• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Question - Palm PDA's

OK, can they all be considered "vintage" - now that their function has mostly be taken over by mobile phones?

I replaced my original Palm PDA with a Tungsten E many years ago & it remains my portable electronic memory, together with the desktop running under Windows 98SE on one of my PC's. I've had to replace the rechargeable battery twice & had a scare the last time as I thought the display logic had been damaged. Fortunately, after cleaning the pcb's, re-assembling carefully & resetting several times it booted up into the O/S & I could sync to the desktop to restore everything.
 
OK, can they all be considered "vintage" - now that their function has mostly be taken over by mobile phones?
For sure, I would say any of the PalmOS ones would certainly be considered vintage. Even a few of the first gen smart phones would be considered vintage by now, like my IBM Simon ;-)

I replaced my original Palm PDA with a Tungsten E many years ago & it remains my portable electronic memory, together with the desktop running under Windows 98SE on one of my PC's. I've had to replace the rechargeable battery twice & had a scare the last time as I thought the display logic had been damaged. Fortunately, after cleaning the pcb's, re-assembling carefully & resetting several times it booted up into the O/S & I could sync to the desktop to restore everything.
I had a lot of PDA's back in the day, from original Palm, to Palm III, HP Jornada, and some PalmOS phones like Kyocera 6035, Kyocera 7135, I would consider all those vintage these days too.
 
I still use (one of) my Tungsten T3 every day.. because it has a TimeSheet program for which I haven't found any usable substitute, not on Android or any other mobile device I own. They are all useless compared to TimeSheet. I also used my T3 for all appointments until recently, the PalmOS Calendar is in my opinion superior to every alternative. The 'Tasks' standard application is also very good for grocery lists (tap an item when you run out, tap again when you buy one in a shop). However, the battery is now unreliable so I only use it for TimeSheet - I can keep it in the cradle and I back up to the SD card as well.
I have another T3 too, I used to switch between them if there was a 'white screen' problem (full reset, all lost), but that issue disappeared when my wi-fi card broke because it was the cause of all of that.
 
I also used my T3 for all appointments until recently, the PalmOS Calendar is in my opinion superior to every alternative.


The best calendar program for the PalmOS was Datebk by Pimlico. See following link:

http://www.pimlicosoftware.com/datebk6.htm

I used this application for many years on various PalmOS PDA's. When I finally switched fulltime to using a Cell Phone only (I got tired of having two devices to carry), I asked the developer of DateBK4 and he recommended Pocket Informant by Web Information Solutions. And I have been using Pocket Informant (PI) every since on an Android Phone. I would highly recommend it for anyone wanting a very versatile calendar/task/contacts application. PI is also made for the iPhone. It is not free, but is worth every penny of it if you are a power calendar user. Following is link:

http://pocketinformant.com/

Bill
Smithville, NJ
 
I tried to get some older Palm's for my daughters for their birthday a few years ago. My wife and them didn't go for it. I thought it was a pretty cool portable drawing device, etc but apparently I'm the only one.
 
I still have bunch of Palm IIIxe models with accessories. I think it was a remarkable PDA and I love that it lasts months on 2 alkaline batteries.

That folding Palm keyboard is still pretty amazing even just as a cool gadget.

For a while I was able to backup and sync still using a cradle, but when I switched to Windows 7 I was unable to get the serial drivers working correctly. Instead I bought a cheap USB IR dongle and that works perfectly albeit a bit slower than the cradle.

Despite smartphones, I held out using my Palm devices for years. They were reliable and remained perfect for my needs. It was only last year that I finally broke down and started using a smartphone... and rather sadly, my Palm devices haven't been used for several months. I tried, but it became too annoying to deal with multiple devices for the same basic tasks.

I still love them, though. Every time I used the Palm IIIxe it makes me smile :)
 
My IIIxe stopped working some time ago. It had already had a replacement supercapacitor (the backup power supply). I gave up on it partly because the rather dim screen was no longer good enough for my ageing eyesight. I'd used it for years, tethering by infrared to a mobile phone for primitive mobile internet. WiFi made that obsolete (remember WAP? Slow and wickedly overpriced!).

But I still use Palm Desktop for what used to be called Personal Manager functions - calendar, contacts and ToDo list. First reason - I'm used to it. Second reason - I don't like the way the main alternatives insist on "Cloud" synching that gives them the right to read, analyse and profile all your personal information for their own purposes.

Palm generally don't get enough credit for establishing the hand-held multi-function extensible platform device market that has now been absorbed (and extended) by the cellular phone.

Rick
 
I have two Visor Handsprings, one of which is the Prism. I'm amazed how many springboard modules they made for the series. They're still a really flexible device with the right modules.
 
"Vintage" refers to a specific year. I absolutely hate people when they use the word to generalize electronics that are otherwise old.


...is proper use of the term.


...is not.

It's in the name of the forum, I think you are going to have to live with it ;)
 
Whilst the derivation of the word "vintage" is to do with "vines" and "vintners" meanings change.

Take the word "computer", originally in was applied to a person who performed calculations, but we no longer use it like that...

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/computer?s=ts

Same with the word Vintage, certainly it used to be only used for wine, but certainly in the UK it has been formally used for cars made between 1919 and 1930 and the "Vintage Sports Car Club"

http://www.vscc.co.uk/page/about

was formed in 1934.
 
Last edited:
Whilst the derivation of the word "vintage" is to do with "vines" and "vintners" meanings change.

Very true. Our language is in constant flux. Our fluid "English" is derailing our society. I just learnt recently that 'useless' and 'obsolete' don't mean unusable and superseded anymore; they both mean 'not the most current trend', apparently.

What did the word 'awful' used to mean? In 100 years, will 'awesome' mean what 'awful' does today?
 
My 1993 GRiD 386 Palm system, maybe the first PDA? , MS-DOS 5.2 operating system with touch screen that used a special pen for an input device. PCMCIA bay and I have one that has some form of wireless port also.
paddisplay.jpg
 
Back
Top