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October 27, 1999

j.ello | by the byte

     Palm Pilot.  No, that's not clever name for a lonely man, it's the name of a phenomenon in portable computing.  Owned by 3com, Palm Computing (they dropped the Pilot... maybe due to excessive innuendo) is basically the victor of a war with Microsoft covering the last few years.  We're talking PDA's, or Personal Digital Assistants, otherwise known as palmtop computers.  As usual, Apple introduced the world to a new way of computing with the Newton, and then pulled a "Macintosh Maneuver", suddenly disappearing from the scene... letting the rest of the industry perfect the idea and grab the cash.
     Since then, the war of the PDA's has been fought between Microsoft's WindowsCE and 3com's PalmOS.  While WinCE-based palmtops started very strong due to their tremendous flexibility, PDA's sporting the PalmOS have virtually over run the market with a philosophy of simplicity.  WindowsCE, on the other hand, is powering the next generation of ultra-tiny laptops... full size keyboards and LCD displays, but at 1 lb. and less than a half inch thick, they really do put the notebook in the term "notebook computer".
     At the university, we have tried to bring PDA's into common use with limited success.  We've tried a couple WindowsCE machines, and now we are working with Palms.  I just got my Palm V yesterday and over the next few days I'm gonna tell you how they vary from the WindowsCE palmtops we tried a few months ago.  It turns out that the real question here is "what do you need it for" rather than "which is better".  What I mean is that it has become obvious over time that people don't want to do desktop publishing from a palmtop computer.  Palm recognized this and created the PalmOS to do those things that someone who is on the road or in a meeting really needs to do.  Get mail, write notes, have a calendar, phone & address book, and a task list... basically a portable Personal Information Manager rather than a full-fledged computer.  While that seems so limiting... keep in mind that these Palms are TINY, fast, and having only 2 megs of RAM isn't really a limitation, it's just all you need.
     So, first impressions of the PalmV.  The PalmIII we got a few months ago was pretty small, but this PalmV is just miniscule... roughly the size and thickness of a pocket memo pad - it will squeeze into a shirt pocket.  As with all Palms, there is no keyboard, all entry is done through with a stylus on the face of the screen.  You keep writing letters, in the same space, one after another and recognizes what you write character by character.  Some letters, like "K" have to be written a slightly different way and special characters are accessed by tapping once then drawing what you need... and a space is done by swiping across the pad. You might think that it's confusing, and two days ago I would have agreed, but I have to say that it's more natural than it looks.  Even with my handwriting, which could make the most seasoned grammar school teacher weep, the Palm is able to recognize just about everything I write.  The cheesy flap cover is better at accidentally turning on the machine while in a pocket than protecting the screen face... so I'll have to order a better cover - and I'm sure that's exactly why it is so cheesy.  It is comfortable to hold, making it easy to write... more so than the III's which feel a little bulky in the hand.  The PalmV also has a much darker and sharper LCD display than the III... and it is still very readable in the dark with the backlight turned on.  The Modem on the Palm III's is a pain and makes the unit very bulky, but I have to say I really impressed with the PalmV modem, which is more of an addition to the unit rather than a weird  dangling appendage like the modem for the Palm III... the combined PalmV and modem is still not much thicker than a PalmIII alone, so it's not a problem to just leave it attached permanently.
     At first blush, the PalmV looks like a well thought out hand device.  More tomorrow...
     

     -j.ello

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