I admit it -- I've always loved Star Trek. It began with Captain Kirk and continued to all the different series through the years. I'm probably a borderline fanatic. I'm not as crazy as the fans who follow the conventions around the country and attend in full Federation uniform, but I have attended a convention, I own a bootlegged script of Generations, and a Bajoran earpiece resurfaces every once-in-a-while in my jewelry box.
I was always fascinated by the tablets that the characters worked on, especially the one Jake Sisko used to write his stories. They were highly portable, used a stylus, and seemed to be tapped in to the local computer system. How cool was that? Word processing at your fingertips, plus complete database access, all while loitering on the Promenade.
So when the first round of Palm Pilots came out, I had to have one. Not only could I see myself shedding my big Franklin Planner, I could also see myself doing quite a bit of writing on the run -- all in one small package. I'd finally have my Star Trek tablet.
I got one for Christmas, and was very excited. I started transferring my planner data right away, and found some word processing software to load on it. I learned Graffiti and discovered eBooks. But making the transition was difficult. I had to think differently when planning on the Palm than with paper, and I still hadn't really started writing on it. I fell back to paper planning several times, but eventually the Palm started winning out. Until, one day, I dropped the Palm while pulling it out to reference a shopping list. It never worked again.
I returned to paper, but discovered that I missed some of the features of the Palm -- nearly unlimited future calendars, alarms for my appointments, and a small package. At the same time, I started to find that I couldn't do much productive writing on paper. My writing habits had become too accustomed to word processors, but I didn't have access to a laptop at the time. A little while later they came out with the sleek new Palm m500. I hinted pretty hard, and received one for my birthday, along with a portable keyboard.
Since then, I've been hooked. I stuck with the m500 until work gave me a Tungsten 2 to use. Then we bought ourselves Treo 650s for Christmas shortly after they came out.
I've had short affairs with paper planning, but I've always come back to whatever Palm I had access to at the time. I rely on the alarms to keep me on track during the day. I have a single address book that ties to my cell phone and caller ID, synchs to my home computer, and sits in a periodically updated hard copy next to the kitchen phone. I can plan projects in ShadowPlan on my Treo or on my home computer, and then port the plan to my task list and calendar (try doing that with MS Project!). I have constant access to a thesaurus and dictionary, plus countless other fiction and nonfiction books. My entire recipe book is in Treo memos, accessible when I'm in the grocery store and discover a fabulous sale on some usually expensive key ingredient. The list goes on and on.
But taking notes or doing any kind of extended writing is still a problem. I'm just not quite there yet with the Jake Sisko tablet writing system. And that makes me sad.
I'd gotten pretty fast with Graffiti, but it was still error-prone and the Treo doesn't use it anyway. Then I found a virtual keyboard replacement called MessageEase, and got pretty fast with it on my T2, but it keeps crashing my Treo and takes up valuable screen space. Fold-out keyboards require a table and plenty of fussing before you can be off and running, and the one I have isn't terribly accurate. I'm all thumbs on the thumboard, which is a painful experience for a 100+ wpm touch typist. And the screen is too small to review what I've written before going on to the next paragraph -- a key element in my writing process.
So I still use paper for note-taking, and I try to save up the productive writing for when I have access to a full keyboard and computer. I can make do with the Treo in a pinch, but the technology keeps getting in my way, and doesn't allow me to become absorbed into the writing process like I can on a full-sized keyboard and monitor. And I feel that my writing suffers because of it.
In a way, I think still having a link to paper has been good for me, but that's a whole different post. In the meantime, I'm still trying to find the perfect Star Trek tablet. My dream? A pint-sized tablet Mac. Barring that, I'll take a Palm LifeDrive with a built-in cell phone.
Apple? Palm? Are you listening?
2 comments:
Um....yeah...that Palm? I haven't even turned it on yet. Tell me you are surprised and I'll call you a liar ;)
~Kris
No, I'm not surprised. I never really pegged you for a pda person. :o)
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