Rating: 
Summary: Take your Palm organizer to "Infinity and Beyond"
Review: A must buy for any serious user who wants to do more than store phone numbers and keep track of appointments! The native software that comes with the palm organizers is only the beginning. David Pogue explains in practical and enjoyable terms ways to enhance the capabilities of every aspect of your organizer. The CD ROM that accompanies the book is an invaluble source of add on software(freeware, shareware and 3rd party). The book is an excellent resource for troubleshooting and expanding the hardware capabilities as well. I purchased the 1st edition and jumped at the opportunity to get the 2nd edition as the updated information was current and allowed me to take full advantage of new opportunities with my Palm III(with 8Mb of memory thanks to this book). This book has opened my eyes to the full power and potential of the Palm OS. Buying this book is a no brainer!
Rating: 
Summary: Pogue Covers the Width and Breadth...
Review: David Pogue has long been a favorite source of mine for Mac books, and when I was planning to buy a PDA, his was the first and the best of the PalmPilot books I consulted. Not only is Pogue a strong writer, but also O'Reilly is a respected computer books publisher. About the only downside to Pogue's book is its age -- it is definitely due for an overhaul, as it barely touches on newer Palm, Inc. handhelds and Palm OS clones. As a Handspring owner, I was a little disappointed to not have much information pertaining directly to my handheld. Nevertheless, that's a minor qualm, as I saved myself days of quibbling with my new device, and got right to working thanks to Pogue's book. Not only that, but the CD that comes with the book made it absolutely worth the cost. I definitely suggest this book.
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Summary: an accessible reference for users of various levels
Review: David Pogue's "PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide" is part concordance to PalmPilot user manuals and part encyclopedic Rosetta Stone with which to unlock some of the deeper user secrets of this phenomenally popular handheld computer. Pogue manages to present both the most practical and the arcane aspects of the PalmPilot in well-written, thoughtfully organized and easy-to-read text, which is broken up into logical chapters interspersed with regular and valuable "tips" and "warnings," as well as occasional sidebars, notes, "Executive Tip" summaries, and screen shots. Nothing strikes the PalmPilot user-reader as gratuitous here. Living up to its subtitle, the book is indeed comprehensive, providing more information than all but the most dedicated power users likely will ever need. At the same time, it is surprisingly accessible; the reader looking for a quick answer to an immediate question or problem will not likely be disappointed or frustrated. The included CD-ROM represents a good collection of useful software programs for the Palm computer, even if many are the "light" versions of more robust programs available for commercial purchase. The only improvement I would wish is that O'Reilly had published this soft cover ubermanual and reference as a loose-leaf binder that easily could be updated for this quickly-evolving computing platform and would more likely stand up to the heavy use this publication invites.
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Summary: The CD maybe is it's best mate...and your great deal...
Review: I bougth this book and when I started to explore the CD that comes with it...I really wondered my self as hell!!!!!!!. This CD has a lot of programs(3500) and many of 'em are a beauty. I love CD more than just the book . I love my palm and when my palm get broken I ?d buy another one, but is hard to loss your palm they are maden for long life.
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Summary: This is a great book for palm pilot users.
Review: I get antsy whenever I see a book that describes itself as the "Ultimate" anything. I've picked books like this up and they are usually anything *but* the ultimate. However, Mr. Pogue's book on the Palm Pilot may very well fill the descriptive title. This is a very intensively researched book full of tips, hints, humorous antedotes and a wealth of information for any Palm Pilot user. It covers the basics of each of the applications on your Palm Pilot as well as many of the excellent freeware and shareware titles that are included with the book. For more advanced users, there are chapters on using your palm pilot to send and receive email, upgrading your palm pilot and how to use the desktop utility more effectively. Yes, all the shareware/freeware programs are available on the internet for downloading and if you don't have a life and can spend hours and hours of your time searching the web for these gems, then you probably won't need the CD. I doubt that most people will go the former route though. The book also gives a short "history" of the various models that have come out; from the Palm Pilot 1000/5000 series, Personal and Professional Palm Pilot to the Palm III. This book will not necessarily "teach" you how to use your Palm Pilot. You've probably taught yourself that in about 15 minutes. However, what this book will do for you is to help you to use your Palm Pilot better and more efficiently. Even if you don't need any tutoring, the book is entertaining in it's own right for any Palm Pilot fanatic. You get this gigantic book PLUS a CD chock full with 900+ programs for your Pilot. It's like buying the CD and getting the book free. The writing style of Mr. Pogue is clear and humorous. I would recommend this book highly to anyone who truly values their Palm Pilot.
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Summary: Too old now, but good when it was new
Review: I like this book, or rather, I loved it when it was new, but now that I have a Tungsten T3 I have no use for this book. I agve it away for free with my old Palm Vx to a friend.
It was a great book, but if your Palm is anything newer than Palm Vx you don't want it.
Rating:
Summary: Helpful for beginners
Review: It's definitely for beginners. I bought the first edition of this book when I was starting to shop for a PDA. I was looking for information on what the Palm units were capable of doing before I plunked down the big bucks. I have sinced lent my copy to several people trying to make the same decisions. I found the book very helpful in outlining the softwware available and explaining how the operating systems works. I was looking for an update in the 2nd edition but its not current enough. There needs to be a 3rd edition to cover the most current operating systems. Otherwise, it is still a good source of information if one is trying to decide what kind of PDA to buy.
Rating:
Summary: Useful book
Review: Since there are lots of good general reviews already here of this book, I thought I would add a few comments I didn't see elsewhere. Although this is an excellent book, I think most people who buy Palm Pilots and Visors are technically savvy enough so that learning the basic operation of the device or the built-in apps is not much of a problem, which is what most of the book is about. That being the case, I think the best way for most owners to use this book is to do the following. The book has hundreds of undocumented tips and tricks that are worth the price of the book just by themselves. I would just go through each chapter and read these first, and not worry too much about the rest of the text for now. Then later, if you want to go back and read the full description of one of the applications or some other topic, you could do it then. The tips and tricks are set off on each page with a little picture of an owl, so they're not hard to find. I actually read the whole book before this occurred to me, which was fine, but since then I have dipped back into many of the chapters just to refresh my memory on all the great tips and tricks, and I've found this to be a good way to pick up more time-saving short-cuts, or just new, fun ways to use the device. In addition to all the tips and tricks there are several special sections I have to mention just because they're so much fun. These are the descriptions of how to access all the hidden "Easter eggs." There are more of these than I realized. You can learn how to bring up all of them, including the "dancing palm tree," and the little "taxi cab." (The Palm's original project code name was "Taxi"). Since there are several places in the text where these appear, the best way to locate them is to just look up "Easter eggs" in the book index. There is one chapter, however, that I would read all the way through. This is the chapter on hot-synching. There is some good info here, especially on some of the more technical aspects of hot-synching, but perhaps most importantly, on how to avoid some of the pitfalls. If you're an experienced Palm or Visor user, you may have noticed that this process isn't always as straightforward as the regular manual says, and sometimes it does some unexpected or even weird things. Since we're on the topic, I have to mention one of these here. If you're one of those people who have two (or more) Palms or Visors, here is the most important thing you can learn about hot-synching. I experienced this problem before I encountered the explanation and fix for it in this book. (This was worth the price of the book just by itself.) If you have two units and you hot-sync to the same machine or computer, you must give each of the them a separate name in the Palm Desktop software. You do this by clicking on the "User" box in the top-right of the Palm Desktop software program and selecting "edit users." Give the second Palm a different name from the first. Then always use the correct name with each Palm or Visor each time you hot-sync. There is one more gotcha here. In the desktop program you can pre-select the name of which unit is to be hot-synched. However, if you do this from the cradle without the desktop program being launched, it will pop up another dialog box, and at that point you can select which name to use. If you just click on "okay" assuming that the desktop program knows which one you're using, you can still get into trouble. If you fail to give different units different names, and furthermore, to select the correct one each time you hot-sync, the desktop software can become confused, and, as Pogue points out, may hopelessly thrash the information on one or both units. So beware. All in all a useful book for any Palm or Visor owner.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Guide...a brilliant start!
Review: This book provided me with a great deal of insight into just how the Palm operates and how I can use it to do what I need it to do. I found it helpful in the areas of importing/exporting graphics; what models are expandable and which are not. I knew a lot of this info. from just have the Palm handheld, but there were many particulars I knew nothing of that the book helped me understand. I recommend it for those who just got their Palm handheld or those who desire a more intimate knowledge of. Sadly, I don't use the CD-ROM as much as I could but the disc is organized well with an easily understood navigation system.
Rating:
Summary: The Ultimate Guide...a brilliant start!
Review: This book provided me with a great deal of insight into just how the Palm operates and how I can use it to do what I need it to do. I found it helpful in the areas of importing/exporting graphics; what models are expandable and which are not. I knew a lot of this info. from just have the Palm handheld, but there were many particulars I knew nothing of that the book helped me understand. I recommend it for those who just got their Palm handheld or those who desire a more intimate knowledge of. Sadly, I don't use the CD-ROM as much as I could but the disc is organized well with an easily understood navigation system.
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