
A History of Palm, Part 1: Before the PalmPilot - WoodenChair
http://lowendmac.com/2016/a-history-of-palm-part-1-before-the-palmpilot/
======
tumba
I was thrilled by my purchase of an original Palm Pilot during my last year of
high school and delighted in filling its Notes application with a wealth of
data which would now be in my "palm." I would go on to develop a few
applications that ran on later devices such as the Palm III and Palm V. To
this day, I recall with fondness poring over Palm's documentation and the book
by Neil Rhodes and Julie McKeehan [1] and writing code using the MetroWorks
CodeWarrior for Palm OS [2].

Having primarily used Windows and early Linux distributions at the time,
Palm's elegant and useful user interface guidelines were my introduction to
user experience and eventually led me to Mac OS.

While I fought the Palm OS storage model at the time, in retrospect, it was,
like the UI approach, also an elegant abstraction that played a key role in
safeguarding the performance expectations of the user experience.

[1] [https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/palm-os-
progr...](https://www.safaribooksonline.com/library/view/palm-os-
programming/1565928563/)

[2] [http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/4762/metrowerks-
releases-...](http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/4762/metrowerks-releases-
codewarrior-for-palm-os-v9/)

------
orionblastar
I worked at a law firm from 1997 to 2001. I was a person who liked gizmos and
wrote programs for them as a programmer analyst. Whenever someone got a Gizmo
like a Royal PDA with Datalink abilities to sync with Outlook they sent me to
help. I even bought a Timex Datalink watch. There was Windows CE devices, and
PalmPilots too. I had worked on a web based docket calendar and some of these
devices had a calendar that synced with Outlook.

Apple had the Newton but poor handwriting recognition. Palmpilots had
something like shorthand, but also a pop-up keyboard or an external keyboard
as well.

I remember working with the Davinci devices as well.

It is good to see the start of the market, before Palm.

The Timex Datalink was the original smart watch and they even had apps for it,
but it didn't have much in the way of memory and synced with Outlook using a
program that only worked in Windows 95 unless you had the notebook adapter.

~~~
eddieroger
I lusted after a Timex Datalink so hard in the late '90s. Still being a
teenager, I didn't have any data worthy of actually walking around like that
(nor the money to buy one), but I was the kid who loved gadgets and that was
_the_ gadget in my mind. I'd all but forgot about it until you mentioned it,
despite walking around with an Apple Watch every day for the last year.

~~~
orionblastar
I had different alarms set on it for waking up, to getting to work on time,
when work was over, and getting home, and going to bed. I never figured out
how to make an app for it but it didn't have much memory on it and only so
many buttons.

These days I am sick and disabled and cannot afford an Apple Watch and don't
have an iPhone to work with it.

I remember stores didn't carry the Timex Datalink anymore, I had to find it at
Walmart Jewelry sections and have them call different stores to see who had it
in stock.

------
DonHopkins
GRiD's office in Mountain View used to be right across Garcia Ave from Sun
Building 1, with big three dimensional sculptured letters of their logo in
front. I wondered if that was where Sun got the idea of naming NeWS in the
same lower-case-vowel style. According to Wikipedia: The lowercase "i" was a
note of thanks to Intel for helping in the early days. [1]

Here's a fun Palm app called "PalmJoint" that I was beaming around and
virtually toking with people at CodeCon. More of a pleasure card than a
business card. [2]

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_Systems_Corporation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grid_Systems_Corporation)

[2] [http://imgur.com/a/OjhQ4](http://imgur.com/a/OjhQ4)

------
dfox
I still use Tungsten T3 as improvised e-book reader. For long time there was
nothing that combined the form-factor with the clarity of T3's display.

~~~
throwanem
The T5 and T|X have a very similar screen and no slider. If your T3 wears out
(which the slider is known to do), either might make a serviceable
replacement. I also had good success migrating to an older iPod Touch in 2012,
although if you use Plucker for reading on the Palm, you'll want to migrate to
EPUB at the same time - that's no fun, but while Tomes was tolerable on iOS at
that time, I would be surprised to learn it's still supported, especially with
the Plucker format.

~~~
sohkamyung
Plucker - now that's a ebook format that brings up memories of reading on the
Palm.

If you still have Plucker files, you might have some luck using FBReader to
read it. It apparently still supports Plucker (but not on android) [1]

[1] [https://fbreader.org/content/book-formats-supported-and-
not-...](https://fbreader.org/content/book-formats-supported-and-not-
supported)

------
sohkamyung
I have a few Palm devices scattered about. The PalmPilot Professional was my
first one and widely recognised. One of my last as the Tungsten T3.

I got excited over webOS. Then it got bought by HP and killed. Sigh...

~~~
Yhippa
webOS is still my favorite mobile OS by far. It did so many things right like
cards and the Touchstone charger. Cards and swiping actions were so natural.
Synergy was very useful. The apps had some skeumorphism but nothing over the
top. The notification system was very advanced for its time. With one-handed
operation it's still easier for me to do all the swiping from the bottom of
the screen instead of the top. Now the whole thing is just a slow front end
for LG TV's.

~~~
newman314
I loved my Pre3 and used it until the apps got too old, eventually switching
to a iPhone 5S.

It was a great UX but suffered from a variety of under the hood issues. Palm
was the only other company that offered a (relatively) seamless upgrade
experience. iOS has its faults but I much prefer the upgrade experience
compared to Android.

------
rabboRubble
I still fantasize about the Palm Graffiti input method. I've tried Graffiti-
like 3rd party keyboards and I just haven't clicked with any of the modern
options.

~~~
DonHopkins
Xerox PARC sued Palm over Graffiti for patent infringement in 1997 [1] [2],
having filed a patent for Unistrokes in 1993 [3]. Their patent was ruled
invalid due to prior art, Xerox appealed the ruling, and Palm payed Xerox
$22.5 million [4]. Research [5] has shown Unistrokes to be somewhat faster
than Graffiti.

>Furthermore, the [Unistroke] alphabet's strokes are well distinguished in
"sloppiness space", allowing for accurate recognition of not-so-accurate
input.

>Unlike Graffiti, Unistrokes gestures bare little resemblance to Roman
letters. However, each letter is assigned a short stroke, with frequent
letters (e.g., E, A, T, I, R) associated with a straight line. Unistrokes is
analogous to touch-typing with a keyboard, as practice will result in high-
speed, "eyes-free" input.

>Over twenty fifteen-phrase sessions, text entry speed in the Graffiti group
increased from 4.0 wpm to 11.4 wpm. During the same time, text entry speed in
the Unistrokes group increased from 4.1 wpm to 15.8 wpm. However, an analysis
of variance yielded a lack of statistical difference in entry speed between
the two techniques. Participants often performed unnecessary deletions,
resulting in high correction rates. In addition, the duration of gesture chart
views decreased quickly, but varied widely between participants. Inter-stroke
time between the two groups was similar, but the significant difference in
stroke duration favoured Unistrokes. The Graffiti alphabet's recognisability
endears itself to novice users. However, this study shows that investing the
same time learning Unistrokes can result in significantly faster stroke time
and higher text entry speed.

Ken Perlin also developed a continuous stylus-based text entry system called
Quikwriting [6] [7], which he patented [8]. And there have been various
imitations and other questionable patents [9]. It would be interesting to
measure how Quikwriting compares with Unistrokes and Graffiti -- it might be
faster since it doesn't involve lifting the pen between letters.

[1] [http://www.brighthand.com/news/palm-xerox-finally-settle-
gra...](http://www.brighthand.com/news/palm-xerox-finally-settle-graffiti-
lawsuit/)

[2] [http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/8628/xerox-graffiti-
lawsu...](http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/8628/xerox-graffiti-lawsuit-to-
be-reconsidered/)

[3]
[https://www.google.com/patents/US5596656](https://www.google.com/patents/US5596656)

[4]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti_(Palm_OS)#Lawsuit](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graffiti_\(Palm_OS\)#Lawsuit)

[5]
[http://www.yorku.ca/mack/chi2008b.html](http://www.yorku.ca/mack/chi2008b.html)

[6]
[http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/doc/quikwriting/quikwriting.pdf](http://mrl.nyu.edu/~perlin/doc/quikwriting/quikwriting.pdf)

[7]
[http://www.mrl.nyu.edu/projects/quikwriting/](http://www.mrl.nyu.edu/projects/quikwriting/)

[8]
[https://www.google.com/patents/US6031525](https://www.google.com/patents/US6031525)

[9] [http://shr-devel.shr-project.narkive.com/wIClUJgX/someone-
is...](http://shr-devel.shr-project.narkive.com/wIClUJgX/someone-is-trying-to-
patent-quickwriting)

~~~
rcarmo
Either way, Graffiti is still the best (most reliable and fast) pen input
method I've ever used on a portable device by far, and it's ridiculous that we
haven't caught up with it in 2016.

I'd love to have ACCESS do something with it other than a (pretty much dead)
Android keyboard.

~~~
DonHopkins
Many useful techniques are tied up in patents. But there are great free open
source techniques too!

"Dasher" is another interesting text input technique: navigating through the
library of all possible books, based on continuous pointing gestures plus
language modeling, which alters the target size by the probability of the
corresponding text, can be easily trained on any writing style, and
automatically learns as you use it.

Unlike Graffiti-like gesture recognition systems, and like pie menus:
inaccurate gestures can be compensated for by later gestures -- you can
continuously and perpetually correct your errors without changing mode,
canceling or repeating gestures. And it works seamlessly with any alphabet
like Hiragana and additional characters without any extra learning.

[1]
[http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/](http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/)

[2]
[http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/MobileDasher.html](http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/dasher/MobileDasher.html)

[3] Dasher: information-efficient text entry:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie9Se7FneXE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie9Se7FneXE)

[4] Dasher Poem:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-WLiY2p1LQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x-WLiY2p1LQ)

~~~
rcarmo
I tried it a few times, ovar the years. It is very impractical, takes up a lot
of real estate and requires you to look at what you're writing - something
that is not an issue with Graffiti.

~~~
DonHopkins
I suspect a major reason it's ridiculous something like Graffiti isn't widely
available in 2016 is because of patents, FUD and NIH.

A text entry system that requires visual attention which you can't use while
driving a car might be considered a safety feature. ;) Then again, it might
just kill people faster who insist on texting while they're driving without
looking at the road. ;( YOLO! _BOOM_

Dasher has different goals and trade-offs than Graffiti, so its useful for
different kinds of applications, but it supports some very important features
(like alternative alphabets, and language modeling) that are impossible for
Graffiti to provide, which many applications require (especially Hiragana,
constrained grammars, text messaging and chat with Unicode and emoji symbols,
easy training, and accessibility for people with limited motion or alternative
input methods).

The paper comparing Graffiti and Unistroke [1] measured Graffiti at up to 11.4
words per minute with a consistent 26% correction rate, and Unistroke at up to
15.8 words per minute with decreasing correction rate from 43% to 16%.

Dasher is faster and has a steep but easy learning curve (it's self revealing
and doesn't require a reference card).

David MacKay described an experiment in his Google Tech Talk [2] that measured
novice users performance over time. Bottom of the class started at 5 words per
minute, and improved to 10 words per minute after an hour of practice; top of
the class started at 12 words per minute, and got to 25 words per minute after
one hour of practice.

Expert dasher users using a hands-free eye tracking interface have been
measured at up to 25 words per minute with an error rate of essentially zero.

I also think Dasher would be quite useful and natural for head mounted
displays, and that is a fruitful avenue for further research. [3] [4]

[1]
[http://www.yorku.ca/mack/chi2008b.html](http://www.yorku.ca/mack/chi2008b.html)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie9Se7FneXE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ie9Se7FneXE)

[3]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFQgluUwV2U](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FFQgluUwV2U)

[4] [https://github.com/xanxys/construct](https://github.com/xanxys/construct)

~~~
DonHopkins
There's a new version of Dasher 5.0 out, developed by Ada Majorek and
supported by Google!

Dasher 5.0 beta release:
[https://github.com/ipomoena/dasher/releases](https://github.com/ipomoena/dasher/releases)

Ada Majorek on Dasher:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvHQ83pMLQQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LvHQ83pMLQQ)

------
rasz_pl
I remember watching Palm founders Panel on Youtube few months ago, It was made
in a format similar to computer history museum panels, but I cant find it now
in their playlists :(. Anyone knows the link to the thing Im talking about? Im
pretty sure I didnt imagine it.

------
JohnTHaller
I still miss using my Palm III. It did one thing and did it really well. I
switched to the Android G1 from the (rather buggy) Treo 680 when the first
Android phone came out. Sadly, I trusted my Palm III more with my contacts
(and the backup synced on Palm Desktop and that backed up to external media)
than I do Android what with Google+ integration wrecking the Gmail Address
Book and resulting in frequent duplicated or lost contacts.

------
icantdrive55
I bought the Palm 111, then the Palm TX. The Palm TX was great! It had
internet access. That device made me an easy $15 grand in two months.

Now this was before smartphones were commonplace, and Goodguy's was going out
of business. They had a huge section of video games. The wholesaler didn't
know anything about video games, nor did I, but I knew they were worth more
than $5 a game.

It was 9:30 at night, so I went to the outside of a local library. Got on the
Internet, and found out people were buying Halo 3 Collector's edition for at
least $30-$45.

I rushed back to Goodguy's and bought every box. They even threw in the
displays.

The staff laughed at me. I remember thinking, I couldn't have pulled this off
without that Palm TX. That TX gave me such a business advantage.

Two to three years later, everyone had a smartphone. My magic box was common
place. I didn't have a commpetitative edge anymore.

Out of all business failures; the failure of Palm really bothered me then, and
now. The Palms I had were rugged little products.

I connected the Palm to a gps, loaded the unit with Delorme maps, and took it
down the Rogue River in a Baggie. The Rogue is a River in Oregon. I could see
when Rainey falls, and Blossom Bar were about to hit us on that little black
and white screen. Actually, with the zoom the screen size was more than
enough. It worked beautifully.

A previous year I went over Rainey falls by accident. My best friend went over
with me. He was 57 and a three pack a day smoker. He was under the water for a
long time, but popped up, and swam to shore. The first words out of his mouth
were, "Are my smokes wet?". Actually, his first works were yelling my name--
then the smokes. Unfortunately, the smokes did survive. After that accident,
by the fire at night. He told me, "I just had a hillbilly ECG!".

Years later, a doctor insisted he get a scan. His arteries were squeaky clean.
He made it to 70 smoking--only quitting two months before he died. The last
year he did need lung medication, and oxygen. Actually, he need albuteral for
at least five years? A few weeks before he died, he told me he was lying about
his smoking habit. He said he was smoking close to four-five packs a day since
14. I figured he had good genes, or maybe it was his diet? He barely ate.

Anyways, he died peacefully in his sleep ten years ago. I do miss the guy.

On a selfish note, don't make friends with people who are much older than you.
Or, if you do--cultivate a lot of friends. He was basically my only friend. We
did a lot of crazy stuff together. My life hasen't been the same since he
passed away.

Sorry, got off subject.

(When he finally quit-- a few months before he passed, he said, "I thought it
would be harder to quit? I actually believed all those commercials comparing
smoking cigs to heroin." "I would have quit years ago if I knew what I know
now.")

