The Move From Paper to Digital

By the summer of 1999 my Filofax had grown so fat that it was a struggle to add new pages and close the rings without the pages popping off the rings. Finally I broke down and ordered a Palm IIIx. I entered five letters of the alphabet a day from my address book into the Palm desktop. At first I was entering the information from the Palm Desktop software on my PC but soon found that the shorthand called Graffiti used to enter information into the handheld with a stylus was fairly easy to use. By the time I finished entering all of my address book information into the Palm, I was fairly proficient with Graffiti.

The Palm handheld had a cradle that connected to the PC via a nine-pin serial port. The Palm Desktop and the handheld’s information could be synchronized by putting the handheld in the cradle and performing on operation called hot synching. I read postings on the internet user groups and soon learned that there were many more applications that could be installed on the Palm by downloading software for the Palm. One program that I particularly liked was AvantoGo. This program allowed me to download all kinds of information to my Palm such as the news from the New York Times, Washington Post, USA Today, weather for my local area, movie schedules for theaters in Beaumont and shopping deals to name a few. Using AvantGo was a good way to make sure I hot synched the Palm to backup data on a regular basis. I could fill up the Palm with the latest news, slip the Palm in my purse; and if I was sitting and waiting in places such as doctors’ offices, I had the latest news in the palm of my hand.

I also found a very addictive little solitaire game that I downloaded. One very useful program that I installed was Documents to Go. This program allowed me to create Microsoft Excel and World Documents and exchange them with my PC. I would record credit card purchases in a little Excel spreadsheet. This way I always had a total of my current spending at hand. I put shopping lists in Word documents and carried them with me.

The Palm IIIx ran on AAA alkaline batteries. I would buy the large packages of AAA batteries at Sam’s Club. It seemed like I was changing batteries all the time. Every time I got the low battery warning I would begin to tremble until I had successfully installed fresh batteries. The thought of losing my precious data was most alarming. The Palm IIIx could exchange email from the PC. Palm sold a small dialup modem for the handheld, but it was expensive. I was using a local internet provider who did not have toll free numbers so the Palm modem was not suited to my needs when I was traveling.

In late 1999 SprintPCS started offering the Motorola Timeport cell phone that was the first phone that they offered that had a built-in web browser and had data capabilities. It came in a kit with a cable that could connect it to a PC and had an adapter plug that allowed it to be connected to a Palm hot synch cable. I had to have that telephone. There was a problem. I was a cell phone customer of US Unwired that was an affiliate of SprintPCS. I had a SprintPCS Free and Clear plan through US Unwired. When I traveled, I was no different than any other SprintPCS customer, but there were limitations. SprintPCS would not allow me to order the new Motorola Timeport from the website. I called Houston SprintPCS stores. They would not sell the phone to me. I checked with US Unwired, and they said they would activate the Timeport if I purchased one. I finally called SprintPCS sales and told them a little white lie. I said I was buying the phone for a friend who was a SprintPCS customer. They shipped the phone to me. I charged the battery and took it to US Unwired for activation. They looked at the phone and started making phone calls to see if they were allowed to activate it. I was in agony. I thought I might have to return the phone to SprintPCS to get my money back. I had paid over $300 for the phone. Finally the US Unwired employee got the authorization to active the phone. I felt a great sense of relief. A couple of years later SprintPCS acquired the customers on the Sprint plans from US Unwired. My Motorola Timeport is over five years old, and I am still using it.

Soon after I got the Timeport I made a trip to Honolulu. I connected my Palm to the Timeport and got my email and updated AvantGo. I was unsure how I would be charged. SprintPCS was charging an additional $10 per month for a data plan. US Unwired was not offering this option. I was greatly relieved when I got my bill to see that US Unwired had charged my Honolulu data calls as voice minutes, and I incurred no additional charges. I continued to use my Timeport for data transfer to the Palm whenever I traveled in the US until I was transferred to Sprint. Then SprintPCS wanted to charge 34 cents a minute if you did not have their data plan. I quit using the Timeport for data transfer.

Tomorrow I will continue with my move from Palm to Sony Clie’s.