PDA - RIP

The technology historians are about to notch the gadget timeline with a closing notch for the PDA. It's hard to say when the opening notch was placed, depends on your perspective - for me it was back in 92 when Palm Computing was formed by Jeff Hawkins. A USRobotics Pilot was the first PDA I owned and if I remember correctly it cost more than $300 and it had a fairly limited feature set. The last PDA I owned was a Toshiba E740 PocketPC - it had a fairly sophisticated feature set including WiFi capabilities and Bluetooth support.

Toshiba, and more recently Sony, have already exited the PDA business and I think it's only a matter of time before DELL and HP/Compaq exit. PDA sales declined for the third straight year in 2004 according to IDC and the recent exit of Sony from the business isn't going to help - marketing dollars from Sony and Toshiba (now gone) helped support the market. What's replacing the PDA?

A more full-featured cell phone (complete with a camera) replaced my PDA and I haven't looked back. I think consumers are overwhelmed with technology and declining PDA sales represent the backlash and an effort to simplify lifestyles. I wasn't really using my PDA for anything other than managing my contacts - everything else could wait until I had the time to jump on a desktop or a laptop. Browsing the web via the PDA or word-processing via the PDA never panned out and smaller more powerful laptops didn't help either.

So farewell PDA - your closing notch is coming, it was fun while it lasted.

PDA timeline

Yahoo! Toolbar for Firefox

The Yahoo! Toolbar is now available for Firefox. Thanks Yahoo! I'm still using their toolbar to manage my favorites because it makes it easy to centralize them.

Google Blogger Fired

Mark Jen - the guy that Google fired for not being able to keep his mouth shut - lasted about three weeks on the job. It isn't worth talking about too much but I thought I'd post a few links on the matter for those of you that want to know more about this story. It's old news at this point but interesting for the curious.

Story 1

Story 2

Marks's Blog

A Gigabyte Factory Tour

I enjoyed reading about this tour of the Gigabyte motherboard factor in Nan-Ping Taiwan. The article was especially interesting for me because I'm in the process of building a new system around the Gigabyte GA-K8NS Ultra-939 MOBO. Worth a quick look.

Mac mini in a PC Case

AppleTalk - Mac mini in a PC Case

Carly Fiorina - Unemployed

HP tossed Carly Fiorina (CEO) out on the street yesterday for not being able to execute her strategy. Actually, I think everybody (including HP's board) was trying to figure out what her strategy was. She'll be forever remembered for saddling HP shareholders with Compaq. Farewell Carly, enjoy the $21.1 million dollar severence package - not a bad deal for five years of work. Watch out HP, Dell is coming after your printer business.

I thought this post was interesting in hindsight, David Berlind interviewing Rob Enderle (Enderle Group) a trusted HP consultant and confidant about HP's future and Carly's as well.

Perspectives

It's important when debating the Iraq issue to keep the other point-of-view in mind. It's important to respect the lives of the people saved and the efforts and lives lost to make it happen.

I enjoyed this post by a liberal author that took the time to visit a U.S. Iraqi polling station to actually talk to the people most affected by our war with Iraq.

And I Am Not Lying, For Real: Like Millions Of Iraqis, I Made A Long Journey To The Nearest Polling Place Today

How many Bush Administration officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?

The Village Voice: The Bush Beat

Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?