Reported in the Nov 2001 issue, Hal Goldstein and Rich Hall head to New York City to attend PC expo (they had actually attended in June). Hal writes about the Cassiopeia BE-300 being a Palm-Killer, but Rich catches a glimpse of a potential, future iPhone-killer at the show, but can't know what the significance might have been for WM and Palm yet... If we only had a time machine, eh?

The newly released $200 Dell Axim X5 was poised to take the PDA world by storm. Orange released the first Windows Mobile powered smartphone; Allen Gall reviewed one of my fav games (Interstellar Flames), and Microsoft Active Sync 3.6 fixed some sync problems. It was a good year for Windows Mobile,

Rich Hall--It's a Dell, Dude!

Tech is truly like deja vu all over again... As part of my blog tribute, I'm reading through past copies of our print mag, since it will no longer be in print (you can probably find our final issue at a mag stand near you). Today I was perusing our buyers guide from 2003, and marvelling about the articles on the handheld PC back then (only 5 years ago, but a lifetime in tech). It reminded much of the transition time when the PDA started to give way to phone devices. Now, it's maybe Windows Mobile to something else entirely (G1, iPhone, UMPCs, etc.).

I'm kind of doing a shotgun approach to this magazine tribute. Which means I go through the issues trolling for choice tidbits and interesting articles and when I happen upon something that catches my eye or the mood strikes me, I add to a post. Revolutionary thinking on my part, I know.

Perhaps, what I am most proud of in producing the magazine is our annual Best Software Awards. If you haven't seen the results yet in this our eighth year, check out our awards site. You can also pick up a copy of our final issue, the Super Resource Guide, due out this month with awards results and details.

This month, in our monthly blog topic, we are doing a fairwell tribute to our magazine as it goes to the printer for the final issue. So, I thought it fitting to start with a screenshot of one of my favorite PDAs of all time--the iPAQ 3900. I bought my first copy of this magazine at around the same time I bought my 3955. It still works great, and I sometimes use it when I have to travel to places where I'm afraid my newer devices will get damaged or lost. I would often pack a copy of our magazine to take along as well.