Palm Pilot  - Boon Or Curse?
Author: Bruce Stevens

Palm-top computers or Personal Digital Assistants (PDA) have
found their way into innumerable coat pockets across the
country, having replaced the revered authority of the paper
based agendas and index cards. The Palm Corporation produces a
number of Personal Digital Assistants, which run the Palm
operating system. Palm pilot was the name given to the first
two generations of PDA manufactured by Palm Computing in 1996;
which was then a division of US Robotics, then of 3Com and
finally a standalone corporation.

Palm Pilot was the brainchild of Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky
and Ed Colligan who were the founders of Palm Computing. The
first machines were Palm Pilot 1000 (RAM size 128 K) and Palm
Pilot 5000 (RAM size 512 K). Though provided with a serial
port, they did not have infrared ports, backlights or flash
memory. After the first two attempts, Palm Pilot Personal (RAM
size 512 K) and Palm Pilot Professional (RAM size 1024 K) were
introduced which had a backlight but no infrared ports or flash
memory as yet. Meanwhile, Palm Computing, which was a subsidiary
of 3Com, became upset on not having enough control over the palm
pilot and founded Handspring in June 1998, which due to the
efforts of Hawkins became the first Palm OS licensee.

Handspring later produced 'Handspring Visor', a clone of the
Palm Pilot that included a hardware expansion slot. A standard
feature of all Palm Pilots is to have 8 megabytes of memory and
internal rechargeable batteries. Handspring merged with Palm to
form palmOne in 2003. The whole idea of Palm Pilot had
developed from Palm Computing's original ambition to create a
handwriting recognition software for other devices; a process
which convinced them that they could create better hardware as
well. Toy Robots Initiative and Manipulative Lab created the
design of the Palm Pilot with the purpose of enabling just
about anyone to start building and programming mobile robot at
a modest cost.

In 1998, when Pilot Pen Corporation brought on a trademark
infringement lawsuit, handheld devices from Palm venue as Palm
Connected Organizers officially and as 'Palms' more commonly.
However palm pilot had entered the vernacular as a synonym for
PDA. The Palm Pilot is bestowed with many advantages. It is
small enough to be carried during just about every waking
moment, so that useful bits of information may have no need to
find place in your already cluttered brain. Also, it is a fully
functioning computer where the contents can be searched, as you
want. Turn it into what you like – patient-tracking device,
calculator, repository of information, built-in calendar,
address book, to-do list, memo pad or almost anything else.
What's more? This five inches, six ounces Palm Pilot is an easy
fit in any shirt pocket and runs for weeks on two AAA batteries.


However, theoretical drawbacks like "the Palm Pilot traces you
wherever you are" has not stopped it from being an enormous
success. The latest entry, the Palm VII brings us a step closer
to the 'Total Connectedness' scenario of the future.


About The Author: Tyson J Stevenson is a prolific writer of
useful articles on a variety of topics. Related resources are:
http://www.my-palm-pilot.info http://www.hubbuh.info
http://www.buhhub.info