Hi, my name is Michael … and I’m a technology fan.
I like to tinker, to play, to test, to try. I enjoy the newest, the smallest, the largest, the fastest. I appreciate fine design and the engineering and innovation that does into today’s technology.
However, I’m about to rant about Palm – and their lack of … well – everything.
I loved my first Palm Pilot, the m500. It wasn’t all super colorific and didn’t play MP3’s. It did it’s job. It nagged me when I had an appointment and kept my life organized. Yeah.
Then the problems came. It would freeze, or hang, or just wouldn’t respond to my tappings. The digitizer would get all messed up so that when I touched here on the screen it was always clicking things 1/4 of an inch over. Very hard to hit some things. So I’d have to redigitize. Like 10 times a day. AND I DIDN’T REALLY USE THE PILOT THAT MUCH!!!
Anyway, so I can live with an occasional problem, BUT! Then my screen wouldn’t respond to anything and the pilot is dead. What does Palm say? Well it’s not under warranty, and even if it WAS we recommend that you upgrade.
Upgrade? Cha-CHING! I’m all over that. Color, sound, lasers (ok no lasers) but upgrade is always a good word.
But you know I’m not a fool. My momma told me you’d better shop around. So I did. Alot. I had it all picked out, and made my proposal to the money people. Alas after all that searching – everything was in order. So I went to buy it. Oops!!! It had been discontinued (but had only been on the shelf for about 6 months). Discontinued? It’s still brand new? Like 5 or 6 people have bought one? What’s up with that?
So, new faster research, more money but a nicer model. Ok, I can deal so can the money folks. And it’s a good pilot, I still have it.
But now you say “that’s not so bad, what’s your issue?” Well I got a pretty nice model, but then other pilots down here start to die or need replacement. No problem I say, we’ll just order one of min…. wait. They are discontinued. Holy heck.
So, back to the research department, check with UCS, it checks outs – so we buy like 3 or 4. They are OK.
Now for the kicker (yes I’m still telling the same story). Tina’s lovely 505 dies a flaming death so we buy one of the previously mentioned models for her, and 2 more for Mark and Patrick whenever their’s give up the ghost.
Suddenly last week, Tina’s pilot starts doing naughty things – like not telling her about meetings with the VP. Naughty. Anyway, Joan finds this support document that says Tina’s pilot is not supported. But wait! I checked with UCS before we bought these. That SAME document said Tina’s pilot was OK and good to go.
So now I’m angry. Not only will Palm not release a quality pilot for less than $400, but they keep changing the rules. And every 6 months there is a new pilot. Why can’t they just make a quality model and SUPPORT IT!
Anyway, so now I’m thinking about investigating Pocket PCs. Seems like a neat toy, and apparently they are not so high maintenance.
We’ll see.