PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide, Second Edition

Preface

The Palm Phenomenon

In the early days of computers, when a basic four-function calculator was the size of a boxcar, pocket-size computers were just a sci-fi fantasy. Nobody dreamed that by the 1990s, computers could be too small.

But that’s exactly the problem with most of today’s pocket computers and electronic organizers—while advances in miniaturization have resulted in tiny screens and keyboards, our eyes and fingers have remained the same size. Pocket computers are simply too small to be used regularly and comfortably. So what happens? Most people who need portable information wind up buying laptop computers; nobody wants to be stuck in a meeting, hunting and pecking with pinkies on a keyboard where the dollar sign is nowhere to be found. Sure, a few of these gadgets have found cult followings—the Newton, Psion, and Wizard, to name a few—but they’re small cults.

If the concept of a palmtop computer is so flawed, why is the PalmPilot such a wild success, dwarfing the sales of all its predecessors? Simple: its designers didn’t try to create a complete computer. They assumed that you already have a computer. The PalmPilot is meant to be a satellite— an add-on to your full-sized computer, that quickly gulps down your most important information into a gizmo the size of a cassette tape.

The result is an uncannily successful piece of electronics that has stunned the industry. Millions of PalmPilots have been sold. Even after two rounds of Microsoft’s best Windows CE efforts, PalmPilot ...