Sometimes it's fun to get shocked. We had never thought of the Palm computer as even slightly musical. To find out that it can be a real friend to musicians was very exciting.

If you're into music, you should definitely visit http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue199809/music001.html.

Jeff Hawkins, creator of the Palm computer
It seemed fitting to kick off our Premiere Issue by having a candid conversation with Jeff Hawkins, the man who started Palm Computing (now part of 3Com) and created the Palm computer. Prior to my chat with Hawkins, 3Com PR personnel gave me some interesting background on Hawkins' success: over a million Palm devices shipped in 18 months, a 66% market share, and the fastest growth of any computing product in history, faster than the TV and the VCR.

My interview with Jeff proved one of the high-points of producing PalmPower. He's an interesting guy with some great insights into the handheld world. Of course, as we would soon see, his time at 3Com was to be limited.

You can read the first part of the interview at http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue199801/hawkins001.html.

You can read the second part of the interview at http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue199802/hawkinstwo001.html.

Exit Interview: Jeff Hawkins, inventor of the Palm computer
When we first spoke to Jeff Hawkins in January, 3Com had shipped just over a million Palm devices, and it was PalmPower's premiere issue. Eight months later, in August, PalmPower had grown to more than 300,000 regular readers and 3Com has shipped nearly two million Palm devices. Then, apparently suddenly, Jeff Hawkins and Palm Computing general manager Donna Dubinsky left the company they founded to start a new business, now known as Handspring.

To learn more about these big changes, I spoke to Jeff on his first day of his new life, in this exclusive PalmPower Interview. Based on the interview, and subsequent tidbits gained from other press interactions, we believe that Handspring is working on a PalmOS device, possibly aimed at kids.

Read this major interview with Hawkins at http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue199808/hawkinterview001.html.

A more perfect Palm Desktop
Do you like the Palm Desktop application? Do you think it could be better? So did I. In this "trend-setting" article, I outlined PalmPower's recommendations for a new and improved desktop design. It's the Palm Desktop we all wish we had.

One of the reasons I like this article is that it was one of our first recommendation pieces, where we put our heads together and came up with good, useful ideas for the future of the Palm Computing platform. The other reason it was so interesting was because readers seemed to really resonate with the themes presented, as you'll be able to see by reading the PowerBoard discussions connected to the article.

Read our recommendations and reader response at http://www.palmpower.com/issues/issue199807/editorial798001.html.

Palm III flash, it's a gas, gas, gas
The Palm III is the hottest new member of the Palm platform family -- at least that's currently shipping. Right out of the box, it's got 2MB of onboard memory, double that of the PalmPilot Professional. But the Palm III also includes 2MB of flash memory, used to hold the operating system. In this article, Contributing Editor Claire Pieterek reviews a software product that allows you to gain access to an additional 800K of flash memory to hold applications. You can move up to almost 3MB for fifty bucks!