No question in my mind, PALM is under a quiet period..or this would have been announced,IMO...A good first step..
Feb. 12, 2000
Navy equips 2,000 officers with Palm V hand-held computers
BY JACK DORSEY, The Virginian-Pilot
Copyright 2000, Landmark Communications Inc.
NORFOLK -- For less than the cost of a single cruise missile, the Navy has armed 2,000 of its seagoing officers with hand-held personal computers to improve communications, productivity and efficiency.
Called Palm V's, the devices take the place of notebooks and binders that once may have held a naval officer's written notes.
Vice Adm. Henry C. Giffin III, commander of the Atlantic Fleet Surface Force, called the initial purchase just a beginning for the sailor of the 21st century, who must be kept current in an era of ever-changing information technology.
''Every sailor should have one of these,'' said Giffin, noting that for now, the $300 pocket units will be provided only to officers.
As he demonstrated the device's usefulness aboard the guided missile destroyer Laboon on Friday, he said he hoped that eventually, every crew member, officer and enlisted member will have one.
Ship captains are looking for extra money to outfit their crews with more, Giffin said.
Enlisted crew members also should be given a laptop computer the moment they graduate from boot camp, Giffin said. Officers finishing Surface Warfare School in Newport, R.I., should be receiving laptops within a year, he said.
Eventually, said Giffin, a sailor will report to work, plug into a computer docking station and receive work assignments, inventories, information updates and a video showing how to perform maintenance.
''That's the way we should go,'' Giffin said. ''This is just the way the young generation grew up. They expect that of us if we want to keep them in our modern Navy.''
The initial contract award is the largest single government agency purchase of any hand-held device, the Navy said.
And it demonstrates a commitment to efficient, improved communications, Giffin said.
Ten of the devices went to officers aboard the Laboon who are using the Palm V's to coordinate daily and weekly schedules and to consolidate and coordinate checklists and databases.
''It's one of the neatest things I've ever seen,'' said Lt. Jeff Keenan, combat systems officer aboard the Laboon, who has had his Palm V for about two weeks.
''I picked it up and took to it right away,'' he said. ''I used to be one of those people who carried around a big date book all the time, and I'd misplace it plenty of times, particularly when you'd put it down to climb a ladder.''
Morning department head briefings, or officers' call, where the day's work schedules and other assignments are discussed, are perfect opportunities to use the devices, said Lt. j.g. Nicole T. Bunar, the Laboon's assistant navigator.
''When briefing the executive officer or the captain on things that you got done today, and they have another list for you to do, it makes it easy,'' she said, ''because they can lay things down as they think about them. It saves time.
''It's also got my grocery list in it,'' she said.
''The only disadvantage,'' said Lt. j.g. Manny Lara, ''is that the rest of the division officers don't have them yet.''
The Laboon hopes to change that soon, providing one to every officer and chief petty officer.
''We are finding new uses for the Palm Pilot everyday,'' said Lt. Scott MacGdog G, the Laboon's chief engineer.
MacGdog G, who has his undergraduate and master's degrees in computer science, foresees a time when the device will be mandatory for a crew member, especially as the size of ship crews shrink and demands upon time grow.
''It helps me on a daily basis,'' MacGdog G said. ''I can be walking down a passageway and something will stick in my mind, and I can pull this out and write it down right away.''
The Palm V has the ability to electronically send a message from one device to another with the click of a button.
That could come in handy, said Giffin, ''especially if the XO's putting you to sleep and you can beam (information) to another person in the room. Just be careful the XO doesn't have his on, too.''
While the surface force is the largest Navy community to receive the Palm Pilots, about 80 have gone to submarine commands in Georgia, and some helicopter pilots in San Diego have purchased a few, said John A. Inkley, federal sales manager for Palm Computing Inc. of Vienna, Va.
The Marine Corps also is experimenting with them by connecting a global positioning system (GPS) to the Palm Pilot, Inkley said.
By hooking up a GPS and some other software, it will trace the route the Marines took in an exercise, even computing their velocity, whether they were walking or running, he said.
The first Palm device entered the market just three to four years ago, Inkley said. Their acceptance has been phenomenal.
''There has been no other computer that has sold so quickly. Ever,'' he said.
''Ten years from, now we can stand here and do video conferencing with the device,'' he said. ''Kodak just announced a clip-on where I can turn this into a viewfinder and it becomes a digital camera.''
Reach Jack Dorsey at 446-2284 or jdorsey@pilotonline.com
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