I tried the IIIc for a month. Found the color screen a pleasure to work with. There are not that many 3rd party apps in color yet, but that appears to be changing fast. I liked the TinySheet Excel compatible spreadsheet in color. The black on white screen is very readable for e-books. Battery life was acceptable. On a 3 week business trip I had to recharge it only once. The downside for me is size, the comfort factor. You can NOT comfortably carry a Palm in a shirt pocket. I carry it in my pants pocket, with the V I would forget I had it until I needed it. The IIIc, it was just always 'there'. The only other gripe I have is that it's almost impossible to read the screen outside. Something I took for granted on the monochrome V. Bright daylight however fully washes out color screens. I REALLY like the small updates to the new PalmOS. Eg. the little shortcut bar that appears at the bottom of the screen for menu shortcuts is an excellent innovation. It makes cutting and pasting as fast as with the PC using the keyboard.

I used the Jornada for 2 weeks before I returned it. As my expectations weren't that high from my previous exposure to the platform I can't say that I was dissappointed. However, I still don't think MS is up to par. On the balance still more 'clicks' are needed than on a Palm. I couldn't find those easy to use 3rd party freeware apps such as the NY crossstreet finder, on PocketPC. On face value I liked Excel, but I found it's small differences with the PC version annoying. Knowing one, I made assumption about the other that didn't always pan out. The high resolution of the screen is nice. For e-books the Jornada would be good, if not for the poor passive matrix screen. For example, on the plane, I could put the IIIc on the tray in front of me, and read at an angle. This is impossible with the Jornada screen. For basic PDA functions it is adequate. I feel the apps still are a bit sluggish. Playing MP3's is fun, but with 2 songs at CD quality, memory is depleted which makes it impracticle for multimedia, unless you spend more to expand memory. Forget playing MP3's in the background while doing other work, the device slows down to a crawl. Size wise, the Jornada is a bit bigger and heavier than the IIIc, which to me is a problem as I already explained. Battery life seemed shorter than the IIIc, though it may be subjective because it was on a lot, while learning the PocketPC platform.

The Palm Vx is basically a faster Palm V with more memory. Just got it yesterday and I already love it. This is the one I'm keeping. I suppose that after getting used to the size and weight of the Palm V, there is no going back. However, I'm glad that I went through the hassles of trying out the other 2 models. I learned a few things:

1) Size matters.

2) Until technology for multimedia matures, color screens do not add significant value to justify their impact on size and battery life.

3) PocketPC looked good on face value, but didn't go the distance, however, I do believe that as technology advances, multimedia such as MP3 playback will be great to have. I hope that by that time Palm will have the capability.

4) 3rd party apps add tremendous value. Something I forgot until I couldn't find my favourite little add-ons that make life easy, such as AccountManager, cross street finder etc.

All in all, the best favor you can do yourself is getting one. Got my parents a Palm V 2 months ago, now I have to get them another one so they stop fighting over it.

I've had the Palm Vx for about a couple weeks now and I don't know how I did without it. I know everyone says that, but it is so handy. It's light and compact so I can carry it with me and I always know what I need to do that day. The 8 mb Ram is invaluable. I've already used over 3 mb. I've loaded books, some games, algebraic calculators, German translators, Pocket Quicken, and a whole lot more. $449 might be steep for most, but for the peace of mind in knowing that this PDA will be useful for AT LEAST 4-5 years, (you can't say that about computers now) you really can't beat it. I know I PROBABLY won't need any more RAM, the looks of this machine is very elegant, it fits comfortably in my hand (I'm female), and you get that "OOOOh, cool" look also, at least that's what my boyfriend said when he took his to work. Yeah, once he found out I was getting one, he had to have one also, said something about boys and their toys, and he showed his friends at work his new toy, of course.

Anyways, if you have the money, get one. It's got the wow factor, it's light, compact, comfortable, easy to use, and you will use it because it IS easy to use and carry. The screen is very clear also. The words are easy to read. People complain about the new backlight, but there is a shortcut to change it to the way the old backlights used to light up.

There are numerous sites on the internet for free and low-cost software. Make sure you get another case though, the case that comes with it is disappointing, it isn't very protective. It's one-sided and only protects the screen, so I bought the slim case from Palm. It's nice and fits in my back pocket comfortably, but I'm going to get the molded aluminum one from Rhinoskin. I need to have full protection because of my job environment. Other than that, you can get started immediately with what's in the box.

Another helpful thing to get is the book by David Pogue called Palm Pilot: The Ultimate Guide. It's not necessary, but it's handy because of the shortcuts and insightful way Pogue has of breaking things down that the manual Palm includes with the Vx just doesn't have. He writes about that backlight fix also.

Enjoy.