Technology

Palms

Here we have a Palm III, Zire 71, Tungsten E2, and a Tungsten C. They all work, although the Palm III doesn’t stay on. I bought the Zire new. The others were thrift store finds. Each one cost several hundred dollars new. Each one is obsolete, even though it still functions. And the purpose of the post is to remind you of this, when you go out to get the latest and greatest computer, phone, tablet, etc.

Back in the day, when we were playing around with our PDAs, there were a couple of analog GTD systems. There were Hipster PDAs, made of index cards, and the PigPog method, which used a Moleskine. And of course, the DIY planner series was another analog system. Are the analog systems obsolete? Did people have to throw out their index cards, planners or Moleskines because they couldn’t sync with their computer or couldn’t upgrade their system? It’s a silly question, but no. Companies deliberately make our electronics obsolete.

I still enjoy these Palms. I liked the operating system the first time I saw it. The Zire has a slider to hide the camera and it was fun to take sneaky snapshots. And I like my iPhone 4S, even though Apple prevents me from syncing it with my old Power PC Mac. Gotta encourage those upgrades, you know. I stopped trusting electronic systems, when Jeffrey got sick and my charging stuff was back at work. An uncharged Palm is a brick. You can’t access it when it’s down and all that information was locked away in it. My iPhone is no different. Think about this, when you consider buying the latest gadget.

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