Palm
Pilot was the name of the first generation of personal digital assistants manufactured by Palm Computing in 1996.
The first two generations of PDAs from Palm were referred to as PalmPilots. Due to a trademark infringement lawsuit brought by the Pilot Pen Corporation, since 1998 handheld devices from Palm have been known as Palm Connected Organizers or more commonly as "Palms". Though "PalmPilot" has entered the vernacular as a synonym for PDAs, regardless of the brand.
Source
The first two generations of PDAs from Palm were referred to as PalmPilots. Due to a trademark infringement lawsuit brought by the Pilot Pen Corporation, since 1998 handheld devices from Palm have been known as Palm Connected Organizers or more commonly as "Palms". Though "PalmPilot" has entered the vernacular as a synonym for PDAs, regardless of the brand.
Source
Palm m130
I recommend this one as the bare minimum you should buy as a PDA. It's got a color screen. It's more than adequate, but don't settle for less than the Palm m130.
Personal Experience
I still get a lot of use out of my m130. I got one as a gift back in 2002. Along with a keyboard. I got a lot of use out of it.
A little over a year ago I had a problem with the pen calibration. In fact it's still a little dodgy. Only on the vertical calibration though. By anywhere between a few millimetres to a centimetre the further down the screen. As a result it went by the wayside.
I didn't think much of it until recently as my addiction to Squidoo started to take hold. I figured that having a PDA would be handy for jotting down notes (which would eventually become content for lenses. Having a keyboard would make it even easier for getting the thoughts out of my head and onto 'paper'.
I first went to Amazon, which unfortunately wasn't much of a help as a lot of the stuff for whatever reason would not be shipped to Australia, so I went to ebay.com.au.
Now I could have upgraded but that may have meant that the keyboard and a stack of other purchased software wouldn't work with the new one. Though after a bit of research (which went into this lens, and another: www.squidoo.com/palmgames I've discovered I can probably go up to at least an m515 and still use the same keyboard).
I ended up buying another m130. Cost me around $50. Mind you that's in AUD. So pretty damn cheap.
My eldest son has been playing with the dodgey Palm. And my wife keeps snaffling my newer one. To play DopeWars. No, we're not drug dealing type of people, but it's a lot of fun for such a simple game.
Since writing the original draft for this module I have got myself an m515. It doesn't have much more in the way of features, but it 'feels' better. The wife has taken the m130 for herself, but we'll soon get another m515 for her. We've got another m130 on the way, and intend to buy two more (so the kids have one each). I also purchased some keyboards through Amazon, for an amazingly cheap price ($7.00 for a keyboard). Again it couldn't be delivered to Australia but I have an Aunty in the States who will be forwarding it on to me, we're just waiting to find one other item before she boxes it all up and posts it.
A little over a year ago I had a problem with the pen calibration. In fact it's still a little dodgy. Only on the vertical calibration though. By anywhere between a few millimetres to a centimetre the further down the screen. As a result it went by the wayside.
I didn't think much of it until recently as my addiction to Squidoo started to take hold. I figured that having a PDA would be handy for jotting down notes (which would eventually become content for lenses. Having a keyboard would make it even easier for getting the thoughts out of my head and onto 'paper'.
I first went to Amazon, which unfortunately wasn't much of a help as a lot of the stuff for whatever reason would not be shipped to Australia, so I went to ebay.com.au.
Now I could have upgraded but that may have meant that the keyboard and a stack of other purchased software wouldn't work with the new one. Though after a bit of research (which went into this lens, and another: www.squidoo.com/palmgames I've discovered I can probably go up to at least an m515 and still use the same keyboard).
I ended up buying another m130. Cost me around $50. Mind you that's in AUD. So pretty damn cheap.
My eldest son has been playing with the dodgey Palm. And my wife keeps snaffling my newer one. To play DopeWars. No, we're not drug dealing type of people, but it's a lot of fun for such a simple game.
Since writing the original draft for this module I have got myself an m515. It doesn't have much more in the way of features, but it 'feels' better. The wife has taken the m130 for herself, but we'll soon get another m515 for her. We've got another m130 on the way, and intend to buy two more (so the kids have one each). I also purchased some keyboards through Amazon, for an amazingly cheap price ($7.00 for a keyboard). Again it couldn't be delivered to Australia but I have an Aunty in the States who will be forwarding it on to me, we're just waiting to find one other item before she boxes it all up and posts it.
Palm m515
This is my current PDA. It was released a few years ago now, but it's still powerful enough not to just store vital information, but also be used as a Word Processor or for taking notes. Next I think I'll find a spreadsheet so I can use it for a shopping list when I go to the supermarket.
History
The inventors of the Pilot were Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky, and Ed Colligan, who founded Palm Computing. The original purpose of this company was to create handwriting recognition software for other devices, named Graffiti, but their research convinced them they could create better hardware as well. Before starting development of the Pilot, Hawkins is said to have carried a block of wood, the size of the potential pilot, in his pocket for a week.
This is the keyboard I was telling you about...
This has been an invaluable tool for me. I'm a machine now given a bit of bench space and half an idea. I'm drafting lenses, articles, blurbs, even forum posts (ideas for threads) on my trusty Palm and when it's connected to the keyboard I'm unstoppable.
I was seriously thinking about getting a notebook, even an old one, so I could lug it around and do a bit of writing in different locations such as the library or even somewhere different in the house and not be shackled to my desktop PC.
If you need a notebook simply to write up documents or Excel spreadsheets then seriously think about a Palm with a foldout keyboard. Because they're full sized once they're folded out.
I was seriously thinking about getting a notebook, even an old one, so I could lug it around and do a bit of writing in different locations such as the library or even somewhere different in the house and not be shackled to my desktop PC.
If you need a notebook simply to write up documents or Excel spreadsheets then seriously think about a Palm with a foldout keyboard. Because they're full sized once they're folded out.
Carry the web in the Palm of your hand!
With Plucker installed on your Palm, you can read any Internet web pages, ebooks, text-files, or other documents you want at any time, simply by converting it with Plucker's desktop tools, and sending it to your Palm for reading on your Palm handheld.
If you're just into reading the latest news on your Palm, or publishing your own ebook, Plucker is, the best offline html, text file and ebook reader for the Palm platform available!
Plucker is an offline Web and e-book viewer for PalmOS® based handheld devices and PDAs. Plucker comes with Unix, Linux Windows and Mac OSX tools, scripts, and conduits that let you decide exactly what part of the World Wide Web you'd like to download onto your PDA (as long as they're in standard HTML or text format). These web pages are then processed, compressed, and transferred to the PDA for viewing by the Plucker viewer.
Plucker supports many features, including clickable images (pan and zoom), italic, narrow, and HiRes fonts, multiple concurrent databases, configurable display parameters and stylus options (gestures and hardware button navigation) ZLib and DOC compression, Perl and Python conduits and parsers, a Windows fully-integrated installer, and a whole lot more!
Through the use of intelligent desktop 'parsers', content can be created for Plucker from many sources, including RSS, RDF, text files, HTML PDF, and many other file formats.
Plucker is Free Software and that means that you can use it without charge, you can give it away to others, and that you can even modify the program (or pay others to do it for you) to customize it or add the features you want.
If you believe in the Free Software philosophy join us! We're actively looking for contributors, authors, testers, and anyone else who will give us a helping hand maturing Plucker into a more useful and popular project.
Source
If you're just into reading the latest news on your Palm, or publishing your own ebook, Plucker is, the best offline html, text file and ebook reader for the Palm platform available!
Plucker is an offline Web and e-book viewer for PalmOS® based handheld devices and PDAs. Plucker comes with Unix, Linux Windows and Mac OSX tools, scripts, and conduits that let you decide exactly what part of the World Wide Web you'd like to download onto your PDA (as long as they're in standard HTML or text format). These web pages are then processed, compressed, and transferred to the PDA for viewing by the Plucker viewer.
Plucker supports many features, including clickable images (pan and zoom), italic, narrow, and HiRes fonts, multiple concurrent databases, configurable display parameters and stylus options (gestures and hardware button navigation) ZLib and DOC compression, Perl and Python conduits and parsers, a Windows fully-integrated installer, and a whole lot more!
Through the use of intelligent desktop 'parsers', content can be created for Plucker from many sources, including RSS, RDF, text files, HTML PDF, and many other file formats.
Plucker is Free Software and that means that you can use it without charge, you can give it away to others, and that you can even modify the program (or pay others to do it for you) to customize it or add the features you want.
If you believe in the Free Software philosophy join us! We're actively looking for contributors, authors, testers, and anyone else who will give us a helping hand maturing Plucker into a more useful and popular project.
Source
Palm Tungsten
I might stop being such a Puritan and buy one of these, and give my wife the m515. What do you think?
Games for your Palm
Books on the Palm
Palm Zire
by freddo
freddo
Jack of all trades and master of... well maybe a couple more than none.
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