M500

The Palm m500 was my first PDA. After a brief stint borrowing a Palm III from work, I decided I needed one of my own. I purchased a used m500 from eBay in short order. The unit functioned, but as it turned out the digitizer was defective and did not always register taps in the correct location. This is especially unfortunate because the unit is excellent in so many ways.

During some point in time in 2003, I migrated to a Sharp Zaurus 5500. The m500 was passed on to my then-girlfriend when she expressed an interest in it. It has since come back into my possession. I hope to replace the digitizer, but my revision has ribbon cable soldered directly to the board.

[edit] Features

I liked the m500 for a number of reasons:

• Stellar battery life
• Vibrating alarm
• Power/charge LED
• Bright backlight
• SD expansion

For a time, I also had the Xircom Wireless LAN Modem, an 802.11b adapter for the m500 series.