LGR - IBM WorkPad PDA
Added 2020-03-05 21:47:30 +0000 UTCGreetings, folks! It's time for another LGR handheld computer thing. This time with a nice sprinkling of late 90s Palm OS tossed into the mix.
Been meaning to cover this delightful little PDA for, jeez, a few years now? One of those things that I kept forgetting I owned. But I was going through my "in progress" projects folder and ran across some b-roll that I shot back in 2018 and felt inspired.
It's just such a fun thing to hold and to interact with, hard to explain it unless you've used a Palm PDA before. And yeah, that's exactly what it is: the 3Com Palm III from 1998 just with IBM branding and software! Functionally identical, but y'all know I can't resist that classic blue stripe logo. Or the urge to play Dope Wars and Space Trader all day, those ended up being a massive drain on productivity this week. Oops.
And yes, the IBM WorkPad Z50 that's briefly shown is on the agenda for the future, along with some other Windows CE devices. Somehow I've never covered any of those before on LGR. Now to see if I can remember to do so before 2023, ha.
Comments
Profile pic checks out
Asaf Sagi
2020-03-07 16:37:56 +0000 UTCI loved this version of Palm OS. I had a hand-me-down Handspring Visor in high school a couple years after it was already kind of outdated. It made me feel pretty cool and high tech for a short while before cell phones became ubiquitous. I told myself it would help me keep my school work more organized, but it mostly ended up creating more distraction in the form of me sneakily playing DopeWars in class.
2020-03-07 01:48:59 +0000 UTCCool, I still have the old m100 I received as "payment" for building a friend a PC (he had bought the Palm to try and organise himself better but electronic stuff just didn't work for him) back in... May 2002 it seems, the ton of stuff I hurried to put in the calendar after I got it is still in my current calendar to this day. It's pretty badly scratched as a reminder of all the time I spent using it in class either playing or coding some C, I had found an IDE that could actually compile and run stuff on the Palm itself... had it overclocked too. I also bought an m515 in mint condition for 10 bucks or so a few months ago but haven't done much yet with it besides replacing the battery. For some reason Palm desktop keep timing out on the hotsyncs on the XP PC I was trying to run it, didn't have time to troubleshoot and put it aside. Will need to dig into software archives... still have my folder from back then I see, compiler was PocketC
Kilrah
2020-03-06 21:43:25 +0000 UTCOh man. I had one of those keyboards. Used it a lot. In college, a Palm III and one of those clamshell "Go-Type" keyboards was my note-taking solution. Sure, the rich kids had laptops, but I honestly think the Palm III was more usable. I could start taking notes in two-seconds while their fancy Windows98 laptops were still booting.
Andy
2020-03-06 19:22:24 +0000 UTCUhh i had 2 of them. Bought my first in 97 A Palm model, i think it was their first.
Because Why-Nerd
2020-03-06 17:50:50 +0000 UTCPalm was a subsidiary of US Robotics before they were bought by 3Com! But yeah, Palm OS devices were pretty darned popular as inventory management and logistics systems. Been looking out for the barcode scanner addon for mine!
LGR
2020-03-06 17:14:22 +0000 UTCI was was expecting/hoping for more IBM-exclusive software as well! Really is just a quick rebranding though, heh. Oh well. And yeah, that Z50 is gonna be a fun video. Too many odd little bits and bobs.
LGR
2020-03-06 17:07:53 +0000 UTCHope ya spotted the Goku gag as well ;)
LGR
2020-03-06 17:06:44 +0000 UTCA well-made, straightforward text editor is an underrated thing indeed. I just use Google Keep on my devices these days. Samsung phones come with Samsung Notes and both it and Keep are ad-free, but eh, Google syncs better across everything.
LGR
2020-03-06 17:03:33 +0000 UTCIf you liked that, you'll love my long knob https://twitter.com/lazygamereviews/status/1235283346781097988
LGR
2020-03-06 17:02:52 +0000 UTCMostly these two sites! https://palmarchive.com/files/ https://palmdb.net/
LGR
2020-03-06 17:02:16 +0000 UTCNice, for future reference I have lots and lots of Palm software and accompanying PC software for Palm PDAs (I might have a problem, heh, I also have over 50 devices at least) so if you are looking for something in particular I may be of some help.
Sb129
2020-03-06 16:08:22 +0000 UTCThis just reminded me of a palm device we used to have back in the day. It was a US Robotics palm (pilot?) that had a scanner and we used it with some service to manage shopping. As a kid we used to scan food item we bought when we got the shopping bags home. Im fairly certain it was based on the palmpilot but it might have been an SPT1500 but it was marked by US.R and not symbol. Plus this was around 2002-2004 we used it.
Naoki Saito
2020-03-06 14:30:34 +0000 UTCI kinda missed the PDA bandwagon (for broke-student reasons), only getting on board during the Symbian S60 era. But had I had the coin back when Palm was big, I could really have seen it being mega handy. Smart move of Big Blue to go for a licence job, especially as I'm sure they could have tied it up in the support contracts. Though a little surprising they didn't include their own apps on the software CD. Lovely examination - do hope you'll get a chance to tackle that Z50 sometime, that's one I kinda want to see more off!
Rob Caporetto
2020-03-06 09:01:43 +0000 UTCAhhh, my favorite - delightfully informative and full of obvious and sneaky goofs. Both the extended hotsync one and the n'sync one had me wheezing.
Valora Inverse
2020-03-06 06:44:25 +0000 UTCWhere did you get some of the old software? I still have one of these sitting on my desk. Lost many learning hours to it in seventh grade.
Garoninja
2020-03-06 06:39:08 +0000 UTCOh Clint! Just seeing that stylus in the first minute gave me an immediate intimate moment of nostalgia that will last for many few hours. (Oh, and you said "tiny knob". Yes, apparently I'm a 12 year old giggling schoolboy)
Pete Johns
2020-03-06 05:23:19 +0000 UTCMy first (and only) PDA was a Sony CliΓ© PEG-TJ25 which I bought brand new in 2003 primarily as a means to take notes, sketch out ideas, and make my stupid-long bus trips to and from my math software programming job more bearable. It was in colour and had a good bit more memory and CPU power compared to the early Palm devices and I had lots of useful software on it for keep track of things... And now that I have a smartphone instead, I've gotta say, one thing that Palm did right that virtually every Smartphone does wrong... is having a notepad-type program. I mean... how is it that something so freaking basic doesn't come standard on any of these modern "smart" devices?! I'd go get a free one but they're all "ad enabled" and have other weird limitations which kinda defeats the purpose. :/
Kris Asick
2020-03-06 04:22:01 +0000 UTCThat's a great use for a Palm! Being able to quickly and easily synchronize so much data is still impressive to me, regardless of modern tech making it so much easier. We are immeasurably spoiled now.
LGR
2020-03-06 02:14:31 +0000 UTCAhh I know that feeling all too well π Such excitement to make a video at first, languishing for months, years... Over a decade in the case of some items
LGR
2020-03-06 02:12:40 +0000 UTCYeah as I said on Twitter (@west_haven), the Palm series has such a warm place in my heart. I grew up using a few Palm III models that my dad got from work, and I even was able to give a friend one and weβd port messages to and from each other. In middle school, and then in high school with my Palm Zire 31, the main function I used these devices for was... reading fanfiction on the go!! I remember taking fanfics off fanfiction.net and then syncing them to my Palm device so I can then read various anime fanfics wherever I went. I vividly remember even reading in class after tests, so it gave me some great entertainment when I wasnβt using it as a planner, note pad or solitaire machine. Considering now I can just go to ao3 on my phone and read whenever I want, itβs such a luxury that pre-teen me would have DIED over.
Carrie Marshall
2020-03-06 01:34:20 +0000 UTCMeanwhile, the "NIB" Palm iii I've been thinking of doing my own video review on still sits in the box 2 years later... And the Lumix G7 I bought also collects dust. π€·ββοΈ Sweet review, as always!
2020-03-06 00:45:02 +0000 UTCCrysis: The Text Adventure, perhaps π
LGR
2020-03-05 23:34:54 +0000 UTCHehe, excellent to hear. Dope Wars was truly everywhere, I can imagine it would be a godsend working tech support. Certainly kept me occupied during study halls π
LGR
2020-03-05 23:32:47 +0000 UTCIf you can't beat em, rebrand em.
LGR
2020-03-05 23:27:51 +0000 UTCThank you!
LGR
2020-03-05 23:26:09 +0000 UTCA smart phone without the phone! And very limited smarts, haha. Still amazing at the time.
LGR
2020-03-05 23:25:59 +0000 UTCThat's the plan!
LGR
2020-03-05 23:23:27 +0000 UTCThe early 2000s was a golden age for PDAs, it seemed like everyone would have one sooner or later. Then smartphones kept getting smarter, and welp.
LGR
2020-03-05 23:23:12 +0000 UTCHaha, I'd have done the same back then. These things felt like the future.
LGR
2020-03-05 23:21:55 +0000 UTCCheck out my Pocket PC vid linked to at the end of this video if you haven't seen it! I love those old Windows handhelds.
LGR
2020-03-05 23:21:09 +0000 UTCI don't think you'll hear many folks saying that among this audience of old nerds :P
LGR
2020-03-05 23:20:01 +0000 UTCI had several Palm devices including a Kyocera Plam powered cell phone. That was incredibly useful. You may say "OK boomer", but I was using a smartphone before your parents met.
Robert Sanges
2020-03-05 23:14:29 +0000 UTCYou should definitely cover pocket PC's, because that is something that people don't really know about. I have a casio A-21S and it is pretty glorious
Dani Leath
2020-03-05 22:59:30 +0000 UTCI've owned a Palm IIIe back in 2000-1, while I was working for Staples. I took every opportunity to flash in front of customers by using it. People must have thought I was either super techno-trendy or the biggest dork they've ever met... But I loved my little PDA
Frederic St-Georges
2020-03-05 22:37:11 +0000 UTCThat was fun back circa 2000 - 2001 when quite a few of us at work had Palms (I had a Handspring).
Kevin Furr
2020-03-05 22:35:36 +0000 UTCIBM Engineer 1: βwe need a way to strip all of the Palm branding away from this deviceβ Poetically gifted IBM Engineer 2: βchange the case find and replace!β
Tim Hugall
2020-03-05 22:22:16 +0000 UTCYes, 100% behind this.
Lucas J. Chumley
2020-03-05 22:18:27 +0000 UTCOh God please do a video on the Windows CE Laptop
Lucas J. Chumley
2020-03-05 22:17:47 +0000 UTCThat was Fantastic Clint, took me right back to my days at Palm tech support, used to love playing dope wars on the OG monochrome palms at my desk, while helping old ladies and thoroughly intoxicated business men find their way around the software and hot sync setup....thanks for the nostalgic feels sirπππ€£π€£πππ
2020-03-05 22:12:18 +0000 UTCI need to know more about that other WorkPad!
2020-03-05 22:11:41 +0000 UTCI own one of these. Also complete in box. Love me some International Business Machines stuff. Mine runs Crysis dude π
Deckard Games
2020-03-05 22:09:30 +0000 UTCAnother great video! Look forward to seeing the Z50!
Seth C
2020-03-05 21:55:29 +0000 UTCPalmOS was awesome back in the day. The smart phone before we knew what a smart phone was.
Chris Bennett
2020-03-05 21:50:21 +0000 UTC
