I eagerly clicked the link to the palm web site upon seeing a new product release this afternoon. Finally Palm will have released a USB product I figured. But alas, upon arriving at the specs of the M100 I find that small print that says serial port required -- USB connectivity kit sold separately.

<rant volume = "etherial">
It is beyond words and reproach that an "innovative" (their words not mine) pda product would continuously alienate a significant portion of their market. USB has been the main peripheral connection for macs for 2 years now plus it is standard on all new pcs. Moreover, Palm OS pdas are the only real choice for Mac users. Still Palm choses to ignore their standard I/O and force them to spend extra for a connectivity kit (be it USB or the 8 pin din serial adapter). One would think that the R& D division at Palm would wake up one of these days and fill the basic needs of a major part of its customer base.

On that none, one would also think that the first real product announcement in several months from palm would do more that offer a redesigned form factor and a insignicantly lower price for low end functionality. I got a palm III almost 2 years ago. It was stolen but had I still had it, the Palm III would still offer almost identical functionality as a recently released new Palm IIIxe today -- at the same price! Obviously Moore's law does not apply to Palm.

Up to last week unfortunately, Palm has been the only choice for Canadian customers. Fortunately Handspring has arrived in Canada last week and you know were my money is going. My only regret is that Palm does not provide people with any noticeable way on their site for people to inform them of how many sales they are losing because of their inability to get with the times.
</rant>

[SupahCoolX]

I'm in the market for a Palm device, and was happy to hear about the $150 M100... then I realized something.. I'll have to add $40 for the USB adaptor, which brings the total to $190.. I could get a standard Visor for $20 less and will have a bigger screen than the M100.. Also, a drawback for both is only 2MB memory, but the Visor is upgradable via the Springboard slot (an 8MB card is like $75, if you ever need more mem) whereas the M100 is stuck at 2MB.. I, for one, think that there is no reason to buy an M100 at all.. it simply does not solve any problems in the current PalmOS-based line..