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Wow! You Can Do That With a Palm?

© Janice Karin

Palms are finally starting to go mainstream. They are being used for all sorts of things by all sorts of people.

I thought I'd highlight a few of the more interesting uses I've stumbles across.

Customer Support, Anyone?

A company named iCommunicate has developed a customer support system that interfaces with Palms. Customer questions can automatically be routed to the most appropriate person, no matter where they are. See this article in Potomac Tech Journal for more information.

Beam Me That Show Guide Scotty

Although Palm and other heavily computer-based companies have been providing beaming stations at trade shows for a while, the practice is starting to spread to non-technical companies like General Motors. At the recent 2001 North American Auto Show in Detroit, General Motors had beaming stations distributing product specs and show information to attendees with Palms. They also provided an electronic version of their press package for journalists with Palms. See this article at C|Net for more information.

I Can Vote With This Thing?

Well, not quite. But in the recent election, several states did experiment with the use of eSlate handheld devices for voting. Parts of Texas and Colorado used the eSlates during this past election. These devices use PIN numbers to ensure that voting only occurs once and work by turning dials to highlight the desired candidate for each race. One the name of your candidate is highlighted, simply press enter and you're done. You can also review the votes before finalizing them. Although there are still some privacy and security concerns, this method greatly reduces voter error. As we saw this past election every vote does matter.

More information about the use of these devices in the past elections can be found in this article in DigitalMass. Information on the eSlate devices can be found here.

What Else?

People are using Palms to catalog books in libraries, Palms with barcode scanners for inventory control, and for medical monitoring. All sorts of new applications (both uses and software) are being thought up all the time. Who knows what's next?

The copyright of the article Wow! You Can Do That With a Palm? in Palm Computing Devices is owned by Janice Karin. Permission to republish Wow! You Can Do That With a Palm? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.