I suggest starting from the BOTTOM and working up, in spite of the instructions.) The adhesive, though, is a plus, though DO make sure you get your screen clean first!

My original cheap stylus scratched my screen. I bought the 3-pack replacement metal styli, but the scratch kept expanding. Everything still worked, but I knew it was going downhill. These protectors have helped me keep my screen going. I can tell some decreased screen sensitivity at times, but Graffiti writing DOES "feel" better with the rougher surface.

I bought these and put them on my Visor Deluxe right after I pulled it out of the box. I really wanted to protect the screen of my first ever PDA, especially knowing that I would probably be using who-knows-what (finger, pen cap, etc.) as a pointing device. My first two attempts to put these on ended in frustration because of it either being put on upside-down or with tons of air bubbles. By the third attempt I was getting better.

First of all, these things last far more than a month. I have had my Visor for nearly a year and still have 4 left. And 4 of the others were either excessively abused or I didn't apply them right. I have stretched them up to 4 months at a time and they would still look quite good.

As for screen clarity, there is a small sacrifice there. I never knew what my Visor screen truly looked like until a month when I tried again to use a CompanionLink screen protector and noticed how much clearer the display was. But I took the CompanionLink protector off because my Visor's stylus recognition seemed to greatly suffer and the CompanionLink protector, while clearer, added lines to the display and was otherwise cheap. And the glare with those things on was horrible. I would rather have a slightly fuzzier display with a little less contrast than not be able to read the screen because of glare and annoying lines caused by a cheaper screen protector.

The WriteRights really do improve graffiti recognition and reduce glare significantly. And they do their primary job as a screen protector quite well, too. I still don't have even a single scratch on my screen.

And some tips for applying the screen protector without air bubbles, and this goes for any brand. Of course, make sure that your screen is spotless. Following the instructions on the WriteRights will go a long way, but I found that I just initially align and apply the small portion of screen protector that is exposed at first and just use the card that comes with it to do the entire rest of the process. I move the card forward accross the protector in short strokes to cover both sides of the protector and also peel the protector from its backing just using the motion of the card. Within 30 seconds or so the protector is on the screen completely without air bubbles. I tried this with the CompanionLink protectors with the same results (although those things are still terrible).

Buy the PalmConnect USB kit and you will get a full-time job trying to troubleshoot this little thing. Apparently there are a lot of issues (mainly for windows XP users) and palm does not provide you with good support nor information.

There are many bad reviews about this USB kit, but I decided to try it anyway. I have a laptop that has not serial port and a Palm IIIxe. Well, I went through the installation and everything went well but at the last step, it would not synchronize. I contacted Palm support and in a few hours (yep, not one day, or two days, but just a few hours) they sent me an email with the solution. And IT WORKED!.

Here are my suggestions to others who want to give this USB kit a try: (My laptop runs Windows 98SE, btw)
-Don't use the CD for the installation of the drivers... Look to the right and choose the PalmConnect USB kit software for your O.S.
-On the download page, they include installation instructions that vary a little bit from those included in the CD. Make sure you follow the installation instructions on this Web page.
-Before you synchronize, make sure that the HotSync software has Local USB and Local Serial checked. (This was the solution to my problem). To make sure, these options are checked, right click on the HotSync icon on the System Tray, and see if Local USB and Local Serial have check marks next to them. Now synchronize.

This should do it! :) It worked for me! Everything runs a-okay. :)

I bought this item when it was 3.99 and it was new. Than I installed it. On my computer I had palm desktop 4.0. Than Ihooked it up and it worked for the first time I hot synced it. Than I would do it again and it froze. I brought it in to bestbuy. They said install the software it came with and delete palm desktop 4.0. I did what they said and it worked fine.