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The PalmPilots That Never Were

Posted by timothy on from the cuneiform-input-never-caught-on dept.

harrymcc writes "Among the things that HP is getting in its $1.2 billion takeover of Palm are hundreds of patents for mobile technologies. Many are reflected in Palm's iconic products. But they also include odd keyboard designs, peculiar ideas like a stylus tip that converts into a joystick, and pre-Treo hybrids of phone and PDA that just didn't work. I rounded up some fascinating examples." It's worth clicking through the obnoxious slide-show format to see them.

4 of 56 comments (clear)

  1. Oh yeah. by Pojut · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I had a PalmPilot M100 in high school...that thing was AWESOME. Super useful for keeping track of homework, keeping study session schedules...I also used it to take notes, since my handwriting was atrocious but the weird Palm recognition alphabet was so easy to do quickly.

    I miss having a need for one...I always felt like such a cool fucker whipping that thing out.

    That's what she said.

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    Living With a Nerd
    1. Re:Oh yeah. by Abreu · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, I also felt awesome when I was the only guy in my office to have a PDA...

      Why did Palm drop the ball? I mean, there was a moment when they had total market dominance, but instead of creating a new, better OS to cover their opportunity areas (like an actual filesystem for PalmOS, or a decent media player), they just rested in their laurels and allowed themselves to drop into obscurity...

      I'm still kinda sad HTC/Google didn't buy them, they could have used Palm's patent portfolio to countersue Apple, or at least get a cross-licensing deal

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      No sig for the moment.
    2. Re:Oh yeah. by soupforare · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Graffiti 1 is, imo, still the best quick way to get text into a portable device. I'd take even G2 but no one will license the damn thing. With all the MIDs and Windows tablets getting cheaper and cheaper, I wish someone would port it. I'm sick of on-screen keyboards.

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      --- Do you believe in the day?
  2. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 3, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion