I remember the first time I bought a Palm Pilot. 
It had a cheap little stylus and the hardware “creaked” when you squeezed it. The backlight looked like an old timex ironman watch.
But it had 4 great buttons that went to address book, calender, todo and memo pad. And it had a handwriting recognition called Graffiti. That worked pretty well.
But the magic was that thing syncd great with Outlook. Apple’s Newton which shipped earlier was bigger, fatter, more expensive but didn’t sync. At all.
I loved my Palm Pilot. I bought each new model with pride.
In the 1997, I gave a talk at the Stanford Business School about WebTV. Ed Colligan who was at Palm at the time (before starting Handspring later) was there too. He demo’s the Palm III. That was a cool device. I bought that one too. I’m not sure if Ed remembers me from that day but I remember his passion for their products & his ability to tell a story. He gave one of the best product demos I’d ever seen.
I stayed with Palm and then bought a Handspring and then a Treo. My affair with Palm ended in 2003. And for better or worse I haven’t looked back.
I spent sometime reading up on Palm’s new Pre phone early this morning. And I watched Ed Colligan talking about the Pre on youtube.
I honestly can’t see myself going back to Palm at this point. Especially since they are only launching on Sprint initially.
But I am rooting for Palm. They were an amazing company and built incredible products. And it looks like they are innovating again.