Palms: Can You Leave Your Laptop Behind?
- Palms: Can You Leave Your Laptop Behind?
- Keeping in Touch
- (In)compatibility
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Palms: Can You Leave Your Laptop Behind?
by Jeff Carlson, author of Palm Organizers: Visual QuickStart Guide
HAVE YOU SPENT TIME IN an airport lately? Once, it was fun to see if anyone else carried a laptop, but now it’s hard to avoid getting jostled by someone’s overstuffed Targus bag. Laptops have freed us from the desktop, letting us get work done on the road (without requiring a satellite office somewhere) and stay connected via email and the Web from nearly any location.
However, even a compact laptop can get heavy when you’ve been carrying it all day at a trade show. As handheld computers become more popular, more people ask me if it’s possible to leave the laptop at home and just carry a Palm organizer. While I was writing Palm Organizers: Visual QuickStart Guide, I had the opportunity to try several programs and technologies and found that they make a handheld much more than just an electronic calendar. (However, there were times when the combined weight of various Palm devices and accessories was more than that of my PowerBook.)
The verdict? Yes, it’s possible to replace your laptop with a Palm device, but, depending on your needs, there may be too many sacrifices to do it well.
Getting Your Input
If you’re serious about leaving your laptop at home, you should consider buying a keyboard for your handheld. After using various Palm organizers over the years, I’m very proficient at Graffiti, the Palm OS’s shorthand for writing characters. But there’s a limit to how much I can write before my hand cramps up, not to mention the drastic decline in accuracy that occurs when I try to write quickly. I can recommend two keyboards for your Palm device.
The
GoType! and GoType! Pro keyboards from Landware,
Inc. were the original models designed specifically for the Palm platform.
With a clamshell design, they’re light, relatively inexpensive ($70), and
slip easily into a carry-on bag. They feature Palm OS-specific keys, such as
programmable function keys that launch the Palm’s built-in applications,
plus command-key shortcuts for activating on-screen buttons and responding to
dialog boxes.
The only downside is the GoType!’s slightly smaller keys, which take some adjusting to if you’re accustomed to typing on a full-size keyboard. But, as with the keyboards found on PowerBook Duos and the PowerBook 2400c, people whose fingers are smaller than most often prefer these scaled-down keys.
The GoType! works with Palm III and Palm VII devices; the Pro models come in versions for the Palm V and Handspring Visor and let you synchronize your handheld with a computer directly from the keyboard.
The
newcomer to the field is the Palm
Portable Keyboard, which is the only Palm accessory I carry that consistently
elicits oohs and ahhs from people. It too includes Palm-specific features like
programmable function keys and shortcut keys, but the kicker is that it’s
a full-size keyboard that folds up to roughly the size of the Palm organizer
itself. Palm licensed the design from a company called Think
Outside and sells the $100 keyboard for its line of organizers. Targus
will offer a version for the Visor in mid-June.