Regarding palm-type computers (including, but not limited to actual Palm Pilots), that is, these keyboardless tablet-style minicomputers:
What are they good for? I have seen a couple people who use them as a calendar and notepad for appointments and phne numbers, but not much else. Some of these things cost near $500 and have 32 megs of memory. What do you do with it?
Do they make these things with internal modems? Or external modems? -I want to run a short, simple program on a portable machine, but the machine must support an internet connection. I am curious if a Palm or pseudo-palm can substitute for a laptop here.
What operating systems can be used on Palm computers? I know of WIndows CE: any others?
(unrelated to first three) I have a PC running Windows. I may wish to write some software for another machine running Linux, on the PC. What do I need to do this? Do regular C/Java programs work in Linux? - MC, up to no good
They are absolutely worth… nothing.
not so… Pen and paper.
Get a laptop w/ ethernet. A majority of the hotels (if your traveling) have ethe connections. Get your I.S. to configure it. I am sick of walking people through this.
Your other option is a modem… good luck getting all the access numbers for every town.
First of all, Palm with a capital P refers to PDAs made by Palm Computing, namely Palm V, Palm III and Palm VII series. They don’t call them Pilots anymore - I think they were sued by Pilot (the company that makes fountain pens and stuff).
They’re good for a lot of things. I carry a Palm IIIc everywhere. It’s good for schedule management, address book, and standard stuff like that. In addition, you can download shareware and freeware to do all sorts of things. The one I use most is AvantGo - it checks a bunch of web pages and downloads them to the Palm if anything new is up. And it does it automatically every time I connect it to my PC to do a HotSync (copy all data). I read Wired, New York Times, and even Cecil’s columns on it. Another software I use a lot is an outliner - there are several out there, I use BrainForest. Combined with the external keyboard, it is excellent for taking notes at presentations and meetings. Also useful for planning my own papers and presentations - nice to be able to work anywhere. Other people use it for keeping track of expenses, databases, and games.
Some Windows CE systems have built-in modems. Most PDAs (Palm, WinCE and Psion) can be connected to external portable modems. Browsers and e-mail programs are available.
Palm runs Palm OS (surprise!), as does Visor and now the Sony CLIE. WindowsCE machines run WindowsCE, obviously. I forget the name of the OS for Psion, but it’s another propriatory OS. That’s about it.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by MC *
** - Regarding palm-type computers (including, but not limited to actual Palm Pilots), that is, these keyboardless tablet-style minicomputers:
What are they good for? I have seen a couple people who use them as a calendar and notepad for appointments and phne numbers, but not much else. Some of these things cost near $500 and have 32 megs of memory. What do you do with it?
This is one of those things that’s difficult to explain if you don’t need what it offers. If you make a living via sales or service and being available to people the utility will hit you over the head. If you don’t it’s largely a tech toy. Having the ability to efficiently input and recall 2000-8000 addresses and a years worth+ of appointments is very important to a person who (like myself) make their living being in contact with people. It will also sync with more heavy duty schedulers like ACT and others.
Do they make these things with internal modems? Or external modems? -I want to run a short, simple program on a portable machine, but the machine must support an internet connection. I am curious if a Palm or pseudo-palm can substitute for a laptop here.
Yes Palm VII and some others offer net connectivity but
not in any “full featured” way per Win 98 etc.
3. What operating systems can be used on Palm computers?
Palm
I know of WIndows CE:
This is dead
any others? New MS replacement for CE (name escapes me at moment)
4. (unrelated to first three) I have a PC running Windows. I may wish to write some software for another machine running Linux, on the PC. What do I need to do this?
Linux OS and dual boot partition option on your PC
There’s actually several companies that make Palmtop computers, Palm Inc. being one of them. Palm has licensed it’s OS to other companies in the industry, such as Visor for use in their handhelds, making the Palm OS the most widely used for handhelds. Windows CE isn’t exactly dead, being used in a few products such as the HP Jornada, but it’s slipped in market share.
They’re mostly useful as an address book/calender/scheduler, and things like that. They’re organizers, and were never intended as a replacement for a desktop or notebook computer. However, you can get modems for many of the better ones, and get access to the web and to email, which makes them a nice option for people who want to stay in touch with the office, but don’t want to lug a laptop around with them.
Kinda fun, but at us.buy.com today on the front page there are Palm cameras, cameras that attach to this Palm so you can use it as a digital camera. $89.00 today only till sold out.
Let’s assume you have a computer running both Windows and Linux, dual boot. If you write a C program on one operating system, you will need to recompile it on the other operating system before it will work. If it’s a GUI program, it probably won’t work on the other one, since most of the libraries are usually OS specific (e.g. the Microsoft Foundation Classes). If it’s not a GUI program, you’re good to go.
Java is different. You can write a Java program on one platform, compile it, and it will run on all other platforms which have equally recent versions of Java installed. (You can download the JDK free from Sun’s website: http://java.sun.com ) This makes Java an excellent language for writing GUI applications that you plan to use on multiple platforms, since you don’t have to rewrite it for each OS you want to run it on. (The only downside is that Java 1.2 is buggy for many flavors of Unix. Works great on the PC, though.)
The Windows CE Pocket PCs (Compaq iPaq, etc.) are good for more than just calendars. Most of them come with programs like Pocket Word and Pocket Excel. They’re great if you don’t want a bulky laptop but need some way to write up documents away from your desktop computer. You can also buy an external modem and use it to check email (Outlook)and surf web pages.
I’m a student. I couldn’t live without mine. I bring my Palm Pilot and keyboard to school and take all my notes on it. Everyone eyes me jealously. No need for notebooks, no worrying about ink or lead, and I always have my notes with me so I can study whenever I have a few minutes. On the downside, I’ve noticed that my handwriting is getting much much worse. Seriously. I never write anymore. I’ve been having trouble signing my name legibly anymore. But only hardcore users have to worry about that.
Oh, yeah, and I’ve got 40-something games on it, too.
I have a Tricorder program on my Palm III, I can check for Thoron radiation at will. This alone justifies the machine. Let alone the mail/calendar syncro functions, notepad, doodle, etc.