Piloting Palm
by Andrea Butter · first published 2001
8mentions
3recommended by
3HN commenters
2021–2025first – last mentioned
100% recommend
The definitive behind-the-scenes story of the visionary team that launched the handheld industry. Palm insider Andrea Butter and New York Times columnist David Pogue -- with full, exclusive cooperation of the company's founders and more than fifty key Palm and Handspring executives -- tell the riveting tale of the start of an industry constantly in the headlines. The origins of this volatile industry began with the tiny team who beat staggering odds to turn the PalmPilot into a billion-dollar market and later took their ultimate vision to Handspring, now Palm's most powerful rival. Many
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There is another really good book that's sadly out of print: Piloting Palm by Andrea Butter & David Pogue (yes, that David Pogue, from the Nature PBS shows). tip: don't pay the $80 for a new one. I got a used one for $8, and it came within 3-4 days.
on “Newton FAQ” ↗…old Palm apps, it's so interesting to see pretty much all development stop once the iPhone was released. The original Palm software and user interface design was heavily inspired by the Macintosh. "Piloting Palm" by Andrea Butter & David Pogue is a great read.
on “Palm OS and the devices that ran it” ↗Yes! For anybody else interested the book "Piloting Palm: The Inside Story of Palm, Handspring, and the Birth of the Billion-Dollar Handheld Industry" by Andrea Butter & David Pogue covers this and so much more.
on “Infinite Mac: Resource Fork Roundtripping” ↗…recommend the book "Losing the Signal: The Untold Story Behind the Extraordinary Rise and Spectacular Fall of Blackberry". It's well paced and captures a lot of atmosphere (from what I recall). And "Piloting Palm: The Inside Story of Palm, Handspring, and the Birth of the Billion-Dollar Handheld Industry" if you're into that kind of thing.
on “People Keeping BlackBerry Alive” ↗No, it didn't. Read Piloting Palm (you have to get a used copy, since it's not on Kindle and print is expensive). The first Palm had only a sync cradle with the PC. It did not have any wireless, and it was a huge success. The sync cradle…
on “The mystery of the garage” ↗Surely you will have read it, but for anybody else "Piloting Palm: The Inside Story of Palm, Handspring, and the Birth of the Billion-Dollar Handheld Industry" is a fascinating read https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2746630-piloting-palm
on “Managing Classic Mac OS Resources in ResEdit” ↗…therapeutic, especially when facing a difficult task myself! I’ve enjoyed all of these; they were all recommendations from HN. Showstopper - Windows NT Losing the Signal - BlackBerry Made in Japan - Sony Piloting Palm - Palm Sweating Bullets - PowerPoint Folklore.org - Early Apple. The “Mac Folklore Radio Podcast” [0]. Has a few interesting stories of people innovating and solving challenges. [0] https://macfolkloreradio.com/
on “Ask HN: Books about people who did hard things” ↗I got the out-of-print book Piloting Palm as research for my book. You can get a used copy for about $9. (it's co-written by David Pogue, the guy you see on PBS all the time) Shameless self-promotion: This New Internet Thing, by the way, will…
on “Palm OS and the devices that ran it” ↗