In addition, the SD card has a greater security performance and can be physically write protected in the same manner as a floppy disk. With Handspring not even a year into its assault of the PDA market it seems that the SD card could halt the charge before it gets off the ground. Despite all of these obvious physical advantages it is the SPI support that could eventually turn out to be the factor that wins the day for the SD card. SPI support means that the SD card has been approved and authorized as a file storage system that can be sold in the stores with recorded music on it. With the diversity of support for the format in terms of developers do not be surprised to see Britney Spears making a full Palm performance.
Expansion is an essential part of a handheld computer.
Manufacturers should only provide a basic framework and then allow the user to add to it to create the exact machine that they want. For every feature that is a standard function there will be many users that do not need it. So, by letting the user create the handheld they want, cost is kept low while performance is not inhibited. Because this is an open platform supported by such a wide range of partners the only limit to the Palm m500's functionality is the imagination. Unfortunately, the speakers on the m500 do not offer a very good performance.