PalmPilot for Not Yet Techies

PalmPilot was the world's first best-selling handheld personal computer. At one point it had over 80% of the market share, though the Pocket PC has been eating into that over the past several years. I'm writing "PalmPilot" because that's how everybody knows it and speaks about it, but you should know that the company can't use that name for legal reasons, due to a lawsuit in Europe and now calls it different things, way too long and ridiculous.

The PalmPilot was designed in 1995 by Jeff Hawkins. He carved a block of wood into a shape to fit his shirt pocket. He believed that previous failed products such as the Newton and the Zoomer tried to do too much, but that a true pocket pc would be popular.

He realized that a handheld PC would be most used by people who already had desktop computers but who needed a small input device for times when they weren't sitting at their desks. It was therefore designed to be a satellite device, to complement desktops -- not as a standalone computer. Those will have to wait for further advances in processing power and miniaturization.

Even though the Palm OS used only 40K memory and it has only one serial port. Later, 3Com bought US Robotics, but Palm Computing is a separate division within 3Com.

Hawkins also devised the Grafitti handwriting alphabet, so that you can use a small handheld stylus to input text into your PalmPilot. Each letter of the alphabet is written in one stroke, which the PalmPilot can recognize.

When you're back at your desk, use HotSync to directly transfer your data to your main PC, Macintosh or Windows. Unlike the Pocket PCs using Windows CE, Palm Pilot does talk to Macs. This synchronizes your spreadsheet and database files.

You make appointments and add contact information to your PalmPilot, then use HotSync to update your contact program, whether Outlook or Goldmine.

Since PalmPilot came out, many application developers have worked hard at bringing out applications for it. It's amazing what they've been able to make such a small PC accomplish. You can find many of them on the Internet, some free for downloading some sold.

Of course, PalmPilot enables wireless Internet access.

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