[OtinG]

Apple had the right idea in general terms when it came to the Newton, which was more like a tablet than a PDA. A lot of companies were churning out PDAs including Sharp, Hewlett Packard, Palm, etc. Most were useless due to battery issues and device resetting which wiped all the data. Since most PDAs required tedious hand entry, the constant resets were a deal killer. The PDAs though were basically designed to replace your Rolodex by giving you an electronic list of contacts, plus it provided a simple calendar and a few other simple features. Basically the PDA was an electronic version Fonzie's "little black book" on steroids. They were never intended as app machines in the early days. Palm added app capability later on, as did other manufacturers, and we discovered that they made nice little portable eBook readers in an era predating eInk devices, though your eyes had to be much better than more are now in old age! Someone came up with a way to convert text files into a Palm database file, and we were then converting books from text to Palm files. But that low resolution screen of my Palm Pilot III only had 160x160 px.