JeffKirvin.net

Today, one of our esteemed “groupies” in the WOYP Googlegroup said that Palms aren’t all they used to be. Her statement got me to thinking…

You know, I just read something about the “Zen of Palm.” “Do one thing, and do it extremely well.” Of course, I have a Zodiac…

I’m not so sure that it’s that Palms aren’t all they used to be. I think it’s more that we want them to do more than they were ever intended to do. Think of all the hacks released for the earlier versions of PalmOS. And like most power users, I had my old Visor Deluxe with PalmOS 3.1H hacked to the max. And as soon as I got an OS5 device, I found every conceivable way to hack that, too.

And then they start to crash.

And the battery dies more quickly.

And we blame the PalmOS or the device. Fact is, we want them to do too much stuff. Palm PDAs were designed as electronic daytimers. Of course, the built-in PIMS are a bit anemic for serious users. Still, they were much akin to Apple’s one-button mouse philosophy…KISS, and then everyone will be able to get it.

BUT, pretty soon we started thinking…

Graffiti is too hard and too slow…I need a keyboard.

And since I have a keyboard, I should have a serious word processor…and a spreadsheet too…and if I could run PowerPoint, I could replace my laptop.

I can keep pictures on my daytimer, I want them in my Palm.

So, what makes this better than a paper planner? I need games…and music. I need to impress my friends.

Of course, all this stuff takes up space…so I could use an internal drive.

And we should attach that keyboard.

Now we need a bigger screen.

And things to fill up that screen.

And more power…probably external. And a big-honking battery to run the thing.

And pretty soon, you have a cutting edge device–it’s called a laptop computer.

Frankly, I think that the PDAs we have Right now try to do too many things. They are slightly underpowered laptops with screens too small to get much “real work” done (whatever that is). When I first got my laptop. I almost completely abandoned my PDA. Now, thanks to David Allen’s Getting Things Done, I’m back into my system, which is Palm-centric. Honestly, there are spiffy things I like to have my PDA to do. But mostly, it’s my digital daytimer. And a photo album (really like that…I have a cute baby). And occasionally an audio player…but I really want an iPod (read the whole “Zen” thing above if you wonder why). And it’s nice to write a document, and occasionally update my spreadsheets with statistics. And…yeah.

But mostly, I manage my tasks and calendar. That’s what it’s for. If it did nothing else, it would still be the crux of the “thinking system” of my life. Hence the reason that I’d probably still have my Visor if I’d not lost it. It managed tasks well. And with DateBook+, I didn’t even need to shell out money for a real date book app.

So there.