You'll also find that the cases you've been using no longer accommodate the device with the keyboard attached. The keyboard comes with a carrying pouch, but you have to choose between an extra item to carry and the things you normally carry in your case.

An annoying bug
The above points are minor, but I did encounter what I consider to be a significant bug in the device and its driver. When turning off the power with the keyboard attached, the handheld goes through a series of power states (off-dim-off-dim-on) that result in a continuous power drain. The cycling only stops when the keyboard is removed from the unit, detracting from the keyboard's convenience. Updating the driver to version 1.02 from Palm's support site (at http://www.palm.com/support/downloads/minikey.html) didn't solve the problem.

Trying to work through the problem with Palm Technical Support was even more frustrating. Email support only suggested remedies that any experienced user would have already tried, such as re-installing the driver after a complete uninstall. They recommended calling phone support. This has been my general experience with Palm's email support recently.

Phone support was even worse. After painfully convincing the technician that yes, the m505 (or any color Palm handhelds for that matter) does have a backlight and yes, the driver update on the Web site addressed a similar issue in the i705 but could be installed in the m505, I was told that I should try re-installing the driver after doing a hard reset on the device. If that worked, I would have to figure out the cause myself. My only other alternative is to return the unit. In the end, I was not even convinced that my request to file a bug report had been acted upon.

Unfortunately, this is characteristic of my experiences over the last several months of a downward trend in the quality and usefulness of Palm's technical support. I find this a sad decline from a company whose technical support I used to hold as exemplary.

Kathy Burns has been writing for over 15 years and has columns in a number of publications. Questions, comments and suggestions on her handsizing column are welcome and can be directed to PPENT@palmpilotfiles.com. In addition to writing, Kathy runs a large Palm OS-related Web site. You can browse the site at http://www.palmpilotfiles.com or view additional articles by Kathy at http://www.sasezpublications.com.