Upgrade Guide

If you own a Pilot (1000 or 5000) or PalmPilot (Personal or Professional) personal digital assistant and covet the capabilities of the more advanced Palm III, there's a remedy for your PDA envy.

Thanks to the Pilot and PalmPilot units' modular design, with their core applications and operating system in ROM, the readily available Palm 2MB Upgrade can transform your Pilot or PalmPilot into a Palm III. This $129 upgrade adds not only 2MB of RAM but also an infrared port (through a clever modification of the unit's rear panel), the Palm OS 3.0, and new applications. If you're upgrading a Pilot, the only Palm III features you won't have are screen backlighting and a flip-up cover. If you're upgrading a PalmPilot, you'll miss only the cover. Unfortunately, Palm Computing has yet to introduce a kit to upgrade to the new Palm IIIx or Palm V.

Upgrading your PalmPilot or Pilot is easy and fast. Since the task requires you to handle a couple of sensitive memory boards, consider purchasing an antistatic wrist strap from any computer store. If you choose not to use a strap, then be sure to disperse static electricity by touching a grounded metal object, such as the case on the back of your PC, before touching its sensitive components.

Here's how to perform the alchemy.