Palm OS

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Palm OS was a mobile operating system initially developed by Palm, Inc. for personal digital assistants (PDAs) in 1996. It was later used in smartphones and other mobile devices. Palm OS was designed to be easy to use and provided a suite of basic applications for personal information management.

History

Palm OS was originally developed under the direction of Jeff Hawkins, the founder of Palm Computing, Inc. The first version of Palm OS was released in 1996 on the Pilot 1000 and Pilot 5000 PDAs. Over the years, Palm OS evolved through several versions, adding new features and capabilities.

In 2003, Palm, Inc. was split into two companies: palmOne and PalmSource. PalmSource was responsible for the development of Palm OS. In 2005, PalmSource was acquired by ACCESS Co., Ltd., a Japanese company, and the operating system was renamed to Garnet OS.

Features

Palm OS was known for its simplicity and ease of use. Key features included:

• A graphical user interface with a touchscreen.
• A suite of built-in applications, including Calendar, Address Book, To-Do List, and Memo Pad.
• Support for third-party applications, which could be installed via HotSync.
• A Graffiti handwriting recognition system for text input.
• Infrared and later Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity.

Versions

Palm OS went through several major versions:

• Palm OS 1.0: Released in 1996 with the original Pilot devices.
• Palm OS 2.0: Introduced in 1997, added support for backlights and infrared communication.
• Palm OS 3.0: Released in 1998, included support for color screens and enhanced connectivity options.
• Palm OS 4.0: Introduced in 2001, added support for SD cards and MMC storage.
• Palm OS 5.0: Released in 2002, transitioned to the ARM architecture for better performance and multimedia capabilities.
• Palm OS 6.0: Also known as Cobalt, released in 2004, but it was not widely adopted.

Devices

Palm OS was used in a variety of devices, including:

• PalmPilot
• Palm III
• Palm V
• Palm m100 series
• Tungsten series
• Zire series
• Treo series

Decline and Legacy

The popularity of Palm OS began to decline in the mid-2000s with the rise of more advanced mobile operating systems like iOS and Android. Palm, Inc. eventually shifted its focus to the webOS platform, which was introduced in 2009.

Despite its decline, Palm OS had a significant impact on the development of mobile computing and influenced many of the features found in modern smartphones.

See Also

• Palm, Inc.
• webOS
• Personal digital assistant
• Smartphone
• Mobile operating system

Related Pages

• PalmPilot
• Palm III
• Palm V
• Tungsten (Palm)
• Zire series
• Treo series
• webOS