Kudos to HP for providing an upgrade path to its U.S. users at a reasonable price. Hopefully, a similar offer will be made soon to the 95LX's sizable international base.
When HP performs the upgrade from 512K to 1 MB of RAM, HP replaces the entire main logic board. That board contains the CPU (the "brains" of the HP 95LX), the ROM that contains the built-in software, and the 95LX's RAM memory. That means if HP decides to introduce new versions of the HP 95LX with better built-in software or a faster processor, HP could offer a similar upgrade program. This is pure speculation, but within the realm of possibility.
With HP introducing the upgrade, Managing Editor, Richard Hall convinced me to let him take one of our HP 95LXs apart so we could see what HP would be doing. Following instructions from fellow users, Richard successfully accomplished this. He reports on this unrecommended procedure for the adventuresome and foolhardy.
Connectivity -- the ability to transfer information between the HP Palmtop and other computers -- is fundamental to HP 95LX users. Bil. Alvernaz and Bernie Kim review several excellent alternatives for the PC and MAC.
Larry Lefkowitz takes us by the hand and shows us, step by step, how to use the HP 95LX on CompuServe. He teaches us how to send messages and download files with a 95LX and modem.
Ed Keefe in Looking Glass and Tom Page in Savvy User show us some of the power of HP Solve. Meanwhile Bil. Alvernaz and I discuss how the CHAR key can be put to good use.
As described in the Fall 1991 issue, the 1992 Subscribers Disk will be mailed out around the time of the May / June issue. I decided not to release a disk earlier because I felt that it would take some months before the most useful HP 95LX utilities would be developed. I believe I was right, and I promise you the disk will be worth waiting for.