The Palm III is a
personal digital assistant
A personal digital assistant (PDA), also known as a handheld PC, is a variety mobile device which functions as a personal information manager. PDAs have been mostly displaced by the widespread adoption of highly capable smartphones, in part ...
that was made by the
Palm Computing
Palm, Inc. was an American company that specialized in manufacturing personal digital assistants (PDAs) and various other electronics. They were the designer of the PalmPilot, the first PDA successfully marketed worldwide, as well as the Treo 60 ...
division of
3Com
3Com Corporation was an American digital electronics manufacturer best known for its computer network products. The company was co-founded in 1979 by Robert Metcalfe, Howard Charney and others. Bill Krause joined as President in 1981. Metcalfe e ...
. It went on sale in 1998 as a replacement for the
PalmPilot
The PalmPilot Personal and PalmPilot Professional are the second generation of Palm PDA devices produced by Palm Inc (then a subsidiary of U.S. Robotics, later 3Com). These devices were launched on March 10, 1997.
Accessories and pricing
Pa ...
handheld. It was the first Palm handheld to support
infrared
Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...
file transfer and a
Flash ROM
Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both use t ...
-capable
operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also i ...
. At release, the Palm III was priced at US$400.
Design and features
At first glance, the most notable difference between the Palm III and its predecessor, the
PalmPilot
The PalmPilot Personal and PalmPilot Professional are the second generation of Palm PDA devices produced by Palm Inc (then a subsidiary of U.S. Robotics, later 3Com). These devices were launched on March 10, 1997.
Accessories and pricing
Pa ...
, is the more rugged and streamlined case. Other differences include a removable hard cover to protect the screen, removal of the
memory
Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remembered ...
door, a more recessed contrast adjustment knob, an infrared port, and a
battery
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
door less prone to accidentally falling off.
The Palm III ran the new
Palm OS
Palm OS (also known as Garnet OS) was a mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc., for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. Palm OS was designed for ease of use with a touchscreen-based graphical user interface. It is pro ...
version 3.0 which featured a new
application launcher, an extra
font size,
bug fixes, and other improvements. It featured two
megabytes
The megabyte is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. Its recommended unit symbol is MB. The unit prefix ''mega'' is a multiplier of (106) in the International System of Units (SI). Therefore, one megabyte is one million bytes o ...
of
EDO SDRAM for storage of user
data
In the pursuit of knowledge, data (; ) is a collection of discrete Value_(semiotics), values that convey information, describing quantity, qualitative property, quality, fact, statistics, other basic units of meaning, or simply sequences of sy ...
and software and two megabytes of
Flash ROM
Flash memory is an electronic non-volatile computer memory storage medium that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. The two main types of flash memory, NOR flash and NAND flash, are named for the NOR and NAND logic gates. Both use t ...
for storage of the operating system and built-in applications.
The
LCD screen on the Palm III is essentially the same as that of the
Palm Pilot Professional and
Palm Pilot Personal which can display 2-bit
greyscale
In digital photography, computer-generated imagery, and colorimetry, a grayscale image is one in which the value of each pixel is a single sample representing only an ''amount'' of light; that is, it carries only intensity information. Gray ...
. The LCD screen also has an
electroluminescent
Electroluminescence (EL) is an optical and electrical phenomenon, in which a material emits light in response to the passage of an electric current or to a strong electric field. This is distinct from black body light emission resulting from ...
backlight
A backlight is a form of illumination used in liquid crystal displays (LCDs). As LCDs do not produce light by themselves—unlike, for example, cathode ray tube (CRT), plasma (PDP) or OLED displays—they need illumination ( ambient light or a ...
that can be turned on or off by holding the power button down for three seconds to allow for easier viewing in dark areas.
The Palm III had the OS
ROM
Rom, or ROM may refer to:
Biomechanics and medicine
* Risk of mortality, a medical classification to estimate the likelihood of death for a patient
* Rupture of membranes, a term used during pregnancy to describe a rupture of the amniotic sac
* ...
and RAM mounted on a memory card separate from the
motherboard. This card could be replaced by a third party upgrade card to increase the Palm III's storage or functionality.
In year 2000,
Kodak
The Eastman Kodak Company (referred to simply as Kodak ) is an American public company that produces various products related to its historic basis in analogue photography. The company is headquartered in Rochester, New York, and is incorpor ...
released The PalmPix, a
digital camera
A digital camera is a camera that captures photographs in digital memory. Most cameras produced today are digital, largely replacing those that capture images on photographic film. Digital cameras are now widely incorporated into mobile devices ...
with an image display on the screen for the Palm Handheld.
Reception
The Palm III's main competition were
Palm-size PCs running Microsoft's
Windows CE
Windows Embedded Compact, formerly Windows Embedded CE, Windows Powered and Windows CE, is an operating system subfamily developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows Embedded family of products.
Unlike Windows Embedded Standard, which is base ...
. However the Palm III continued Palm's popularity and it sold well just as its predecessor. It was succeeded by
Palm V
Palm V is a personal digital assistant (PDA) by 3Com.
Released in 1999 by 3Com, the PDA has an aluminum enclosure containing a Dragonball EZ central processing unit (capable of overclocking to 39 MHz) and 2MB of memory. The 16-shade gray ...
.
See also
*
List of Palm OS Devices
This is a list of Palm OS devices, and companies that make, or have made, them.
Abacus/Fossil, Inc.
Fossil, made Wrist PDAs that use the Palm OS operating system.(Discontinued)
* AU5005—Palm OS 4.1
* AU5006—Palm OS 4.1
* AU5008—Palm OS ...
References
External links
Palm Press releaseOriginal review at The Gadgeteer
{{Palm Devices
Palm OS devices
Computer-related introductions in 1998
Products introduced in 1998
68k-based mobile devices