Palm has been the long time leader in the field of handheld Personal Data Assistants or PDA's. My first Palm Pilot, the original name for the organizers still in use today, was the M515. I instantly replaced my black leather day planner, loaded all my contacts and appointments onto the Palm desktop on my PC, and synchronized the whole thing to my Palm. The ability to add alarms and reminders meant that my days of missing appointments were over.

Palm has been busy since the first PDA was introduced back in 1996. The Palm Tungsten E2 was introduced in April, 2005 to replace the Tungsten E. Many of the features are Palm basics, standards because they work so well, plus some improvements.

First, the basics. Calendar, Contacts, Notepad and Tasks. A hot button on the front opens any of these functions from the off position and you can customize the function to open a different program. Adding new entries is quick and easy using the stylus by either tapping at a virtual QWERTY keyboard or printing directly onto the input screens located just under the homepage.

Palm was the innovator in developing the Graffiti handwriting recognition program. Printed letters and numbers are recognized as you write them on the screen using the stylus, translating your handwriting into text. The Notepad allows a quick virtual note to be jotted onto the screen, saving the image just as you wrote it.

Appointments can be personalized and color-coded if you track appointments for family and business. The Tasks function lets you create a to-do list, prioritize and check-off what you've accomplished. To give you options, information can be typed in on your computer then synchronized to the Palm using the HotSync function. A regular HotSync means always having a back-up in case of data loss, which did happen to me one time. I had to reset my Palm which temporarily lost all my data. A quick HotSync and everything was restored.

The sleek case is a sophisticated dark silver, which I prefer over the more colorful models. At the top of the device, is a slot for an expansion card to add memory, though the internal memory is sufficient for storing plenty of contacts, appointments, and photos. A slot on the side holds the stylus, which feels like a ballpoint pen when making entries.

Now for the improvements. The screen, while still the same 320 x 320 pixels of the Tungsten E, has over a thousand additional colors, making a brighter, more vivid viewing screen, great for watching

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