this post was submitted on 24 Jan 2025
277 points (97.9% liked)

Privacy

456 readers
400 users here now

Protect your privacy in the digital world

Welcome! This is a community for all those who are interested in protecting their privacy.

Rules

This includes the instance rules of dbzer0, which can be tl;dr'd to: this is a libertarian socialist space, no right wing nutjobs or tankies are allowed. As for the community rules:

  1. Be nice
  2. No bigotry/prejudice
  3. No tankies/right wingers
  4. Don't promote proprietary software
  5. Stay on topic
  6. No crypto
  7. Don't be a smartass and try to game the system, we'll know if you're breaking the rules when we see it!
  8. If you post news exclusive to a country please name it. (This isn't a bannable rule, but just a recommendation :) )

founded 2 months ago
MODERATORS
 

cross-posted from: https://mamot.fr/users/thibaultamartin/statuses/113879452911907737

Palms were offline devices that only synced with your computer when put on a docking station.

You could read and reply to emails offline, book or cancel meetings, and sync with your computer later. The latest versions allowed you to snap pictures and listen to your music.

No servers running constantly. No data spilled everywhere. Days worth of battery on a single charge.

The future stole our cables, and it took our attention span and our privacy with it.

#privacy #offline #data

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 4 points 20 hours ago

I have a IIIXe (very similar to the one in OP) somewhere. Really limited in what it could do, but very cool for the time. I also have a later model Zire somewhere that had enough horsepower (with a mild overclock) to play Quake.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

PalmTops need to make a serious comeback

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I wish I still had the dock for mine, I still have my Palm pilot.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I still have the dock, but it's got a serial port, and I can't manage to connect it even with a serial to USB adapter. Doubt the software would run anyway, that was under Windows 3.11 I think? 95 at best.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 9 hours ago

Would be neat if there was Linux software for it based on reverse engineered protocol.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

I just want to be able to charge mine. I love to occasionally reminisce on old devices.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Not to spoil the nostalgia vibes but wanted to share the Palma2, popular enough that they made a second version. Briefly: its an e-ink reader, in the form factor of a 6 inch smartphone. It runs Android for compatibility, no cell data only WiFi and even has a basic camera for document scanning. It's definately not privacy protecting but it is resistant to endless online slop traps, which I think is part of what makes a modern smartphone problematic. I'm not recommending it but just noticed the similarities to some of the classic PDAs, especially the high contrast interface and reduced animations.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

Octacore cpu? That's more than some of the new HP laptops out there, which have gone backwards to dualcore lol

Edit: cpu, not vpu

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

I have a palma, and I enjoy it, but don't use it as often as I should. I had intended it to be what I carry around with me more than my phone, to help restrict myself to mostly e-reader or podcasts/audiobooks. The palma 1 annoyingly would output only when the screen was on by default, so you couldn't lock it and listen to an audiobook. If you muck around in settings you can make it stay on for 1 hour after locking, so you can mostly listen to audiobooks/podcasts uninterupted ifyou turn it on briefly every so often.

But in my experience, the use of Bluetooth/playing podcasts/audiobooks pretty drastically increased battery consumption. It really brought it back to being a phone battery (e.g. 1 day) with an eink display.

So I use it almost exclusively as a small e-reader I can always have in my povket or bag, etc. I basically always listen to podcast songs my phone.

That said, it is actually pretty incredible little device, and you can watch youtube videos or even play games on it of you let its refresh rate go high

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I had the Palm VII, which had a mobile data connection and an antenna you would flip up. I felt like a god. When i “upgraded” to the Compaq ipaq i felt that the world was my oyster!

Now i hate my phone.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

I had the Palm VII, which had a mobile data connection and an antenna you would flip up. I felt like a god.

The Palm VII was the first device that was even theoretically obtainable by me (I didn't buy one because shit was expensive yo) that could provide mobile internet access in a form factor I considered usable.

I lusted over it like I'd lusted over no device before.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 10 hours ago

It feels like i didn’t have the VII for a solid year before the service got turned off. The iPAQ had a docking sleeve for a cf wireless card. That was when i felt like a mad pimp. 🤓

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

they (or at least the later palm pilot) had a surprisingly robust system for recognizing handwriting! individual characters had to be single strokes, and you needed to write each one a buncha times to calibrate initially so it has something to compare against, but i remember it being notably faster to type with than other contemporaneous tiny keyboards.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago

You had to write your letters in Graffiti, but yeah, it worked great.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

I used to be an avid TealScript user, which allowed you to tweak recognition of individual characters and even create entirely new gestures. It was magnificent.

Went through a lot of Palm devices, from a Palm III to a V to a Tungsten T3 (the most elegantly designed device ever, perhaps save the Mac SE) and eventually a Treo 680. It was a sad day when the ecosystem shut down and I had to downgrade to an Android phone.

I still miss so many features of those older devices. In fact, I still keep a Palm V in my nightstand because of its comfortably backlog screen and flawless handwriting recognition for those midnight thoughts.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Got to put a carefully cut strip of scotch magic translucent tape over the stylus square for both protection and friction enhancing

Always practice safe graffiti

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

This guy palms

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago

It really is too bad that commercial solutions for true privacy focused syncing and wireless backups will only get worse if they were ever good at all. I think of products like the Ring Doorbell where there's no reason the doorbell itself can't be it's own local server. The only reason to tie you to a cloud is to implement monthly fees while also harvesting your data. The idea of an open standard where multiple devices could connect to any cloud service (self hosted Next Cloud or commercial solution etc) will likely disappear with the direction we're going. It's a sad time for tech and an even more sad time for society worldwide.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Smartphones are nothing more than gentrified PDAs...

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

Literally the first phones labeled "smartphones" were things like the Handspring Treo that ran PalmOS.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Smartphones are nothing more than gentrified PDAs…

Less any semblance of privacy? We can still have the impression we've some control over what it does but for how long?

My last PDA was a Palm Tungsten T5, liked it a lot ;)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I had the tungsten E. Loved it.

Also. Airplane mode on a smartphone and the. BAM. New age palm pilot.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 15 hours ago

Palm were fine device :)

Also. Airplane mode on a smartphone and the. BAM. New age palm pilot.

How many apps fully work offline, at least without regular connection to check 'your authorization to use the app'? The moment one turns the phone back on, all data that were kept on it are being uploaded.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

Holy crap, I have the exact same model still somewhere in the basement. It was so incredibly cool at the time. I felt like I was living in the future. Until I got my first mobile that is. Carrying two gadgets was just too much.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago

Carrying two gadgets was just too much

Which is why the Treo was such a game-changing big deal

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 days ago

My t5 tungsten didnt have wifi, but there was bt and ir. and you could buy a wifi card.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

I think the Palm m125 is the best case scenario for running a PalmOS device nowadays because it was the last one that ran on AAAs. The m100 does as well but it has a quarter of the RAM and a slower processor, plus no SD card slot, though it's REALLY hard to find SD cards small enough to work in a Palm anymore.

Also, they made a USB sync cable for the m100 but I haven't been able to track one down, there's a guy on eBay who has a pallet of their RS-232 sync cables but virtually none for USB. The m125 came with a USB docking cradle so it's a lot easier to sync with a PC, though good luck finding 64-bit drivers.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (1 children)

You should be able to get a generic RS-232 to USB cable that will work as an adapter. They're still used for microcontroller and old hardware.

As for drivers, run the software in a VM with a 32 bit OS. That may work.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago

Also there is apparently a currently maintained piece of Linux software called J-Pilot that seems to replace Palm's actual syncing software so you don't have to run crunchy old 32-bit Windows software.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

Those were cool! I inherited my pop's old one when he upgraded.

load more comments
view more: next ›