Piloting Palm

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://pilotingpalm.com">http://pilotingpalm.com</a><br /><br />I downloaded this book Friday evening and started reading it Saturday afternoon, and could hardly put my iPAQ down for two days. I don't recall ever reading a book like this in two days. It is absolutely engrossing, both from a business and technological perspective.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/PilotingPalmCover.jpg" /> <img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/PilotingPalm.jpg" /><br /><br />I know all about the Newton, but the fact is, Palm put the PDA on the map and made it a viable product, and was quite possibly the best PDA on the market, until April 19, 2000. :-D This is a fascinating look into the mind of Jeff Hawkins and the industry he created. Bookmark the <a href="http://www.pilotingpalm.com">Piloting Palm</a> web site too. They will be providing additional chapters as the Palm story continues to unfold.<br /><br />Go to <a href="http://www.peanutpress.com/book.cgi/0471223395">Peanut Press </a> to download a copy for reading on your Pocket PC using the free Palm Reader. The screenshot above is on the Pro version of the reader, adding right margin justification and dictionary support. Otherwise, the free reader looks identical, including ClearType support.<br /><br />If you are a Luddite or just want the dead tree version for your bookshelf when you're done, go to <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0471089656/jasonsego">Amazon using this affiliate link.</a> ;-)<br /><br />Finally, don't post any information on the book itself in this thread. I don't want to spoil anything for those that haven't read the book yet. <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=5760#5760 ">I have created a new thread here</a> to discuss the book itself.

[marlof]

Whoa! I downloaded this two days ago, and my hands are itching to start reading. And now even more.

[entropy1980]

Remember those 1000 dollar Ipaq days, man this brings back memories.... :D

[griph]

http://pilotingpalm.com

I know all about the Newton, but the fact is, Palm put the PDA on the map and made it a viable product, and was quite possibly the best PDA on the market, until April 19, 2000. :-D This is a fascinating look into the mind of Jeff Hawkins and the industry he created. Bookmark the Piloting Palm (http://www.pilotingpalm.com) web site too. They will be providing additional chapters as the Palm story continues to unfold.



Psion very successfully developed the original PDA back in the 80's and for some considerable time there was no competition - they further set the standard with their award winning 3 series. Palm certainly defined the original standard for pen operated devices, but they came later.

[Chubbergott]

Psion very successfully developed the original PDA back in the 80's and for some considerable time there was no competition - they further set the standard with their award winning 3 series. Palm certainly defined the original standard for pen operated devices, but they came later.


8) Well said!

[entropy1980]

They may have come later (palm and pen based) but they are the standard now, and have become ubiquitous, hence why everyone calls a pda a "palm", ever heard anyone call a pda a Psion unless it was a Psion?

[marlof]

Jeremiah, there is a world outside the US you know. Palm never took off as big in Europe as in the US. And yes, when I ran around with my Velo 1, people asked me if that was a new Psion. :-)

[entropy1980]

Oh you mean like places across that blue thing called the ocean? :P
Even so PDA's have been generically called "Palms" since becoming mainstream and selling millions worldwide ( maybe not as many in europe but millions somewhere!), and by mainstream I am talking everyone from highschool students to corporate CEO's, also with media references any given tv show that has included a handheld refers to it as a "Palm" , sorry I should have clarified my frame of reference! I will try to broaden my horizons but hey I live in US and can only speak from that frame of reference.

[AZMark]

Guess they'd still be selling them if they were so popular?

Anyway, everyone check out the new Stephen King book out there as well. Very good short stories from King and well worth the 19 bucks,,,(sorry that US bucks you do the conversion).

Interesting that B&N is selling the MSReader version for 22.00 and the hard cover for 19.00. Does this make any since?

AZMark

[marlof]

Psion - alas - went downhill fast. They had great things going with the 3 series, the 5 series and even the Revo. But then innovation halted, and they could no longer compete. ( Hmmm.... what does that remind me off? ) There were many, many rumors about the next great thing, the penbased Psion. But that one never saw the daylight.

[Ed Hansberry]

And the fact is, few knew what a Psion was, especially outside of Europe. The Palm was the PDA that made the PDA market what it is. Not the Newton, the Sharp Wizard or the Psion.

[entropy1980]

Ed's got my back.... :P , j/k none the less this book is a great read about all of this little discussion and more!

[RavenSBNC]

Is there an MS Reader version? I want to read it but not if I have to download new software to do so.

[AZMark]

I believe it's out there on Amazon in reader format. But I'd say go for the Palm Reader software. It's small, and the DRM is much easier, it's much quicker than Reader.

Well all in all, it's a Palm product, but it beats the MS version in about all accounts.

[djl]

Interesting that B&N is selling the MSReader version for 22.00 and the hard cover for 19.00. Does this make any since?

AZMark


I noticed this regarding Piloting Palm: amazon.com is selling the book for less than $20, but to buy it electronically I have to spend about $22. Why is this? Shouldn't the ebook version be slightly less?

[Ed Hansberry]

I noticed this regarding Piloting Palm: amazon.com is selling the book for less than $20, but to buy it electronically I have to spend about $22. Why is this? Shouldn't the ebook version be slightly less?

If you are a loyal PeanutPress customer that subscribes to their weekly newsletter, you get a 10% off discount code in your email each week.

As for why ebooks are more expensive than dead tree versions, don't get me started.... :evil:

[griph]

They may have come later (palm and pen based) but they are the standard now, and have become ubiquitous, hence why everyone calls a pda a "palm", ever heard anyone call a pda a Psion unless it was a Psion?


I have no arguement with what Palm later accomplished - hell I even upgraded from a Psion 5 to a PalmV (before going onto an Ipaq). But make no mistake - the psion 3 and 5 were (and to many still are) perfectly viable and useable PDA's. The PDA was invented by Potter Scientific Instruments or Psion as it was later known as. Where Psion lost out was it's failure to go with a pen only form factor, and a colour screen. I accept that it never really took off in the USA. It was however very popular in Europe and regardless of the shift in power, the Psion's position in the history and development of the PDA is secure.

The Palm to me was just an organiser - it never really got me fired up with interest the way the Psion did. It was only the Pocket PC, and specifically the Ipaq that rekindled some of the original awe with it's power and flexibility.

I remember laughing at the WinCE first and second generation machines - they came nowhere near the Psion's capabilities. It was only Pocket PC that turned that around. The way Pocket PC is developing it won't be long before the same comments that have been made about the Psion will be made about the Palm. History for many can be tempered by short memories. :)

[griph]

And the fact is, few knew what a Psion was, especially outside of Europe. The Palm was the PDA that made the PDA market what it is. Not the Newton, the Sharp Wizard or the Psion.


Innovative products such as these however were the catalyst for other companies to percieve the market potential for PDA's and start development of their own products.

[Ed Hansberry]

Innovative products such as these however were the catalyst for other companies to percieve the market potential for PDA's and start development of their own products.

I am not deminishing the role of the Psion at all, but if it weren't for Palm, the pen based PDA explosion that happened in the late 90's wouldn't have. MS never would have bothered with CE 2.0 based Palm-sized PC's. It took Hawkins understanding of the hardware limits and the basic need for a solid organizer that jumpstarted the market. That "zen" is the same thing that is dragging down Palm today. The hardware is much more capable. They hung on to that minimalist attitude for about 2 years too long.

When the book "Piloting Psion" comes out, maybe I'll learn a bit more about that platform. :wink:

[griph]

I am not deminishing the role of the Psion at all, but if it weren't for Palm, the pen based PDA explosion that happened in the late 90's wouldn't have.

When the book "Piloting Psion" comes out, maybe I'll learn a bit more about that platform. :wink:


OK, and - my last word on this - you should still apply this: If it wasn't for Psion's development of the PDA in the 80's starting the process it is possible that the market would not have developed, at least not to the timetable we have seen.

[Ed Hansberry]

OK, and - my last word on this - you should still apply this: If it wasn't for Psion's development of the PDA in the 80's starting the process it is possible that the market would not have developed, at least not to the timetable we have seen.

Perhaps. But you could go back and say if it wasn't for the Altair, the first computer the average guy could go an buy, the timetable for PC's wouldn't have been what it was, and in turn, PDA's timetables would have been different.

I often think there is a bit of an emotional attachment with Psions and Newtons. The Ford Model T wasn't the first car by any stretch of the imagination. If it wasn't for cars before the Model T, there wouldn't have been a Model T, but the Model T is what made cars something the average consumer could buy, and forever changed the landscape of the automobile world it largely created.

Palm's Pilot 1000 was the Model T of the PDA world. It took the PDA market to a level previously unthinkable.

[griph]

Now you &lt;are> going to far! :wink:

[Kilmerr]

It tries to tell the story but never gets really deep, reads more like a puff-piece for Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins than anything else. I want someone hard-hitting like David Bank of the WSJ to tell the real story. Way too light and airy. This ain't real journalism. Guess we will just skip over the Xerox PARC stuff and leave out the real items per the Yankowski era. Sad and weak. Two thumbs down.

[James Bond]

It tries to tell the story but never gets really deep, reads more like a puff-piece for Donna Dubinsky and Jeff Hawkins than anything else. I want someone hard-hitting like David Bank of the WSJ to tell the real story. Way too light and airy. This ain't real journalism. Guess we will just skip over the Xerox PARC stuff and leave out the real items per the Yankowski era. Sad and weak. Two thumbs down.


Indeed, the book was very disappointing. It is very superficial and overly enthusiastic, yet leaves out a lot of detail and dwells on generalities. Hard to describe it better, but it left me with the feeling that Palm, Handspring, and everything surrounding them is quite dull and insipid. Honestly, I expected something as zesty as Apple's history, or at least comparable to the good popular writing about Silicon Valley or Microsoft, but no luck here. I ended up skipping a lot of pages. MS and CE are bashed to the extreme (but that was expected). What was more disconcerting was that little attention was given to technology; not much was said about Newton, Psion, CE, etc, except that they were really slow and bad, and Palm (and their earlier device, Zoomer -- the only interesting thing I learned from the book) were quite decent in comparison. The book dwelled too much on what Dubinsky or Hawkins were thinking this or that day. The book tries to present Palm (Dubinsky & Hawkins, rather) as a company with amazing vision and business savvy, but fails by omitting too many details. For example, the simplicity and "Zen of Palm" were even more Zen for another, yet smaller and as simle device, the PCMCIA-sized Rex (or whatever it was called) but it is not even mentioned. Why did the other pen computers fail exactly? The book can be summarized thus: "Jeff thought of this cool thing and Donna made it happen, and it was very hard at first, but nobody else could do it as well as them anyway"

Everything controvesial or interesting is missing -- don't read the book.

[Ed Hansberry]

Indeed, the book was very disappointing. It is very superficial and overly enthusiastic, yet leaves out a lot of detail and dwells on generalities. Hard to describe it better, but it left me with the feeling that Palm, Handspring, and everything surrounding them is quite dull and insipid. Honestly, I expected something as zesty as Apple's history, or at least comparable to the good popular writing about Silicon Valley or Microsoft, but no luck here. I ended up skipping a lot of pages. MS and CE are bashed to the extreme (but that was expected). What was more disconcerting was that little attention was given to technology; not much was said about Newton, Psion, CE, etc, except that they were really slow and bad, and Palm (and their earlier device, Zoomer -- the only interesting thing I learned from the book) were quite decent in comparison. The book dwelled too much on what Dubinsky or Hawkins were thinking this or that day. The book tries to present Palm (Dubinsky & Hawkins, rather) as a company with amazing vision and business savvy, but fails by omitting too many details. For example, the simplicity and "Zen of Palm" were even more Zen for another, yet smaller and as simle device, the PCMCIA-sized Rex (or whatever it was called) but it is not even mentioned. Why did the other pen computers fail exactly? The book can be summarized thus: "Jeff thought of this cool thing and Donna made it happen, and it was very hard at first, but nobody else could do it as well as them anyway"

Everything controvesial or interesting is missing -- don't read the book.

Hmmm.... could be the market didn't care much about the Newton or Psion, the Rex was a total non-event and the book wasn't about PDA's in particular, so who cares why each different pen based device failed? It was first and foremost a business book about a company that made PDA's. It wasn't the historians reference guide to the world of PDA's. As a purely historical reference, it was bad. But I don't think the authors cared too much. They weren't writing a historical reference on PDA's. It was about the journey of "The Jeff and Donna Show." The PDA was just background.

[James Bond]

They weren't writing a historical reference on PDA's. It was about the journey of "The Jeff and Donna Show." The PDA was just background.


Well in that case the book succeeded. My only problem is that I did not find Jeff & Donna to be as interesting to read about as Steve, Bill, or Larry, if you know what I mean :) Although Jeff & Donna deserve praise for their launch of the first successful products in a new tech industry, the book still isn't gripping enough (IMHO) to do them justice. For a company (Palm/Handspring) with such brief history, the book is too long.