Stories about: Palm Computing

The once-mighty Palm, still successful on paper from the momentum of past glories, is doomed to decline and failure. It wasn't always thus. Here's my preemptive post-mortem.

PalmOne has taken the term "interim" out of Ed Colligan's job title, making him the company's new chief executive officer (CEO) and president, the PDA (personal digital assistant) maker announced Monday. The move comes just days before PalmOne is expected to launch the first device in its new mobile manager range of handheld computing products.

3Com turns 25 this June, but the Ethernet pioneer probably won't spend much time celebrating -- it's too busy fighting to stay relevant. The last several years have been difficult for the longtime industry mainstay; it's been a dizzying, roller-coaster ride of spin-offs, write-offs, layoffs and strategic about-faces.

Following the acquisition of Extended Systems, personal digital assistant (PDA) manufacturer Palm feels confident of its ability to be a "great conduit" into backend systems in the enterprise space.

On every street corner and underground rail platform in Tokyo, people can be seen peering and prodding at tiny mobile phones. They are connected to the Web through a service called i-Mode. Everyone from teenagers to grandparents uses the phones, occasionally to send e-mail or read news, but mostly to entertain themselves with such offerings as cartoons and astrology. The creator of i-Mode, NTT DoCoMo Inc., now wants to conquer the world by making its service just as popular on the streets of Europe and America.

The other day, I heard an Apple Computer Inc. programmer griping about Steve Jobs. It was the usual complaint: Steve wasn't taking opinions, conducting focus groups, or performing usability testing. He wanted things done Steve's way.

Sun Microsystems, hunting for a home for Java2 Micro Edition (J2ME), has found one in wireless handsets. Sun and more than 20 partners announced this week the availability of the MID (Mobile Internet Device) profile, through which they hope to establish an early presence in the wireless data market.

And when I am not in Rome, I do not do as the Romans do. It's a matter of policy. Since I spend the vast majority of my time outside Rome, you will rarely have seen me behaving as a Roman might.

The initial Bluetooth specification is out, and chipmakers such as Motorola and Intel are shipping silicon for the wireless solution. But Bluetooth-enabled devices are not appearing as quickly as many industry observers believed they would.

The initial Bluetooth specification is out, and chipmakers such as Motorola and Intel are shipping silicon for the wireless solution. But Bluetooth-enabled devices are not appearing as quickly as many industry observers believed they would.

Gone are the dark days when Windows' forays into Mac territory seemed unstoppable. Apple Computer Inc. has reclaimed its strongholds and attracted new populations, but the sheer prevalence of Windows-based PCs means you'll probably need to cross the border occasionally. An important client may require Windows files, or Dad, a longtime PC user, may not be able to open the e-mail you send him. It could be that the software you need doesn't run on Macs, so you have to emulate a PC. And when emulation isn't enough and you must buy a PC, you can at least save money and desk space by sharing your Mac peripherals with the other system.