Handheld PC Shopping Guide

Handheld PCs are great to have around -- but there's not always easy to find in local stores, in these days of minimal inventory and ever-changing technologies. So, where can you get your hands on one of these units in Vancouver?

It's not hard to find local stock on Palm IIIc, the first Palm Pilot with a color screen. But the company still hasn't delivered the wireless network support in Canada to support its Palm VII machine, available in the U.S. The Palm III is discounted heavily these days, now all but superseded by the m100 and other members of the Palm family.

Where Are They?
Q: I am trying to get a list of retail outlets either in Vancouver where I will have some free time to window shop. I am particularly interested in Palm, Casio or Psion products. Computer products are a lot cheaper in Canada than in Australia thus my interest in purchasing there.

I have visited many web sites in Canada and had great difficulty in obtaining names and addresses of  places where I can just go and look at the product before I buy.

A: There are several large stores in Vancouver (and other metro centres across the country) that carry them.

1. Future Shop on West Broadway (a few blocks west of Granville). This would be my first stop, or check www.futureshop.ca
2. London Drugs computer centres across Western Canada are also a good place to look for Palm units and competing handhelds.
3. Other electronics retailers stocking these units include CompuCentres and Electronics Boutiques in many malls, and the CompuSmart store downtown at Georgia and Seymour, downtown.

"mini-subnotebooks"?
Q: Is there anything smaller than a subnotebook but larger than a handheld?

A: Microsoft on Sept. 7 announced its latest efforts in this area, as it partners with several hardware manufacturers of a revised Windows CE sub-notebook line. the new products, announced at an event called Handheld PC 2000, typically offer longer battery life than traditional subnotebooks and run applications similar to those found on Microsoft's answer to the Palm Pilot, the Pocket_PC.

For further reading:

• Lab Tests: The many flavors of mid-powered notebooks  July 98
• Extreme PC Notebooks - P200 and P233 portables. Jan. 98  (Survey)
• Upward mobility The new desktop replacement machines June 97 (Survey)
• Desktop replacement notebooks: powerful portables Jan. 97
• (Survey) Business-class Portables: feature-rich notebooks July 96
• (Survey) Entry-level notebooks: Yesterday's Dream Machines Mar. 96