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cross-posted from: https://mamot.fr/users/thibaultamartin/statuses/113879452911907737

Palms were offline devices that only synced with your computer when put on a docking station.

You could read and reply to emails offline, book or cancel meetings, and sync with your computer later. The latest versions allowed you to snap pictures and listen to your music.

No servers running constantly. No data spilled everywhere. Days worth of battery on a single charge.

The future stole our cables, and it took our attention span and our privacy with it.

#privacy #offline #data

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[-] Rookeh@startrek.website 4 points 1 day ago

I have a IIIXe (very similar to the one in OP) somewhere. Really limited in what it could do, but very cool for the time. I also have a later model Zire somewhere that had enough horsepower (with a mild overclock) to play Quake.

[-] bazmatazable@reddthat.com 7 points 2 days ago

Not to spoil the nostalgia vibes but wanted to share the Palma2, popular enough that they made a second version. Briefly: its an e-ink reader, in the form factor of a 6 inch smartphone. It runs Android for compatibility, no cell data only WiFi and even has a basic camera for document scanning. It's definately not privacy protecting but it is resistant to endless online slop traps, which I think is part of what makes a modern smartphone problematic. I'm not recommending it but just noticed the similarities to some of the classic PDAs, especially the high contrast interface and reduced animations.

[-] 01189998819991197253@infosec.pub 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Octacore cpu? That's more than some of the new HP laptops out there, which have gone backwards to dualcore lol

Edit: cpu, not vpu

[-] HotChickenFeet@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 day ago

I have a palma, and I enjoy it, but don't use it as often as I should. I had intended it to be what I carry around with me more than my phone, to help restrict myself to mostly e-reader or podcasts/audiobooks. The palma 1 annoyingly would output only when the screen was on by default, so you couldn't lock it and listen to an audiobook. If you muck around in settings you can make it stay on for 1 hour after locking, so you can mostly listen to audiobooks/podcasts uninterupted ifyou turn it on briefly every so often.

But in my experience, the use of Bluetooth/playing podcasts/audiobooks pretty drastically increased battery consumption. It really brought it back to being a phone battery (e.g. 1 day) with an eink display.

So I use it almost exclusively as a small e-reader I can always have in my povket or bag, etc. I basically always listen to podcast songs my phone.

That said, it is actually pretty incredible little device, and you can watch youtube videos or even play games on it of you let its refresh rate go high

[-] Unabart@lemmy.sdf.org 9 points 2 days ago

I had the Palm VII, which had a mobile data connection and an antenna you would flip up. I felt like a god. When i “upgraded” to the Compaq ipaq i felt that the world was my oyster!

Now i hate my phone.

[-] octopus_ink@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 day ago

I had the Palm VII, which had a mobile data connection and an antenna you would flip up. I felt like a god.

The Palm VII was the first device that was even theoretically obtainable by me (I didn't buy one because shit was expensive yo) that could provide mobile internet access in a form factor I considered usable.

I lusted over it like I'd lusted over no device before.

[-] Unabart@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 1 day ago

It feels like i didn’t have the VII for a solid year before the service got turned off. The iPAQ had a docking sleeve for a cf wireless card. That was when i felt like a mad pimp. 🤓

[-] Pretzilla@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

Got to put a carefully cut strip of scotch magic translucent tape over the stylus square for both protection and friction enhancing

Always practice safe graffiti

[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

This guy palms

[-] LucasWaffyWaf@lemmy.world 30 points 3 days ago

They're shockingly useful today as a tool to manage ADHD, since they have a buncha organizational software baked into the OS, with plenty of other productivity apps still available for download off of PalmDB, without the connectivity nor distractions of a modern smartphone. I'm using a Sony PEG-UX50, which uses PalmOS 5, has a built in keyboard, and expandable memory (in the form of Sony Memory Sticks, cause Sony was addicted to format wars at the time.)

[-] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 21 points 3 days ago

Oh, I remember those sexy boyos!

[-] LucasWaffyWaf@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

It's smaller than I was expecting, but in fairness modern smartphones are gigantic. It's perfectly sized for comfortable usage of the keyboard, and is genuinely worth grabbing one if the interest and budget are there for it.

[-] yuri@pawb.social 7 points 2 days ago

they (or at least the later palm pilot) had a surprisingly robust system for recognizing handwriting! individual characters had to be single strokes, and you needed to write each one a buncha times to calibrate initially so it has something to compare against, but i remember it being notably faster to type with than other contemporaneous tiny keyboards.

[-] sudo42@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

You had to write your letters in Graffiti, but yeah, it worked great.

[-] noughtnaut@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

I used to be an avid TealScript user, which allowed you to tweak recognition of individual characters and even create entirely new gestures. It was magnificent.

Went through a lot of Palm devices, from a Palm III to a V to a Tungsten T3 (the most elegantly designed device ever, perhaps save the Mac SE) and eventually a Treo 680. It was a sad day when the ecosystem shut down and I had to downgrade to an Android phone.

I still miss so many features of those older devices. In fact, I still keep a Palm V in my nightstand because of its comfortably backlog screen and flawless handwriting recognition for those midnight thoughts.

[-] MiDaBa@lemmy.ml 7 points 2 days ago

It really is too bad that commercial solutions for true privacy focused syncing and wireless backups will only get worse if they were ever good at all. I think of products like the Ring Doorbell where there's no reason the doorbell itself can't be it's own local server. The only reason to tie you to a cloud is to implement monthly fees while also harvesting your data. The idea of an open standard where multiple devices could connect to any cloud service (self hosted Next Cloud or commercial solution etc) will likely disappear with the direction we're going. It's a sad time for tech and an even more sad time for society worldwide.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

The III had an IR sync as well, but you had to initiate it and it was line of sight with the IR port on your computer.

I had it working with my Rev. B iMac.

Man, I miss my Palm III. Left it in a jacket pocket too close to a wall heater. :(

[-] chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz 2 points 1 day ago

If you pointed two of them at each other, you could play multiplayer games over IR. It was pretty janky.

[-] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 14 points 3 days ago

Laptops were offline devices that only synced with any computer when put on a phone cable.

[-] bjoern_tantau@swg-empire.de 6 points 2 days ago

The good old days of screaming through the house not to pick the phone up, dialing in, downloading emails and usenet messages, cutting the connection and screaming the all clear through the house.

[-] veroxii@aussie.zone 3 points 2 days ago

And everything was "federated". You sent email to a local email server and it synced with other email servers. You connected to your chosen Usenet server and it synced with other Usenet servers. Same with IRC for chat. Very few things were centralised.

[-] swizzlestick@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 days ago

Same with IRC for chat.

Ah the chaos of netsplits, trivia bots and XDDC. Good fun.

[-] bluGill@fedia.io 3 points 3 days ago

The boss already had wifi. But it was a large external antenna and the speeds were terrible.

[-] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 2 points 2 days ago

Yep, I had a B wireless setup in 1999. Poor performance, but I wasn't tethered!

[-] Evil_Shrubbery@lemm.ee 3 points 3 days ago

Whoa, that sounds interesting!
(I should have clarified that I meant like the first laptops, at the dawn of computer intraconnectivity)

[-] mercano@lemmy.world 12 points 3 days ago

On a single charge? The Palm Pilot used 2xAAA batteries. You could use rechargeables, I suppose, but they would have been NiCads, not Lithiums, in the 90’s. More likely you were using disposables.

[-] Salvo@aussie.zone 4 points 3 days ago

My Zire71 had a LiIon battery that did require charging.

[-] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 3 points 3 days ago

I don't recall for sure with all of them. Mine was 2 AAA, my boss had a rechargeable in 1999. I still have this one.

About 2005 I picked up a Treo, almost positive that one was lithium (it was a cell phone). Though it may have been NiCd.

[-] ragebutt@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 3 days ago

My palm treo 650 was the most badass phone ever

[-] Oisteink@feddit.nl 7 points 2 days ago

My t5 tungsten didnt have wifi, but there was bt and ir. and you could buy a wifi card.

[-] ObsidianZed@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

I wish I still had the dock for mine, I still have my Palm pilot.

[-] SiblingNoah@lemmy.world 6 points 3 days ago

I miss my Newton. :(

[-] ZILtoid1991@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Smartphones are nothing more than gentrified PDAs...

[-] CidVicious@sh.itjust.works 3 points 2 days ago

Literally the first phones labeled "smartphones" were things like the Handspring Treo that ran PalmOS.

[-] Libb@jlai.lu 5 points 2 days ago

Smartphones are nothing more than gentrified PDAs…

Less any semblance of privacy? We can still have the impression we've some control over what it does but for how long?

My last PDA was a Palm Tungsten T5, liked it a lot ;)

[-] SynopsisTantilize@lemm.ee 1 points 2 days ago

I had the tungsten E. Loved it.

Also. Airplane mode on a smartphone and the. BAM. New age palm pilot.

[-] Arghblarg@lemmy.ca 5 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Loved my Palm III. Simpler days.

[-] mipadaitu@lemmy.world 4 points 3 days ago

I used to take notes on paper in graffiti cause it was kind of a pseudo shorthand.

[-] Salvo@aussie.zone 5 points 3 days ago

My handwriting went from perfect block lettering (engineer/draftsman) to unintelligible scrawl when I learnt graffiti.

I still try to use graffiti when I try to “type” on my AppleWatch.

There was a Graffiti keyboard for android but I don't think it's maintained anymore.

[-] noughtnaut@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

Yes, it was even perfectly official. Unfortunately, Android changed from under it and they never bother to update it so these days it will just fail to start.

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[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Holy crap, I have the exact same model still somewhere in the basement. It was so incredibly cool at the time. I felt like I was living in the future. Until I got my first mobile that is. Carrying two gadgets was just too much.

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[-] metaStatic@kbin.earth 3 points 3 days ago
[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I think the Palm m125 is the best case scenario for running a PalmOS device nowadays because it was the last one that ran on AAAs. The m100 does as well but it has a quarter of the RAM and a slower processor, plus no SD card slot, though it's REALLY hard to find SD cards small enough to work in a Palm anymore.

Also, they made a USB sync cable for the m100 but I haven't been able to track one down, there's a guy on eBay who has a pallet of their RS-232 sync cables but virtually none for USB. The m125 came with a USB docking cradle so it's a lot easier to sync with a PC, though good luck finding 64-bit drivers.

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this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2025
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