If you would like to contribute or send in an article please do- hopefully I will be able to produce versions that run on your PDA over time. Doc and iSilo versions will be available for each article and you will be able to read them direct from the web site but it would be nice to bundle them together in a PDA friendly format so that you can carry articles with you. PS. Watch out for my book 'PDA' which will be released soon. Thanks Shaun McGill
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archived articlesYou know you're addicted to PDA when... by Patrick Robbe (11/12/03)
Every now and then, I stumble on some humorous stuff which (like so many people) I of course immediately forward to a few PDA-fans friends I know. I remember, sometime back in time, reading a very funny text about the visible signs of PDA addictions. Along with some visible and evident ones (like carrying your PDA with you all the time in a beltcase, even when you're at home), there were some clever ones like finding yourself using the Graffiti handwriting when hastily scribling a name or phone number on a piece of old-fashioned paper... ;-)
A recent experience made me think again about PDA addiction, how you can detect it and more importantly (because if you're reading that, chances are that you're already addicted to some degree! ) can we fight back and defeat it?
Everything actually started back this summer. Back then, I was the happy owner of a nice and fresh (9 months only, a relative youth for a PDA) Sony Clie NX70V. During the holidays, I received the pleasant visit of an American friend of mine, Jane, and her husband. We'd met online, and exchanged long and deep emails about PDAs at first, then politics, religion, war and various other subjects. But the fact is that we still spent some serious time talking about PDAs during her visit! :-)
Let's admit it: every PDA owner wants the same thing: the ultimate device, which provides his/her owner with the most "bangs for bucks". Whenever a new device is released, almost everyone, given the opportunity (the money problem aside) would probably upgrade, so Jane and I were talking about possible upgrade paths, and I mentioned a very promising article I had read on BrightHand or P.I.C. about the Samsung SGH-i500 PalmOS smartphone.
It's not that I was particularly dissatisfied with my NX70V, mind you, it's just that after a few months, when the initial fever starts wearing down, you're a potential victim for this 'upgrade-lust' if anything shiny appears on the horizon. And boy! How shiny this smartphone was indeed: a core equally powerful when compared to my current PDA, but with wireless capabilities on top of that, and in a smaller form-factor... A sure and easy win, I thought.
Jane mentioned the fact that it wasn't a Sony Clie anymore, and that would break a tradition of Sony brand devices I had followed since I bought the (in)famous S500C when it was released in Japan (I owned a N700C after the S500C, and then the NX70V). I won't quote here all the details from our long talks about loyalty toward a given brand, or simply toward the people who were more or less regularly reading my Clie-centric website, suffice it to say that I realized then that the lust for a wireless device would start gaining momentum in my mind, and unless Sony made a quick move by releasing a wireless device first, my next unit could potentially be a non-Sony one.
To make a long story short, the Samsung SGH-i500 proved to be essentially a vaporware: announced in March 2003's CEBIT, he was supposed to be available at Q3, 2003, but it hasn't yet been released, and the most optimistic estimates give us a release in February or March 2004 at the earliest, and probably later (if ever: Samsung has already announced its successor, the SGH-i505!)
Disappointed I was, but definitely not broken-hearted: it was mildly frustrating to wait for the official release of the device, but since only prototypes had been sighted so far, it was only fair to calmly wait for the release without complaining much... To occupy my idling mind, I decided to have an in-depth look at the wireless devices available on the market. There wasn't much to say: the Treo 180/270/300 were still running OS3.5, the Tungsten W had a hires screen but still an old OS, too, and since I wasn't particularly in a hurry to upgrade, after all, I decided to consider only OS5 devices (i.e. not the existing Samsung or Kyocera devices). By chance, Handspring had let loose some rumors and specs about the future Treo 600, so I had "facts" to reflect upon and enlighten my upgrade decision.
At that time Handspring had not provided an official release date for this product, but as far as the rumor went, it was more advanced than the Samsung, so I decided to have a look at this device in case it would happen to suit my needs. The more I thought about it, and the more interesting it seemed to me. Perfect? Definitely not! Revolutionary? Certainly! And appealing at that...
All that made me gradually evolve from a polite indifference to a true "love" for this Treo 600. And that's when I realized how addicted I was to PDAs... :-(
My NX70V Clie was still working correctly, a power-monster of a PDA with a huge and pleasant screen, two memory card slots (1 MemoryStick + 1 CompactFlash), Wifi AND Bluetooth (even if I had to carry two cards for that), a decent builtin digicam, but I had lost the faith, and was waiting for the Treo 600 release.
Then, in early October, the news fell: Orange had officially launched the Treo 600 in Europe, and Sprint would soon do that in the US. All we had to do was wait another couple of weeks, and sure enough, devices started to appear here and there, almost one by one: the Treo 600 was becoming a reality.
Being officially launched doesn't mean being available "at once", though, and then came the fatal stroke of Destiny: it rapidly appeared that either Handspring had decided to artificially create a strong demand for the Treo 600 by delivering the devices at a snail pace, or they just failed to ensure that proper quantities of the product were built before launching the device publicly. Anyway, it quickly became apparent that getting one would be hard and tedious. Between the stock shortage and the sim-locking problem (all the Treo 600 sold here in France were purchased through the Orange carrier channel, so they are sim-locked to the Orange cards & networks. And if you don't take an Orange subscription, you can have a hard time to get your Treo 600 unlocked, even if you're ready to pay the full price!), November came and went without the chance for me to buy a Treo 600.
Not that I didn't try very hard: a friend of mine has recently opened a PDA shop in my town, and he was as eager to get Treo 600 as I was, but no luck so far! I asked a couple of people I know (Mike Cane of P.I.C. fame in N.Y., Jane in Chicago, Brando (from the eponym PDA accessories shop) in Hong Kong, Daniel Seifert (a friendly PalmOS developer) in Germany), but everywhere the answer was the same: the Treo 600 were always back-ordered, and most of the time very expensive, what with the taxes & shipping fees or just the initial retail price (can you believe that Handspring wants 900 Euros for one of these jewels?)
The "You know you're addicted to PDA when..." title for this article was chosen on purpose: let me tell you how I discovered how addicted I was: after looking around me and asking my international friends, I decided to pay a bit more and order one. I had bookmarked the DOML site in Singapore, but by the time I decided to order a Treo 600 from them, they were back-ordered as well, and the price had substantially increased. But my salvation came from Expansys (or so I thought...), as they had the unlocked GSM Treo 600 available for pre-order, with a nice price too! So on November 18th I finally ordered a Treo 600 on Expansys's French website, which indicated a delay of 30 days between the order date and the shipping of the product. I could relax a bit, and leave to Time the task of providing me my next PDA. Meanwhile, I had managed to sell my NX70V and associated accessories for a decent price (i.e. far below it's initial price, of course, but high enough so that I wouldn't have to add too much money to get the Treo 600), and I knew that somewhere around December 15th or 20th, I'd receive a nice unlocked GSM Treo 600.
Alas, just a few days after my order, Expansys sent me a message that triggered some unexpected emotions: they explained that the delivery date had already been postponed twice by Handspring, and that Handspring, again, was postponing the release of the unlocked GSM Treo 600 until early or mid-January, with no guarantee of course that the date wouldn't be subsequently delayed another time! :-(
Well, believe it or not, I needed a few days to digest that news, and I didn't sleep well that week. Even more embarrassing: I was becoming very irritable, and losing patience at the slightest provocation from my 3-years-old son (which meant that every couple of minutes I'd raise my voice, definitely not a good thing to do). Of course, I knew that the world wasn't going to end, that I could survive another month or more without the Treo (I had been lucky enough to buy a second hand Tungsten T for almost nothing, so I had a more than decent replacement unit while I was waiting for the Treo!), but however I tried to think about it, I couldn't stop resenting Handspring and Expansys for not being able to deliver the product as advertised, but more importantly for not being able to give me a reliable shipping date! Not knowing is the worst part, like so often... ;-)
In a very pragmatic manner, I had to find a solution. After a couple of days, my mind had stopped boiling, and I was able to recover most of my patience and good will, but I knew that deep inside, the Treo lust was waiting, hidden, ready to pop up its ugly head at the slightest opportunity! So I decided to act like a man, and forget about the Treo 600 for a while! No... I didn't want to lie to myself and neither will I lie to you: I decided that just taking a deep breath and pretending everything was all right was not a good idea, that I could certainly survive for another two months like that, but it wouldn't be fair for my wife and kids to have to live with me in such a state of mind. Call that collateral damages if you want, but I wasn't willing to have them bear that burden. Plus the fact, of course, that not waiting was in fact abiding by my addiction... So what did I do?
Well, I took a deep breath anyway (that never hurts), and started exploring new ways to get a Treo 600. My initial thought was to buy an Orange one, and have it unlocked, and I was preparing myself for a legal battle with Orange should they refuse to unlock the Treo in a timely manner. This was a stupid thing, you know, because if I had to wait three or four weeks for the unlock code, then Expansys would probably ship my unlocked Treo 600 before that, and it would even cost slightly less to go the Expansys way. I asked advice to other fellows PDA addicts^h^h^h^h^h^h^husers, and from there came the solution: one of my friends advised me that he'd read someone's message on the appropriate Usenet group (fr.petites-annonces.telephones.mobiles), a guy who was selling his Treo 600.
I'll leave out the details, but all in all, about 8 days after reading this announce, I was at last able to buy an unlocked GSM Treo 600 from him, and for a decent price at that! By chance I happen to be away from home for a couple of days so nobody's behind my back to see how much time I spent to set up the device with (nearly) all my previous PalmOS programs and files, and by the time I'll come back home the novelty factor will have marginally decreased to a manageable level, and I'm not going to bark at the wife and kids anymore! :-)
I'm a member of a (hopefully) very small fraction, the minority of 'heavy PDA addicts', and knowing that I plan to gradually reduce my addiction to return to the normality. Yes, I know, I sound like those people deciding to stop smoking or drinking... Maybe I'll make it, maybe I'm just deceiving myself again...
Meanwhile, Ô wise reader, ask yourself how addicted you really are:
- Do you feel frustrated when your wife or kid borrow your PDA for a game of Bejeweled ("It's mine, you have your own PDA" "But honey, my OS4 PDA is soooo much slower than your OS5 toy, pleeeaaaase let me play a couple of games")?
- Does your heart stop beating for a few seconds when you drop your PDA on the floor ("Is it broken? Did I lose the data it contains?")?
- Do you nervously, frequently tap your pocket or (with the elbow) feel under your coat to check if your trusted PDA is still hanging at your belt
- Do you feel naked when you have to go outside without your PDA ("Darling, do you really think it's safe to go jogging in the woods with your $700 PDA in your pocket?" "Well, there's that hotspot at the corner of the wood, and I thought I'd check my mail when I come back...")?
- Do you feel angry when your favorite PDA manufacturer releases yet another top-of-the-line device just days after you shelled out a few hundred dollars to get what you believed was the state-of-the-art PDA ("Do you think that my Zorglub 3 can be upgraded to OS12 by reflashing the ROM")?
- Do you spend every opportunity throughout the day to check on PDA24/7 if there's been some news posted since your last visit, just a couple of hours earlier ("I'll flush the cache and reload the page, just in case there's a problem with my browser, as the site shows the same content as this morning")?
- Do you often try new applications for your PDA, get seduced by a new, flashy one, buy it on impulse and discover after a few days/weeks of initial excitement that you don't really use it regularly?
- Do you often get involved in heated discussions (bordering on flame-wars) on PDA-related boards and discussion groups?
- Do you spend more in PDAs and accessories (software, cables, keyboards, etc...) than in gifts for your beloved ones?
If you've answered yes to more than two or three of those innocent questions, then take some time to ask yourself how dependent from your PDA your are. Both physically (life would sure be hell without your phone numbers and datebook, but you've got a backup on your desktop computer, haven't you? And you can always use that good old paper agenda if needed, right?) and psychologically (how would you spend the time and money you presently spend on your PDA?)
Family Life with a PDA by Gavin Fabiani-Laymond (11/12/03)
I know some of you are not even married, or would not even think of marriage. But I have been married for 9.5 years and have 4 children. (Thought - “If I had a PDA nine years ago, would I have had 4 kids?”)
But before I start here is a brief introduction as to how my PDA (a Palm Tungsten T3) is viewed:-
My wife’s definition of “PDA” is “Pointless, Disturbing and Annoying.”
My eldest son’s (7) definition of PDA is “Please Dad can I play Again?”
So you can see that my kids love it and my wife hates it or does she?
Scene 1
I have returned home from work and my wife wants to check what is on TV. While my wife asks me for the 1000th time how to use the cable remote control, I have opened Avantgo, selected Mydigiguide TV Listings for tonight and viola! A rather annoyed wife curses at me for using my PDA to check the TV listings when all I needed to do was use the on screen cable guide!!
I have returned home from work and my wife wants to check what is on TV. My PDA is nowhere in sight and she once again picks up the cable remote and cannot get it to work. She then asks if I could check my PDA. I comment its upstairs to which she reacts angrily for not having it in my pocket!!
Scene 2
Its Saturday night and “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” is on. A difficult question arises. I open my PDA to search one of several encyclopaedias. My wife looks at me with evil eyes.
Its Saturday night again and we are watching the same program. My wife wants to know the answer to a question and asks me to consult my PDA!!
Scene 3
The kids are misbehaving. I take my PDA out of my pocket and silence occurs as all 4 kids take turns in playing a game on my PDA. My wife looks at me with contempt.
And you guess the next scenario. The kids are noisy and my wife asks me to let the kids play a game on my PDA. Unfortunately, my battery is charging so it is not possible. My wife seethes in anger.
Scene 4
My wife asks me to turn the volume up. I use my PDA to turn the sound up . Again she is annoyed.
My wife cannot find the TV Remote and asks me to turn the sound up with my PDA. I oblige with a smile.
Which finally brings me to one conclusion:-
“A PDA is vital for Family life not that my wife will ever agree with this statement.”
The PDA Games Console by Mercedes Lopez (11/12/03)
How many people are turning their color pda, especially their newer faster model like the tungsten C, E, 3, etc., into a mini game console?
Well its possible and something that I seem to be doing with my pda.
So far placing the games I buy or find (freeware) have to be on my sd card (big 256mb card), don't want them to take up space on my ram since at times I can have about 4mb or more of files on doc2go and I like to conserve space there, and other places on ram, especially for those apps that won't go on a card.
--------------------------
So far the games I'm keeping on my 'console' include:
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1. Blackjack *
2. GTS racing
3. Handchess II *
4. Insaniquarium
5. Minefield *
6. Patience *
7. Pocket City *
8. Rally 1000 *
9. Sea War *
10. ShipHunt
11. Shattered World: Space Combat
12. Space Trader *
13. Tac Tic
14. Zap!2016
So far the prior 14 are the ones I've bought or are freeware, others that I'm still trying out and not sure of are: 15. Biplane ace by astraware (man really needs to be 16bit) 16. MiserMind 17. Rayman (also really needs to be 16bit) 18. Siberian Strike (thinking I might buy this one but the demo is so limited to playing the 3 diff. plane classes, but simillar to Zap!2016 which I really like).
Well, so far all these games have contributed to a lot of timewasting during free moments and even times where I should have been doing other things. Really though, what I'm looking for are games that will keep me busy for at least 15 minutes and are color of course and preferably those that are also hi res for my tungsten E.
Geez also realized how much I've spent but hey with discount codes prices can be brought down.
Some game developers are even nice enough if you show proof of being a good customer willing to bring down the price ... hint astraware (Great Support People).
'*' denotes freeware game, those without are shareware/commercial.
Repair or Replace? by Bob Deskin
We live in a throw-away world. You don't get your toaster repaired - you replace it. $100 seems to be the cut-off point. If a VCR or DVD player costs under $100, it's cheaper to replace it than to repair it. Especially when it costs $60 just to "look under the hood" and many components are "packaged" such that you don't replace one part, you replace the "unit", at significantly greater cost.
But time is important too. Used to be that you could take an appliance to the local fixer and have it back in a few days. Or get someone in for the larger stuff. Either way, you were quickly back to normal. Not today. Repair time is measured in weeks, not days.
PDAs, with few exceptions, cost significantly more than $100. If you're like me, you depend on your PDA. If it's not there, you're stuck. A few weeks is an eternity without my spare brain. I recently read the extended warranty at one of the major electronics chains and it says that if they can't repair it in 60 days, you may choose to replace it. 60 days!
Some manufacturers had an exchange policy. You send in your unit and they send you a replacement. They bill your credit card for the repair. The better ones send you the replacement and let you return your unit when the other arrives. Unless yours is totally non-functional, at least you're not without something. The downside is that you don't have "yours" any more. But don't worry, I don't know if anyone still has this service.
If I were going to be without my PDA for more than a few days, I'd want some sort of replacement. While I'm not into some of the gadget-laden devices floating around, I'd need something to handle my necessities. And obviously it would have to be a compatible unit. If I'm a PalmOS user, the temporary replacement just is not going to be a PocketPC or vice versa. You want something that you can load with your basic stuff, whatever that may be, and get back to your life.
What now becomes an important factor is the availability of a temporary replacement that's not going to set me back too much. Considering I'm a PalmOS person, I'm very happy that there are both high and low end devices. I'm looking to pick up a T3 soon - a high-end device. It's nice to know that the basic Zire is available for a quarter of the T3's price if I needed it. I guess I could get by with only 8 meg and no colour for a few weeks :
And believe it or not, I've just identified another benefit of using the PalmOS - the availability of low-cost PDAs!
Evolution and Fault by Jesse Silver (07/12/03)
Here we are, we're getting more and more powerful devices, but what I've noticed is a trend here. We're getting great devices, but when they come out they have more and more faults that have to be fixed in an upgrade. There are many examples to prove that, and I will prove that in this article. It gets you thinking, why so many faults, and why less testing? It seems as devices get more powerful, they're being tested for fault less and less. Beta testing is crucial for devices as small as these, if things are not precise in the model there we be some widespread things that may be very displeasing to the user.
There are two I can name off the bat very
recently. The Sony Clié TJ35 and the palmOne Tungsten | T3. The TJ35 has
the most widespread problem I have ever seen, and it is on the most important
part of device, the backlight. The problem is that after a few days from a wire
squeezed through the middle of the battery and memory, will break after about a
week of tension. This causes the backlight to completely go out, and many
people who bought the product have had this problem. Why didn't sony see this
though? They didn't think it would happen because their testers only had it for
a few days. It seems because the TJ25 doesn't have the audio jack, it puts in
more room for the backlight wire, and stops the problem (although a few of the
users may have the same problem after tension, but this may happen in a few
month span). The other recent one is the palmOne Tungsten | T3, and this one I don't understand. It's their flagship model, has all the best specs (400mhz, os5.2, 64mb ram, bluetooth, 320x480/480x320/320x350, etc...), and is the top of the line. All this, and the testers don't test a simple Sandisk SD card with it? This could have stopped the widespread issue of the T being for "Toaster". Also, it has another problem, there are T|T3's that have a bad yellow tint, they work fine, but the screen is pretty bad to look at with that tint. Now I'm wondering, who tests these things, and why didn't they find them out sooner? It seems as handhelds evolve, hardware developers and testers trust their product more to have less defects, the problem is, there are always going to be defects if you don't test the product fully. Speaking of Sandisk, on palms regularly it has the quoted worse speed, and where is the testing there? There is another I know of that also had a pretty widespread memory card issue, the nr70/nr70v. It couldn't read cards after a time becuase the slot was too thick.
Now to my third machine, that doesn't have defects, just little things that are annoying to the user in the long run. This is the Clié TG50, the "grab bag" of all cliés, and the one going in the competition. The types of TG50's are so diverse, that you would think some are different models.
1) The Screen: The TG50 has spotlights, yes, but so does many others. What makes these spotlights so bad? In the earlier TG50's, the spotlight were huge and noticeable even if you were not on a white background, on the latest ones they barely have any.
2) The processor: No big deal, but some come with the PXA250, some come with the PXA255, which offers better battery life. I guess they wanted even better battey life in there newer versions, and faster and more efficient speeds.
3) Keyboard Backlighting: Uneven on models 4-5 months into production, and so is mine. My T and Y lights have grown dim over time (I'm guessing a loose wire). Anyways, the T and Y only go dim when the hardware buttons are angled down, which leads me to my next one.
4) Loose Hardware: The TG50 has a bunch of these. The button part on the TG50 is loose on some models, others have a loose white stripe, and some have loose front main buttons. For me, I have a loose rocker and pim buttons, and my white strip at the back is a little loose.
5) Stiff Keyboard Syndrome: Some TG50's have almost unpressable buttons, some like mine, can get an easy 50-60wpm on it, and is very loose, but not in a bad way.
6) Earphone Static: You wouldn't hear it when playing music or watching a movie, but when something non-sounding goes on and you access the memory stick, you're going to hear a lot of static, the amount depends on which model you have.
7) Flash: Older ones come with flash (300xxx serial numbers), newer ones ones come with mask rom.
These are the four things that make people shy away from the TG50, which is a great model. I get 4-5 hours at 100% backlight on mine, continuously using multimedia, which is extrordinary battery life (and I have the pxa250). It is classed thinner than the T665c, a best-selling model. It has a screen as bright as the NZ90. It has one of the loudest speakers on any clie. Why did it have to have so many faults? I ask once again, where is the testing, and why weren't these things out early. Sony had to do a little bit of a "silent recall" even with the TG50, to partially fix these things (and put in the TG50). This is why we saw it on clearance a few months ago, but it still is not discontinued. It shouldn't have had to have any sort of adjustments, if they did thorough testing, they wouldn't have any of these problems. I mean, it doesn't take a genius to know the TG50 has spotlights. Some people would see that one thing in an older version of it, and say it was a piece of crap.
The point is, where is the testing, and why do they not catch these things earlier? Do they want people to be calling in and all be replacing their backlights, or buying new SD cards? These are the kind of things that need testing, and not one minute tests either, a thorough test to see that there are no problems. The kind of problems we have been seeing popping up in our new devices in unacceptable! We have the top of the line stuff, but why do we have to wait a year for an upgrade that fixes these problems? If they aren't there in the first place, your sales will be much better, even if you have to pay more for good testing.
Evolution. I was sitting through it the other day in class. One pops out a zire, another one popped out his M130, than I popped on my TG50, then another friend goes and pulls out an NX70v (we were beaming programs to each other). There's evolution right there. Going from low resolution, to high resolution. Going from simple beeps to full stereo sound. Going from 33mhz, to 200mhz. Going from no camera, voice recorder, movie player, etc, to having them. Just get out a few devices together, and you would wonder "how did I live without this feautre?". Look how much of a difference hi resolution makes to low resolution, or even high resolution plus next to high resolution. All our little features have come to become something we would expect. For instance, I hear this all the time in forums and sites "Why did this device not come with Bluetooth or WiFi, we need connectivity built-in!" Heck, the only time WiFi and Bluetooth became needed was when hi resolution and os5 came out with great web browsing and power. I bet if we still had os4 devices with none of this, none of this was invented for palms and it was this time, do you think we would be needing it so much? We would be asking for it to be implemented, but not needing it. So with all this evolution happening in our pda's, once more, why all the problems?
The point I am trying to make it, you're going to have to either trust the company that makes the handheld you are buying (if it's top-of-the-line), or wait a couple upgrade cycles for fixes on all problems. When you make your choice, make sure to make the right one. You don't want to be stuck with a device that you hate because of a few tiny problems that the hardware developers and the company itself was too lazy to test for. Evolution is a powerful thing when used correctly, when used incorrectly, you get all these problems popping up out of no where. I suggest doing research on the product you will buy a little bit extensively to make decision. I hope in the future, I would hope that automatically "Evolution=Power", but this is all up to the hardware developers, the beta hardware testers, and the company itself.
Choice is Good by Oliver Ng (07/12/03)
This is an article for those of us who like to buy and own the best of the best. 400 MHz of raw power, integrated camera, MP3 player, WiFi, Bluetooth, CompactFlash, SDIO... the list goes on and on. The PDA as we once knew it has gone through a metamorphosis not seen by many other portable technologies. No longer do marketers tell you how useful the PDA is at organizing your life, they just tell you all the OTHER things that it can do for you.
As I sit here writing to you on my CLIE nr70v, I wonder to myself, do I really need all this "other" stuff that comes with it? Could I be happy with just an organizer as such? No keyboard, no camera, no MP3... am I just dreaming? It’s a bit hard to imagine dropping all these extras after using my CLIE for so long. But as I think about all the different ways I use my PDA, its primary use is still for appointment organization and office tools... surprising? Not really considering that’s why we buy them right?
So is integration of technology really the way to go? With Sony touting all their multimedia features, palm has no choice but to keep up with models of their own. But the more we add to our PDAs the pricier they get. I start to wonder if buying the best of what’s to come is really what’s right for me. I don’t even remember the last time I used my built in camera on my CLIE, yet it’s with me everyday adding to the bulk.
As I’m writing this though, I realize that the selection of different PalmOS models is not exactly scarce. There are so many different models out there that we no longer have to buy the best of the best to get something great, no matter what the marketers tell you J. There seems to be a Palm for everyone and this is a definite advantage for all of us. Don’t need a camera? Don’t need WiFi? Bluetooth sucks? Hate crappy thumb boards? Save some money and size by buying what suits you the most.
There is no longer a need to buy the best of the best to get something great. In fact, even the zire21 can do the job fine (which is probably why it was so successful). The diverse selection of different PalmOS models keeps us from having to shell out money for features we don’t need or spend a little more for features we do.
For this, we have PalmOne, Sony, Garmin and Tapwave to thank. The PDA world is a lot different than it was a couple years ago, with a selection that makes even me confused about what to get next. One thing’s for sure though, I’m definitely not complaining. Choice is good.
PalmOS Handhelds: An Unfair Advantage by Jonathan Ezor (4/12/03)
In Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle's trailblazing science fiction novel "Oath of Fealty" (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0671532278/joniezoesq), the elite members of a near future Los Angeles society are fitted with implants connecting them to "Millie," an artificially intelligent computer system. Unlike their less-fortunate colleagues who must use external interfaces to connect, the implanted elite communicate subvocally, almost telepathically, with Millie. Wherever they are, they can access schedules and messages, communicate with fellow Millie users, research critical facts and control the other devices in their environments. They have a clear advantage over the non-implanted. (http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=62)
While I always enjoyed the concept of Millie implants, I never truly understood how powerful a benefit they represented until I got my first PalmOS handheld, a Pilot 1000, in 1996. From that first 128k PDA to my current Tungsten C with 64 Mb of RAM, SDIO expansion and built-in Wi-Fi wireless Internet, my Palm has functioned like that Millie implant: it gives me an unfair advantage.
This is not just hypothetical-it's shown itself time and again. As a lawyer, it's advantageous for me to have good notes from prior conversations. Between Graffiti and my Palm keyboard while mobile, and my typing skills while on the phone, I always have detailed notes of my discussions with clients and opposing counsel dating back years a "Find" command away, in any situation. My Palm has also made me the most organized person in my family, the one who always has the schedule, addresses, telephone numbers, directions and birthdays a tap or two away. It also turned me from a frustrated writer to a published author, allowing me to write or edit numerous articles (including this one), many presentations, a business book (http://www.clickingthrough.com) and even two (unproduced) Star Trek teleplays in unusual places (such as a labor and delivery room while waiting for my second child to be born.and yes, I had my wife's permission!).
My newest Palm, the Tungsten C, has added high-speed Internet connectivity to the mix, with sometimes startling results. A few months ago, I was sitting in a building committee meeting at the law school at which I now teach, when the discussion turned to our lack of up-to-date plans for the proposed new facility we hope to build. On a whim, I connected to the wireless router in the room with my Tungsten C, launched my Web browser and did a quick Web search. Remarkably, I found a Web site on which our architect had posted more recent plans (in response to a design competition) than we ourselves had! A quick trip to my office to print out full-sized copies, and we were suddenly back in business. Between that story and my note-taking skills (using the Palm Ultra-Thin Keyboard), my Tungsten C is now a mandatory feature at every meeting I attend.
In gratitude for what my Palm has enabled me to accomplish, and in the belief that most people can benefit from such functionality, I've long been a volunteer Palm "evangelist." I've been directly responsible for causing the purchase of more than 50 PalmOS handhelds of various types, by friends, family members and colleagues. I've also become a frequent contributor to online discussion lists and message boards, answering questions about Palm configuration and use wherever I can. Recently, I've begun my own PalmBlog (http://www.panix.com/~jezor/palmblog), and have been gratified by the many positive comments I've gotten from readers following my own experiences.
While my Palm has not yet begun to talk to me (except for the directions I get from Mapopolis' Navigator!) as Niven and Pournelle's fictional Millie system does to those with its implants, it has definitely become an invaluable adjunct to my brain. I look forward to finding new ways of adding to the unfair advantages my Tungsten C gives me, and to shbring them with my fellow Palm users. {Jonathan Ezor}
Software for the PDA by Eric Shen (03/12/03)
Over the last 5 years of owning a Palm PDA, I was rather surprised at how much was spent on software and how many bits of software purchased. At least count, it was something in the order of 180 software items!!! Admittedly, almost half the software is never used - whether they had become obsolete with the OS (such as IDPalm - which works only in OS 3.3/3.5) or they were complete duds (I won't mention them to protect the bloodsuckers...)
Most of the software ranges from USD$5 to USD$60 (dictionary readers with modules etc) and looking back at the range of software, I feel that Palm OS users have a pretty good deal in terms of software pricing. Why do I say this? Well - most new software would cost USD$25 to USD$50 for PCs and consoles. In the meantime, you can get very useful software - such as dictionaries, ebooks, games etc for under USD$20. In one respect, this is based on history of the PDA where software written and sold in 1997-99 were under USD$10 each and Palm PDA users have set a fairly low price point in terms of purchasing software. The other thing is that Palm users aren't fools to pay money for software that already exists as freeware.
Over the years, there have been a few notable and worthy companies that have produced software that I have been using since the Palm III days. These include:
1) TealPoint Software (www.tealpoint.com) Nothing flashy. Nothing fancy. The utilities and software they write are just as useful the day they were first released. I am still using TealLock, TealDoc and TealMaster since they were released between 1998 to 2000. These software had been updated again and again for OS4 and OS5 while most other companies tend to abandon their software.
2) Datebook 5 (author C.E.S. Dewar) (www.pimlicosoftware.com) This great application has been used since datebk3, datebk4 and now datebk5. Ever since the day he released datebk3 until today, his technical support and availability is incredible. Kudos goes to this guy!
3) Fictionwise (www.fictionwise.com) Being an avid book reader, I stumbled on this site 3 years ago in 2000. I have not regretted it since then! What attracted me to this site was that they offered more than publicly available text and lots of fantasy and science fiction. Today, fictionwise offers a lot more formats - mobireader, palmreader and so on. However, I still love the plain, simple text format! Lastly, they offer readers rebates, specials and discounts quite regularly - so it is an incentive to read more books. At last count, I had purchased around 300+ ebooks - some as short as 5k long, others longer than 500kb.
The interesting thing is that the most durable and used software are ones which people rely on day to day - such as 3rd party replacement applications (launchers, calender and address replacements). Also useful applications such as dictionaries and references.
Games don't have a long lasting appeal - even better, brighter, graphically oriented games - they have a limited shelf life and don't present "value for money". The strange thing is that I keep on going back to some freeware classics such as vexed, spacetrader, rally5000, big two, yahtzee variants and solitaire card games. Perhaps it is the simplicity of the games that I can pick it up and play it for a little while I'm on the bus or train that is appealing.
How do I pick my software these days? Fortunately, there are a heap of forums and newsgroups (such as PDA24/7) that recommends or review software. It is by word of mouth that they are promoted, people use them, think it's great and write up about it. That has helped me to avoid the dud software of recent times!
When do you upgrade the PDA? by Eric Shen (03/12/03)
It's always bothered me on when is a good time to upgrade the PDA - a bit like when do you upgrade your PC or laptop since the prodcuts are always evolving. The moment you buy the hardware, it is almost obsolete! The unfortanate thing about PDAs is that they are even less upgradable in hardware compared to the laptop, so once you buy it, there is not much more you can do to upgrade the memory, CPU or performance.
Assuming that your pockets aren't that deep and you have to run these decisions past your financial controller (read this as "wife"), picking a good time to upgrade the PDA is not an easy task. This exercise is made harder with the sudden appearance in late 2003 of many new models of Palm PDAs such as Tungsten, Clie, Zodiac etc with so many features, it is mind-boggling. We are spoilt for choice!
Having lurked around a few of these forums and PDA24/7, there are a few types of people around:
1) Techno-PDA
These characters tend to own more than one PDA ... and mostly the latest and greates models. I am not sure how they pick their PDAs ... or work out how they can legally fund it! Their mentality is akin to the Borg, everything will be assimilated .... as long as they have the pockets on their clothing to put these PDAs. The most I have seen on any one person is three (one is a cell-phone/PDA combo...)
2) Crystal Ball Gazers
Some people imagine their perfect PDA with a hint of realism and guess this product will be out in 1 to 3 years time. They will wait and see when this PDA will arrive, then they will pounce. One such PDA that has had this effect is the Tungsten T3.
3) Price Point / Bargain Hunters
They look for bargains in everything - PDA, accessories etc. They wait for the right times when discounts occur and buy it up ... whether they find it on ebay or discount store. They don't buy the latest stuff, but they get the best value for money you can find.
4) Obsolescent Software
You hold onto the hardware until it no longer runs the software you try to load in. I admit it, I fall under this category. You hold the hardware until software is no longer functional on the hardware - colour doesn't work, wrong OS type, then it is time to upgrade. It is akin to keeping a Pentium 100Mhz PC until the current software no longer works or runs too slow.
5) Hinting Without Any Shame Or Subtlety Last resort- shamelessly hint to your family, wife, friends that you want to upgrade the PDA. Christmas is coming up, your birthday is coming up, January 1st is coming up (also, January 2nd is coming up too!). Leave brochures around, every second sentence is expousing the virtues of this device. Eventually, someone will buy the PDA for you to shut you up ...
unless they really want to spite you and buy a PPC PDA. Cruel Irony, but that's life!
On the nightshift by Andrew Bowman (03/12/03)
I am the night shift charge nurse/education coordinator and paramedic in a community based emergency department. Our annual census is about 37,000 patients per year and like any ER in the country we see everything.
Premature newborns to centenarians, coughs and colds to penetrating
thoracic trauma, thrombosed hemorrhoids to acute MI's. Four years ago I became aware of "Palm" devices and have been hooked ever since. I started out with the Palm V. Simple, intuitive to use, threw away my paper planner the same day. I quickly found though that the 2mb memory did not allow me to put all the medical programs on that I desired to. I wanted to free my pockets of printed pocket medical, nursing and drug guides that only weighed me down and gave me unsightly bulges. I wanted to carry one reference source, a pen or two, trauma scissors and a hemostat.
Lo and behold, two weeks later I saw an ad for the new Palm Vx. 8mb of memory! Now we were cookin'. On went the programs, Redi-Reference Guides, drug guides (ePocrates came a little later), Medcalc in all of its versions, Medrules, OB wheel (don't want those 20+ weekers in my ER, up to OB after a quick tap of the stylus). Upgraded to Datebook 3...4....5. Now I had total control of my work schedule, teaching schedule (ACLS, BTLS, PALS, TNCC, ENPC, CATN, Paramedic), in-service schedule, wife's schedule, birthdays, vacations and more.
The original address book, wow. Now I can instantly look up my coworkers, all the doctors on staff, every hospital I may send patients to or get patients from. Every nursing home, every police, fire and EMS agency that comes through my ER. Child protective services, judges to get detention orders, fellow nursing instructors, family, financial contacts, publishers of the journals I receive to help me be a better ER nurse/medic. I have a list of pharmacies in a nine county area, restaurant lists for my off time, business contacts and more!
Upgrade to Wordsmith to create memos and copy word documents to my Palm. Now I can copy emergency care guidelines to Word and then transfer to my Palm so I always can carry a current care reference. When someone asks for my proof, just 2 or 3 taps and I show them the evidence!
My Vx was my trusted companion. Then.........color.......the 505. Others had glitches, mine was almost flawless ( a few synch hangs but nothing serious).
I could highlight and jazz up my memos and docs. I could put photos on it with Splashphoto (no longer have a wallet bulging with kids pictures, all on the Palm.) And best of the best of the 505? Expansion. Now I had room to get the 5 Minute Consults (Medical, Emergency, Pediatrics, Toxicology, Cardiology, iFacts, Harriet Lane). I could get Pocket Radiologist titles. Not only are all of these great point of care references, they are wonderful references to turn to when I am teaching one of the many emergency courses that I teach.
HanDBase to track my invasive procedures to maintain my medic certification.
A database to track our "Trauma Ones's".
More calculators, TIMI scores, ICU Math, Cholesterol guidelines, Growth charts, Code Blue (which has a DYNAMITE burn surface area calculator). Johns Hopkins Antibiotic guide (I do not prescribe but I can help the doctor decide what antibiotic to give), Riley Kidometer; need to know normal labs on a 6 month old, a 2 year old? It is right there. Need to do teaching on safety for a 6 year old, still right there in Kidometer.
And now I am at the 515. 16mb memory, expansion card, color AND THE MOST BEAUTIFUL FORM FACTOR OF ANY PALM DEVICE EVER MADE!!!
And now again, THE PALM TUNGSTEN C!!!!! 64mb of memory. Now I have so much room, I am a walking medical/nursing/pharmacy/toxicology/pediatrics/prehospital care reference!
It all boils down to this, I am an emergency nurse/paramedic. My job is to be at the bedside/cartside providing care. I cannot do that if I am in the stacks looking up a reference or a drug dose or information on Wegener's Granulomatosis. When I have a critical patient who needs an infusion of a drug that I may not give too frequently. A few quick taps at Infusicalc and not only do I know the dose and infusion rate, I also know how my hospital wants it mixed.
Palm devices have revolutionized my nursing and paramedical practice. Many of my coworkers in ER, ambulance, ICU and elsewhere have picked up a Palm and followed my lead. Every time I teach a class I pull out my Palm Tungsten C and say, "This is what has helped me become a better bedside nurse, I am 40 years old and the brain in my head only can hold so much, but this brain in my pocket holds more information than I could ever possibly try to remember". Now if I could just get my hospital to go wireless!
Sign of the time - Just a thought ;-) by DCR
Isn't it strange??
When I was a child, adults always bored me to death with stories about their hard childhood. Every morning they had to walk over 25 miles barefooted through snowstorms which lasted for years with their brothers or sisters on their backs to a one-room school building.
Nevertheless they always had only A's school report. After school they had to work in a cool mine for 15p an hour so that they could support their family. Later when they were older they worked and saved for years till they could afford their first bicycle... yawn!!
But... now that I've reached the mature age of 40 I can't ignore that the youngsters of today live a real good life. Common be honest compared to our childhood theirs is like Dreamland Utopia. I hate to admit but the kids of today don't even know how good they've got it.
I mean, as a child I didn't have access to the Internet. If we wanted to know something we actually had to visit the library and damn we had to look it up ourselves... no search engine! No email either, we had to write real letters using a pen and paper and to top it all we had to go outside and find a mailbox to post it! Sometimes it took a whole week till that thing arrived!
And there was no MP3 or Kazaa either. If you wanted to copy music you had to go to a record shop and steal it yourself! Or you had to wait with your tape recorder in front of a radio and tape your favourite song but you could be sure that at the end of each song the DJ would talk into it to spoil the whole thing.
You couldn't just download sex either. You had to bribe some bum with a bottle of beer to get you the latest Playboy from a newsagent or you had to look at women's underwear in a Littlewoods catalogue.
We didn't have all this technical stuff like phones with displays. When the phone rung you couldn't find out in advanced who was phoning. It could have been your mother, boss or your drug dealer! You just had to risk it and take the phone call to find out.
Never mind mobile phones. No way that you could quickly send your friend, who sat two tables in front of you, a quick SMS during school lessons. You had to write it down on a piece of paper and master to get it to him without your teacher's knowledge! PDA were much simpler, a PDA was a piece of paper in your pocket with scribbled telephone numbers and addresses on it. When you had to lookup a number you would find that it was unreadable or had ended up together with the trousers in the washing machine. No backup functions either...
Game consoles with 3D graphics and 895 megathing sound didn't exist! We were lucky if we knew someone who owned an Atari with games like Space Invader or Asteroids. The graphic was much simpler!!! You controlled a little square on the screen and you had to use your imagination! No difference in levels just always the same picture. It was impossible to win because the game was getting more difficult and faster till you died! Just like real life.
The cinema didn't have ascending aisle and you could bet on it that always someone taller was sitting in front of you.
Sure we had TV but only with three channels. BBC1, BBC2 and ITV but no cable or TeleText! There was only one TV magazine where you could check what was on the box. The TV didn't offer 24hrs a day cartoons you had to wait for Blue Peter!
Look at it and admit you don't know what I'm talking about you softies you spoiled and ungrateful little brads. Life has been made much too easy for you!
Thirty years ago you wouldn't have survived 5 minutes!
A bunch of Numbers! by Keith Anderson (02/12/03)
Have you ever thought how our lives add up to, a bunch of numbers? We all have seen the usual cry of help, "Do I buy the T3 or the UX50". Maybe observed the enthusiastic cry, "I've just heard version 3.702's out, anyone got it? Our discussions in forums almost consist entirely of numeric chitchat.
This thought was sparked by a simple shopping trip. For many the answer might be easy, but I just cannot quite work it out.
The initial equation was straight forward enough.
Question: What happens when you climb into the 206, head up the A228 to the
M20, come off at junction 7 and head down the A229? Answer: you park, pay and
display.That bit I could do. It was then that it began to get complicated. You see, we were shopping in Maidstone and the daughter wanted to change her mobile. She was hooked on a deal where she could upgrade her thirty-three ten for an eighty-two ten for only twenty-four ninety nine. But the shop needed a PAC code, which takes five to ten days to get from the 'service provider', some service! They can be contacted only from nine to five, five days in seven. No twenty-four seven days then. And if you are at work (or school) from nine to five, how do you get that code?
The girl left disappointed, stuck with the thirty-three ten or whenever her mother could take her back to the shop.
The son wanted camera equipment. He has an AF250SV and wanted filters, a 43mm Y2 and a 56mm Y2. The shop had them for eleven ninety-eight each, which was fine. He wanted film, four XP2s. No problem, and at two ninety-nine each they were two thirty-seven cheaper than the local pharmacy. He wanted batteries CR2032s. Sorry, out of stock, but would BL2015's do? Nope, they wouldn't.
From there it was lunch at Foo Wong's on the corner of Eighth and Seventeenth. We had three 14s, a 23, a 27 and a couple of 34s to finish off. (Actually we went to McDonald's, but I like some Chinese bonus numbers).
On the way back to the car we popped into the computer shop. The son wanted RAM for his CD-ROM or something like that. The man asked if we needed Simms or Dimms. "If it's for my family it must be Dimms," I said. He gave me a funny look and the son told him to ignore me.
We finally got back to the car, where the son drooled over a Z3 parked alongside. 24-valve, he informed us, six speed, 650bhp, 0-50 in 6.5 seconds. Where does he store all that?
On the way home the daughter checked her bag and complained that the film was 200, when she wanted 400. "Two hundred what?", I asked. "ISO" she said. "What on earth is that? I asked, but shouldn't have. "It is the speed rating. It used to be called ASA but them..."
"STOP," I screamed and held my hands over my ears. Suddenly I had information overload. I was being fed data that I would never, in this life or the next, ever need. "Why can't we just call a spade a spade?"
Which reminded me, I had to stop at B&Q for a new spade. A nice young girl said "Spade? Certainly sir, first we have the John Bull SPD, 3ft haft, 12in blade, wide handle, super-sprung for extra quick shoveling".
Where would we be without the wonderful digit? Enough said …….
Is a HotSync Enough?by Bob Deskin (01/12/03)
What's your data worth to you? In my experience (over 30 years in the software industry), we place too much trust in technology. We expect things to run without difficulty. But you don't appreciate the value of your data until you lose it. And since I've seen individuals and companies lose their data, including me when a laptop was stolen, I'm a bit anal-retentive when it comes to backups. What has this to do with PalmOS' HotSyncing? Everything!
Although we use it every day, how many of us really know what a
HotSync does? A HotSync is supposed to back up your PDA's applications and data
to a connected computer. It doesn't matter if the connection is by cable,
infrared, Bluetooth, or Wi-Fi. The intent is that there be a copy on another
computer in case something happens to your PDA and you have to do a partial or
complete restore.Any database that has a conduit can be synchronized with the data in another location. The process allows you to specify whether you want to simply copy the data from the PDA to the computer or whether you want to compare the two files and make them the same. This means that changes on the PDA are copied to the connected computer and changes made on the computer are copied to the PDA. You can also copy all the data from the connected computer to the PDA. This is handy if you do bulk data entry on your computer or if you have to recover.
Let's look at two HotSync issues. The first is whether everything backed up and the second is the conduit process.
When you do a HotSync, the only databases that are copied are those that have their backup bit set. Many applications don't set the backup bit on files they create. For example, if a game creates a file containing high scores and doesn't set the backup bit, then that file isn't copied on a HotSync.
You could use a file manager such as FileZ to ensure that all the backup bits are set, but it's easier to pick up the free program SyncAll (http://www.laiblin.de/palm). SyncAll sets all the backup bits on when you power on your PDA. This takes less than a second and means that all databases are backed when you do the next HotSync.
Well, not quite all. The databases that have conduits are handled separately. Since these databases are synchronized as opposed to backed up, they are not included in the copy. If you're synchronizing all the databases with their connected computer equivalents, this isn't a problem. But many people synchronize with a PIM such as Outlook. If you don't use all of the PIM's tools, you may lose some of your data.
Let's say you synchronize with Outlook as I do. I use Outlook's calendar and contacts, but I don't bother with tasks and notes. These latter two correspond to PalmOS' To Dos and Memos. Since I don't want to clutter up Outlook, nor do I want to take the chance of having Outlook change or delete a To Do or a Memo, I set my PocketMirror HotSync to do nothing on these two databases. This means that if I did nothing else, my To Dos and Memos would not get backed up during a HotSync. As well, if I do nothing else I can only use Outlook to see appointments and contacts on my computer. I can't use the Palm Desktop.
So what do I do? I HotSync twice, once with Outlook and once with the Palm Desktop. My Palm Desktop HotSync is a straight copy. That's what I do at the office. At home, I also HotSync to my home desktop computer. But here I don't sync with Outlook, I just HotSync with the Palm Desktop, again a straight copy.
So am I satisfied? No way! Told you I was anal-retentive.
If you're always connected to your HotSync computer or you're reasonably close to it, you can easily restore if something goes wrong. But what if you're mobile? That's where backup applications come in.
I have a T665 that has a memory stick. Most current Palm OS PDAs have some form of external storage. If you copy everything to external storage, you have a backup in case you need to restore and you're not near that HotSync computer.
I have a backup utility that allows me to schedule my backups. I backup every morning at 4 AM when I'm asleep. Since I tend to HotSync late in the afternoon, the worst I can lose is a day's worth of changes. If I'm experimenting with a new application, I'll do a backup before I install. Plus, the process of installing does a HotSync, so again I have a double backup.
Good backup utilities don't usually look at the backup bit. Rather, they back up everything or almost everything. There are a very few databases that don't need to be backed up such as the Unsaved Preferences file. But the intent of backups and HotSyncing is to create a set of files that can be used to easily restore your PDA and allow you to keep working.
Summarizing this article is as easy as HotSyncing and backing up - all it takes is once so better safe than sorry!
Launchers: Why are they needed? By Jesse Silver (30/11/03)
This "precious ram" thing going around is really starting to annoy at the least. So then there's people saying they won't use a launcher because it takes up "precious ram", especially ZLauncher. Maybe they don't understand these programs give it back, and then some with ease. Why have a launcher in the first place? There's a few reasons to get one. The ease of selecting and/or sorting programs; having more productivity/speed; memory card features; and graphical intensity.
1) Ease of selecting/sorting programs:
The built-in palm launcher is way too simple to be efficient. It needs things the third party launchers have. Tabs are the first, they allow you to avoid scrolling, click an easy tab, and select your programs from few. With the default launcher, all you have is categorys on the top right. This is the only way to sort programs on the default launcher, and it doesn't even sort on the card. Very simple, but too simple for anyone who wants to efficiently launch programs.
2) Productivity/Speed:
The second thing is productivity and speed. With the default palm launcher all you could do is go into the program. To delete, beam, see info of, etc... you would need to go into the menu, pick that, see what program you need, and do that function. With launchers it's hold and pick, or drag it to the bottom bar or to the tab bar to change the program's tab location. Launchers are much more efficient in this manner. They help keep your palm they way they were to be designed. Fast and efficient. Launchers also help you sort programs in the card which is a big plus for speed.
3) Memory Card Features:
This is why "precious ram" isn't an issue. I mean, ram isn't the one ring, remember that! Ram might be low on early sony os5 handhelds, but do you see me crying about have 11mb of "precious" ram? Launchers and memory cards take this away. Now, why do they take it away? Well, some launchers/powerrun have the feature of putting all a program's "static" databases in card with the program itself so you have ram to spare, a lot more. Add this on with putting things in the palm/launcher folder, and you have a heck of a lot more RAM. All you need are "current" databases, updates and main programs in ram. What things are in my RAM you ask? (The top ones are MMFlashLib, DateBk5, AGDocsOQ (Avantgo current database), ZLauncher, my ZLauncher themes and backgrounds, System MIDI Sounds (I'm an MIDI freak, I love my MIDI's!), English_Am.lex (docstogo static dictionary database), Clie Files Update, psyslaunchdb (regular launcher database), SmartChat (docstogo static chart database), DocsToGo, HS2Icons (Needed Iconset), WA Clock, KeyQuick, MMFlash and Caches. ) It may seem like a lot, but it leaves me with 3.5MB RAM. This is still sticking with the docstogo static databases, if I were fully to use my philosphy on which things to keep in RAM, I'd have about 5MB left. 3.5MB RAM is enough as it allows you to play most flash files and open all programs from card (which I have about 30MB of, I love third party programs, as in my last article). Using my philosophy for programs in ram, you don't need ram to be "your precious" anymore, as I said, it isn't the one ring!
4) Graphical Intensity:
It may not seem very important, but it is as important as the last three. As I said in my first article in this series for the contest "Too Simple, Yet Too Complex", skinning IS a big part of the computer world, and I do wish what I could do with my launcher, I would also be able to do with my whole Palm. Skinning makes things stand out. It seperates hi-resolution, 16-bit colour palms from the low-resolution, 2 colour palms. We have 16-bit colour, it's a standard, we have hi-resolution, it's also a standard, but why do we have to limit the high colour things to games and multimedia? This is where skinning comes in. It makes everything look simply better. It also increases the "wow" factor of the handheld, by making everything stand out in full, hi-resolution, 16-bit colour. Skinning and Backgrounds, it is a big thing, and it's one of the 4 important reasons to get a launcher.
Now, if you don't already have a launcher, you're asking yourself which you should pick. Don't pick one that looks best at the time, or features that you think are great there. I say test EACH yourself that you think would be good for you for a few days with trials, then buy the one you want. Do NOT be suckered in by commercialism. I'm going to quickly review the "top" launchers out there starting from my favourite.
#1: ZLauncher
Review: This must be my favourite launcher, this is the one I kept coming back to time in and time out. It has one of the best amount of skins out there for it, and the real ease that gave it the A++ came in ZL4B2. What can't you do with it? It integrates a file manager, powerrun function, tabs on all four sides, many function buttons and an easy to access drag+hold system, and drag+drop system. It seriously does have options for everything. Plus, this is the lowest priced launcher and has the most features, no wonder it's a best-seller!
Rating: A++ (Yes, double plus, 110%)
#2 (Tied) YiShow Explorer/MegaLauncher:
Review: I'm very impressed with integration, ease and function on these two launchers, the amount of skins are best-class for both launchers.
Rating: A (89%, almost A+)
#4: Launcher X
Review: It could've been the best and was the best for a while. It has a lot of stuff, granted, but the pure lack of updates dropped this two full letter grades in a year (for me). It had THE cutting-edge features to keep up with. It just fell way behind because of sheer lack of updates.
Rating: C (65%)
#5: Silverscreen
Review: The most commercial launcher I have ever seen. It has a lack of features, lack of updates, and when it does have features, it screws them up! They finally add backgrounds in Version 3, and they add this stupid white faded border. We want backgrounds to get rid of the white! It has only the skins made by pocketsensei themselves! It basically is advertised as the best on every commercial site, but it's the worst launcher out there. Period. It barely passes in my book.
Rating: D- (50%)
These are my opinions, but if you're going with a launcher, pick it smart, and try the trials thoroughly first to see which you like. If you talk to most PDA users that use launchers effectively, they will choose one of the top 3, I guarantee it. Choose a launcher, choose it well. It really adds what isn't there in your handheld computer.
Third Party Programs: The things that make a Palm a Handheld Computer by Jesse Silver (30/11/03)
Third party programs are needed in Palms to overstep the rank of organizer to Handheld Computer. If all you wanted was a black and white organizer that just did PIM, why not get one of those cheap Sharp organizers with no expandability. If you wanted to stick with Palm OS still, why not get a Zire? We need third party programs to overstep these boundries. We have high resolution, 16-bit colour for a reason you know. Not to look pretty, but to really make the expandability of the programs that look good, even better. Why do we have ARM processors at 200/400mhz? This is so we can use our programs to the best of our advantage, not PIM.
You want to be able to edit all of your documents on your palm. You want to be able to send emails on your palm. You want to be able to surf the net on your palm. You want to listen to all sorts of multimedia such as music, video and flash. The point is, you want more out of your palm than standard PIM. Why do you think Sony gives you some of these things simple and built-in from the second party? Even though they haven't released the API's for them, they still are darn good to provide all of that on our CD/built-in. Then there's games, instant messaging, alarms, dictionaries, ebooks, and much more to offer in third party programs.
The Zen of Palm is old. What was it made in, the years with os2, os3? We are not in the ages where a Palm is just used for PIM. There is a reason for thousands of third party programs, to make Palm OS tailored to your needs of expandability. As far as I'm concerned, you don't have to spend hundreds on programs, just get a few programs and games you really want, the rest are free or on your CD.
RAM is not precious if you know to use it. You really have to use it smart if you want the most out of 11MB RAM. I still have 78 programs, most located in my memory stick. People, on 200/400mhz palms, you do not need to launch all your programs from RAM, the memory stick is fast enough to run our small programs. I time Netfront, a 2MB program, loads in 3-4 seconds on my memory stick.
If we want to expand our PIM, the original palm use, that's even better! If we have hi-resolution colour, why not take advantage by offering all the fonts, and all colours to make our PIM's distingushable. Icons and Fonts take a second to put on. Plus, fonts and colours (in my opinion), make things distingushable, thus should only be used for important dates/events. If it's really important, you can take the time to put them down. How hard is it really to go to details, then font (which takes you to colours/fonts, unless it's different in agendus. It shouldn't be that different though)? You don't have to be worried how it looks, just that it is distingushable from others. DateBK5 is just like the regular Datebook, just with more views and options to explore. If you don't want to explore those options, that's fine, because icons and fonts are right in details.
Lagging versions of product updates are only because of slow developers or it takes time to implement another API. Say the UX, which has a proprietary wide screen api, it might take a little while for an application like DateBk5 to implement it fully into it's program, and this program stems from a problem I explained in "Too Simple, Yet Too Complex". RAM is NOT precious, and it should never be. Go nuts, download as many third party programs as you want to make your palm more entertaining, efficient and productive. It's the second and third party programs that make a Palm into a "Handheld Computer". If you need more programs, use your expandable media, which can probably hold hundreds of programs depending on size. It's when you go overboard needing more programs when it's really too much, who really needs a virtual fireplace or fan anyways? That's a waste of space on ANY handheld computer. Keep it simple, keep it entertaining, keep it productive, to whatever you want your palm to be tailored to do.
Fond Memories by George Zagas (30/11/03)
I am reminded of when my parents talked about the '50s as a great decade, a time when things were simpler. Terrorism and crime was virtually non-existent. Houses where left unlocked and strangers said hello as they walked past each other. And so on and so on...
I remember a time not long ago, when I owned a Palm Vx. The Palm Vx was an improved version of the Palm V. The Palm V series introduced several new technologies to the Palm community. The slim-line factor, anodized case, lithium ion rechargeable battery and in the Palm Vx's case, a thumping 8 meg of RAM.
The perfect form factor, a slim beautiful industrial design that blew away the squarish boring look of the original palms and Microsoft PPCs. A Handheld described by many to be sexy. The case was made of anodized aluminium and looked ahead of it's time. Maybe it was. A handheld so thin that it made you think how soon till handheld design was wafer thin. A design that will be remember as a milestone in electronic design amongst other leading designs such as the ipod and the Titanium laptops from Apple. Though the Palm M-series handhelds such as the M505 introduced later where nearly identical in size, that difference was enough to lose that svelte feeling. Handhelds began feeling somewhat bloated again.
What about the brilliant thinking that introduced two silos on either side allowing southpaws like me to decide on which side you could place the stylus and the other side for the flap that protected the screen. Maybe, even just keeping two styli on either side.
The Palm V series had a screen with a contrast that was amazing - so clear. The only let down was that damn reversed backlight that spoilt the readability of the screen when viewed in less than optimum lighting. But in optimum lighting what a sight it was. In my eyes the best grayscale screen ever made.
A battery that would last a week or two between charges. A battery that took away my dependence on purchasing land filling AAAs but also kept me away from charging the handheld daily as is the case now with the latest power hungry handhelds.
I know that things in the '50s where not as rosy as they would be remembered as. There was the Korean War, Suez Canal, the Iron curtain and many more crises. And with these truths, I can relate to the limitations of the Palm Vx now. The lack of expandability that the external storage cards have brought. Colour screens that allow you to be immersed into a game's world. Real sound that took away the chirps of the piezo speaker and have allowed us to hear music as if we carried a MP3 player with us. Bluetooth, Phone or Wifi technology. USB synchronisation. 64-128 meg RAM - allowing us to fit even more applications and files. And much, much more...
So grasp the present and enjoy the advantages it has brought, dream of what the future will bring, and finally reminisce of the past and the fun that was had. But do not envy it, because things we remember where not as perfect as we would think. Trust me!
The Write Stuffby Lee Paterson (29/11/03)
I have seen a few friends buy palm OS pdas in the last 2 years, only to find that they don’t use them. What’s their problem? – They say that it's just too “slow” to enter text.
When I say “slow” I really mean for the average user. Quoting maximum word rates for various methods of text entry is irrelevant, when the software should be aiming to include the bottom 5th percentile skill base customer. I don’t even mean the “average” customer - I mean that if people can’t enter information as easily as with a pen and paper, they just aren’t going to bother.
As I was researching this article, I came across this http://www.techdis.ac.uk/PDA/entertext4.htm awesome site reviewing all but one, and many more, of the text entry alternatives that I was going to cover. TechDis tries to cover this from a disabled user standpoint, but I truly believe that the disabled do not necessarily form the lower 5th percentile skill base that I am saying we need to attract.
Still, I thought I’d chime in with my opinions, seeing as I’ve written them now anyway.
Good old Graffiti http://www.palmone.com/us/products/input/ Heck, I like it. I’m used to it, and I don’t need to look at the screen whilst I am writing to get it 80% correct. If I’m taking notes on the fly, then I will spell chuck later anyway. But then, I’m a gadget lover. Believe me, this is still turning people off in droves.
Then there was Graffiti 2. Just like 1, but slower (I’m sorry, but “more intuitive” is a perfect example of redundancy in the English language), and lets face it, purely a device to avoid litigation on copyright, not really an improvement of the technology.
Decuma
http://www.decuma.com/pages/products/products.htmllooks
nice, and is certainly easier to see for the beginner, but you still have to
write in a certain style, which feels like being back at junior school when you
use it. Fitaly http://www.fitaly.com/boasts of incredible speed, but it’s not a simple learning curve. (Guys, we are looking for something that rivals Windows mouse pointer and click level ease) We are aiming to increase the number of users of the pda platform, not pander to geeks who would buy the thing anyway.
MessageEase. http://www.exideas.com/ I love this, but I can’t quite reach the boasts in speed made by others, and I still need to look at what I am doing as I “type”. Again – something for geeks.
QuickWrite http://www.mobi-systems.com/product-info.asp?ID=1&PlatformName=PalmOS keyboard speller… now we are getting somewhere… a true accelerator for those who like long words, and are happy with an onscreen keyboard. And it's a dictionary too!
Physical Keyboards. There are quite a few, but I have yet to see the keyboard that I can write on whilst standing up, holding a conversation with someone, and entering information at the same time (If I am sat down, then chances are, I am drawing all over a picture with someone at my shoulder, or at my PC typing).
How then, even with super quick ARM processors at our disposal, is there still not a truly intuitive text input system?
So, what are the pocket PC alternatives?
Built in transcriber. Actual handwriting? Well not quite. You have to train it a bit, but at least you don’t insist that the user relearns a basic skill.
Calligrapher http://www.paragraph.com/calligrapher/index.html Now we are talking. I have seen this working on a friend’s HP2210, and it is pretty much a sell item. I hate the term “Killer App”, but there you go. Still US$50 is a great way to scare off the potential customers, at nearly 20% of the cost of the pda!!
Tengo http://www.tengo.net/ Predicitve text. This is so simple, I am ashamed that I didn’t see it coming, and copyright it myself. It’s so simple, that mobile phones should be adapted to swallow this one whole. US$20. This one came out since the TechDis site was created.
I’m really rooting for the palm OS, but it needs to grasp the simple issues by the horns and fix those that turn buyers away.
I really recommend that you check out the TechDis page, it’s the best read I have had in ages.
A Waste of Space: Are third party programs a waste of space? by George Zagas (29/11/03)
A while back I had a sudden realisation, what some people might refer to as a paradigm shift. What caused this turn around in thinking, what made me rid myself of about a hundred dollars worth of Palm compatible third party programs?
Well let us go back a couple years back, to a time when I had my first palm handheld for about 6 months. Like most, I began trolling the net for applications to allow me to get the most of the my handheld experience. I purchased and used applications like Iambic's Agendus (back then called Action Names, and then Action Names Datebook, till they finally settled on Agendus - confused?) and Natara's Daynotez and Bonzai amongst other programs.
I purchased applications like these because I wanted the extra features that the boring and staid palm PIM applications did not have. Features such as:
Agendus (http://www.iambic.com/agenduspro/palmos/) allows icons and coloured fonts to be displayed against specific day entries. More views of the appointment data than you could point a stick at. Ability to link an appointment and a contact together. Well you get the idea. So instead of just entering the appointment, I was also considering:
| " | what icon should I select |
| " | what colour should the appointment text be |
| " | which alarm would suit this entry |
Eureka!
One day, I was reading the following article Zen of Palm (http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/docs/zenofpalm/ZenTOC.html) when I had a good look at myself and more importantly, a good look at my use of the handheld. The Zen of Palm article discusses the philosophy that the makers of the Palm handheld followed to ensure that it made the handheld's use simple. Anyway, after thinking about how and why I was using my Palm I came up with some observations:
Window Dressing
I was spending too much time worried about how appointment entries looked when I just needed to record the appointment - Damn it! I had forgotten why I purchased the handheld in the first place. To be productive!
Introduction of bugs
I while back, a bug had been introduced into Agendus that caused future yearly appointments to be out by a day. This bug caused quite a few embarrassed moments for me when I would wish friends happy birthday on the wrong day. Luckily this bug has been rectified but I got stung. Several times. The default datebook application just works. The birthday feature that comes in the latest calendar application on the T3 is great.
Added Complexity
Any application that requires reading of a manual to use was not even considered. So goodbye to DateBk (http://www.pimlicosoftware.com/datebk5.htm). Goodbye to pedit (http://home.columbus.rr.com/nevai/palm/). Applications had to be intuitive. Nice and easy.
Lag of Palm-introduced features
The Tungsten T3 has been out for what two months? But we have yet to see a version of Agendus fully compatible with the T3. Compatible with new gorgeous 480x320 screen, landscape mode and the extra Address fields. There is currently a version of Agendus in beta but it isn't in production yet. Is it?
So I hard a long hard think and worked out that I didn't necessarily require the extra features. Features that I hardly utilised or even features that added no real benefit. So I went about examining all the applications I had installed onto my handheld. If I didn't have a good reason for keeping them, out they went - I was ruthless.
Exceptions
Where there any applications I did keep. Well yes!
I kept my secure info application Splashid (http://www.splashdata.com/splashid/index.htm). I wanted to keep my hundreds of passwords and bank details encrypted. Splashid means my data is secure and that's very important to me.
I kept Filez (http://nosleepsoftware.sourceforge.net/), an application that allows me to manage the files on my handheld and SD card. Since PalmOS does such a crappy job.
But I did get rid of quite a few applications. Applications which could be replaced by using the four PIM applications smarter. Who needs separate applications to track website urls, dvds, books, even traffic fines (can't believe there is an app for these). I just use the memo application - that's what it is there for.
So have a think about it. Are you using the Palm as efficiently as you like. You might even find that ridding yourself of some of these unnecessary applications allows you to reclaim some precious RAM. That is something we can all have more of. Remember kiss (Keep it Simple Stupid).
Too Simple, Yet Too Complex by Jesse Silver (29/11/03)
This is Palm OS 5 we're up to now. Yes, Palm OS is made to be simple yet efficient, it does a great job of that but because of limits it may have been too simple. The clipboard limit is still there, so is the memo and category limit. Then there's the limit of starting out in 68k programming. Now we have ARM machines at high speeds that are stuck to an emulator with programs, and all there is to help them out is ARMLets, things that make the program go faster, but not full ARM code. This is because of the work of starting at 68k and not make the transition to ARM code this OS.
Then there's the problem of API's being too complex because of palm os being way too simple! A company like sony has to write their own API's for different multimedias yet they will not even release these API's. Now we have the sony voice recording api, the sony high quality audio api, camera api and camera video api not released. Then there's screen resolutions, developers need to develop for sony hi-res+, sony wi-res+, palm hi-res+ standard, low-res and hi-res. Now we have Sony using the Palm sound API, and other Sony users using only one video and audio player available to them. Okay, here's where it stands, we have users ranting about their screen resolution not being supported by programs (extra space), we have users not satisfied with having one choice of multimedia, we have developers ranting about not getting api's released, having too many API's to work for and not having full ARM code. Furthermore, we have users ranting about having the limits of palm os. It is getting too complex to code a thorough program for palm os, with not all the apis being available and too many apis being available, with the addition of no full ARM code.
This is all happening because Palm OS is simple in nature.
Graphically, palms are the same now as they were with the IIIc, in their GUI. A
simple top bar, and the content. As a graphics freak, I like to skin everything
I can. You guys know how good palm os would look with a little skinning? I
would love to be able to skin the whole top banner, and button backgrounds.
Couple that off with gradient selections, and you have a pretty nice looking
operating system. Plus, the top bar should probably be more complex for
handhelds not having the 320x480/480x320 resolution. It should probably have
volume settings, network settings, etc... icons built into it. Right now, the
top bar is just a half-rounded-rectangle and a line across. If it was a little
more graphically, it would be pretty nice. My final gripe is, if we have keyboards, jog dials and back buttons, why is Sony (not Palm OS itself) being so simple that it cannot have built in functions sometimes for these things. I know this is off-topic, but it's a gripe that I've had for a while.
1: Jog Dial Push/Enter: When not in a textbox/selection, it should ALWAYS equal to okay or yes. The Jog Dial and Keyboards are designed to take advantage of these kinds of things and not using the stylus. I must say, some programs do have this built in, but many programs don't.
2: Back Button/BS: When not in a textbox/selection, it should ALWAYS equal to NO. Sony built this in partly, but it's probably up to developers to set it to no. Thing is, BS doesn't work like the back button. BS does nothing unless a program specifies it to do something.
3: The keyboard left, right, up and down buttons SHOULD emulate the 5 way nav options when not in a textbox. I mean, we have a good d-pad that we can't use outside of being in a textbox, and can't even use it for scrolling? What is up with that? This would be useful for games and tg50 users who do not like using that up/down rocker.
What should be the answer to all this? We hope it's OS6, a lot has been announced that these problems will be changed with OS5 users still having these problems. OS6 will have a new gui, full arm code, wireless options, universal apis and no more limits. That almost fully covers all the gripes, and let us hope that Palm OS has a bright future ahead of it. With Pocket PC growing in sales, Palm OS needs to make some changes to make it look viable to the user to compete with Pocket PC out of the box. Granted, certain hardware makers have been putting different software in ROM, but without these changes, Palm OS is just too simple for users yet too complex for developers for heavy use. Don't think I'm slamming Palm OS for Pocket PC either, if I were to write an article on Palm OS vs. Pocket PC, Palm OS would still win. This is because of Pocket PC being too complex for it's own good for users, becoming a slow and bloated OS. Anyways, these OS' both need to come to a point where they are fast, efficient, not limited and developers can code easily for great thorough programs. Palm OS has the first two down greatly, which has kept it #1 for years on end, but the other two it still needs help in.