I just watched a documentary about Handspring called "Springboard: the
secret history of the first real smartphone".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9_Vh9h3Ohw

I remembered back to the mid '90s when PDAs took off. I worked in a
company that wrote Mac software, and Newtons were common. We'd even set
up a localtalk network so the Newtons could print to our LaserWriters.

Then, oddly enough, US Robotics, makers of the modem we all wanted as
sysops, came out with the original Palm Pilot PDA. It didn't take long
for us to ditch Newtons and their sketchy handwriting recognition to
writing in Graffiti, the stylized alphabet the Palm OS could read.

I was so into Palms that I noticed myself writing letters and numbers on
paper in Graffiti.

The Palm was like having a curated internet with you, before we all had
the internet. I'd use a program called PocketMirror to synchronize
Outlook to my Palm, and kept email, tech notes, contacts, calendar items
and tasks synced to my Palm PDA. Avantgo worked like an RSS reader,
letting me capture web sites to read when I was offline, and there was
an ebook format that worked pretty well.

All this worked on a device that ran on AAA batteries and came with at
most 8 megabytes of storage.

What amazed me in thinking about the mid '90s was how many Palm
accessories there were! I had a work acquaintance who had a website just
for reviews of stylii and cases. I must have had a half-dozen cases for
mine, multi-color stylus pens, and a "black nail" stylus, a heavy metal
stylus resembling a nail with a teflon tip.

One weird accessory I had was the Pocketmail modem. It was a modem with
an acoustic coupler, see http://www.dansdata.com/pocketmail.htm for a
full write-up.

You'd get a @pocketmail.com email address, call a toll-free number and
press a button on the modem. You'd then press the modem/Palm device up
against the telephone handset and it'd transfer email. It worked pretty
well, up to a point, but the service disappeared without a trace.

Later, I had a Metricom packet modem and could browse web sites and send emails, but not much more. I upgraded from a USR model to a Palm III
with added memory, then a Palm V. A little later, the Treo came out and
added phone and data capabilities - but, by that time, a device called a Blackberry came along and I jumped ship.

To me, the Pilot filled a niche when I was commuting on public transit
and I was working away from my desk - but it wasn't long before bringing
the internet with you became an option.




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I owned a Sony Clie back in the early 00s. I'm not sure which version of PalmOS it ran, but it was a nice little device. There was no sound though... Nevertheless, the fact that I could play RTS games wherever I wanted was awesome.

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I just watched a documentary about Handspring called "Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9_Vh9h3Ohw

Thanks - I'm watching just now... thanks for sharing, I'll try to reply afterwards. Interesting and fun... thanks.



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I owned a Sony Clie back in the early 00s. I'm not sure which version of PalmOS it ran, but it was a nice little device. There was no sound though... Nevertheless, the fact that I could play RTS games wherever I wanted was awesome.

I was also a Clie 'user' - I say it that way b/c I bought for my Dad.. he had some cheapy Palm and loved the high tech Clie.... lol.



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On 27 Mar 2023, poindexter FORTRAN said the following...

I just watched a documentary about Handspring called "Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9_Vh9h3Ohw

Saved to watch later - thanks!

added phone and data capabilities - but, by that time, a device called a Blackberry came along and I jumped ship.

I also did the Palms to Blackberry jump, then wandered around in the wildness trying different things that mostly failed (didn't you have a Simon too? that was such an embarassing product!) flipping between phone camps and having a separate PDA at times.

Eventually I dragged out my old Filofax purchased in the early '80s, and that is where my "permanent collection" of contact information lives, with my working collection synced between smartphone and devices. Dual-entry kludge, but it works.

--- Steve K9ZW via SPOT BBS

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Re: Re: Palm PDAs
By: k9zw to poindexter FORTRAN on Tue Mar 28 2023 06:40 am

Eventually I dragged out my old Filofax purchased in the early '80s, and that is where my "permanent collection" of contact information lives, with my working collection synced between smartphone and devices. Dual-entry kludge, but it works.

I was a Franklin Covey acolyte for most of the '90s. I carried a binder with me, with the addition of 2 floppy drives in a sleeve inside. One had all of the Netware and assorted drivers I'd need to do desktop support, the other had a bunch of documents on them.

Franklin had a PIM (personal information manager) app called Ascend that I used for a while, later, they moved to a series of scripts that made Outlook Franklin-friendly. Neither compared to paper.

I do miss the Franklin system, it's pretty straightforward, but dated in an electronic world. Information retrieval for a paper system was pretty amazing - you carried 3 months worth of planner pages and had the rest in a binder at home. You could get to any information past or present in less than 24 hours.

Back then, that was pretty good. Now, all your information and history are on apps on your phone.
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I just watched a documentary about Handspring called "Springboard: the secret history of the first real smartphone".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9_Vh9h3Ohw

After seeing this, I used to have one of these around the 600 series. :P This was much later than the original Springboard, but they mentioned them in the documentary too - it was a good watch, thats made its way to my PLEX retro directory. :P Thanks.



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On 28 Mar 2023, poindexter FORTRAN said the following...

Eventually I dragged out my old Filofax purchased in the early '80s, that is where my "permanent collection" of contact information lives, my working collection synced between smartphone and devices. Dual-ent kludge, but it works.

I'm working on getting off of Google for email/contacts, but it *is* kind of a PITA.

For daily organizational tasks, I've been using a subset of Bullet Journaling which works very well. I wouldn't put my contacts in there, though; I had a previous employer steal one of my older journals when I was laid off and then snoop through it.

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unixl0rd wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

I owned a Sony Clie back in the early 00s. I'm not sure which version
of PalmOS it ran, but it was a nice little device. There was no sound though... Nevertheless, the fact that I could play RTS games wherever I wanted was awesome.

Sony made some interesting devices back then - I remember a Palm with a keyboard, a 10" VAIO with a Crusoe chip, and if memory serves, one of
their palms had a memory card slot.

A company called TRG made a Palm III that took a CF card, I always
wanted one of those...




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Greenlfc wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

Journaling which works very well. I wouldn't put my contacts in there, though; I had a previous employer steal one of my older journals when I was laid off and then snoop through it.

The Franklin Covey plan addresses the issue of planner theft - how can
they steal it when it never leaves your hand?

One of the Franklin precepts that feels outdated now is the idea of
prioritized daily planning. You start your work day with a list of
tasks, prioritized A, B, C, then the As are prioritized A1, A2, A3, and
so on. These tasks are aligned with intemediate goals that tie into
long-term goals and governing values.

You're supposed to knock out A1 first, then A2, then A3 in order of imporrtance. It sounds great in a world with offices and doors, and no
email.

But, the idea of finding out what matters the most to you, and making
sure that your goals and tasks align with what matters is intriguing.
You've probably had tasks that you needed to do but didn't resonate with
you, and tasks that were important on a basic level with you. The latter
get done well and quickly, the former sort of float around until you're
able to get to them.



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paulie420 wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

After seeing this, I used to have one of these around the 600 series.

I always wanted a Treo, but, for some reason, held back. I think I
thought the costs were too high, but in retrospect, discretionary
income was much easier to come by. 90's mortgage + no kids, + 2
incomes...


... Question the heroic approach
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After seeing this, I used to have one of these around the 600 series.

I always wanted a Treo, but, for some reason, held back. I think I
thought the costs were too high, but in retrospect, discretionary
income was much easier to come by. 90's mortgage + no kids, + 2
incomes...

I remember waiting in line to pay $800 for the Matrix / Neo slider phone. It was taking too long, and I bailed - imagine that now-a-days top iPhones are $1000+... :P

I did own a Treo 600/650 - thanks for sharing that doc.



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I was a Franklin Covey acolyte for most of the '90s. I carried a binder Franklin had a PIM (personal information manager) app called Ascend tha used for a while, later, they moved to a series of scripts that made Ou Franklin-friendly. Neither compared to paper.

Oh those were the days. I had my Franklin planner too and had a
PalmPilot, plus Ascend. And then "converted" to Outlook. Yeah, the
printing from Outlook was never quite right.
But you are right - you could get to anything you needed in 24 hours. I actually miss that format - having a planner to just write down important things - dates, to-dos, notes. Now we are expected to use our phones or computers for all of this.
When I was doing more onsite work, I was the tech with the spiral notepad tracking notes, times, etc. Then I would go back and put the stuff into
the computer. It was EASIER and FASTER to write it down than to carry my
laptop around or try to put stuff in my phone. I did try the 2-in-1 laptop/tablet, but it was heavy and wasn't as easy as they make it out to
be.
Give me pen, paper, and a binder - then I will transcribe the stuff into
the computer.
--Matt

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One of the Franklin precepts that feels outdated now is the idea of prioritized daily planning. You start your work day with a list of
tasks, prioritized A, B, C, then the As are prioritized A1, A2, A3, and
so on. These tasks are aligned with intemediate goals that tie into long-term goals and governing values.
But, the idea of finding out what matters the most to you, and making
sure that your goals and tasks align with what matters is intriguing. You've probably had tasks that you needed to do but didn't resonate wit you, and tasks that were important on a basic level with you. The latte
get done well and quickly, the former sort of float around until you're able to get to them.

And that was one of my inherent "problems" with the Franklin system. I
would do my best to prioritize, but all the C-level tasks were done
first. And the interruptions of emails and what not distracting to be
able to focus. The concepts were sound, but unfortunately, in this day,
harder to do with the open office concepts, emails, texts, messaging
apps, etc. Your day can be too disrupted. I have been working on - a
constant work in progress - of categorizing my day into blocks of time. Example:
8-930am - work on project management
930-11am - work on mentoring or personal growth/training
11-1130am - gap for whatever
1130-1pm - block for lunch - flexible depending on what happened earlier 1-230pm - sales or strategic technology reviews for customers
etc...
It is, as I said, a work in progress. Still taking disruptions and trying
to get back to the "task" I laid out in that block.
--Matt

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paulie420 wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

I remember waiting in line to pay $800 for the Matrix / Neo slider
phone. It was taking too long, and I bailed - imagine that now-a-days
top iPhones are $1000+... :P

That seems like a lot for the sort of LCD screen, 2G+WAP, t9 phone, but
I always bought phones with a contract and a discount.

Best phone I had back then was a Nokia 8260 - a tiny little candybar
phone that worked on the legacy AT&T Wireless TDMA network with fallback
to analog. It'd roam to Verizon's analog network in areas that AT&T
didn't cover, so I *never* was without signal.

It was a shame that they killed that network and moved everything to
GSM.



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Mhansel739 wrote to poindexter FORTRAN <=-

The concepts were sound, but unfortunately, in this day,

harder to do with the open office concepts, emails, texts, messaging
apps, etc. Your day can be too disrupted.

100%.

I have been working on - a
constant work in progress - of categorizing my day into blocks of time. Example:
8-930am - work on project management
930-11am - work on mentoring or personal growth/training
11-1130am - gap for whatever
1130-1pm - block for lunch - flexible depending on what happened
earlier 1-230pm - sales or strategic technology reviews for customers etc...
It is, as I said, a work in progress. Still taking disruptions and
trying to get back to the "task" I laid out in that block.

Time blocking is a great skill. When my kids were remote schooling
during covid, I explained to them that they wouldn't have the constant structure they'd have in classrooms, so they'd need to make their own. I
got my 12 year-old daughter time blocking, and when she had spare time,
using that to work ahead on tomorrow's schedule to free up time. Getting
her to "see" time helped her deal with distractions.

I like to time-block, As do some others in my office. I've noticed some people's Outlook calendars are booked all day, I'm sure they're blocking
their time out and not meeting 8 hours a day.




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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9_Vh9h3Ohw

it was a good watch, thats made its way to
my PLEX retro directory. :P Thanks.

same here!

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