Palm Crazy

A funny thing happened as I laughed about the uselessness of the tiny Palm Pilot handheld computers. Oh, I'd done that for a couple of years, ever since one of the first models landed in my hand because Palm wanted me to review it. But recently another one plopped down on my doorstep and, not knowing what else to do with it, I gave it to my fiancée to try out.

A week later, she was gushing about how cool it was to have all her addresses in this little gizmo ("no more five-pound Day-Timer!"), how easy it was to sync with a desktop computer ("just put the Palm in its cradle and, whoosh, data zips back and forth"), how smart it was to be able to record petty-cash expenditures on the fly ("buy a magazine and tap the price into the Palm while waiting for the receipt"). Well, before long, I'd bought her the thing because I knew I wasn't going to be able to pry it away from her and return it to the manufacturer.