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Palm Pilots: Tools or Toys?
dittrich writes "Found this at CNN this morning. It's an interesting point of view, the meat of whicht is that Palm Pilots don't really make us more productive, they are just cool toys that people want, not need.
" That's been one of the those ongoing arguements about computers in general-do they really increase our productivity? I say yes, but every year or so, someone produces a study saying that they don't.
On the other hand, I don't think IT managers should "maintain" Palm Pilots. The company might pay for it, but that should be the extent of it. If you use your Palm Pilot for both business and personal work (as I do) I think it's a good idea to pay for it yourself no matter what.
One thing I've seen in most of the responses come from the point of view of the user. This story, or rather what I got out of it, wasn't about the users, but the organization as a whole. Sure, Palms are cool, fun and useful (I assume, I don't have one) but this was more about how people abuse the system, and then expect the IT department to make up for it. Imagine if you, as a network admin, had to support this whiz piece of hardware that you hadn't trained for, didn't expect to be supporting and had all this new software that integrated (oddly) with existing software? Not fun. Point of the piece isn't that it can't be useful, but that it eats more time supporting it with clueless middle management types than it gives them back. And those clueless PHB types are the loudest whiners and are the most annoying if they don't get what they want. And if they can't figure it out, they bother other employees for help. Since some of those people could concievably be doing work, any time they take to tutor the Palm user is lost money. This fact also drags down productivity as a whole, with less skilled users using more skilled users to compensate.
Not even close. I use it to keep my time records and appointments, and it syncs into my time-and-billing application every day. When I used to use paper (DayTimers), I had hours of manual entry every month, and once I "misplaced" my DayTimers for a few days. Lost appointments and total paranoia about lost billable time. With my Pilot, I sync to my laptop daily, backup tot the network nightly, and never sweat a lost minute. The two times I've had to replace the unit (I wear out the writing area quite frequently plus they're not the most robust critters on the planet), I lost 0 time as 3com swapped the unit in an even exchange.
Plus I can search the phone book when I'm paged - can't do that with a paper phone book.
Plus alarms go off to remind me to do things. Can't do that with paper, and programming a watch alarm with reminders that make sense is impossible unless you have one of those Timexes that reads the computer's screen.....
"A gun is a tool, Marian. No better, no worse than any other tool. An axe, a shovel, or anything." Shane (1953)
Handheld PCs aren't toys for people who already live by their day planner. They're pretty much toys for everybody else.
You know what? That's okay. We're allowed to have fun. It seems like everything is becoming about utilizing every spare second of every single day.
I've got my Casio E-100 on order for delivery on Friday. Yes, it's a CAN$700 toy, and that's what I told my wife when decided to buy it. It's just a bonus if it ever saves me time balancing my cheque book.
And yes, porting Linux to it would be a fun thing to do.
My Palm III is literally my 'brain annex' - or as my wife has it - the only brain I've got. It gives me the ability to plan, schedule and most of all "remember" important stuff that can easily slip by unnoticed.
Also, when you're as old as I am, anything you can do to recall things is a help.
Posted by The Devout Capitalist:
You ask "why should management care"? Well, management cares because of the old fashioned values: money, money and money.
While at a major Silicon Valley company, I set up dozens of PalmPilots for salespeople, various vice presidents, and such and got them to synchronize with the Solaris calendaring system. The IS departments wouldn't help, and I always help out a VP. The short version is that I spent about $10,000 of my time supporting those cheap devices.
So the PalmPilot is an electronic tool. Like most electronic tools, it quickly requires instruction, infrastructure, experts, and time to keep running. It's worth evaluating these tools in terms of the productivity they bring.
And don't underestimate HandSpring! Donna and Jeff made the first round of devices usable. If they can double the rate that a user can use them, and halve the amount of random hassle, then they will succeed again.
Some people say its a tool that just happens to also be a toy. I'll say the opposite.
I wanted one because it looked like a neat toy, and the desire for the latest toy is why I got it. But its value as a tool has surprised me. I didn't think it would be THIS useful.
Yes, I guess I *could* do stuff by hand. But I don't. I dunno why. Whenever I took paper & pen to a meeting, I would just doodle (I kinda miss that, actually). Now I can not only take notes, but I can keep them in electronic form, which means they can searched!
I can be anal retentive, and paper just couldn't do it for me. I'm probably closer to having a paperless office than anyone. I *love* having stuff electronically. I've saved every email I've sent since 1994. Disk space is cheap and glimpse is fast. I couldn't imagine what my office would look like if I kept that kind of stuff on paper, but it would be useless anyways. How would I ever find anything? Electronic documents can be indexed, cross referenced and searched effortlessly.
Day planners are great if you're the ONLY one who needs to know your schedule. Desktop calendars are great if you spend all your time at your desk (and if you do that, what are you putting on your calendar anyways). With a pilot and Ical, I can both share my schedule and take it with me. If I lose my pilot, at least I haven't lost my schedule forever.
Admittedly not work related, but I also find it useful when shopping. Sure I *could* take a pad and pencil with me everytime I go to the mall, but I don't. Nor would I remember to bring every note I ever took with me. With the Pilot, it (and every note) is ALWAYS with me. If I'm in the mall buying new pants and I stumble on a sale for something I've been shopping for, I actually have my notes (prices) from the last time I looked.
I use HandyShop for groceries. It lets me mark the aisle of a product. When I run out, I click out how many more I wanna buy and next time I'm at the store, I sort by aisle and do everything in one pass.
When my wife drags me to the fabric store, I don't mind anymore. In fact, it seems like the only time I really get to play PocketChess or Tank anymore. But before I get to the games, I usually spend my idle time reading web sites via the plucker. The plucker also has the entire Prime Time TV schedule, as well as the shows *I* want to watch, all thanks to The Gist.
At night, I've been reading myself to sleep with a good ole Sherlock Holmes novel. I don't even keep my wife awake with a light on thanks to the back light.
-- Don't Tase me, bro!
This was journalism?? The only "users" he referenced were people who used Pilots as toys, and from that infinitesimal sample population he deduces that NOONE who owns it uses it productively?? C'mon.
To keep it brief: I used a Franklin Planner religiously, and this is what drove me to buy my first Palm III. As a Systems Administrator, I didn't just keep appointments and to-dos in it: I took lots of technical notes that I need to reference at a later date; sometimes more than half a year later (when those pages have been removed and filed away). The full search capabilities are what originally sold me on the Pilot: not games (I don't even play games on my REAL computer). The appointment reminders, and ability to sync up with my desktop were just icing on the cake.
THEN I lost my Palm III. After two weeks I bought a new one, synched it with my desktop and voila: one and a half years of appointments, to-dos, contacts, notes -- all restored. Then last week, my hard drive died on my desktop!!! No worries, mate: after rebuilding my boot disk and reinstalling (ugh!) Outlook, I now synched from my Palm to my desktop. TA-DA!! Nearly 300 contacts, with addresses, e-mail addresses, names, businesses, phone numbers, notes, to-dos, recurring appointments -- all restored.
I have a spreadsheet program (quicksheet) and project software (minimal, but effective) on my Palm. I BUILD the spreadsheets ON THE PALM, and upload them to the desktop for distribution. My hour-long commute is now the first hour of my workday as (thanx to public transportation), I can compose and review e-mail, create and fine-tune spreadsheets, map projects, outline long-term goals, review on-line documents (thanx to Teal Doc).... so, just a substitute for pencil and paper?? AS IF!!
Perhaps this supposed writer ought to have interviewed some PRODUCTIVE PEOPLE, instead of slackers who play antiquated video games on a $300 dollar tool....
Heck, that guy should have thought a little more before writing a spacefiller like that.
For one, the ability to upload your notes/accounts/data onto your PC is one productivity booster that just cannot be denied.
Having used a Palm3 for a while now, and with a hand writing like mine (which under meeting pressure just degenerates), I can honestly say that pen and paper will never work for me again. And just about everyone I know who owns a PDA confirms this.
Secondly, even if PDAs were used for amusement, remember that even the venerable PC is used by a large percentage of users for games. Does that make the PC a toy - because you play with it?
If size does matter, maybe the author should have thought of "Walkman v/s Wall2Wall stereo" before jumping to conclusions that just because it is small and doesn't cost a bomb, it's usefulness is limited.
I'd say that my Palm3 is a *TOOLtoy* - something that can entertain while being extremely useful too. And that's far better than some *TOYtools* I have come across.
/toolz
You aren't remembered for doing what is expected of you
Some people would get nothing out of a PDA. I stuck to the pen&paper method for a long time but it had problems: you can't erase/edit anything, pages fall out or get lost, it's bulky, if alarms are needed you have to use a watch or other device, etc.
Moving to a pilot was a huge boon. Aside from the fact that I could install all sorts of other useful software on it that I then didn't need to duplicate with other devices (sci. calculator, etc.), what it came with out of the box was a small, editable, readable-in-the-dark, unified method to keep track of everything and then some.
Paper methods never worked in my quest for some semblance of organization -- this has.
Perhaps the author of the CNN article wouldn't benefit from a PDA, but I do. I could care less about the geek glamour associated with the thing.
I'm a palm V user, and the son of a Palm Pilot Professional user. My palm V is quite new, only a week old or so, and so I haven't had time to get incredibly productive with it. Still, it has already reminded me to do a few things (I love the todo list!).
My mother is lost without hers. It keeps all her appointments, her rolodex, and her todo list. If she forgets it at home she's likely to miss a meeting or two, and spend lots of extra time trying to remember or look up a phone number or address. Also, when she needs a break, she plays WordBox (boggle) for a few minutes.
For me it will probably be a very even combination. As soon as the palm V gotype! keyboard comes out, I'm purchasing one. My handwriting is terrible (as is my mothers, which is why she often can't read appointments she wrote on paper an hour or two later), and I am notorious for not taking notes because of it. (I always lose the notes, get frustrated at how disorganized they are, and often can't read what I wrote).
So in classes next fall it won't be a rare occurrence to see ol' gleam typing away taking notes on his palm V, and maybe playing a game or two during a study break.
Also, the huge number of applications available for the palm make it much easier to get more work done. Actioneer is wonderful for things like a conference call, where you enter the conference call and it adds it to the todo list and links it to the address book so you know the numbers of who you're about to call. (someone correct me if i'm wrong about this).
Indeed, the pda is the ideal tool for those of us who have bad handwriting and are very disorganized... it gets us in line, and it makes notes useful again!
-ehfisher
this
My story:
I resisted the Palm Pilot for literally years. "A waste of time", I said to myself. After all, in the past I've used Daytimers, rolodexes, and every other possible 'personal organization tool' and ended up leaving it at home because it was too bulky, too clumsy, and myself just too disorganized (grin). The only thing I really made use of was yellow post-it notes, which cluttered my office like multi-colored snowflakes, drifting hither and fro and eventually being thrown away when I got around to sifting through them and couldn't decode my cryptic notes on them.
When a bunch of **** started happening and I was driving myself nuts trying to keep track of everything, I said "what the heck, let me try it". Well, I did. It does what it's supposed to do -- it sits on its little belt clip and works as an address book, postit-note tablet, to-do list, and calendar. There are Daytimers this compact, but they're clumsier to use -- e.g., you have to manually move your to-do list from day to day, and re-write it when you remove enough items from it to make it worthwhile, whereas the Palm does that automatically (if you so select!). Same deal with the address book.
I also found an unexpected bonus: my checkbook is balanced now for the first time in literally years. I found a little program which solves the one big problem of Quicken and other such "personal finance" packages, which is -- you can't carry your computer with you to the store or ATM!
I played a game or two on it once, but why? Usually it just sits there, waiting for when it's needed. Which is just what it's supposed to do. After all, as Monty Python said, "You never know when to expect the Spanish Inquisition!".
And oh -- my office no longer is buried under drifts of yellow Post-It notes. Now, printouts are another matter (grin).
-E
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
Does it make me more productive? Maybe not. It lets me get away when I'd otherwise be tied to the office.
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
: xyzzy
:) But everybody has their own style of organization. Maybe a palm pilot fits their system better than more conventional stuff does.
Nothing happens.
Seriously now, why is it that (some)managers maintain that by telling the worker both what to do and how to do it, they're making them more productive? That's what this article is saying.
And it's an article without a point - why should management care? If they feel better using toys at work, great! I have a stuffed penguin sitting next to my computer. It makes me feel good. When I feel good, I do better at work. So if I need a $500 toy to feel good - what's it matter to you?
The other possibility: it's a tool. Well, good for you if it is. I use a franklin planner, and it's cheaper than a palm pilot, and can do more. As an added bonus, my handwriting is encrypted so only I can decrypt it.
Bottom line: Some anal-retentive managers insist on micromanaging everything. This article is for them. For everybody else... just let us do our job.
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