We have all been eagerly waiting for Palm to release their m500 model for the past couple of months. One thing you will notice right of the bat is the expansion card slot and other refinements which make this model vastly superior to many of its competitors and its predecessor (Palm Vx). Inside you will find a 33MHz Dragonball VZ processor which optimizes the companies new operating system (Palm OS 4). With an almost identical brushed-aluminium case, the M500 looks very similar to the companies Palm Vx model.  The biggest advantage is speed. Compared to its competitors the m500 model exceeded all of expectations when it came down to searching for words and operating programs. Note: Some older programs will not work with the new Palm OS4 operating system, but expect software manufacturers to rectify this problem shortly after the release of the m500. Also remember you can download many applications for the Palm m500 at the official Palm website.

Near the top of the m500 there is a slot which accepts either MultiMedia Cards or Secure Digital cards, although Palm includes 8mb of internal memory which is more than enough for many simple applications such as their world-renown address and calendar functions. But, these cards could become useful as the wireless modems and digital camera inputs become available.

Palm fans have been waiting impatiently to see the company's answer to the innovative new PDAs from Handspring, Compaq, and others. But while Palm's latest model, the m500, offers an expansion card slot and a smattering of nice refinements, it lacks the sort of innovation we had hoped for. In fact, with the m500's predecessor, the Palm Vx, for sale at discounted prices, smart shoppers will likely find themselves choosing between the older Palm model and the flashy newer models from other manufacturers.

The m500's monochrome screen is less green than that of the Vx and has a digitizer made of plastic instead of glass (the digitizer sits on top of the LCD and recognizes the taps of the stylus). According to Palm, the plastic version is more flexible and less likely to crack if you accidentally drop your Palm.

By far the best new feature on the m500 is the vibrating and flashing alarm. If you're in a meeting and want a silent alarm, you can choose to be notified by setting the power button on top of the device to flash green or have the whole PDA shake. However, the built-in speaker is quite a bit louder than that of the old Vx, so you can use this handheld as an alarm clock while you're on the road. Its rechargeable lithium-polymer battery should last close to a month between charges, so you won't need to bring a charger on trips.

Mac users will rejoice at the fact that the m500 comes with a USB cradle. Other changes include the ability to call up the onscreen keyboard and use both keyboard taps and Graffiti strokes simultaneously to enter text. This is very handy if you're fast at writing Graffiti letters but have trouble remembering odd characters, carriage returns, and the like. There's also a new screen that lets you clear all your alarms with a single tap of the stylus as you can with the Pocket PC. Previously, you needed to clear each alarm screen individually. Palm also claims that OS 4 will encrypt your personal data for better security.

In addition to the signature applications, such as Address Book, Calendar, and Expense, which are already installed on the device, the m500 also comes with two CDs with extra software. The CDs include the Palm Mobile Connectivity Software for connecting your Palm to your cell phone to access the Internet, Palm Desktop 4.0.1, and the conduit software to sync with Microsoft Outlook.