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10/04/2002 Interview with Steve Clack- publishing editor of PalmUser Magazine
When was Palmtop magazine formed and what was your circulation for your first issue?
The company was formed late in 1994. Back then the World Wide Web wasn’t really established, so our only means of publicising the forthcoming Psion magazine over the first few months was via Psion-related newsgroups. I was pleasantly surprised to find that we’d accumulated more than 100 people who were prepared to commit to a full year’s subscription before the first issue was released. That first (48 page) issue of the magazine was subsequently reprinted four times, amounting to thousands of copies.
What do you think are the most important emerging technologies in the PDA world?
So many technologies that look like they’re going to be a winner ultimately fizzle and die. Bluetooth really deserves to be a winner though, given its very low power consumption, which makes it more suitable for handheld devices than 802.11b. I don’t think the real success will come until it becomes an integrated part of the machines though, as infrared is now. The sleds, Memory Stick and SD-based Bluetooth units should be enough to get the early-adopters on board, but it won’t become mainstream until it’s seamlessly built in. In terms of general usability, both screen quality and data input speed are limiting factors to the overall success of PDAs, with many potential users finding the whole thing just too awkward to use. Emerging screen technologies will certainly help the former, but it remains to be seen how the data input problem will be solved. ‘Real’ (rather than on-screen) keyboards will certainly help, but their small size will always limit their effectiveness.
What prompted you to get into the world of PDAs and PDA magazines?
My previous job with a scientific equipment manufacturer meant that I spent large amounts of time travelling the world, with a real need to get work done while either in a hotel room or sat on a plane. As a result, I tried out a number of portable solutions over the years, gradually moving from laptops and notebook computers to handhelds, as the latter became more usable and powerful. There were no notable PDA magazines around at the time, so I just decided to try to fill the gap with my own efforts. I had no previous experience of printing or publishing, and had never even used a desktop publishing package before, so it was quite a learning curve.
Do you have plans to produce any other magazines (Pocket PC)?
We’re always looking at new avenues for expansion, but at the moment none of our existing editorial team or contributors own or use a Pocket PC, so the impetus really isn’t there. That’s not to say that Pocket PCs don’t have many excellent points, but for now we’re all quite engrossed in other things.
What PDA do you use currently (why?) and how many PDA's have you owned?
In the course of publishing two separate PDA magazines (one for the Psion/EPOC world and the other for the Palm OS world), I naturally need to work with lots of different machines on a day-to-day basis. For my own personal use, however, my primary PDAs are a CLIE T625C, which I love, and an EPOC-powered Nokia 9210 Communicator, which is superb for email and SMS messaging, amongst other things. With the brightest and clearest display of any current model, 16MB of RAM and Memory Stick expansion, the CLIE 625 is simply the most pleasant Palm device to use. If I’m travelling and need to write long articles while away from base, I generally use a Psion Series 5mx or Psion netBook (a sub-notebook). Although I have an Apple iBook laptop, I absolutely never travel with it, preferring something more compact while on the road. I make it a total of 15 handhelds that I’ve actively used, over a period of almost 18 years. That’s one Casio (which was more of a souped-up programmable calculator than a PDA), eight Psion/EPOC devices and six Palm OS handhelds—plus four laptop/sub-notebooks.
Do you think people get personally attached to their PDAs?
I guess so, in the same way that people get attached to their mobile phones, or anything else that’s carried with them on a regular basis. Hopefully, what people are really getting attached to is the fact that it allows them to carry so much useful information around in such a convenient package. And no, I don’t have a ‘pet’ name for my PDA!
Who, in your opinion, will become the main player in the PDA Market-Palm, Microsoft, Sony or Psion?
Psion is (sadly) no longer a significant player in the grand scheme of things, though other Symbian partners such as Nokia remain very strong. The PDA is transitioning into more of a PDA/communicator hybrid, and the biggest question is probably who’s going to make the best job of melding those two technologies together, and more importantly, marketing it in the right way. Microsoft is a formidable force, on size alone, but the Palm platform has so many attractions, not least its installed base and the breadth of software already available. On the other hand, who better to dominate the world of mobile communicators than Nokia, which already has good control of the mobile phone market? If it sounds like I’m hedging my bets then it’s because I am. At this stage in the proceedings I wouldn’t put a penny of my money on any one of the three players over the other two. The most important thing for we users is that regardless of who ultimately ‘wins’, we’ll all end up with better devices one way or the other.
What are your current plans for development of your Psion magazine?
The world of Psion palmtops is understandably contracting quite quickly now, but that gap is being amply filled with the remarkable success of the Nokia 9210 communicator, which (in Europe, at least) is currently outselling everything else in its category. We’re very excited by this success, and our Psion magazine will gradually incorporate more and more related content to satisfy the great interest in this device and its progeny.
What's your favourite song and music artist and why?
Having been a huge fan of music since I was very young, I’ve often wondered what I would name as my very favourite piece of music—there are just so many things I love, for so many different reasons. A lot of stuff that would date me, I’m afraid, such as Pink Floyd, Camel, Tangerine Dream, plus some more modern material: Annie Lennox, Enya, Queen—plus dozens and dozens of others, including a fair amount of jazz and a bit of classical. I just love music.
If you could make a PDA what 3 'new' features would you include?
Excluding things that are already available as add-ons, such as phone functionality, GPS and Bluetooth, how about an OCR ‘eye’ in the top of the device, so you can swipe the unit over a block of text, line by line, and have it scan the words directly into Memo Pad? An integrated solid state voice recorder would also be handy—voice activated, of course. And finally it would be nice to have the handheld let out a loud chirp whenever you clap your hands, so you don’t have to remember exactly where you put it!
Thanks to Steve for taking the time to do the interview. I can recommend PalmUser and PalmTop magazines because I have been a subscriber for years and own EVERY issue! Extremely well written and only £24 per year. Details here.