Palm Pilots were created after advancement in technology allowed to companies to create smaller, more innovative devices where we could store all of our important information instead of using calendars and pieces of paper. The Palm Pilot helps reduce paper usage and prevents one from losing important information like appointment dates, phone numbers, addresses and even personal notes because they can all be conveniently located in one place. Palm Pilots have been through many advancements in the past and are still going through advancements today.
History
The first version of a PDA, or personal digital assistant, was created in 1996. The company that manufactured the PDA was Palm Computing and they named the first two versions "Palm Pilots." In 1998, the company was required to change the name "Palm Pilot" because of a lawsuit that was filed against them by the Pilot Pen Corp. for trademark infringement. Regardless, the name "Palm Pilot" is still widely used around the world and refers to PDAs in general, not just the specific brand created by Palm Computing.
Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000 were the first two versions of the Palm Pilot. These were very different than PDAs today, as they contained a serial communications port, but did not have a backlight, flash memory, and the size of the random-access memory (or RAM) was only 128kb on some and 512kb on others.
The PDAs that came after the first two Palm Pilots were Palm Pilot Personal and Palm Pilot Professional. These were great innovations as they finally had a backlight and they now contained 512kb or 1024kb.
Because legal issues came about, the next PDAs from Palm Computing that were released did not contain "Pilot" in their names.
Types
There are two different kinds of Palm Pilot PDAs with "Pilot" still in their names, and the other two have been discontinued. These PDAs include the Palm Pilot Personal and the Palm Pilot Professional. Although there were many PDAs from Palm Commuting that followed these two versions, they do not contain "Pilot" in their names.
The current models that are available as of May 2009 are the Palm III, Palm IIIx, m100, m105, m125, m130, Zire 31, Palm m500, m500, i705, VIIx, Zire, Zire 71, Tungsten E2, Treo 650, and various others. Some of these newer versions of Palm PDAs are now smart phones. Smart phones are phones that not only make voice calls, but can also connect to the Internet, allow the user to send email, instant message, text message, and even schedule appointments and alarms.
Benefits
Palm Pilots and PDAs were designed to help a person carry out different tasks while on the go, like writing down notes, phone numbers, addresses, appointment schedules and more. Currently they are being used more widely by allowing a person to make phone calls, get on the Internet, send and receive email, and even text message. There are also various tools available on these Palm PDAs like calendars, alarm clocks, world clocks and so much more.
People who are usually on the go find much relief in the digital personal assistants created by Palm Computing. These PDAs allow busy people to keep track of appointments, make important business phone calls, get in touch with friends and family, all with something they can carry in their pocket. It's not as large and bulky as a laptop so it has been a lifesaver to many.
Innovations
Due to advancing technology, smart phones have been on the rise in popularity as they are more useful than ever. From the comfort of your home, office, workplace, car, or even while walking down the street or spending a vacation in Hawaii, you can reach into your pocket and complete five different tasks on one device.
Smart phones were an innovation made after the original Palm Pilots. They now include much more RAM, ports to hook up to your computer, backlights, Internet connectivity and more.
Creators
Palm Pilots were created by Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky, and Ed Colligan. These three people were also the ones who founded the company Palm Computing. In creating this company, they wanted to build a device that contained handwriting recognition software. As they continued with their research, they changed their plan and decided to create something even bigger and better. This is how the Palm Pilot came about.
It is said that Jeff Hawkins cut a piece of wood about the size of the original Palm Pilots and carried it with him for weeks inside his pocket. Many people believe that the Palm Computing company succeeded in creating such a useful device because they learned from the mistakes of the Apple Computer Co. and Go Corp. after their attempts to create a smart, handheld device.
Apple Computer and Go came out with a device called "The Newton." This device was a personal digital assistant like the future Palm Pilot. Unfortunately, it is said that Apple rushed to get The Newton on the market and this posed many problems. First of all, The Newton's price was much too high for the average buyer. Many of the applications on The Newton had many bugs and caused lots of problems for the user. The advertising of The Newton failed as well. They claimed that it could read your handwriting when, in fact, it could not.
Palm Computing produced a much more effective PDA with all of the capabilities of The Newton, at a much lower price. The bugs that were evident in The Newton were not present on the Palm Pilot and unlike The Newton, the Palm Pilots were very successful on the market.
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