Okay, so we're not quite there yet despite what some television commercials or venture capitalists might have you believe. Still, even in its infancy, handheld video and multimedia shows much promise and can be very exciting even in its initial stages. In this article, we'll cover some of the issues, uses, and technology behind multimedia on your Palm Handheld, and how developments in this field can benefit you today.

BACKGROUND
Multimedia, as defined in the dictionary, is the "combined use of media, such as full motion video, music, sound effects, CD-ROMs, and the Internet, for education or entertainment." A few years ago, a "multimedia" presentation often consisted of grand 3-screen corporate slideshows sychronized to an inspirational musical soundtrack. Today, such a presentation might include video footage, real-time software demonstrations and even interaction with the audience. Still, the term can be used to describe the combination of any 2 or more media. Even a puppet show with a harmonica accompanyment may accurately be called "multimedia", though the term is not commonly used in this context.

For our purposes, we'll consider multimedia playback of moving images with sound, something almost all PalmOS handhelds can accomplish to varying degrees.