You can run, you can hide, but you cant escape... PDA's Part 2: The Sequel.

(You know, a lot of people pay good money for medication to help them sleep at night. Which made me wonder if we could fund OxMacUG by selling the rights of my PDA's (Part 1) email, to the sleep deprived masses, for a fee. "Effective as Nytol, and the side effects are barely noticeable...")

Now, where were we? Ah yes, current PDA's...

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Palm OS (Palm Pilot, Handspring, Sony Clie, Handango, etc)
From humble origins, Palm Computing have gone on to make a Mint out of being everything that the Newton wasn't: Compact, simple, standardized, integrated, affordable. While it doesn't have anything close to the capabilities of the Newton, that was never its objective in the first place. It does a few things, does them reasonably well, and leaves it as that. For millions of people, it's proven to be more than adequate. As a business it was a proverbial gold mine, but one that in recent years has found the going much much tougher as the market approaches saturation.

Oddly, the very basis of the Palm Operating System, (the "Graffiti" Handwriting System), got its start in life as a "patch" application for the Newton. Back when most people couldn't get the Newton HWR to recognise their first name, Jeff Hawkins developed a shorthand alphabet, with each character of each word to be written in a specified pattern in a reserved space at the bottom of the screen: A little box for Letters on the left, and another for Numbers on the right. (As opposed to the Newton, where you could write wherever you wanted to on the screen, and it would insert the text at the cursor.)

When you first see a representation of the way that you have to write each character in the Graffiti alphabet in order for it to be recognized by the PDA, it looks a bit like minimalist hieroglyphics – something only vaguely comprehendible. As it turns out, it's actually very easy to get used to, and one can pretty effectively master it in a few hours of practice.

While Graffiti was a help to plenty of Newton OS 1.0 users, once Newton OS 2.0/ 2.1 showed up, there was no need for an add-on text recognition system. Which is when Jeff took his creation and rounded up venture capital aimed to make it the basis of a simple but effective, and -very- compact PDA. And thus, the Palm Pilot was born, and become one of the Silicone valley success stories of the 90's.

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Hardware-wise, Palm units have developed dramatically since the first models, and now support colour screens, faster processors, larger memories, numerous peripherals, BlueTooth wireless networking, etc. (I'd hoped to have one of the new Tungsten T's for the meeting, but alas, my source in the USA couldn't procure me one in time...) The hardware has come a very long way, but is still compact and stylish, with very good battery life, connectivity, and synchronisation.

Part of the reason for this is that while Palm still control the Operating System software, they have allowed other companies (Handspring, Sony, etc.) to license this OS code on their own 'cloned' hardware, as Apple did with the Mac for a while in the mid-90's. This has led to real competition in hardware, and thus to tremendous innovation, most notably in the area of screen resolution. Original Palm screens had a resolution of 160x160 (pixels). This meant that one's viewable area was roughly the size of a very large postage stamp. While it was better than nothing, it was a considerable limitation. Now, the resolution of the Tungsten T is 320x320, and some of the Sony Clie's are 320x480 – the same resolution as a Newton, in an enclosure roughly a quarter the size.

If you're considering the purchase of a Palm machine, by all means look at the ones from Sony as well as those from Palm. They're making some really innovative units, including ones that replace the "Graffiti area" with a pager-style qwerty "thumb-board" for data entry. Handspring (the company that Jeff Hawkins formed after being asked to leave Palm) have chosen to exit the PDA realm, and focus on Mobile phones. More about those later...

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Unfortunately, that same level of hardware innovation has not extended into the realm of the Palm Operating System and its integrated software. Apart from support for colour screens and improved networking and peripherals, the Palm OS has remained depressingly static since it was unveiled. The OS is completely incapable of multitasking (pick one application at a time, run it, and be happy, darn it), and the fundamental built-in applications (Datebook, Address List, Checklists, and Notes) have barely changed since they were introduced. There are other basic applications like calculators, and database searches, but they're all fairly simple and generic.

Thankfully, Palm made a -very- good application development environment available to software developers, who collectively went crazy -- creating several thousand applications for the platform. While many of these applications are very good, (and lord knows you can find programs for everything from calculating prescription dosages to recording cricket scoring) they are all encumbered to some extent by the limitations of the operating system. (i.e. no program may have more than 15 filing categories.) Now, while some people may not find this to be a significant limitation... Well, let's just say that I don't think filing cabinets would sell terribly well if one was limited to filing things into no more than 15 categories...

But at last, help is FINALLY on the way. In 2001, Palm divided itself into two separate companies: one for hardware and one for software. And Palm Source are currently in the process of radically re-writing the Palm OS from the bottom up. The first major revision (Palm 5.0) came out late last year, and enables the hardware units to use T-I/ ARM RISC chips, which are generations faster than the Motorola Dragonball series that had been previously in use. The next major revision to the Palm OS (6.0) will be even far more radical...

(...hang in there, there's a purpose to this next bit...)

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If you're a sad dweeb-ish techno geek (like me?), then in the mid 1990's you might just have become be-sotted (boom-boom) by a completely new Desktop Operating System called "Be". It ran on Macintosh hardware, and had been developed from scratch over 3-4 years by Jean Louis Gasse, and a small army of other ex-Apple employees. This thing was, in a word, awesome, and basically ran rings around Apple and the Macintosh during the time they were trying to come up with a successor to the legacy Macintosh OS throughout the whole Kaleida/ Taligent/ Pink/ Copeland/ Gershwin/ Rhapsody fiasco. (subtitle: how to burn 6 Billion dollars of development funds in 6 easy steps

When things got critical for Apple on the failure to come up with successor to the Mac OS, and they realised that they were going to have to BUY a new OS to use as the foundation of the next generation Mac OS, rather than develop one in-house from scratch... ...and most everyone assumed that they would purchase Be. (And why not: it was the most jaw-dropping thing out there.) However, this particular race went to the Tortoise and not the Hare; most everyone was astonished when Apple purchased NeXT instead of Be, and got one Steve Jobs in the bargain.

Which, it should be said, was a -very- astute move on Apple's (i.e. Gil Amelio's) part; While "Be" had capabilities in 1996 that Mac OS X is -still- trying to catch-up to, what it sorely lacked was any sort of proven application development environment. {Not a small consideration} And that's something that NeXT had in spades with OpenStep. Apple has thrived with OS X, while "Be" has... what?

Well, funny you should ask -- because Palm is the company that wound up purchasing the assets of "Be", and this is what they're currently in the process of using as the foundation of Palm 6.0, due sometime next year.

Which is all a very long-winded way of saying that there is a great deal of hope for the future of Palm and their millions of users. The PalmSource gang are hard at work on some seriously impressive software and OS innovations. (That is, if the company doesn't continue to bleed red ink and layoff staff; but that's another story).

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Right. Now, you've heard me go on and on about the things that I -don't- like about Palm units, and yet I have a Palm Vx, and am looking to purchase a Tungsten T. So what's up with that?

Because the things that Palm units do well, they do very well indeed. For a start, they have some excellent add-on capabilities and peripherals: sync/recharge cradles, attachable cameras, and foldable keyboards, amongst many others. But more importantly..

I'm fairly accomplished at Graffiti, but even so, I find it painfully slow to enter or update info on my Palm using the stylus. Thankfully, I rarely need to, because Palm have made excellent desktop companion programs for both Macintosh and Windows. In fact, when it comes to Palm units, PDA should stand for "Portable Data Access" – it's not much of a handheld computer per se, but most people have a desktop of laptop system to handle the big stuff. Me? Thanks to my Palm, I have all of my key info, in my shirt pocket, at all times. And whenever I want to update info, I just sit down at my desk and type it in, and it'll wind up on my Palm the next time I synchronise.

And that's the real beauty of the Palm platform – it has arguably the best synchronisation software going. For me, it means that I can update any piece of contact, or list, or calendar information anywhere I want (on the Mac, the PC or the Palm), and the Palm will keep all three perfectly in sync. Hence, if I update a contact at work on my PC, it'll get updated on my Palm when I sync it at the end of the day and bring it home, where I'll sync it with my Mac, and presto, the updates I performed on my PC are now on my Mac. Just like that. Effing brilliant! (And I also use my Palm for 'carrying' documents, spreadsheets, etc, between work and home – I just back it up on my Palm, take it home, work with it on my Mac, back it up on the Palm, bring it back to work, etc... Who needs floppies?)

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OK, Almost done. If you'll indulge me for one more paragraph, I'd like to mention what I believe is The Killer Application for PDA's: Avant Go. This is a web-based service (there's a free version, and a more comprehensive paid-subscription service) in which you go through and select your favourite web-based information sources, which will then automatically download them to your PDA, each time you synchronise with a web-based computer.

In practice, this means that each morning when I'm in the shower, my Palm is being filled with highlight stories from: my Hometown Newspapers (The Minneapolis Star/Tribune & The Boston Globe), The Guardian, The Economist, Time, CNN, BBC, ESPN, Sky Sports, MacWorld, IHT, etc... you get the idea.) Then, whenever I have an idle moment (sitting on the train, waiting for the queue to move at the Post Office, etc.) I just whip out my Palm and read through all of the articles that I don't have time to read when I'm actually at a computer. Talk about Dead Dead Neat!

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AND, once again, I've gone on far too long. Drat.

(I could quit anytime I wanted to. Really, I could. Denial? I'M not in denial.) (Why are you looking at me like that?)

So, I shall leave it to others to inform us about Linux PDA's (The Sharp Zaurus) and about those PDA's based on Microsoft's Pocket Windows (Compaq/HP iPaq, and the Dell Handheld). I know very little about them, and I'm uncertain how well, if at all, they synchronise with a Mac.

My understanding of the iPaq is that it has an unbelievably gorgeous screen, is fairly hefty, has a middling battery life, does everything but wash your garage, and has a pretty substantial price tag.

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That's all for now

-Ross

P.S. OK, I lied. There's one more thing:

A lot is being made about the way that PDA's and cellphones are merging. Seems perfectly natural to combine the functions of two devices into one, and maybe even incorporate GPS and G3 wireless web & email as part of the bargain.. Indeed, the earliest examples of this convergence are already on sale: Units from Handspring, Palm, Microsoft/Orange, etc.

Maybe I'm being a Luddite, but I remain unconvinced. To me the function of a phone and that of a PDA remain separate. I can certainly understand the desire to keep all of one's contact info, telephone numbers, etc, in sync. And provided that your phone and your PDA are both Bluetooth enabled, then you can painlessly synchronise them at will. Which is a thing of beauty and a joy forever

But, too me, the -disadvantage- of the combo phone/PDA is that there is always a trade-off between the desired compactness of the phone, and the desired scale of the screen. And the biggest problem with this convergence? Frequently, when I am on the phone, I want to retrieve info from my PDA. But if it were all-in-one, I couldn't see it, because it'd be glued to my ear. And if someone rings me for a phone number? ...I'd have to end my phone conversation to locate it, and then ring them back.

And this is Progress??
Nope, I'm content to have my phone and PDA talk to each other, but not to shack up together. Separate but equal, that's all I ask...

P.P.S. (I lied again. But just a little white one.) Does anyone in the group have, or have experience with a Tablet PC? I suppose that's one more platform that should be included in our discussion...

Part one

-Ross