A device with no bulky keyboard, no mouse, and no user-unfriendly software is on the market. It can accept handwritten input at incredible speeds, fit in your pocket, store all vital information, and provide at-a glance recall. It is known as a piece of paper. But if you can't get hold of this revolutionary gadget, the Pilot organizer makes a handy substitute.
Pilot is designed for people who can't go for more than 15 minutes without some item about their person bleeping, buzzing, vibrating, or playing a sound effect from Star Trek. It's a gadget freak's toy not astoundingly useful, but astounding as far as it goes. It can't double as a platform for genuinely powerful applications. But if you're someone for whom "palmtop organizer" means scrawling important phone numbers on your hand, Pilot is a cheaper, US$300 alternative to high-end PDAs.
Keeping information synchronized on a palmtop and a desktop has always required a sneaky bit of two-timing. I can never remember what one machine knows and the other doesn't and usually end up with double booked appointments and scattered notes. But with Pilot, you simply drop the handheld unit into its "cradle," whack the HotSynch button, and Pilot's data is instantly updated with your PC. The designers obviously believe size is everything, and the lack of a keyboard is a limitation. But the Graffiti handwriting recognition is about the best in its field hey, even I don't recognize my handwriting sometimes. Pilot is on its way to becoming a "must-have" item for gadget freaks.
D. A. Barham
Pilot connected organizer: US$299. US Robotics Palm Computing: (800) 881 7256, +1 (415) 949 9560, fax +1 (415) 949 0147, latest info on the Web at www.usr.com/palm/.
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