OK, here is my scoop on this device.. I have seen some people saying that 2MB was not enough memory. BULL****. I have 88 applications on it and still have 900k free, which is a little under half left!.. I am an avid stock trader and use it to make my trades at work. Mytrack and Fidelity both allow you to trade via the palm if you have an account. I have one with Mytrack and recommend them. I also use it for weather, travel directions, email, news, movie times, white pages lookup, shopping comparison, checking flight schedules, UPS and FEDEX package tracking.. This device is SWEET! I had never had any interest in a palm device until I heard about the VII with wireless connection. I have had mine for a week now and can't put it down.. Very handy.. The internet connectivity through palm.net is a bit pricey but I am sure it will come down with time.. Unlimited access is 44.00 month.. They do have other plans available by the amount of data transmitted. Lifting the antenna gets you connected to the net in about 3 seconds.. The web clipping is fine, stock quotes, directions, phone number lookups, email, etc.. Granted this is not an Internet browser but a great second best, the email rocks, when you sign up with palm.net you get a free email account that you can check and send email from the palm.. Very cool.. I guess I only have one minor complaint, there is a bit of a glare sometimes when held at a certain angle.. Like I said a minor issue.. I bought it for the internet access but the built in address book and planner are nice too.. It is a little pricey at 450.00 but I do recommend it to anyone that has an interest in it but needs that confirmation from someone that has it already.. One last note, there are hundreds of applications for it that can be found on the Internet.. Some are shareware and some are freeware, Alot of the good one's are free.. Out of the 88 I have, there is only one that I have to pay for, a stock portfolio manager.. ENJOY!
In spite of being a disk pig who has used up over 4 Gigs of space on his laptop with data and programs, I've had no problem living within the 2 Meg memory of the VII. My favorite add-on programs are DateBook3 and STRIP, which I use to store passwords. I still have room for Tealdoc, a couple chapters of a book, and hundreds of contacts and reminders.
I have installed dozens of web applets, but I'm not a heavy user of the Internet and rarely exceed the lowest rate of $9.95. The web clipping applets are very stingy with data, making them economical to use even with the relatively expensive per byte rate. I've found Internet access especially useful for checking traffic conditions, getting weather reports, and checking on arrival times for planes when meeting someone. I also use the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, and sometimes use the GoNetwork translator as a 5-language foreign dictionary. Want to know what's playing in your neighborhood, but you don't have the newspaper? Look it up on your Palm on Moviefone.
The VII really comes into its own when travelling. Having access to driving directions or phone numbers is a big convenience, and when returning to DFW, it helps to be able to tell the taxi driver what gate your flight is leaving from so you can be dropped off at the correct terminal building. Even if you do your reticketing through the airline or an agent, it is useful to pull down a schedule first. Ever been in a hotel room without "USA Today" and not known what was on TV? Look it on your VII with Rick-T-Land.
I rarely use iMail, and normally limit it to outgoing messages. I've configured it so my return address is my normal work address, and only give my palm.net address out when I explicitly want someone to address mail to my PDA. (I have such a heavy volume of mail that it would be hopeless to ever use a Palm to read it). It's cool to send a message home when you are waiting to board a plane. Although I used Amazon's applet to buy a book once, I don't trade stock with my Palm. It might be useful to buy entertainment tickets, but I never have.
I assume that someday I will need more than the 2Megs available in this device, but by then, there will probably be some newer color version (at a premium price). For now, having access to the Internet makes up for the reduced memory. You don't need to download that foreign language dictionary--just query one on the web. If you finish the book you brought, download another one.
The VII really comes into its own when you are outside of the office, or don't have immediate access to a web browser. It also has major prestige value. The next time you get into an argument over what movie Minnie Driver was in before "Good Will Hunting," you can be the one to whip out the wireless PDA and impress your friends by finding the answer on the Internet Movie Database.
To be honest, I think most people won't have the quality of their life greatly affected one way or the other just by having a Starbucks locator hanging from their belt, but it is fun. Not everyone will be able to live with the memory constraints of the VII, and it can't synch with your laptop using the IR port (carry the synch cable in your laptop case). I still have plenty of RAM left, though, and I have lots of calendar entries, notes, and contacts that I synchronize with Outlook. I'm very pleased with the Pocket Mirror synchronization applet, also. I was able to drill down into the configuration and set it so that the categories I had already defined on my Palm were uploaded to Outlook on my laptop. Very convenient.
Favorite accessory: Black leather case on a quick-release belt clip.
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