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Five Fabulous Years
August 22, 2006
It all started a bit more than five years ago actually—I got my very first Palm OS handheld, the IIIx, on April 21, 1998. I’d dabbled a bit with other handhelds, most notably the Sharp Wizard, but nothing really “worked” for me until I got the Palm. I was pretty hopeless at first (I couldn’t even figure out how to delete an application after I installed it!) but after reading that first manual and tinkering a bit I learned enough to use it well enough to forsake that huge old Franklin Planner I’d been lugging around for several years.
It wasn’t until a bit later that I signed onto the venerable pilot-pda mailing list (you can get more info at http://copilotconsulting.com/mailman/listinfo/palm) and a bit later still that I learned about all of the web sites devoted to Palm OS enthusiasm such as PalmLoyal, Happy Palm and many others. Of course some of the bigger sites like Brighthand, Geek.com, and Palm InfoCenter taught me a lot about my new device and also provided an entrance into the rapidly growing online community of Palm OS users.
I never thought that I would end up creating my own site, and it came about in a rather roundabout way. It actually grew out of a problem I had with a very early product: TakeNote, a word processing program that I got for free when I purchased a GoType keyboard from Landware. The emails flew back and forth between me and their public relations coordinator at the time; we eventually became friends and he suggested that I might want to write a few product reviews because he thought that I had some writing talent.
My first review was published on April 11, 2000 on Geek.com, and you can still see it here. It was all about LifeBalance, a different sort of Palm OS application that helps you to balance your life, not merely plow through the 138 tasks on your to do list. I really enjoyed writing it and did several more for Geek.com on the Kodak PalmPix camera attachment, the Palm Portable Keyboard, Coola 1-Click and several others.
Later on I was asked to become the Palm OS Editor over at Brighthand, a position that I gladly accepted. It was a lot of responsibility since I had to recruit and manage a team of writers, but it was a great experience. The following year I was invited to the first Mobius conference hosted by Microsoft. Beth Goza put together an incredible event—I got to meet a few Palm OS enthusiasts and plenty of Pocket PC users, visit Microsoft’s computer museum, participate in some great roundtable discussions, and listen to some incredible presentations about upcoming technologies. It was an exciting time due to the youth of the handheld industry and all of the rapid changes it was undergoing.
Finally we’re back to the main story—PalmGoddess.com was launched on August 22, 2001, as I had decided to do a solo site instead of depending on others to publish my reviews. Astute readers may notice that’s not the name of the site today, and that’s because Palm’s lawyers insisted I change the name of my site within 24 hours of an extremely successful launch. They were of course trying to protect a copyrighted name, though as a volunteer running a non-profit enthusiast site I’m not sure it was really necessary. Unlike some sites that decided to fight, I changed the name to PocketGoddess.com, and have been busily writing and reviewing products for the last five years.
Of course I’m not still using that Palm IIIx, though I remember it fondly. If I remember correctly, I’ve used the following devices (in order from oldest to newest):
There was a Jornada 548 in there for a while, though it never became my “daily driver” handheld. Right now I’m using the Dell Axim X51v as my primary device. Some might say that I’ve switched over to the “dark side” but I’ve never been one to say that one handheld platform is “better” than another. Windows Mobile happens to meet my needs right now, though I’ll switch in a heartbeat if a shiny new Palm OS sorry, ALP device comes along and steals my attention.
Over the years I’ve had the opportunity to test an incredible array of products for handheld devices, and I’ve also made a lot of great friends. I have to give special thanks to several folks, most notably Michael Ashby, Craig Froehle, Mike Rohde, and the rest of the gang on the Palm OS User Council. I also have very fond memories of Beth Goza, formerly with Microsoft’s Mobile Devices Group as well as Chris Dunphy and Mike Mace, formerly with PalmSource. There are plenty vendor and developer friends as well, most notably Jeff Mitchell of Code Jedi fame. This is a community spread out across the USA and the world, and there are many I haven’t met face to face, and yet our love of mobile technology brings us together. It’s an amazing thing.
I’m looking forward to another 5 years (and hopefully many more) covering mobile technology of all kinds. PocketGoddess.com isn’t just a Palm OS or Windows Mobile PDA site anymore; with the successful relaunch of the newly redesigned site on August 28th, 2005 the focus was expanded to include portable gaming systems like the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, the Apple iPod and other portable music players, smartphones, and much more.
There’s no way that I can cover the entire spectrum of mobile technology by myself; there are several excellent team-written sites that run the gamut from Engadget and Gizmodo to corporate sites like CNet to do that sort of thing. What the PocketGoddess offers is something a bit different—a review site with a “feminine touch” that focuses on the actual user experience, not the hype. No jargon or technobabble, just plain speaking, honest reviews that can help you decide what mobile technology products and accessories are right for you.
And if you just can’t get enough of the PocketGoddess, be sure to check out some of my other ventures. I write the monthly Road Warrior roundup and sometimes other articles or reviews for Computer Power User magazine (you can find it at Barnes & Noble or subscribe) and also just started writing a column for Palmtop User Magazine. I’ll also be going “home” to Geek.com soon; I recently rejoined their writing team and will soon be contributing daily blurbs to the site.
Enjoy! I hope I can continue to count on your support, because the reason I do all of this is you. Read and comment on the articles, and join the discussion forums if you haven’t already. That’s the only way to get the PocketGoddess newsletter and get special notices about upcoming contests and giveaways on the site.
Here’s to five fabulous years!
