The Internet Archive's PalmPilot Emulation Project Lets You Relive Tech History

An anonymous reader shares a report: Fifteen years after the release of the iPhone, it's easy to overlook the role early innovators like Palm played in popularizing the smartphone. By the time HP unceremoniously shut down the company in 2011, Palm had struggled for a few years to carve out a niche for itself among Apple and Google. But ask anyone who had a chance to use a Palm PDA in the late '90s or early 2000s and they'll tell you how fondly they remember the hardware and software that made the company's vision possible. Now, it's easier than ever to see what made Palm OS so special back in its day.

Last week, archivist Jason Scott uploaded a database of Palm OS apps to the Internet Archive. In all, there are about 560 programs to check out, including old favorites like DopeWars and SpaceTrader. Even if you don't have any nostalgia for Palm, it's well worth spending a few minutes with the collection to see how much -- or, in some cases, little -- things have changed since Palm OS was a dominant player in the market. For instance, there's an entire section devoted to shareware and it's interesting to see just how much some developers thought it was appropriate to pay for their software. Want to use the full version of StockCalc? Just send $15 by post to DDT Investments in Plaistow, New Hampshire.

$15 was reasonable given limited supply & dema

[Khopesh]

it's interesting to see just how much some developers thought it was appropriate to pay for their software. Want to use the full version of StockCalc? Just send $15 by post

You can't compare the app economy then with today.

Without app stores and within a niche market, Palm software didn't have reach. You couldn't charge $2.99 and make money off of volume since it was a nascent industry. The ~dozen customers you get won't be enough to justify full-time app development, but $180 would help subsidize the hardware costs to continue development while $36 would buy you a cheap dinner for one.

Re:

[ZeroTheKid]

Also, simple apps weren't as simple to develop for the PalmPilot as they are for today's phones. It's like comparing an 80s DOS retail game to days games and wonder why they'd even bother with the shrink wrap given how simple the game was. (comparatively) But those games were not easy to develop, you had actually very limited hardware resources, you often wrote them in Assembly and finally you had to directly support the sound cards and graphics cards without the use of Drivers.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

Also, simple apps weren't as simple to develop for the PalmPilot as they are for today's phones.

While there are limitations due to the single-tasking multi-threaded OS (PalmOS could only run one program at a time, but the entire OS was multithreaded), and the lack of memory protection had issues, developing for PalmOS was nowhere near as complex.

The biggest problem was that there were certain modes your application could be called in where you might not have access to things like global variables and such (

Re:

[PCM2]

At worst, it would be like developing for Windows 3.1, which given the era of the Palm Pilot, isn't too far removed.

I never developed anything for PalmOS, but based on what I saw, its design was very influenced by that of MacOS (pre-OS X). It makes sense, given that (if I remember correctly) all the tooling was based on CodeWarrior.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

But it was a full featured OS with APIs and everything, so you didn't hit hardware directly. Sound, graphics, etc were all accounted for in the OS APIs. Even basic networking.

Sure, and they had an API for talking to the IR hardware too, problem is it sucked [the-gadgeteer.com]. Which I know because I knew the guy who wrote OmniREMOTE [archive.org]. (There was also a serial dongle for pre-Pro Palms.) He had to go around the driver to make it work :) I ran it on my Palm Pro, and I have the third or so module [the-gadgeteer.com] he made for the Visor still somewhere around here, probably in a Visor Deluxe. OR was a pretty excellent learning IR remote app, you could create button layouts and such. ISTR it had macros too? Been a while.

I still have a visor

[drinkypoo]

You know what? That history isn't worth repeating. The Palm Pilot made sense at the time, because it was affordable. If you want to go back into the way back, I've got a Gridpad 1910 running GEOS I'll sell ya

Re:

[Voyager529]

You know what? That history isn't worth repeating. The Palm Pilot made sense at the time, because it was affordable.

And it ran for three weeks off a single AAA battery.

And it had that super-handy function where you could exchange contact info in less than five seconds by holding down the 'contacts' button and lining up the IR sensors.

And the Palm Desktop software was a solid PIM in its day.

The Palm ecosystem certainly had its drawbacks (absence of multimedia until the iPod overtook it, Graffiti was a terrible text input system), but let's not pretend that the only reason it was popular was because it was cheap.

Re:

[fluffernutter]

I still don't understand why I need a server 2000 miles away and internet connectivity to store a 50 byte address.

Re:

[tlhIngan]

Graffiti was a terrible text input system

Graffiti is a great text input system. It was designed for low power consumption, and a user could learn it in basically 10 minutes because it was pretty close to how you write text normally (if you print, none of this cursive stuff). There were a bunch of undocumented strokes that worked as well for people used to writing in a different way.

The problem was, someone had a patent on single-stroke text input systems and it was replaced with the much inferior Graffiti 2

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Graffiti actually got its start on the Apple Newton

No, Graffiti actually got its start on the Zoomer/GridPad 2390/Z-PDA-7000. Palm first made a "traditional" handwriting recognition system for that platform, where you wrote characters normally. Then they released Graffiti for GEOS, then they released Graffiti for Newton, then the Palm Pilot happened.

Why do Apple users always want to claim everything as theirs? Oh yeah, Apple never invented anything of consequence and they want to feel special.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

And it ran for three weeks off a single AAA battery. [...] let's not pretend that the only reason it was popular was because it was cheap.

The device that made Palm's name was the Palm Pro, that would run for about two weeks off a pair of AAA batteries. Still pretty good, but it could have been a more powerful device if it had a more expensive battery... you can see where I'm going with this.

Palm's first product was the GEOS install for the Gridpad 2390 (aka Zoomer) which was also a bigger, goofier device. It ran on three AA batteries, and it had IIRC a 384x512 4-greys panel. Their second product was Graffiti for that, which you can run on any

Re: I still have a visor

[CmdrPorno]

You had me until you dissed Graffiti. It was excellent quasi handwriting recognition for its time, and far superior to the awful handwriting gestures that were featured on 2017-ish Audi products.

Re:

[kmoser]

And the Palm Desktop software was a solid PIM in its day.

Palm Desktop is so solid (and lightning fast) that I still use it for its address book and notes features.

Sell me a modern one FFS!

[greytree]

I would love to buy a small, rugged phone with the same form factor as the Pilot 5000

But I can't, because sheeple all think they want flimsy, fragile, phablets.

Handspring

[notathome]

I had a handspring which had a breakout breadboard but could run PalmPilot apps. So many hours of fun.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handspring,_Inc.

Palm V was my first

[Balthisar]

I loved my Palm V, but had no reservations about jumping ship to the Sony Clie when it was available. It was cheaper than the Palm 500 series, had these cool "memory sticks," and was in color. And because Palm licensed their OS, it was compatible with nearly everything I'd paid for up to that point.

I kept my Clie limping along until the iPod Touch was released, and then switched to an iPhone once I was hooked and knew that I could jailbreak my phone to work with foreign SIMs.

Fond memory of a hack on Outlook via Palm Pilot.

[maudlins11]

Went to my boss's cubicle, he was away but left his Pilot in the docking cradle. My first time playing with it. Set an appointment to meet him 3 weeks later with a co-worker, returned it to the cradle and pushed the sync button. His locked PC started chugging away, disk light flashing... 3 weeks later co-worker and I sat at his meeting table at the appointed time. Boss looks up puzzled. I told him about the meeting he arranged, he looks at his Outlook calendar and says "oh yeah". I look at co-worker, both of us not trying to laugh while we has a bogus 10 minute meeting. We walk back to our cubicles saying "we own him now"...

My Palm TX still works

[satsuke]

I'm just amazed my Palm TX still works after all these years.

Color screen, awesome battery life, could play video files and do everything a smart phone could do for several years into the Windows Mobile / Blackberry era.

It was to bad that whole ecosystem died on the vine when they went to the PalmOS model, that was fine as it was, just never got much commercial support.

Re:

[Gruntbeetle]

I agree. Like you, I also have a working TX. The main feature that I like is SECURITY. You could choose any combination of letters and numbers as your password, of any reasonable length. Unlike todays smart phones, where the password is usually 4 digits.I remember seeing a video on Youtube that showed a password cracking machine that targetted such phones.

The best part of the Palm was you could also decide how many times you could fail entering the password into it before it wiped itself. Neat huh? And m

zen of palm

[crabbz]

I have to admit, I still miss Palm's focus on simplicity. The PIM apps all worked well and were quick and easy to use. Android is much more capable but the presentation seems more important than usability. No one is counting how many taps it takes to accomplish some task anymore.

Handwriting input

[tbuskey]

I remember being able to use the graffiti alphabet to take text notes during a lecture.
It was easy to learn, fast and accurate.
Graffiti 2 changed enough to throw me off.
I wish I could have it on one of today's phones.I remember being able to use the graffiti alphabet to take text notes during a lecture.
It was easy to learn, fast and accurate.
Graffiti 2 changed enough to throw me off.

I wish I could have it on one of today's phones or touch screen PCs

Re:

[drinkypoo]

I wish I could have it on one of today's phones or touch screen PCs

I wish Slashdot had an internet literacy test for new users [google.com].

Re:

[tbuskey]

I wish I could have it on one of today's phones or touch screen PCs

I wish Slashdot had an internet literacy test for new users [google.com].

Thanks for the link.

Too bad your first instinct is to be rude to strangers on the internet.

Fire up the CodeWarrior!

[Virtucon]

Release the C++ goodness.

Wait, I threw out my CodeWarrior for PalmOS 7 years ago.

It was better than modern Smartphones

[HeadSoft]

It was a far more enjoyable experience. In fact if they still were being made today, I'd want one. Sometimes it would be nice to have a device that is all computer and not made for talking into.

The best note system

[James McP]

I had multiple PalmOS devices (Palm III, Visor, Visor Edge, one of the color models I got for my now-spouse, then a couple of treos)

One of my favorite aspects was the add-on for the notes app that made it a Wiki. It was an excellent tool that allowed me to assemble a fairly extensive library of more or less self-organizing data. And it was easy to get to a PC.

Wiki-apps for phones still suck and none of them are good at synching to desktop.

I love my Palm Z22

[TheMESMERIC]

I recently bought a cheap Palm Z22, and I use it constantly. It works great with my Linux.

I can't stand mobile phones, apps. etc .. it's not the same thing. Not a joy to use. Let's you down somehow. Even a simple Stop-Watch App (I use them when Life Drawing) .. crashes out of the blue. Like that. A stop-watch!! ... Clumsy switching mobile. Ages to boot - ages to log in, apps slow opening up. And I refuse to pay over £100 for a mobile phone, it's absurd, something that becomes obsolete so fast.

Now I kn

no thanks

[groobly]

Internet history was painful enough to live through the first time.

Thanks

[Annizar]

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