Supplemental Easter Egg

If you read all the way through to the end of this review, I'll provide author Pogue's answer to the burning question, Why are there NO Palm IV and Palm VI models?

In his 2nd edition, Pogue further expands on what has already become the standard in Palm titles, adding numerous new time-saving tips, surprising tricks, and secret Easter eggs. In addition, the included CD ROM contains over 3,100 Palm programs, all now easily accessible via the disk. The catalog of Palm software alone is worth the price of this value laden book.

All models of the Palm are covered in this 2nd edition, including models through mid-2000, the color Palm IIIc, Palm IIIx and IIIxe, Palm IIIe, Palm V, Palm Vx, and Palm VII, and Pogue even reviews newly emerging Palm clones, such as the Handspring Visor and the IBM Workpad. New chapters show you how to check web pages or email with the wireless Palm VII, synchronize Palm database and spreadsheet files with your PC, and master the long-awaited MacPac 2.5.

New tutorials include writing your own Palm VII web-search applets and syncing the PalmPilot with Linux/Unix machines.

Author Pogue succinctly answers nearly all Palm related questions, unlocks features most Palm users never suspected, and radiates the fun, passion, and sense of community shared by Palm users all over the world. 

Foreword

Creator of the PalmPilot Jeff Hawkins adds a neat foreword that nicely sets this important handheld device in the ongoing evolution of information technology. He designed the original Palm in 1995, with a goal to create a tool that was small, simple to use, synchronizable with a PC, and inexpensive. As he also points out, author Pogue's large book on the Palm provides the extensive and thorough explanation of all the many things you can do with a Palm that are not fully covered in the documentation included with the device.

As Hawkins also says, "today there are more than 12,000 registered Palm developers and many thousands of Palm applications," a testament to the importance and staying power of the Palm in the rapidly changing world of handheld computer devices. As ubiquitous as the Palm is now, this present era of handheld PDA's is really in its infancy stage. In the years to come, we will likely see continued major advances in this most dynamic of all computer technology.

Features of the PalmPilot

Inexpensive
Excellent battery life
Syncing is simple
Software is elegantly designed and growing in number
Communicates with PC programs
Thousands of free on inexpensive add-on programs are available
Conversation starter with others

Palm History

Jeff Hawkins is the entrepreneur who started the now famous Palm, based on his view that the many failed attempts at creating handheld devices were due to their mistaken notion that the devices should cram all that can be done on a PC into the palm-sized machine. Instead, he focused his company, Palm Computing, on designing a simple computer device with a single purpose, as a PC satellite. 

In early 1996, US Robotics agreed to make the little device, and the first Pilots (as they were originally named) debuted. Eventually, 3Com bought US Robotics, but Hawkins' Palm Computing company still works in its own division. Shortly after the device became a 3Com subsidiary, Hawkins and his partner Donna Dubinski, left to create a new startup company, Handspring, which is bringing the Palm operating system to new devices.

The original 1996 models, the 1000 and the 5000, were called Pilots. The next 1997 generation were released with the Palm prefix, the PalmPilot Personal and the PalmPilot Professional.

In 1997, IBM began selling PalmPilots under its own name, the IBM Workpad, and today, Palm continues to license its operating system and technology. Companies such as Symbol, TRG, Qualcomm, and Handspring have each begun to market their line of PalmPilot clones, and in 2001, Nokia and Sony are expected to release Palm OS devices of their own.

After a legal issue was settled with the Pilot Pen company, all 3Com's products are just named with the Palm moniker.

About the Author

David Pogue is the author or co-author of 15 computer, humor and music books, including "Macs for Dummies," "The iMac for Dummies," "Magic for Dummies," and "Tales from the Tech Line." He is a summa cum laude Yale music major and former Broadway conductor, and writes the award-winning back-page column for "Macworld" magazine. He has also teamed with O'Reilly & Associates to launch a new series of super computer books, the Missing Manual Series, that began in March  2000. (www.missingmanual.com)

You can reach him at his web page, www.davidpogue.com, and his email address david@pogueman.com

Sections / Chapters Included

Pogue covers every model of PalmPilot through May 2000, from the original Pilot model to the Palm IIIc. He takes you much deeper into the device's built-in programs than the included manual, and takes you far beyond these, into worlds the manual doesn't even cover, such as graphics, music, e-books, databases, spreadsheets, and the WWW.

I.   This is Your PalmPilot Speaking

Ch 1  The 3 x 5-Inch Powerhouse
Ch 2  Setup and Guided Tour
Ch 3  Typing Without a Keyboard
Ch 4  The Four Primary Programs
Ch 5  The Other Built-In Programs

II.   Palm Meets PC

Ch 6  HotSync, Step by Step
Ch 7  Installing New Palm Programs
Ch 8  Palm Desktop: Windows
Ch 9  Palm Desktop: Macintosh

III.  The Undiscovered PalmPilot

Ch 10 PalmPilot: The Electronic Book
Ch 11 The Secret Multimedia World
Ch 12 Database and Number Crunching

IV.  The PalmPilot Online

Ch 13 Email Anywhere
Ch 14 The Web in Your Palm
Ch 15 Paging, Faxing, Printing, and Beaming
Ch 16 Palm VII: Wireless EMail, Wireless Web

V.   Troubleshooting and Upgrading

Ch 17 Troubleshooting
Ch 18 The Palm Family, Model by Model

VI.   Appendixes

A.  100 Programs Worth Knowing About
B.  PalmPilot Accessories
C.  Piloteers in Cyberspace
D.  Writing A Palm Vii Query Application (PQA)
E.  Unix, Linux, and Palm
F.  About the CD ROM

Note: In this 2nd edition, Pogue has removed the chapter on writing software for the PalmPilot. The O'Reilly & Associates publisher has now released a full-length treatment of this topic, "Palm Programming: The Developer's Guide," and both these titles are highly recommended for any developer striving to write software for Palms.

Book Contents

632 pages; figures; photos; screen shots; diagrams; tips and suggestions; appendixes; foreword; preface; index; about the author; cover colophon

Note: This book also contains a CD ROM catalog of over 3,100 PalmPilot programs, all ready to install. This collection is a treasure trove of applications in every conceivable category, and also includes almost every piece of software mentioned in the book, plus many more. The very best from the vaults of PalmCentral.com, the largest Palm software site, are included on this valuable addition to this book. This CD ROM collection alone is worth the price of this super reference.

Appendix A, "100 Programs Worth Knowing About," highlights 100 of the better add-on programs that any Palm user will be thrilled to get their hands on.

Appendix B, "PalmPilot Accessories," emphasizes some of the more interesting and surprising add-ons that are now readily available on the market for Palm users. In addition to a brief discussion about the feature, Pogue goes the extra mile by also explaining how you can go about finding these useful additions.

O'Reilly has a web site for the book, where they list examples, errata, and any plans for future editions, at www.oreilly.com/catalog/palmpilot2

Recommendation

For anyone now using or interested in working with Palm machines, this book can easily be considered as essential an investment as the device itself. In just a few years, these handheld devices have overtaken the world of computers, and are now as necessary to most literate computer users as their printer and monitor. Ask a Palm user after about 3 months of use if they would give up their handheld, and I suspect you would find most would say they simply could not get along without it.

With this vast increase in use, it is also not uncommon to find many businesses standardizing on Palm machines as their handheld personal organizer of choice. This puts these machines in the realm of information systems administrators, as yet another computer device that is to be supported and maintained, along with all the other company provided, computer related tools that are assigned to staff.

With the rapidly growing integration of these devices in mainstream operations, this also means network administrators are increasingly on the lookout for additional operational resources. Pogue's work will fit the bill for them. In addition, I strongly urge network administrators to seriously consider buying more than one copy of the book. When word begins to spread among internal Palm customers of the availability of the book, and especially the easily accessible Palm software on the CD ROM, I suspect there will be a great demand among this group to read and work with this book.

We can only hope that David Pogue continues to desire to update this important book, to accompany the expected continual updates to these important tools.

Author

David Pogue

ISBN

1-56592-600-5

List Price

$29.95

Note: At this price, with the addition of the wonderful collection of useful software on the included CD ROM, this book is a super value that all PalmPilot users will want to definitely consider.

Publisher:

Contact: Lisa Mann
1-707-829-0515, ext 230
O'Reilly & Associates, Inc.
101 Morris Street
Sebastopol, California 95472
1-800-998-9938
1-707-820-0515
FAX 1-707-829-0104
www.oreilly.com

Answer to the Easter Egg

"No modern, globally aware company would dare market a product called the Palm IV. In Japan, 4 is an ominous number foretelling bad luck. If you had a revolutionary wireless Internet device to market, wouldn't Palm VII have a much luckier ring to it?"

Stuff you can always use.