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> Personal Digital Assistants like the Palm Pilot or Pocket PCs or even Apple’s Newton were usually not very useful unless you regularly synced them with your "

> Personal Digital Assistants like the Palm Pilot or Pocket PCs or even Apple’s Newton were usually not very useful unless you regularly synced them with your "real" computer. Having actually used one of those devices at that time, I can tell you it was extremely useful. For the first time, I had a full contacts list, calendar, and memos list, and I could take those anywhere with me. And the calendar would beep me a while before events. That was fantastic. You have to understand, back then the comparison term for these things was nothing. Nada. Zip. Cell phones were just getting started, and they had few or none of these features. That little Palm Pilot was an incredibly useful device. Sure, it sucks when you compare it to a modern smartphone.

InclinedPlane 11y ago
Yeah, I don't understand that criticism of PDAs. PDAs were extremely popular for a time (until they were obsoleted by ubiquitous cell phones). Palm sold something like 30 million pilots. They were highly useful, incredibly desirable, and thus very popular. Were most of those 30 million palm pilot owners syncing them to their computers regularly? I doubt it. The PDA was like a notebook that you could take anywhere and was searchable with an enormous capacity compared to a typical paper notebook. It replaced "little black books", pocket organizers, pocket calendars, and pocket notebooks and did a pretty good job of it.
rconti 11y ago
Yep. I had a Pilot 1000 and a Palm V. I rarely synced it with my computer except to back things up. Frankly, the syncing with Linux was abysmal anyway, and even on Windows, the Palm apps left a lot to be desired; it was actually, in some ways, more functional WITHOUT a computer! I was in high school when they came out, and I saved my pennies and bought one, and it was GREAT for having a contacts list and keeping track of my calendar and homework todo list. To be honest, I've had a hard time replicating it since then. It was just enough at the cutting edge of technology that I WANTED to use it. These days, I have todo lists in my iPhone, in Evernote, on my whiteboard, on my computer, and I never check ANY of them. I also don't get the gripe about the screen. Sure, it's worse than we have to day, but I found 160x160 to be just fine. http://www1.pcmag.com/media/images/245693-palmpilot.jpg http://www1.pcmag.com/media/images/245693-palmpilot.jpg
- mondoshawan 11y ago
  I had a Psion Series 5 in my high school days -- also something I saved my shekels for. The thing was basically the closest you could get to a DOS computer in your pocket with an amazing UI and full on device programmability. The thing had a full keyboard (!) and word processor which I even used to type out whole essays on. The little computer was a work of engineering genius -- even ran for a month on one pair of AA batteries. To this day, I still have yet to find anything that comes close to that same reliability, stability, or feature standard.
  - rconti 11y ago
    I lusted after the Psion. Well done.
to3m 11y ago
You could compare them to something like the Psion Series 3 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3), released in 1991. Possibly not common in America, though, as Psion was a UK company. Prior to the Series 3, Psion produced the Organizer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Organiser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Organiser) - I had an Organizer II LZ64, bought in 1990 I think, a birthday present from my parents when I was a young teenager. These were a lot less practical than the Series 3, on account of the teeny tiny screen, but I found mine fun to program on.
TheSpiceIsLife 11y ago
I had a Palm Tungsten T (slidy-outy one) and a Palm TX. I like both of them very much. The TX had an SD card slot. T I would much rather have something similar today that didn't try to do everything and have a 50 yottapixel display, 9 cameras, and a battery life after 2 years use of about 4 hours. A Palm style device paired with a 'John's Phone'[1] for calls would be awesome. Give me a good point and shoot, a good PDA, and a good phone as three separate devices. 1. http://www.johnsphones.com/store/item9 http://www.johnsphones.com/store/item9

InclinedPlane 11y ago

Yeah, I don't understand that criticism of PDAs. PDAs were extremely popular for a time (until they were obsoleted by ubiquitous cell phones). Palm sold something like 30 million pilots. They were highly useful, incredibly desirable, and thus very popular. Were most of those 30 million palm pilot owners syncing them to their computers regularly? I doubt it. The PDA was like a notebook that you could take anywhere and was searchable with an enormous capacity compared to a typical paper notebook. It replaced "little black books", pocket organizers, pocket calendars, and pocket notebooks and did a pretty good job of it.

rconti 11y ago

Yep. I had a Pilot 1000 and a Palm V. I rarely synced it with my computer except to back things up. Frankly, the syncing with Linux was abysmal anyway, and even on Windows, the Palm apps left a lot to be desired; it was actually, in some ways, more functional WITHOUT a computer! I was in high school when they came out, and I saved my pennies and bought one, and it was GREAT for having a contacts list and keeping track of my calendar and homework todo list. To be honest, I've had a hard time replicating it since then. It was just enough at the cutting edge of technology that I WANTED to use it. These days, I have todo lists in my iPhone, in Evernote, on my whiteboard, on my computer, and I never check ANY of them. I also don't get the gripe about the screen. Sure, it's worse than we have to day, but I found 160x160 to be just fine. http://www1.pcmag.com/media/images/245693-palmpilot.jpg http://www1.pcmag.com/media/images/245693-palmpilot.jpg

mondoshawan 11y ago
I had a Psion Series 5 in my high school days -- also something I saved my shekels for. The thing was basically the closest you could get to a DOS computer in your pocket with an amazing UI and full on device programmability. The thing had a full keyboard (!) and word processor which I even used to type out whole essays on. The little computer was a work of engineering genius -- even ran for a month on one pair of AA batteries. To this day, I still have yet to find anything that comes close to that same reliability, stability, or feature standard.
- rconti 11y ago
  I lusted after the Psion. Well done.

to3m 11y ago

You could compare them to something like the Psion Series 3 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Series_3), released in 1991. Possibly not common in America, though, as Psion was a UK company. Prior to the Series 3, Psion produced the Organizer (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Organiser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psion_Organiser) - I had an Organizer II LZ64, bought in 1990 I think, a birthday present from my parents when I was a young teenager. These were a lot less practical than the Series 3, on account of the teeny tiny screen, but I found mine fun to program on.

TheSpiceIsLife 11y ago

I had a Palm Tungsten T (slidy-outy one) and a Palm TX. I like both of them very much. The TX had an SD card slot. T I would much rather have something similar today that didn't try to do everything and have a 50 yottapixel display, 9 cameras, and a battery life after 2 years use of about 4 hours. A Palm style device paired with a 'John's Phone'[1] for calls would be awesome. Give me a good point and shoot, a good PDA, and a good phone as three separate devices. 1. http://www.johnsphones.com/store/item9 http://www.johnsphones.com/store/item9