Website: www.palm.com

MSRP: $399

PDAs or Personal Digital Assistants have been around for many years. Many have had basic features like a date book or phone directory. In fact, my Casio calculator watch could be considered a primitive PDA. However, it won't let you jot down notes, play games or surf the internet, nor will it let you store more than 50 appointments or phone numbers. Thankfully the “handheld computer” or as Palm calls them, the “connected organizer” will easily take a mere 9,950 more addresses than that.

First off let's discuss what the Palm Vx isn't: it may be a handheld computer, but it is not a replacement for your desktop PC. The whole idea of this unit is to keep your life organized, and it performs that task very well.

Let's go over the basics of the Palm Vx. Inside the box is the Palm Vx, the HotSync cradle/charger, two styli (one metal and one plastic), a CD Rom with the Palm Desktop, AvantGo and Outlook PocketMirror software, three different manuals, a 9-25 pin serial adapter and, of course, a leather cover.