the evolution of PDA's

[SlideRule]

An interesting Table from Smart Clients for Small E-Business Framework ?
   
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[keenerb]

Whenever I toy with one of my old Palm devices I'm always struck at how quick it is to actually use it for basic information access, compared to a modern device. Push Contact, page down to the

The "pda + cellphone" paradigm wasn't such a bad way to do things. If I could have a wireless Palm III with outlook integration for basic mail/contacts information I'd probably still use one today...

[Matt Agajanian]

Excellent gap-filler.

Some months ago (and several before Blackberry: The Movie), I went about this in another direction.

I started with Sharp Wizard, then Palm Pilot, PocketPC, Trēo, Sidekick, Tapwave Zodiac, Apple Newton, iPhone, and Blackberry.

I'm sure I left out some interim devices. Thanks for the alternate route. Fascinating!

[teenix]

On the early days of survey flying, we used them for flight guidance along the survey lines.

One place we used them, a temperature warning popped up saying the battery may fail (probably catch fire) and to turn it off. It was 55 degrees C in the cockpit, plus the raw sun through the windshield. It was around 30 degrees C before the sun came up. We usually did 45 to 60 degree banked turns to intercept the next line and with the heat this couldn't happen without a possible stall - not much fun 80 or so feet from the ground.

cheers

Tony

[Mark Power]

Perhaps not popular outside the U.K., but Psion Organisers had an original idea for storing user data - on UV erasable EPROM. I wasn’t a fan of this solution hence why I went down the HP-41 route.

[Dave Britten]

(05-10-2024 08:36 PM)Mark Power Wrote:  Perhaps not popular outside the U.K., but Psion Organisers had an original idea for storing user data - on UV erasable EPROM. I wasn’t a fan of this solution hence why I went down the HP-41 route.

I've got a couple Org2s (including at least one LZ64), as well as a fistful of DataPaks and an EPROM eraser, and it's surprising how nice they are for storing data without worrying about power failure. You'll want to keep frequently modified data like appointment books, to-do lists, program source code, etc. in main RAM or on RAMPaks, but for databases with infrequently changing data (e.g. contact lists), periodic backups, or compiled programs, the EPROMS are terrific. Only takes about 10-15 minutes to erase a DataPak. If the one you're currently using is full, copy everything to a blank one to reclaim space from deleted data and erase the one that's full to reuse it later.

[dm319]

The Psion was a great machine. No computer since has given me the direct feel of interacting with a Psion. I had a Psion 3a back in the day, it was multitasking, with microphone and digital audio capabilities, RS232, IR and two solid state ports. It came withe OPL programming language built in, and I think you could even get it online. Also beautifully designed hinge.