On Thu, 6 Jun 2019 at 18:47, Ethan Dicks <ethan.di...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Interesting view of Palm usage that I hadn't considered. > > > I didn't use Outlook or a desktop PC PIM at all. > > Nor did I. When I carried a Palm Pilot every day, I was using UNIX > 'mail' for work e-mail and did all local edits of my calendar on the > Palm. I did backup my Palm Pilot, to my Linux Laptop (I still have > backups files from 1999 in an archive folder).
Wow. I have never heard anyone using one so stand-alone. Fascinating. Thanks! > What I used mine for was [...] > > The Palm was definitely more battery hungry. NEC V30 at 7.68 MHz, apparently. I guess it was a more frugal chip, and certainly a very frugal OS. Psion *nearly* did a deal with Palm to licence EPOC32 as the basis for the newer ARM-based Palms. I wish that had happened -- it might have been a much better deal than what did happen for both companies. > Eventually, I got a used Palm V to recharge in the cradle. I also got > an app to migrate some apps to internal Flash so I wouldn't have to > reload them when my battery did go flat. I have one somewhere, but I think it won't charge any more. I should look into cheap repairs. > I _did_ like carrying around a 68000-based portable machine in a day > when laptops were thick and heavy and had abysmal battery life. I can see that, certainly. > I > didn't have a mobile phone for the first several years I had a Palm. > Later, when I got a phone, it made phone calls and that was it. Ditto for me. > Co-workers did experiment with the Palm Treo phone, but that was far > too expensive for me to consider. I reviewed an "HP OmniGo 700LKX" with docked Nokia. http://www.tankraider.com/DOSPALMTOP/hp700lx.html That was an amazing device, albeit huge, but you could see the potential. I loved doing wireless IRC and email on the sofa. > It wasn't very integrated but I > carried two devices for a long time (I only upgraded from that phone > from 2000 (nine years later) once it was obsoleted on the network > because it lacked 911-location features and it was blocked from > re-provisioning by changes in regulation in the US market). Aha. I had a Motorola tri-band TimePort 7089: http://www.mobilecollectors.net/phone/997/Motorola-Timeport%20L7089 This didn't do predictive text, so I linked it to the Psion via IRDA and texted from a Psion app. Then I got a Nokia 6310i: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_6310i This did T9 wonderfully quickly, but linked via IRDA to my Psion 5 and later 5MX. I could even make a PPP connection and do email and the web, slowly but just occasionally amazingly useful. I could also sync, sort and internationalise my phonebook, backup my SMSes and so on. For the time, the integration was good. The Timeport is probably around the time I found myself in a London pub with a visiting American friend. My friends and I were using SMS messages to organise when and where to meet. The American commented that sadly American phones didn't do that and didn't support such features. I told them that they did. No, nossir, no way, nope. So I asked for their number and texted them. The phone made a noise they'd never heard before and a tiny envelope appeared above the clock. They were so shocked and taken aback they nearly suffered an embarrasing self-control favour. I had to show them how to open the message. They were utterly aghast. Probably cost us about $1 each to send and to receive -- years later I discovered that what drove things like iMessage and WhatsApp is that American cellphone users paid to _receive_ text messages. This blew the minds of every European who learned it. We paid a tiny amount to send them, under 5¢, and only when the few thousand you got for free every month were exhausted -- but no European network ever charged to _receive_ SMS. Amazing stuff. > Because of my background writing code for the 68000, I entertained > writing apps for PalmOS but I never managed to do more than get the > SDK and fiddle around a bit. I never completed a project from > end-to-end. > > So I liked the Palm Pilot, but I didn't have a Psion to compare it to, > and I can see where you are coming from, from a user experience > standpoint. I guess the killer thing for me was the keyboard. I did learn Graffiti -- on a Newton, at first -- but I found it slow and clunky. Psions were like tiny laptops that went into a jacket pocket. 25-30 hours of continuous use on 2 AA alkalines, a daylight-readable screen, a keyboard you could hi-speed thumb-type on (series 3) or touch-type on (series 5). Usable held in both hands, or if placed on a desk, the superb hinge designs meant that the screen and keyboard were at a usable angle, and touchscreen models didn't tip over. 2 storage slots, wired and wireless comms, sound recording and playback. Nothing ever came close. An HP LX was like using a DOS PC compared to a colour Mac. Annoying music but a demo of a late-model Series 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dlv1naXDYHs Demo of the radically different, 32-bit, RISC-based, Psion 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6nEBnDB79XA Dropped the dual proprietary storage slots, replaced with 1 standard CF slot. -- Liam Proven - Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk - Google Mail/Hangouts/Plus: lpro...@gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/Flickr: lproven - Skype/LinkedIn: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 - ČR (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053
