Palm Phone

Palm Pilot was my first touch screen device. 25 years ago, it was revolutionary. It turns out Palm still lives today, in a form of a tiny Android phone - the Palm Phone.

This device is useless as a primary phone, as Palm went a bridge too far squeezing the battery such that it lasts half a day on light use. But with volume and weight of 25% of a typical 2021 phone, it is great for casual use. It runs proper Android and just about any app you may want. And Palm did really a good job customizing the UI to fit the small screen - the launcher is first class.

It can be a backup on the road. Broken screens happen. and this thing is so tiny it is no brainer to carry it as a backup device when traveling.

It is a great "fitness" phone, if you need one. Again the tiny nature helps with any activity and it is waterproof. There is even a specially designed custom armband which puts the on the forearm - easy to navigate things like music or calls.

For me it is primarily an audiobooks-on-the-run player. Just when I sorted out everything with the Garmin being my audiobook player and even sorted out how to use Spotify on Garmin to play podcasts, it turns out the Audible rental books cannot be downloaded to the watch. Well, they can but that requires rooting the phone and extracting the encryption keys. I may do this one day just to prove all those content encryption schemes do not make sense. But in the meantime, for the rental books on the run I use the Palm. As you can see, it is barely larger than the iPod Nano, so yes strap it to the arm and go :)