Palm Pilot
It's from 1997, before you were born.
- Maker
- Palm, Inc.
- Type
- Personal digital assistant (PDA)
- Debuted
- 1997
- Note
- You had to learn its handwriting, Graffiti
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About
As of 2026, it's 29 years old.
Before phones did everything, the Palm Pilot did the important stuff: calendar, contacts, to-do lists, and a calculator, all in a pocket slab you poked with a plastic stylus. It even made you learn a special alphabet called Graffiti, because apparently your handwriting wasn't good enough for a computer.
It was the original sync-to-your-desktop ritual, dropping the thing into a cradle and watching little arrows fly back and forth. For late-90s professionals, owning one was basically a personality.
The Palm Pilot was the pocket organizer that taught us we wanted a tiny computer everywhere, then graciously stepped aside so the smartphone could take the credit.
