pre-Pre products prorogated

[elfs]

The end of an era

It is with a heavy heart that I discovered today that Staples Office Supplies has decided to discontinue support for all products from Palm prior to the Pre. The discontinued products table at the local brick-and-mortar this afternoon was covered with keyboards, hardcases, and various other ephemera with which one could deck out their archaic Palm T|X (like mine) or Tungsten E (like Omaha's).

I think that's a shame. There still isn't a schedule manager for the iPhone that matches the smarts embedded in the PalmOS DateBook program. The trade-offs between time-event management and network-event management (which a Palm non-phone device doesn't have) in an iPhone apparently make those kinds of smarts difficult. That's why Omaha and I have kept our Palms far past their spoilerage date. I still my use an old Palm V for my alarm clock (and midnight porn-reading repository). There was nothing on the discontined table for the Palm V.

Looks like I'll be using the Internet far into the future to keep my poor life-management devices alive. Staples is no longer a help.

Comments

[edichka2.livejournal.com]

I love my old Palms too. I've only ever upgraded upon terminal mechanical failure: One too many broken screens in the case of my original Handspring. Central failure for unknown reasons for my first Treo. Telephone failure due to an aqueous indiscretion involving a very small river for my second Treo. Currently on the Centro.

I think I'll incorporate your idea and use the second Treo for a bathroom-based alarm clock, to get my ass off the internet and into the shower on work days.

Cheers,
- E

[danlyke.livejournal.com]

Ages ago I had a Palm Vx with an OmniSky back.

Recently I got conned into an iPhone, which has convinced me that, indeed, I do want a smart phone. Now I'm just counting down the months in my contract 'til I can get one.

Now that I've been convinced to pay the extra bucks per month, I think I'd be just as happy with that 8 year old setup as I am with my iPhone if it would sync with Google's calendar. I could enter text faster on the Palm, the Vx was a lot more sturdy than the iPhone (already replaced the screen once), battery life was existent...

It's just that I let the notion of a PDA fall out of my life, and am only now getting it back.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

I'm not evangelizing - I just haven't used a Palm since the early Handspring days (and it hadn't really changed from the early USRobotics days):

What features are on the Palm that aren't on just about every other DateBook? I mean, it was the first that did it right but most everything I can think of was copied (plagiarism being the most sincere form of flattery...)

[elfs.livejournal.com]

I think there are two details: First, DateBook (especially the commercial upgrade) has "range of event" features and repetition that are flexible. It's not like "every thursday," but "every eight days plus or minus two," that's just so amazing. The idea that there's a range where you won't do something, a range where you should, and a time at which you must, just doesn't appear anywhere else.

Even more importantly, Palm got something right that the iPhone continues to get wrong: until we get perfect voice recognition working in that size form factor, everything smaller than a netbook is primarily a read-only device. Input should be dead simple, short, and discouraged. Palm concentrated a lot of effort on making that last bit both understandable and appreciable, and it worked.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

They must have added that first feature after I stopped using mine. The commercial update I remember, while amazing, didn't have anything like that (but it has been quite a while).

The second is why I *like* the iPhone. I use it to enter info when I'm way. I don't use it as my primary entry method, but when I have to use it, I don't want to struggle with it. The Palm's grafitti wasn't bad with a LOT of practice, but I found it easy (at the time) to enter faster then it could keep up.

I've also never used better then "marginal" voice recognition in *any* form factor...

[bldrnrpdx.livejournal.com]

I'm quite fond of my Palms too. Unfortunately, I killed the screen, as far as any usable Graffiti goes, a year or two ago on my most current unit. But it's still an awesome brain in a box for the things I need for work and home. I'm fine with the idea of replacing it, but I get cheesed off at the notion that I *must* replace it with something that comes with a 2+-year phone contract. I don't want a new phone. I hardly use the cell phone I have (which is a minimal cost pre-pay). I'm even okay not having the internet capability, though I'll definitely use it on a device that comes with the access. I'm pretty much resigned to replacing my current Palm when the new iTouch comes out.

Attempting to replace Palm with a Nokia N800 Internet Tablet

[(Anonymous)]

One of my personal projects for the last two weeks now has been a development project of possibly replacing my Palm IIIxe, which is having mechanical problems with the power switch, but which I otherwise use _lots_ every day, with a Nokia Internet Table, specifically, an N800. The N800 is, in many ways, a small netbook without the keyboard.

I use my Palm for, in order of importance:
Keeping a complete list of my contacts and their contact information
Scheduling meetings and alarms
Taking quick notes on things to look up later - favorite bands, software packages, funny sayings, web sites, recipies, places to purchase favorite foods, etc.
Referring to some short procedures
Referring to some small databases of information about items, both personal and work-related
Checkbook register
Reading ebooks ( in the bathroom, mostly )
Playing Bejeweled or Hearts as the mood strikes
Once in a great while as a serial terminal to connect to a serial device (mostly switches)

I've been wanting to have a better book reader, and to have something with removable storage for quite some time, and it seemed like it's a good time to find something before the Palm entirely dies.

So far, the Nokia N800 is meeting my needs, mostly. The book reader is superior, being able to browse the web via WiFi has been useful, and it does use SD cards for storage. Sufficient games are available to keep my attention, and I've found a note-taking application with sufficient capabilities. Still working on other uses.

However, I have found that for scheduling, it may only be barely sufficient. The unit must be on in lower-power mode to sound an alarm, not "OFF". And the options in the third-party calendar software I'm working with are just barely in reach of the Palm's abilities - even my Palm IIIxe's many-generations behind the just discontinued ones...

In short, we'll see, but the Palm series continue to be a great tool - just the right device for what they do.