Comment by weinzierl

I had many devices and gadgets over the decades, certainly a three digit figure.

There are only a few I really loved and consider well-rounded and beautiful while useful.

My Commodore 64 comes to mind, my 2010 aluminum unibody Mac Book Pro has a place in this list and certainly my Palm III.

The first time I saw one was with one of my superiors at a Siemens R&D facility where I interned at the time. I knew I had to have one. A little later I bought mine from a dude who brought it from a work trip to the US. I still have it, I keep it together with my copy of the O'Reilly Palm Programming book.

I used the Palm a lot in everyday life and had it always with me, so for a brief period of my life it was an invaluable tool. Its real value for me however was how it foreshadowed what was about to come. I think the looming smartphone revolution was really obvious for us Palm users. We might not have foreseen every detail (Steve Jobs ditching the stylus) but the broad strokes of what was about to happen were crystal clear.