(FORTUNE Magazine) – The other night I took my mother to Brooklyn for a dress fitting. Looking for a quicker route back to my Manhattan home, I logged on to MapQuest, a Web service that provides door-to-door directions. In a couple of minutes, I had a route that bypassed the busy streets I normally use and steered me to a highway I barely knew existed. (Aside from diehard Brooklynites, who has ever heard of the Prospect Expressway?)

These days, getting directions from your PC isn't all that remarkable--but I was downloading the data in my car, using the Palm VII, the wireless version of the popular hand-held computer. After much hoopla, Palm Computing, a division of 3Com, is slowly rolling out the most anticipated upgrade of its line. The Palm VII went on sale in the New York area on May 24; sales in the rest of the country will begin in the fall. The Palm VII costs $599, making it the most expensive Palm so far. You'll spend an additional $9.95 to $24.99 a month for the wireless service, plus another 30 cents per kilobyte of data downloaded (my traffic info was probably 20 cents' worth of data).

The Palm VII is something of a design throwback. The Palm V, which 3Com introduced a few months ago, is a slim, aesthetically pleasing version of the device. The Palm VII, on the other hand, looks nearly identical to the older and clunkier Palm III--it's even longer and thicker because it has an antenna and because the new wireless electronics take up space. Still, the device fits easily into a shirt pocket or purse and is slender enough to suit all but the most stylish gearheads.

The Palm VII has the same easy-to-use interface that has helped make Palm the leading hand-held device. The technical challenge for this version has been to fit Internet data on its tiny, 160- by 160-pixel screen. While independent vendors have created Web browsers for the Palm, they don't work too well; Web pages get truncated and graphics get only partially downloaded, so reading any but the simplest Web pages is a pain.

The solution is what Palm calls clipping--tailoring material to the Palm's small screen. Content providers prepare streamlined pages that can be transmitted quickly over a wireless data network and are designed to fit neatly onto the screen. Palm says it has made deals with more than 400 vendors, including E*Trade, ESPN, and the Wall Street Journal. More can be expected to jump on the wireless bandwagon.

You activate the wireless features by raising the stubby antenna tucked into the right side of the Palm VII. A dozen icons of content providers appear on the screen, alongside Palm's traditional icons: phone book, calendar, memos, and to-do items. While the interface will be familiar to longtime Palm users, subtle changes have been introduced. For instance, the Palm screen now includes backward and forward arrows at the top, just like a Web browser. You click on the arrows to move through your downloaded material.

As I tested the wireless Palm, I felt a euphoric sense of freedom. Sitting in a dull meeting, I tapped the iMessenger icon and sent e-mail to a colleague halfway around the world. Waiting on a subway platform, I checked how the market was doing via E*trade and looked up the weekend weather in Florida. Other applications installed on the unit I tested included Yahoo's PeopleSearch, which lets you look up phone numbers and street and e-mail addresses; Travelocity, the online travel service; and Dex, the Yellow Pages directory from US West.

There are some annoying limitations to this first version of the Palm VII. For instance, I can't use it to buy and sell stocks in my E*Trade account. Worse yet, I need a Palm.Net address for my e-mail. While some e-mail systems let you forward messages to another address, my employer's antiquated system doesn't. Who needs a second e-mail address? I would have preferred to connect directly to my Internet service provider for mail and regular Web access. Forcing Palm VII owners to work through a single ISP is the most glaring problem with it. However, you can have replies go to another e-mail address, a passable compromise.

What 3Com is calling Palm.Net is actually just BellSouth's national wireless network. 3Com says the service lets users log on from the most populated areas of the U.S. Getting the wireless service right is a big deal for Palm: It has a sterling reputation thanks to its terrific hardware, but the response to its latest product depends in large part on how its wireless partner performs. That may be why the company has chosen to roll out the service gradually.

Even at $599, the Palm VII will surely be a hit with high-tech users who absolutely, positively need to stay in touch. As its price comes down, more of us will surely surrender to the urge to be plugged in all the time. After all, getting Mom home safely without a map is now as easy as point and tap.