I'm old enough to have lived through this era and owned pretty much each of these devices when they came out. People carrying smart phones today can't imagine how absolutely exciting it was to be able to carry around 'all' my contacts on a little device that would with the push of a button (and a base, and a cable, and some additional Windows software) sync my contacts back and forth with my work PC. And then to be able to easily dial a phone number from within a simple to navigate contacts folder, that was some killer stuff. Oh, and a To Do list too! At any rate, watch the video and see if you find it as entertaining as I did walking back down memory lane.

I had a Palm Pilot. IIRC, I sold it here in the classifieds to Cliff. It very well changed my life in a way that I was more able to organize my appointments and keep on track with everyday events. I remember posting on a Macintosh forum what I wanted from the next Apple keynote, a cell phone with the capabilities of my much used Palm Pilot. I couldn’t afford one until the iPhone 5 but they delivered.

Palm were the innovators but Apple was actually able to bring it to life. That’s pretty much apple’s entire history.

Yep. Lots of good memories. Would have been interesting to see Blackberry included in the analysis. That's the direction I got steered corporately.

Never had a handspring device. I did have a CASIO and Palm PDA. Don't remember which was which model or which one I liked better. The only features I used were the Rolodex and calendar. I had to plug my computer into it to sync back and forth every time I added a new appointment or when I added a contact. Worked good enough I guess for the time. Beat having to carry around a contact list and appointment book.

A couple of points

Calling 3Com a "modem company" is off base. Robert Metcalfe, an alumni of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and developer of Ethernet, was a founder of 3Com. In the early 1990's 3Com was a leader in data networking products.

The Palm and Handspring were cool but, IMHO, the forerunner to the iPhone was Newton.

If you are interested in missed opportunities in IT read: Fumbling the Future: How Xerox Invented, then Ignored, the First Personal Computer.

35-ish seconds in they show a video clip on a CRT TV/VCR combo to show it was a long time ago.

I have that same TV/VCR siting a couple feet away from me. lol (used on an outdoor video camera)

memory lane

i loved my Nokia 6610 back in the day

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I had a Palm Treo 650 back in the day.
At the time it was cutting edge.
Still have it floating around in a drawer along with a couple of old Blackberry phones.

Never owned a Handspring or Palm Treo, but I did own a Palm Pilot and Palm Centro.

They're still around here, somewhere

Holy Trip back in time Batman.
Yes, had a Color Handspring - added a Symbol Barcode reader and wanted to read Barcoded MotorCycle Rider Numbers in the woods during Enduros (Cross Country) and scoring is all computerized. I was treated like I had two heads at our club meetings. Too Much Money involved - But I did score our Hare Scrambles which was a loop style race using a PC and Barcode Reader at a scoring tent run on a generator.

Treo - 600 and 650 were two of my last products.

This was a very cool 30 minutes.

quote:

Originally posted by SPWAMike0317:
The Palm and Handspring were cool but, IMHO, the forerunner to the iPhone was Newton.

Nah, Jobs killed the Newton early on before it could even make a real impact because, as was noted in the video, he didn't believe in the distributed or mobile computing vision of the future. The most interesting question Dieter posed is one I've thought at length about over time. Did that meeting between Jeff Hawkins and Steve Jobs where they discussed and debated the different visions of the future change Jobs' mind and focus, prompting a change in direction for Apple and the development of what would become the iPhone? Regardless, its fun to remember where we've been and how we got here when it comes to those little (many times annoying) devices we all carry around daily.

I had a handspring, my uncle worked with them. Super awesome piece of technology back then. I moved to a treo, handspring, palm pilot, I don't remember the order but they were so cool

my first portable phone was a Motorola bag phone that came in a zip-up case

my next phone was a Star-Tac flip phone and I used it until it died when I grudgingly got an iPhone 6

most days I wish I had the Star-Tac back

I had a Palm Pilot. It held general notes, ebooks, and all my contacts. I even has a Palm modem and could use it for email. This was 'cutting edge' back then. I could 'program' it to type specific words & phrases with shortcuts. Amazed my mom's cardiologist one day when I pretended to scan her pacemaker and it typed out the make, model & serial number right before his eyes!

I still have a working Palm Pilot somewhere. A Tungsten T. I remember the Handspring Visor I think

I seem to also remember learning a writing alphabet as well. You could write in the little box with the stylus but it wasn’t the regular script. Am I remembering that correctly??

quote:

Originally posted by SPWAMike0317:
A couple of points

Calling 3Com a "modem company" is off base. Robert Metcalfe, an alumni of Xerox Palo Alto Research Center and developer of Ethernet, was a founder of 3Com. In the early 1990's 3Com was a leader in data networking products.

Don't forget that 3Com was also a networking software company with their most successful "product" the 3+Share group which ended up being bought by Microsoft which re=branded it as "Microsoft Networking" now better known as SMB/CIFS, almost certainly the most widely-deployed LAN file sharing suite.

And WRT the Palm, one of my customers still uses these ancient devices for storage of passwords and other administrative data for their extensive network of servers and applications. We have not been able to find a password safe application that is as easy to deploy and maintain, although I will admit that the Palm's security is much more vulnerable than modern technologies.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
my first portable phone was a Motorola bag phone that came in a zip-up case

my next phone was a Star-Tac flip phone and I used it until it died when I grudgingly got an iPhone 6

most days I wish I had the Star-Tac back

Those 2 were both my work provided phones.
However, I wouldn't want to revert back to the Star-Tac, I enjoy my tiny computer.