Here at PalmPower, we do groove on controversy. In this installment of our semi-regular Letters to the Editor series, we reprint two letters on opposite sides of the fence. One fellow loves our refreshing analysis while another asks us about "bending over". What fun! We also include another entertainingly cranky letter from a reader who wants us to improve the magazine and a special tidbit from Jeff Carlson about Macintosh extensions that you should definitely read if you’re a Macintosh user.

Part history lesson, part blast from the past, this month’s editorial from Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz uses products from the past to inspire greatness in the future. This month, you’ll get a great retrospective on software technology, learn a little about what worked really well in the early days of personal computers, and see how to apply the best of that time to software that runs on Palm devices. Whether you’re a Palm Computing Platform software developer or an enthusiastic user, you’ll gain some valuable perspective reading this article.

Hey there, sports fans! If you’re one of those baseball fans that needs to know every baseball statistic possible, May’s PalmPower Site of the Month could be your dream come true. Check it out.

The Palm III, Palm IIIx, and Palm V have flash memory that’s used to hold the operating system. In this article, Senior Technical Editor Claire Pieterek reviews an update to a popular software product that allows you to gain access to an additional 800K of flash memory to hold applications and backup your data. For less than $30, you can substantially increase the power of your Palm device!

If you’ve ever used a Palm Computing device, you’re probably familiar with Doc files. Files saved in this format can be easily downloaded and viewed on your Palm device using one of many popular Doc viewer applications. This article by Mark Lawson shows you how to easily create uncompressed Doc e-text databases using just LotusScript. Pretty soon, all your Notes notes will be in the palm of your hand.

This month, contributing editor Bob Freud has one simple statement: buy this book. What book? Jeff Carlson’s book, The Palm III and PalmPilot Visual QuickStart Guide. Put simply, Carlson’s book is excellent. When you read Bob’s article, you’ll learn why, then you’ll get Jeff’s book, and then you’ll know everything you ever wanted to know about your Palm device. But keep reading PalmPower anyway.

Jason Dunn is an avid Windows CE user. He’s been searching for the perfect portable solution for years. In this interesting and personal retrospective, Jason takes us on a tour down Windows CE memory lane. Along the way, he helps us all understand a little bit more about how Windows CE came to be.

Have you ever thought of using your Windows CE device as an FTP server? How about as a news reader? Have you gone truly geeky and dreamt of turning your handheld computer into a terminal on a UNIX box? Craig Peacock has. In fact, Craig has used his Windows CE device in lots of new and exciting ways now that he’s connected via Ethernet. In this important and timely article, Craig give you step-by-step instructions on how you too can connect your Windows CE device to an Ethernet network. If you want to learn how to pump data at nearly 200 times the speed of a 56K modem (not to mention all the other cool uses of Ethernet), you should read this article right now.

Imagine a color laptop for under $1000. Now imagine it’s 2.5 pounds, runs for 10 hours on a single charge, and doesn’t need to boot up to start up. That’s the HP Jornada 820, one of the hottest new Windows CE devices around. Contributing Editor Jason Perlow, dedicated reviewer that he is, decided to test out the Jornada 820 while sick in bed. It’s a valuable and interesting article, if you can get past feeling sorry for poor Jason.

It seems fitting to kick off our Premiere Issue by having a candid conversation with Microsoft’s Jonathan Roberts, General Manager of Market Development for Windows CE. In this fascinating, exclusive interview conducted by Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz, Roberts shares the inside scoop on Microsoft’s Windows CE strategy. Whether you’re new to Windows CE or an old hand, this is the must-read interview you can’t miss.