TCS - 3Com Palm Products

3Com Palm Products

by John McMinn
Tulsa Users of Macintosh Society (TUMS)
From the April 2000 issue of the I/O Port Newsletter

About 18 months ago I had the opportunity to purchase an early version of the Palm hand-held organizer, the Palm Pilot 5000, for a really great price. The unit required that I also purchase a product called the Mac Pack for an additional $15.00. At first I was a little concerned that the product does not read standard hand writing. Instead it came with a little card showing how the palm wanted you to write the alphabet, numbers, and symbols. (*$%·@ etc...)

One thing that I didn’t realize was that the modified alphabet is not merely a handicap of the OS. It is in fact an improvement. With this system, you can write the letters i,j,x,t,q, and others without looking down to cross or dot the letter. You don’t have to write from left to right. All the letters are written on the left side and the numbers on the right. With practice, you too can take sermon notes on Sunday without looking like you are fighting with a computer game. You can even take down phone numbers or address’ from your face to face contacts without even breaking eye contact.

My current organizer is now the Palm III. It has 2MB’s and I have easily over 1000 notes and contacts and it is not yet even half full. It plays video games when I have to wait to meet with a client, and it provides a calendar and to do list to make sure I don’t miss an appointment. There are online Bibles free for download from the internet, and you can even take a copy of USA TODAY with you in a portable version. With products from Dataviz, you can import your favorite MS WORD files, and Excell Spreadsheets.

Many people have asked me if the Palm is the ‘way to go’. Yes, I do believe it is for two reasons.

1) The platform is the most widely accepted platform for organizers and there is a multitude of 3rd party companies writing software for it.

2) With the purchase of Claris Organizer from Apple by 3com, the Mac Pack software (now a free download from 3Com) is functional and practical for anyone, even without a Palm organizer.

Final thought. If you have online access, download the Mac Pack software from 3com. This software really is great and once you are using it, you will sincerely desire to own a portable versions of all your information. The latest editions are great, but if you find an older one on clearance, get it. They do most all the same stuff but with fewer bells and whistles.

Article by John McMinn, reprinted with permission from the newsletter of the Tulsa Users of Macintosh Society (TUMS)



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