The other day I was perusing the Amazon App Store and noticed that Graffiti Pro for Android was available. I immediately downloaded (it’s free) and installed it on three Android devices. I’ve been mostly pleased with the results.

To those of you that are not familiar with Graffiti, it’s a character recognition system that utilizes a “uni-stroke” form of handwriting. Basically, you use a stylus or your finger to write characters in a box at the bottom of the screen. The characters are very close to just printing upper case letters. Graffiti has been used in a number of devices, but was made popular by Palm’s devices and phones.

Palm co-founder Jeff Hawkins originally created the system when he saw early PDAs fail because of poor handwriting character recognition (most notably the Apple Newton). But, the system’s roots go back to a place that Apple Macintosh historians are quite familiar with, Xerox and its Palo Alto Research Center. There was some patent litigation and in the end it’s probably most accurate to say the current incarnation of Graffiti is the product of Mr. Hawkins, David Goldberg of Xerox-PARC with an assist from Communication Intelligence Corporation that created a similar system called “Jot” and licensed it to Palm to create Graffiti 2.

Palm later split its hardware and software development into two companies with the software side being sold to ACCESS Systems. ACCESS Systems Americas develops a line of smartphone apps  that include “NetFront Life Documents” (Office document viewer), “NetFront Life Connect” (media sharing), as well as Graffiti Pro.

Graffiti was originally designed to be used with a stylus at a time when touch screens were resistive (react to pressure) rather than today’s more common capacitive (react to conductive items like your finger). Fortunately, while writing with your finger isn’t quite as easy as using a stylus, it’s not all that bad either.

I installed Graffiti Pro on my T-Mobile G2 Phone, Samsung Galaxy S WiFi 5.0 Mini Tablet and my Asus Transformer. It worked well on all three devices, but after some use I decided to disable it on my phone and keep it on the mini-tablet and Transformer.

While I like using Graffiti it requires two hands…one to hold the device and the other to “write” the characters. I tend to use my phone with one hand and only use it for very short text or numeric input. Android allows you to set a default input method for the device. So, while I find Graffiti superior for sending text messages and short emails. I still like to have a standard on-screen numeric keypad for entering data into apps like my mileage log or GasBuddy (fuel price sharing). The smaller size of my G2’s screen also makes using Graffiti a little tight for my fingers (A stylus would work though) After going back and forth I decided to stick with “SwiftKey X” as my default and Graffiti as a backup.

The Samsung mini-tablet and Asus Transformer were a different story. While I can’t say that Graffiti is much faster than an on-screen keyboard because you have to write each character rather than just hitting a specific key it is a more comfortable experience for a touch typist. After about a half hour of use you become so adept at writing with Graffiti it no longer becomes necessary to look at the input area. So rather than hunting and pecking (or thumbing) keys you can look at the actual text you’re creating.

The Graffiti character set

This worked well for me on the Samsung (5-inch screen) as I use it for taking notes, quick Google searches and, of course, reading and

commenting on the The Gadgeteer. Where it really surprised me was on the Transformer where as anyone with an iPad or larger knows…typing can be a thumb stretching experience. The graffiti input area is the entire width of the screen (like any on-screen keyboard), which is a b

it of overkill, but I find it faster and more accurate when

compared to the best of the tablet keyboard solutions (currently Thumb Keyboard or SwiftKey for Tablets). I still wouldn’t want to write an article with any of the above, but a normal email isn’t bad at all.

It’s really a shame that Apple has elected to not allow users to utilize alternative keyboards (without jailbreaking), as I could see Graffiti making text input on iOS devices a lot more pleasant.

Like most on-screen keyboards, Graffiti includes suggestions for words as you input the letters. If you’re unsure of spelling or writing out a longer word this can save some time.

After doing some research I have learned that Graffiti has been available for Android devices for several months. In my never-ending search for better text input methods I must have missed it when it first was released, including the announcement and review here by Mark Adkins. I guess the internet really is good for connecting with old friends…even if that friend is a piece of software.

Filed in categories: Android related, Reviews

Tagged: Android, asus, Graffiti, handwriting recognition, Palm, PARC, Samsung, Xerox

Teaching a New Dog Old Tricks – Graffiti for Android originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 9, 2011 at 12:01 pm.

As I finish this article I learned that Hewlett-Packard, Inc. has decided to discontinue operations for webOS devices specifically the TouchPad and webOS phones. What this means for current owners has yet to be announced. It’s a shame that yet another nice operating system is going to end up in the tech graveyard, but while the timing of death is a bit of a shock the event isn’t. Yes, there’s some talk of HP licensing webOS to another company, but I don’t see that happening.

All that being said…here’s what I was working on prior to the announcement. It’s possible that HP will try to sell out its existing inventory at very low prices and for some it may not be a bad purchase.

I’m going to attempt to give you my thoughts on the TouchPad’s chance of success and a bit of a review along the way. I’ll probably not get anywhere close to the detail provided by the team of great reviewers that grace the-gadgeteer.com.  At the very least, reading this may save you your nightly dose of Ambien.

When Palm, Inc. belatedly realized that their PalmOS operating system was long past due for an overhaul they created a team to build the next generation of mobile operating system.  They were looking for something that would vault them back ahead of RIM’s Blackberry in the enterprise marketplace and also compete on the consumer side with Apple’s iOS powered iPhone.

In mid-2009, amid much fanfare, the Palm “Pre” smartphone was launched on Sprint and we all got our first look at webOS. Unfortunately, the hardware wrapped around webOS 1.x was underpowered and flawed, the OS also had more than a few bugs and the consumer experience wasn’t great. By the time the financially strained Palm released a hardware upgrade (Pre Plus) the phone had lost momentum and their new partner Verizon was focusing on Google’s Android OS-based Motorola Droid. While webOS generally got positive reviews the Pre/Pre Plus faded to the background of the smartphone market.

Palm continued to struggle and was purchased by HP for $1.2 billion in mid-2010. A few announcements, press releases and rumors later and in HP released a tiny webOS 2.1-based smartphone named “Veer” and a few months later a webOS 3.0 powered TouchPad. Priced and sized to compete with the market-leading Apple iPad 2 that had been released a few months earlier. webOS fans rejoiced, but thus far the Veer and TouchPad have met with so-so 3^rd party developer support, sales and mediocre reviews.

TouchPad side view

The TouchPad is roughly the same length and width as the iPad 2, but it’s thicker, and weighs more. The back is a plastic or polymer of some sort, gently curved.  It has a solid feel (doesn’t creak) and is easier and more comfortable than the original iPad and much more comfortable to hold than the Asus eee Transformer. It is noticeably heavier and thicker than the iPad 2.

Tablets seem to be coming with two screen types lately, the leading Android tablets like the Motorola Xoom, Asus Eee Pad Transformer and Acer’s Iconia  use the HD-style aspect ratio, 16:10, while the TouchPad has a 4:3 aspect ratio the same as the iPad. While, at first glance, you wouldn’t think that it would make that much of a difference it really does. The 16:10 tablets are much better used in landscape mode while the 4:3 aspect devices are better in portrait. I find it easier to hold a tablet in portrait mode for most functions…and tend to shift to holding it in landscape for watching videos or websites that are very wide.

The TouchPad is also much like the iPad when it comes to expansion ports…there are none other than the power/sync micro-USB port on the bottom. While, like the iPad, it won’t really charge when plugged into a computer  I will give HP credit for using a standard USB 2.0 cable rather than forcing their customers to carry a proprietary cable. The rest of the device has a power button, volume rocker, headphone jack and a microphone. There’s also a rear facing camera for use during video calls or staring at oneself. In my case, I’ve found it best to cover the camera with masking or electrical tape to prevent a nasty scare.

The processor (Qualcomm Snapdragon 1.2 ghz dual core) seems adequate, but it’s not lightning fast. It’s more like the original iPad speed wise. Battery life is good, but not quite up to that of the iPad. Still recent tests provided at tomshardware.com have shown that you’ll get at least 5 ½ hours when continuously playing full-screen video at max brightness.  The iPad 2 is the category leader clocking in with close to 9 hours. Our personal results with normal to heavy usage including video playback, music playback, browsing the internet, email, facebook, twitter, etc. with brightness set to “auto” showed no problem in making it a full day on a charge with plenty to spare. Watching video on the TouchPad is a pleasure as like its competitors the screen, an IPS display, is quite nice.

TouchPad's home screen with setting menu pulled down.

While there is nothing in the TouchPad’s hardware to really differentiate it (positively or negatively) from its competitors the interface and operating system are a different story. WebOS is the nicest mobile operating system I’ve used since Apple’s NewtonOS. The user interface is very easy to learn and just makes sense. There are a few gestures, but none that will require some of the cartilage and ligament stretching exercises that are becoming the norm for Apple devices. Basically, if you can touch, tap, pinch, and swipe up and to the side you’re good to go. When you touch the screen and lift your finger you’ll also see an effect similar to what would occur if you gently touched a placid pool of water…although the “ripple” is contained to about the size of your fingertip.

When you start the device you’re faced with a pretty standard lock-screen. WebOS allows you to opt to have calendar alerts, current song, and other notifications to appear on this screen. You open the lock by sliding a “padlock” icon a short distance in any direction away from its’ home point. You may also apply a numeric pin or more complex alpha-numeric password if you wish.

The desktop is clean with a digital clock and various notification icons in the top-right section of the menu bar. Tapping a small arrow next to the clock drops down a menu with many of the basic settings available like brightness, WiFi, Bluetooth, VPN, airplane mode, rotation lock and muting. This is similar to Android’s 3.x interface, and far less annoying than Apple’s iOS that requires the user to find and launch the General Settings app and then find the proper setting menu to make a change. The top middle of the screen has a single line text entry field that’s labeled “Just type…” . This feature is very similar to iOS’ Spotlight search allowing the user to search apps and data on the device and throughout a number of internet-based services. You may select the default search engine and then add other areas to search very easily as you come across them while browsing or installing apps.

Along the bottom of the screen sits an App Dock with five-user selectable apps and a fixed arrow which works similarly to Android’s “App Drawer” button taking you to a “launcher” screen with a tabbed interface. The tabs are All, Downloads, Favorites and Settings. All is all of your apps, Settings is the control panel, Downloads is all of the Apps that have been installed by the user through the HP App Catalog (App Store) or a home brew app store called “Preware”. Favorites are just that. The icons may be moved around with the now-standard hold, wait and drag method.  Sadly, there doesn’t appear to be a way to easily set up additional tabs or folders within each tab. I really don’t like having to scroll or page through what can become hundreds of icons to find the program I want.  Of course, I could put my favorites on the Favorites page and use “Just Type” which is the HP version of Spotlight Search, but I guess I’m just a folder-liking kind of guy.

The calendar in card/multitasking mode. From here you could flick left or right to start other apps.

So, what makes webOS special? To me it’s the way it handles multitasking. Working with multiple apps is easy and natural. You don’t close one app and then have to fish through a bar filled with icons to find the other app you want to re-launch. Rather, a simple swipe up from just off the bottom of the screen or a press of the physical home button shrinks your current app to a smaller, but actual, version of the app’s screen. You can then swipe left and right through your other running applications, simply tapping the card you want brings it to the front and full screen. Apps like Pandora continue to play while in the background. If you want to close an app you just swipe it up and off the screen. During my use I’ve had a fairly large number of apps open at once without noticing any performance problems, but if I was playing a video and had a lot of apps open it would trigger a warning that directed me to close some cards before initiating a new app. If an app has related items, say a picture in an email, those cards will be grouped together.

While an app is open immediate commands are generally along the bottom and, if there’s a menu necessary, it appears in the top left-hand corner of the screen. All of the apps I’ve used followed this convention. I wish Google and Apple would have enforced some sort of a standard in their environments as just trying to find navigation functions  in different apps can be a bit too much hide and seek for my liking.

I should note that some apps that were designed for the Pre or Veer will not display in full screen, but rather in a replica of the phone’s screen.  Thus far I haven’t found that to be a hindrance.

Pandora, a "Pre" app running on the TouchPad.

Another of the truly unique and positive features  of webOS is “Synergy”. Basically, when you setup your TouchPad you can enter your account information for many of the more popular web services (facebook, Dropbox, Google, LinkedIn, MobileMe, Skype, etc.) and then have the option to enable access to those services in many of the apps. For instance, entering your Google Apps, Drop Box or Box.net account will make documents on those services available in Quick Office; pictures from those sources as well as facebook will be available in the gallery. The calendar will include events from your Google, facebook or other connected calendar.  Contacts and Messaging are nicely integrated giving the user the option of centralizing communication with contacts from facebook, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Microsoft Exchange, AIM and Google among others. In iOS or Android integration between web services and apps is handled on an app by app basis at the discretion of the developer.

Entering your Skype account will enable you to make phone or video calls from the TouchPad’s phone app. I was a bit disappointed that it didn’t enable calling by tapping on a phone number in a web page

Speaking of apps, the TouchPad comes with the now standard set of built-in functions – Email, calendar, contacts, music player, gallery, maps (Bing), QuickOffice (display only – no editing or document creation), video player, calculator, facebook, memos, instant messenger client and a web browser. Adobe Reader is included and the browser runs Adobe Flash content. The built-in apps are all pretty solid and have the features you’d expect.

The built-in apps on the launcher screen.

Oh, and since the TouchPad is made by HP printing is available to just about any HP printer you may have on your network. It had no problem auto discovering or working with our Color LaserJet 2025, but wanted nothing to do with a Dell printer on the same network. There may be an option to use printers from other manufacturers, but I was unable to find it. Printing worked as you would expect it to. Printing with the iPad natively requires either a very small number of specially equipped printers or 3^rd party apps. Android also relies on 3^rd party apps for printing capabilities.As I mentioned earlier the TouchPad has three methods available for installing apps. The first is a standard app store which HP calls the “App Catalog”. When you first open the Catalog you’re presented with a monthly online publication called “Pivot” which highlights apps and features on the device. Other than that it’s pretty much the same Top List, categories, Free and Paid functionality that you’ll find in Apple’s App Store and Android’s Market. A minor annoyance of the App Catalog is that they only accept Mastercard and Visa for payment.

Apps that were downloaded including the "Preware" store.

The bigger problem with the App Catalog and the TouchPad in general involves the number of available webOS apps. The webOS catalog is dwarfed by the selection available on iOS or Android. Certainly, most of the basics are covered, but you’re not going to find Netflix or a lot of apps from specific news sources, banks, retail stores or restaurants. In many cases the web browser is good enough to make up for this, but not always. Yes, there appear to be a slew of Angry Birds versions available although beyond that I wouldn’t purchase the TouchPad as a gaming machine.

The other two methods of acquiring apps involve loading them onto the machine from a PC through “Developer Mode” and then subsequently installing an app catalog called Preware on your device. While the procedure to enable Preware is not the same as “Jailbreaking” an iPad it’s a similar sort of process. Rather than attempt to shut down the PreWare marketplace, HP is actively supporting these unofficial app developers with free hardware and other forms of support.  The Preware catalog includes about 500 different apps and numerous tweaks that can make using the TouchPad all the more pleasant. Detailed instructions on how to install Preware are available on the major webOS forums like precentral.net. While using these “homebrew” apps could void your warranty there is a utility available that should restore your TouchPad back to stock condition. I give HP credit for embracing their most ardent supporters.

The more adventurous can also use this capability to install new kernel’s (core operating system) and change items like CPU speed. My general recommendation is that if you never considered overclocking your PC you’ll probably not want to attempt this with your TouchPad.

A beloved site displayed in the TouchPad's browser.

To me the most important app on any tablet is the web browser. Apps are nice and really important on a smaller-screened device like a smartphone, but if I’m carrying a 10”-inch screen with WiFi or 4G speeds I want as close to the desktop web browser experience as possible.  I’d rate the webOS browser on par with that of Android’s 3.x browser and far better than Apple’s Mobile Safari. Hate it or not, Adobe Flash is necessary today for a complete web experience and HP has done a solid job of incorporating the technology.  However, there are still pages that don’t display properly. For instance, I can’t get the desktop version of Gmail to work. Hulu sort of runs (although I haven’t attempted to watch an entire show or movie) and after a long delay HBO Go started playing for me. None of the three available stock mobile browsers (or the 3^rdparty options) come close to Firefox 6.0, IE 9, Chrome or even Safari. This is an area that really needs some focus in the coming generations of tablets if they’re going to flourish.

HP has positioned the TouchPad as a productivity tool, perhaps a bit more “serious” than its rivals’ devices. That might be partly true. Certainly the stock on-screen keyboard is a best of breed. The Touchpad’s keyboard presents a five-row keyboard that includes numbers and many commonly used symbols. This is superior to Android and iOS that have four-row keyboard and require all sorts of key shifts and the like to type in something as basic as a phone number.  The Touchpad’s spell checking function is not quite as good as Android’s, but far less annoying than the overzealous iPad functionality. Android’s market has a great many third party keyboard replacements (Apple doesn’t allow any). Some of them like “Thumb Keyboard” greatly improve on key placement and word correction.

For me though…typing more than a few words on screen-based keyboard just isn’t much fun. My experience with tablets has been made far better by the purchase of Bluetooth keyboard. I use the Apple Wireless model, but HP sells a very similar device. Either would work with any Bluetooth enabled tablet and both sell for around $70. There are less expensive models available, but Apple and HP are genuinely nice keyboards. One warning when purchasing the Apple keyboard, it was meant for their desktops not the iPad or TouchPad so several of the function keys don’t apply and the initial pairing isn’t as easy as it could be. After that first time though the connection is almost immediate and the response to key presses is very good.

Strangely, after spending the time to get their on-screen keyboard right HP failed to provide an application that allows users to edit “Office” type documents. QuickOffice comes pre-installed and it does a fine job of displaying Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel documents, but there’s no option to edit them. This is a bit strange for a device that was billed as being for professionals.

So, after slogging through all of this and in light of today’s announcement would it make sense to buy a Touchpad? I’d suggest that if the price came down to under $200 it’s a good deal. Reports as of Saturday August 20 show that HP may be liquidating the TouchPads at $99 for the 16GB model and $150. The webOS hackers are going to continue to provide some new apps and the device will provide some solid utility. It’s not going to stop working just because it’s not being sold any longer.

It’s a shame that Palm was financially struggling by the time webOS was more or less ready and couldn’t come up with better hardware and better marketing. This was their baby and Palm was probably the only company that had the people invested enough in the product to make is a success. When you’re in a marketplace battling Apple and Google it’s not just money, but a solidly dedicated team that is necessary to be successful.

HP has never been comfortable in the consumer marketplace. The bulk of their revenue comes from enterprise products and services. I’m sure some executives at HP looked at their chief opponent in the corporate space, IBM, and saw that they had sold off their computer division, their laptop division and even their printer line to focus on their core products.

There’s also a relatively simple explanation for what happened. Mark Hurd was the Chief Executive Officer of HP when they purchased Palm, Inc. He left HP and Léo Apotheker eventually took over as CEO. WebOS was not Apotheker’s project or his vision for the company, it was costing HP a lot of money and they had a bad quarter…so he killed it. It’s not like this hasn’t happened many times before.

Ahh well, my guess is 20 years from now a few of us will be chatting in some forum and we’ll talk about the great OS’s that never quite got their chance. AmigaOS, BeOS, GEOS, NewtonOS and now, webOS.

Farewell, webOS we hardly knew ya…

Filed in categories: Reviews, webOS

Tagged: HP, Palm, webOS

HP’s TouchPad & webOS – Losing the Fight (A Review of Sorts) originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 21, 2011 at 11:00 am.

The HP Touchpad that’s been available in the US since July  finally has a release date of August 15th in Australia. Following it’s permanent price drop in the US, the Australian release price  will also  be $100 cheaper than first indicated.  Harvey Norman will be the initial exclusive retail partner.

Will webOs have the  features and the the backing of the development community to be able to compete with Apple and Android in Oz ?

I must admit I have a soft spot for any Palm based OS as my first handheld was a PalmPilot 1000 ( with the 512KB upgrade )  

For more information see HP’s Website 

16GB Wifi  $ 499AU     32GB Wifi  $599AU   64GB Wifi  $699AU

Note: HN is offering a bonus prepaid  3G wifi modem router with min 4GB of data with purchase  until 11 Sept or until sold out

See here  :(

Filed in categories: News, Tablet Computers and Gear

Tagged: australia, Palm, Palm OS related, Tablet

HP Touchpad Australian Touchdown – Bonus 3G Wifi Router originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 12, 2011 at 2:00 pm.

This is sad to say, but I had pretty much forgotten about Palm until earlier this week when they announced the new Palm Pre 2 and version 2.0 of webOS. Ok, maybe I didn’t completely forget that Palm existed, but in my mind I had put them in the same category as Nokia – off my radar. I was a Palm fan from the very start. Even before there were such things as smartphones. I didn’t give up on them until some point in 2008 when I finally switched to the iPhone. Last year with much anticipation, I reviewed the original Palm Pre only to be a bit underwhelmed. I thought Palm was doomed, but then HP bought them earlier this year and now a few months later, we have an update to both the OS and hardware. Is there still hope for Palm?

HP webOS 2.0 looks pretty enough. It promises true multitasking instead of the ‘fake’ multitasking that iOS offers and also comes with Adobe’s Flash player (take that Apple!). It also offers a feature called Synergy which puts all of your contact info from Facebook, Yahoo, Google, Linkedin, etc, into one list. But the updates to the hardware don’t appear to be all that exciting. There’s an updated processor, a new glass display, higher resolution camera and a slimmer design. But it still looks just like the original Pre. In my opinion, that’s been Palm’s problem for years now. They tend to stick with a hardware design for a long time and only offer little tweaks.

The Palm Pre 2 will be available in France (why France?) starting tomorrow (10/22) and will come to Verizon “soon”. Since I’m now a Verizon customer, I know that I will definitely want to get my hands on one. What about you?

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: Palm, Palm OS related, Palm pre, Spotlight Gadgets, webOS

Will HP webOS 2.0 and the Palm Pre 2 Save Palm? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 21, 2010 at 10:16 am.

Wow, I sure didn’t see this one coming… It was announced today that HP will purchase Palm at a price of $5.70 per share of Palm common stock in cash or an enterprise value of approximately $1.2 billion. HP is not a company that even sprang to my mind when we heard that Palm were putting themselves up for sale 2 weeks ago. Does that mean that we’ll start seeing iPAQ smartphones running WebOS instead of Windows Mobile? Very interesting…

[Via Engadget]

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: HP, Palm, Palm OS related, webOS

HP Buys Palm originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 28, 2010 at 5:12 pm.

I was recently given the opportunity to try out the new Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus from Verizon. The “Plus” refers to the ability of both these phones to function as 3G hotspots (like a mi-fi). You can connect up to 5 devices through Wi-Fi to access the internet through the phones. Since we have already covered the Pre with Julie’s Week with the Palm Pre and Craig’s Palm Pre: Six Months In, I chose to focus on the Pixi. If you are interested in the Pre, or even the Pixi, I encourage you to revisit these posts, as they contain a lot of good information about the Palm webOS environment.

The Palm Pixi is a smaller, and cheaper version of the Palm Pre. It takes it’s design cues from the original keyboard Treos and blackberries. If you are looking for a phone with a physical keyboard, but don’t want to slide it out, this is a great option.

Hardware Specs

• Operating system Palm webOS™ platform
• Dual-band CDMA2000
• 3G: EvDO Rev A
• 2.63-inch multitouch screen with a vibrant 18-bit color, 320×400 resolution Sub-HVGA display
• Physical QWERTY keyboard
• Microsoft® Exchange email with Microsoft Direct Push Technology
• POP3/IMAP (Yahoo! Mail, Gmail™, AOL, Hotmail®, etc.)
• Built-in GPS
• 2-megapixel camera with LED flash, geotagging, and video capture
• Ambient light, accelerometer, and proximity sensors
• Audio formats: MP3, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR, QCELP, WAV
• Video formats: MPEG-4, H.263, H.264
• Wi-Fi 802.11b/g with WPA, WPA2, WEP, 802.1X authentication;
• Bluetooth® wireless technology 2.1 + EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support;
• Wi-Fi router functionality for up to five devices using Palm mobile hotspot.
• 8GB Memory (~7GB available)
• Up to 5.2 hours talk time and 350 hours standby time
• Charger/microUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
• 3.5mm stereo
• Palm Touchstone Charging Dock Compatible
• Width: 55.0mm (2.17 inches)
• Height: 111.0mm (4.37 inches)
• Thickness: 10.85mm (0.43 inches)
• 92.5 grams (3.26 ounces)

The screen is smaller than the Pre, but still very usable. Here is a side by side comparison of the Pre and Pixi:

When closed, the Pre is a little shorter than the Pixi. When open, it is taller:

The Pixi is considerably slimmer than the Pre:

In fact, that is the first thing I noticed about this phone, it is VERY thin. This is easily the smallest smartphone I have ever used.

webOS

This is an area I don’t feel I have a lot to add. Look through Julie and Craig’s posts for a lot detail. I’ll just share my impressions here. I found the OS to be very elegant. However, both the Pre and Pixi could benefit by a more powerful processor to run this OS. I found it a little laggy at times.

Synergy

This is one of the truly wonderful things about the Palms. Synergy allows you to access your accounts from multiple sources in one place. I was able to use my Gmail, an exchange account, and a yahoo mail account with ease. My calendar entries on my exchange and Gmail accounts were displayed in different colors. All in all, it was a great experience.

Keyboard

The keyboard is a touch smaller than the Pre. I didn’t think it would be very functional, but after a short while using it, I was surprised how well it worked. The keys are small, but the curve and the slight rubbery feel work very well. If you are concerned about the keyboard, I would recommend visiting a store and trying it out. Give it more than a few minutes, though.

Mobile Hotspot

One of the big attractions to these two phones is the “Plus”. That is, the ability to be a mobile hotspot. Both phones have the ability, but they require you to sign up for the service separately. This is usually a $40 /month charge, but right now they are waiving it. So with your Palm phone you essentially get a free MiFi. This can be a great deal for folks that travel. I also got to experience the convenience when my RoadRunner service want down, and they told me they could come fix it in a couple of days. I fired up the Pixi and was working in no time.

Palm’s Future

Since I received this phone to review, the news has come out that Palm is looking to be bought. This certainly raises issues with the future of webOS. This is certainly something you should factor into your purchase decision, but as I was considering that I realized how many different phone OS’ I have had over the years.

Conclusion

I really like this phone. As much as I like this phone, it won’t be my next phone. I felt it was a little underpowered, and I don’t really care for the form factor (except for the incredibly small size). I am a sucker for a large screen and some horsepower. Also, I have to admit, that I think I am losing the battle to not become an Android fan-boy.

This phone is a great choice for someone who is looking to get a phone that can access multiple online accounts, and wants a slick, modern OS in an incredibly small package. Add in the $29.99 price and being able to use it as a mobile hot spot, and this is a very strong candidate.

Filed in categories: Reviews, Wireless

Tagged: Palm, Palm OS related, verizon

Palm Pixi Plus for Verizon originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 19, 2010 at 11:00 am.

It didn’t surprise me today when I learned that Palm has been put up for sale. I am saddened by this news though. My first real PDA was the original PalmPilot 1000 followed by model after model through the years. I’m probably not alone when I say that Palm lost its luster long ago. I kept hoping they would do something amazing to turn things around and I kept my fingers crossed for them when the Palm Pre was released last year.  Unfortunately that product hasn’t received the same attention as the iPhone and Android devices and now Palm’s future is up in the air. At this point I think it will take a miracle for them to reclaim their former glory… but that doesn’t keep me from rooting for them.

Filed in categories: News

Tagged: Palm, Palm OS related

Palm is Up For Sale originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 12, 2010 at 8:30 pm.

Wouldn’t It Be Nice?

To start with, I’m not a big cell phone fan.  In fact, I have a reproduction of a turn of the century candlestick phone…you  know.. the kind where you hold the earpiece to your ear but speak into a mouthpiece mounted on a slender structure?

It works just fine for me.  I dislike talking on the phone that much.  I keep it short and simple.  On a cell phone it’s even shorter.  I’m not one to gab while driving or text while driving or walk around the mall or sit in a restaurant or walk around the grocery store yakking into my cell phone.  If it’s that important, email me.  At least I can use my hands to take down information without having to try to cradle my flat Palm Pixi.

Having said that, today’s smart phones do have their uses.  I keep my Palm Pixi with me because I have a GPS, tip calculator, regular calculator, To Do List, weather thingy, eBook reader, calendar,  and a Hangman game application on it.   And ladies, I also have a neat, handy dandy “other calendar” on it.  This calendar is called “Pink Pad” and it’s an application that tracks a woman’s monthly period.

If you’re a guy and the mere mention of a menstrual cycle gives you the willies, feel free to bag out of this review now.  What follows is simply a “woman thing” and four out of five you would not understand.

Pink Pad from Alt12 Apps is an application that allows you to track your menstrual cycles from their onset.  It allows you to notate the heaviness or lightness of your flow during your cycle, track cramping, mood, amorous feelings and journalize your overall well being during this time.  It features a daily, weekly and monthly view and predicts when your next cycle is most likely to show up, how many days until your next cycle is likely to appear,  what your most fertile days are and what day you are most likely to be ovulating.  For those who use this application and become pregnant, it tracks and journalizes your gestation.

This is a monthly view of the Pink Pad Application. The darkness of the pink dots on the calendar days will notate how heavy your cycle is based your on determination of light, medium or heavy flow. The flowers notate fertile days and flower with the dark center notates the day you are most likely to be ovulating. Any date with a circle notates those days when you have journalized more information.

Home Page View of the Pink Pad Cycle predictor. This will alternately show how many days left in an active cycle, date of estimated next cycle and next fertile days. Screenshots courtesy of House of Palm. com

Many women already know when their cycles will appear due to being on birth control pills.  With all of the bad press surrounding certain birth control medicines and for those women for whom the pill is not option due to religious reasons, medical reasons (the pill actually makes me sick) or wanting to become pregnant, Pink Pad is nice little handy helpful predictor.  It downloads for $4.99 at House of Palm.com.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Health, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

“Aunt Flo’s” Next Visit? There’s an App for That originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on March 1, 2010 at 9:34 am.

In mid-June of 2009, Palm sent me a Pre, its first webOS-powered smartphone, to try out as a “Real Reviewer.”  That program, I was told, was launched to get the Palm Pre into the hands of a few people Palm could count on to use it daily for an extended period (about six months, to be specific) and talk about it in blogs, on social networking sites, mailing lists, and so forth.

Real Reviewers was meant to be different from the typical press loaner program, where phones get sent out to blogs & journalists, who spend maybe a week with them, and then send them back.  Those impressions, while helpful, might not be entirely complete; in contrast, spending months with a device can be much more revealing (for better or worse).

So, now, as my time with a loaner Pre comes to an end, here are my honest impressions of the device, Sprint’s service, and the overall user experience.

In the Beginning

When I was anticipating getting the Palm Pre, I was filled with equal parts geek giddiness and abject terror.  While the geek giddiness part is obvious to anyone reading this site, the reason for my abject terror was that the Palm Pre was about to end a 13-year, love-hate relationship I had had with Palm OS devices.  Virtually every part of my daily mobile existence revolved around my Palm OS phone.  While I’d had other types of PDAs and smartphones over the years, I never found them as compelling, so I stuck with Palm OS.

As the Pre runs Palm’s new webOS operating system, everything would have to change.  Yes, it had the Classic emulator, which could run some Palm OS apps with varying degrees of competence, but HotSync was broken, which meant much of what I relied on day-to-day would need to be revised.

And frankly, it should’ve been.  The “sync to my PC” model of transferring data is antiquated, unreliable, and somewhat antithetical to the whole concept of an always-connected smartphone.  So, I jumped into the Palm Pre experience with both feet.

I ran the included converter app, which I used to transfer my Treo’s calendar and contacts to Google’s equivalents, and my tasks and memos went into the Pre’s on-board versions of those apps.  The concept of syncing my PIM data to the cloud has always appealed to me, and this first step was entirely painless.

Synergy

With that done, I started to see the magic of Palm’s new webOS feature called Synergy, which basically acts like a huge data funnel, sucking your personal and social network calendar and contacts information into the Pre.  After giving it my Exchange, Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn (and Yahoo! was recently added) login info, it went out and synced all my contacts from all those sources into the Pre and, as if by magic, matched up duplicates to create combined entries.

For example, my wife’s Google Contacts entry, Facebook profile, and LinkedIn profile all contributed to her single entry in my Pre’s addressbook.  It recognized redundant info, such as where she entered the same address in two places, and presented me with just one address.

Calendars work similarly; events on any one of my private or social network calendars show up, color-coded, on my Pre’s calendar.  If someone makes a change to an event I’ve added to my calendar, my phone is updated automatically without me lifting a finger.

Synergy worked so well that I was simply stunned…it was the thing I showed off first to curious friends and coworkers, and it never failed to impress.  And it still does me to this day.  If webOS has a killer feature, Synergy is truly it.  And, frankly, the prospect of doing without it, should I ultimately decide to get a non-webOS phone after the Pre, is not one I relish.

The Learning Curve

I did have to make a few big mental shifts.  For example, with all these thousands of entries in my Pre’s addressbook, I had to stop using it like a Rolodex (looking people up alphabetically).

Let’s say I wanted to send someone a text message.  On a different device, I’d typically open up the messaging app, tap the To: field, scroll (or jump) to the person I wanted, and then tap their phone number.  On the Pre, it’s more straightforward:  I start typing the person’s name (fastest way is first letter of first name followed by 2-3 letters from the last name), and the Pre’s Universal Search function pulls up his contact info.  From that screen, I can tap the “SMS” button on the corresponding phone number, which launches a new text message.

In short, on communication tasks, I had to move from thinking about apps to thinking about people.  And honestly, that makes a fair bit of sense.

Another area in which I had to change how I interacted with the device involved multitasking.  Palm OS doesn’t multitask.  When you open up an app, the previous one closes automatically, preserving its state (most of the time).

When I got the Pre, I tended to use one app at a time, just like on my Treo.  However, over the following couple of months, I found myself in more and more situations where multitasking was incredibly handy.  One example involved streaming my kids’ favorite song into our car stereo (via Orb) while simultaneously tracking our route in Google Maps.

As I use the Pre more, I get more and more reliant on being able to have several apps running at once.  But the real benefit of webOS is how easy it is to switch apps.  Not only can you get a visual overview of all your apps with a single gesture, you get the equivalent of Windows’ Alt-Tab to rapidly cycle through what’s running.

Not All Wine and Roses

By this point, you may have started thinking this was an infomercial.  Let me put that fear to rest.  While I really do enjoy using the Pre, it is far from perfect.

My biggest complaints so far do not include that it only has ~550 apps in the Palm App Catalog (heck, it’s still in beta), but are (a) the overall sluggishness of the user interface and (b) Palm’s apparent lack of concern for operational efficiency in webOS (something Palm OS truly excelled at).

To be completely honest, there are times when I want to slam my Pre to the floor (I haven’t yet…I’m always cognizant it’s a loaner).  It takes 2-5 seconds for a calendar page to load (or do whatever it’s doing) before I can scroll up or down or switch to the next page.  If I want to go 5 days into the future, that’s an untenable proposition…it takes literally 5 times 2-5 seconds = 10 seconds minimum.  Similarly, rendering even a simple text email often takes an inexplicable 3-5 seconds.  One upside of this is that I use my Pre to handle email far less than I used my Treo.

Perhaps even more frustrating are the random lags.  I’ll tap an on-screen button and nothing happens.  So I’ll tap it again.  Nothing.  Then, just as I’m about to tap it a third (or 4th or 5th) time, the screen reacts and it’s obvious that both initial taps were acted upon.  AARGH!

Disclaimer:  I have installed many, many homebrew apps and community patches onto my Pre, so there’s a chance that one or more of those are creating some of this lagginess. More on homebrew below.

Regarding operational efficiency, Palm has clearly departed from the “Zen of Palm” philosophy, which drove the UI design of Palm OS from its inception.  webOS is anything but.

One example is webOS’ reliance upon the “Back” swipe gesture, which is basically a short, right-to-left swipe below the screen to take the app back one screen/command/menu level.  As much as I do this, I’d really much rather have a physical button, as it’s faster and less work for me.

A related issue is, because webOS is so very finger-friendly, all of its on-screen control elements are a lot bigger than the equivalents on a stylus-based UI.  This usually results in far fewer commands and functions being given full-time availability.  Also, the font and spacing between elements is often much bigger, leading to more white space and less content on the screen.

Compare the new webOS Tasks app (on the left) with the old Palm OS To-Do app (on the right); on the latter, see how much more direct access to changing stuff you have without diving into menus and hitting little (i) buttons first?  Every element on the Palm OS version is tappable, and the tap takes you directly to being able to interact with that specific field.  On the webOS version, tapping anywhere on the entry (except the checkbox) takes you to the details page, where you then have to tap again to change the field you’re interested in.  In my opinion, when you’re designing a mobile OS that people in a hurry are going to use, every tap matters, and I’d like to have to make as few of them as possible.

Finally — and this is probably just a personal preference — I like physical buttons.  Being able to launch an app with a dedicated hardware button is fast and efficient.  While Palm tried to get some of the same effects with the “wave” launcher, it’s just not the same.  I have to slide my finger up, make sure I’m on the right icon, and then wait for the app to load.  Sure, it’s only a second or two difference, but it feels like eternity compared to what I’m used to.

Physically, the Pre is really a feat of engineering. Squeezing all that functionality into so small and svelte a package is impressive.  Two minor complaints about the hardware, though.  One complaint is no flash expansion slot.  I got used to being able to take my card out and insert into whatever I needed at the moment.  Instead, the Pre can go into flash drive mode, which, when connected to a PC with a USB cable, is fully accessible via the file browser.  It’s not a bad compromise.  The other complaint is the USB cover…it’s just so flimsy and annoying that I’m constantly tempted to rip it off entirely.

Homebrew to the Rescue

Thankfully, Palm has been exceedingly open about webOS, which is fitting since it uses a lot of open source components.  Because of that openness, the webOS developer/hacker community has been very active.  As of my writing this article, there are several hundred homebrew (the term for unofficial webOS software) applications, patches (changes to the operating system), and themes, which change the look and feel of wallpapers, soft buttons, icons, etc.

All the homebrew apps are free, since there’s no way to enforce payment through the installation systems available today.  However, many are “donationware,” which suggests that, if you use the app regularly, you should make a small donation to the developer.  Relying on the honor system isn’t perfect, but, for many devs, it’s a good alternative to the hassle of a formal e-commerce solution.

Many of the patches are targeted at adding or changing features of the user interface.  For example, one patch increases the number of icons the user can see at any one time in the app launcher from 9 (3 rows x 3 columns) to 20 (4 rows x 5 columns), meaning less scrolling (yay!).  Another patch adds the date next to the time in the center top of the screen (see screen cap above for example).  These are little things that really do add up to a measurable improvement in overall usability.

Other aspects of homebrew have tackled more significant issues, such as Palm’s decision to greatly limit the memory available to install 3rd-party apps in, or enabling a virtual (on-screen) keyboard to complement the physical slider.

With the advent of Preware, users can access all of these homebrew offerings directly from the device; browsing and downloading over-the-air (OTA), and not having to go to a computer to install something, is really a phenomenal improvement over the traditional sync approach.

Touchstone

When the Pre was revealed at CES in January, 2009, one of the things that gave the blogosphere vapors was the wireless, inductive Touchstone charger Palm also showed off.  Curious about it, I bought one.  It has a couple of nifty features.  While the Pre’s charging, if a call comes in, picking the Pre off the Touchstone automatically answers the call.  Putting it back on the charger while the call’s in progress switches it to speakerphone mode.  Nifty.

However, I had to relegate my Touchstone to my office.  I had originally wanted to use it on my nightstand, but that proved unworkable.  While charging on the Touchstone, the Pre keeps its screen on and displays a clock.  However, the screen, even on the dimmest setting, was too bright and I found it harder to sleep.  It would be really nice if Palm could give users the option of turning the screen completely off while the phone’s on the Touchstone.

Sprint

A review of the Pre wouldn’t be complete without discussing the one carrier it’s currently tied to (although nearly everyone who isn’t a Sprint shareholder wants to see that exclusivity end very soon).  Sprint is a pretty good network for the Pre.  While coverage can be spotty in some places, Sprint’s 3G network is quite fast.  In fact, a multi-city comparison by Gizmodo just about a year ago showed Sprint topped all others in average download speed.  While 3G doesn’t compare well with Wi-Fi speeds, in good-coverage areas, I’ve found data speeds on the Pre to be good, if not great.  So, as long as you’re in an area with good coverage, the 3G data experience will be pretty excellent.

Looking into the Future

Overall, Palm has developed a really amazing operating system in webOS.  It seems to scale well to various screen sizes; it’s intuitive and easy to use; and it’s enjoyable to look at.  Is it perfect? No, but we’re just 6 months from the launch of the first webOS device, so the fact that it’s this stable with this much of a user/developer community already is encouraging, if not downright amazing.

Looking ahead, I think webOS will greatly benefit from some of the powerful, new mobile processors that are starting to come out (e.g., Qualcomm’s Snapdragon and the Cortex-A9).  But, given the Palm Pre runs its Cortex-A8 processor (which is no slouch by any means) at just 500MHz and doesn’t (currently) use any of that chip’s on-board graphics coprocessing, one can only believe there’s quite a bit more to extract from even today’s hardware than webOS has attempted so far.

Wrap-Up

When compared to the smartphone behemoths that represent the Pre’s competition (Apple, Microsoft, Google, RIM, and Nokia), it’s flat-out amazing that tiny little Palm can even compete, let alone produce a device and platform that is superlative in many ways.  And yet, despite a decade of predictions of Palm’s demise, they did just that.

In summary, there’s a whole lot to like in the Pre and webOS, as well as some detractions.

The Good

• Enjoyable OS with powerful multitasking capabilities
• Synergy, Synergy, Synergy!  (the killer feature, IMO)
• Rapidly growing application catalog
• Enthusiastic homebrew community
• Physical keyboard that slides away when not needed
• Frequent OTA updates from Palm, which seems committed to webOS
• It’s small and fits in a pocket exceedingly well

The Bad

• Hardware may not be entirely up to the challenge of running webOS smoothly
• Some apps and preferences need improvement in usability and/or responsiveness
• No flash memory expansion slot (I do miss that) and silly little USB cover
• Smallest app catalog of all the major platforms (so far)

I’m grateful that Palm has let me use the Pre for six months.  But, like Algernon, now that I’ve lived with webOS, I just can’t go back to my Palm OS Centro.  So, I have a choice to make in the very near future.  Do I renew my Sprint contract and get a Pre of my own, or do I explore another platform, like Android, which spans all the major carriers?  The glorious part about this dilemma is that it’s a dilemma at all…never before have we, consumers, had so many compelling options.

Decisions, decisions.

Filed in categories: Reviews

Tagged: Palm, Palm OS related, Palm pre, webOS

Palm Pre: Six Months In originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 11, 2009 at 9:49 am.

Who has a mobile device and a little time to kill throughout their day? My guess is just about all of us, especially when it comes to having a bit of fun.

Over the past few days I was able to spend some time playing games. Sounds tough right? Well, I was able to play with astraware boardgames for the Blackberry. It is also available for just about every other mobile operating system as well. Before I get into the nitty gritty of game play, let me just say this app is fantastic!


The package includes chess, backgammon, ludo, checkers, reversi, nine mens morris, and of course tic tac toe. There are some really cool things that I liked a lot when it came to game play. The graphics were very crisp and the game pieces moved very smoothly. There is a bit of movement difference depending on which device you are using. I used my Blackberry Storm and my Curve, one being touch and the other not. On the touch screen you just highlight and slide(very smooth) on the non-touch screen you have to highlight the desired piece then you see a highlighted area that you can move that piece into. Regardless game play was fun and very easy to figure out.

Each game did have sound in the background. However the sound was very basic and slightly annoying. At least you have the option to mute the sound. Which is what I did after about 30 seconds of playing. Besides, I didn’t want to be heard when I was in my staff meetings.

I would say that chess is my favorite game to play, but that is mainly due to the fact that I just learned how to play it (yeah i know I am a late bloomer)! I also like it because it has an instructional mode, so you can learn as you go. Tic Tac Toe would have to be my least favorite, and that’s mainly because it was very basic and besides, it is tic tac toe and there is only so much you can do with it.

Each game is fully customizable, from being able to make your own rules (yes you saw that correctly) to the difficulty level of game play. The fact that you get 7 games for only $9.99 I would definitely buy this one on my own. If you are going to spend the money make sure you do like these types of games. If these aren’t the type games you like just head over to www.astraware.com and take your pick from their huge selection of other games they have to offer.

Definitely check out this package. Not only do the games make you feel like a kid again but they are fun to play and at the same time they make you use your brain!

All I can say now is CHECKMATE and KING ME!

Filed in categories: Blackberry related, Windows Mobile related

Tagged: Blackberry, Games, Palm, Palm OS related, Windows Mobile

Astraware Boardgames Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 31, 2009 at 7:47 pm.

It’s a phone, it’s a music player, it’s a camera, it’s a Palm Pre. Is it good at any of those tasks? I have been trying these feature for the past couple of days and here are the results…

Before I get into anything else, I did want to mention that I haven’t experienced any more weird battery suckage issues like I did the other day. No major hardware issues lately either…

The Palm Pre as a… phone

Today let’s make some calls, receive some calls, play some music and take some pix with the built in 3 megapixel camera.

Initiating a phone call requires two steps at a minimum. If the Pre is already awake and in the card view, you can just press the Green call icon and then start tapping the number you want to dial. If you want to search by name, slide open the keyboard and a list of matching contacts will appear and filter as you type. You can also assign speed dial numbers to the numbers on the touch pad and hold them down to call.

If your phone is idle and a call is received, the display will look like the image above. I assumed by the image that I would be able to press the hardware button to answer the call. Ummmm…. nope. So ok, I thought then just tap the call button on the screen to answer the call. No again. You have to slide the call button up as you would do to unlock the phone. Argh… I hate this as it’s sometimes hard to do with one hand and your thumb. Especially while driving. Yeah, yeah, I still don’t use a Bluetooth headset all the time.

If the phone is awake, this is what you’ll see. A simple tap of the Green or Red buttons will answer or end a call.

If I had an image set for myself, it would show up, but otherwise, you see the little person shape. This is the during call display. You can switch to speaker phone, mute, go to the dial pad or add another person to the call for a conference. The Pre has a proximity sensor, so when you have the phone up to your face, the screen will turn off. Pull it away and it turns back on. Wonder where they got that idea? Hmmmm

If you miss a call and turn on your phone, you’ll see something like this. I thought the notification system was really nifty for about 1 day. Now I’m over it. It seems to get in my way more than help me.

Tap the missing call button to see more info and call the person back if you desire.

Small icons in the bottom right corner will also remind you of missing calls, voice mails and other notifications. BTW, I can’t get rid of the darned alarm icon no matter what I do. I had set a timer the other day to remind me when to take a lasagna out of the oven. Now it’s stuck there even though I’ve deleted the alarm. Grrrrrr…

There’s a standard call log screen that lists outgoing and missed calls.

Call quality with the Pre, even while roaming, seems to be much better than what I’m used to with my GSM phones on AT&T. My calls with the Pre have been significantly better sounding. That said, Sprint reception here isn’t very good. At my home, it’s roaming 100% of the time. At my work I’m not roaming, but I have had numerous times when I would call the Pre with my desk phone or AT&T phone and the calls would go to straight to voice mail even when the Pre shows 2 bars. I don’t know if this is a Sprint issue or a Pre issue.

Update: I figured out that this only happens when I’m doing data on the Pre. If I’m loading a webpage or doing something that is accessing data, incoming phone calls go straight to voice mail. I’m wondering if this is because I don’t have 3G here.

For any iPhone users out there thinking of jumping ship to get a Pre, you should know that the Pre doesn’t have visual voice mail. Not that the lack of that feature would be a deal breaker for me. But once you’ve used it, you realize just how handy it is.

So for phone calls, I’m not real impressed with the Pre. Although call quality is very good, I hate not being able to make or answer a call with a actual physical button. I guess I’m just too old school about some things

The Pre as a digital audio player

Loading and playing your favorite music on the Pre is easy.

Just plug the Pre into your computer with the USB cable. Then tap the USB Drive button and the Pre will mount like a flash drive. Drag and drop folders of your music onto the Pre. Unplug and then launch the Music player.

You can also use the Media Sync option, which will load iTunes on your computer and allow you to sync with that.

The music player is not unlike other media players. In other words, you’re not going to have any problems figuring out how to use it. You can view music by artist, albums, songs, genres or playlists. There’s also a link for the Amazon MP3 store in the player. More about Amazon in a bit…

If you have album art with your music, it shows up in the various lists.

The now playing screen can be seen in album art view…

Or song list view. That light blue progress bar to the left of the top song will fill in the whole row as the song plays.

Since the Palm Pre multitasks, you can play music while you surf or do other things. Nifty.

If you need a new song fix, you can go to the Amazon MP3 store and buy some with your Pre.

The interface for the store is easy to navigate.

It has a search feature – of course.

You can buy albums or songs, which will be charged to the credit card that you have on file with Amazon.com.

The Pre as a camera

I was anxious to try out the Pre’s built in 3 megapixel camera. I was encouraged by the fact that it has a built in LED flash.

When you launch the camera application, you’re put in viewfinder mode by default. My screenshot didn’t capture the live view finder, but you get the idea. The interface is very simplistic. There’s a green shutter button and the flash button that toggles between always on, never on and auto on. The other button launches the photo viewer.

Photos are separated into photo roles, all images, screen captures and wallpapers.

Images are shown in thumbnails that can be then shown full screen, zoomed, etc.

Here are some sample pix that you can check out. Click on them to see the full sized images.

The camera takes ok pictures indoors and outdoors, but you can forget macro shots. Darn. I always like a phone with a camera that can take good close up pix because I sometimes like to snap pictures of product labels, magazine ads, etc when I’m at a store.

The camera also doesn’t record video… boo. You can’t change the resolution (which is 1520 x 2032), zoom, etc. either.

I’ve had the Palm Pre for 5 days now and so far I have to tell you that not in love with it. I am still loving the size and the display, but the rest is just ok for me. I was hoping to be wowed the way I was when I first tried an iPhone. That’s the whole thing, so far the Pre is too much like an iPhone for me. Yeah, it has some features that the iPhone doesn’t have like a real keyboard and multi-tasking. But other than those two main features, I’m not yet thinking that I can’t live without this phone. Maybe I’ll change my mind before the week is over though. We’ll see…

I plan to cover quite a bit in my next post:

• Built-in video applications
• App Catalog
• Classic emulator
• PIM syncing

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Palm, Palm OS related, Palm pre

A Week With The Palm Pre Smartphone – Day 4 & 5 originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 11, 2009 at 9:38 pm.

HP Mini 1000 Netbook, remember? Whole series of reviews by some really cool people (and me)? A major strong point was easy wireless connectivity? Remember all of that?

So, what about when you are not near a Wi-Fi source and don’t wanna pop for a cell modem and the related costs? My Palm Centro is Bluetooth enabled and can access the net, and my Mini is Bluetooth enabled- surely there is a way to connect the two?!?!

June Fabrics PdaNet has a series of programs designed for just this purpose! Better yet, it does it for free after you have paid for the program!

PdaNet is available for Windows Mobile, iPhone, Blackberry and Android, so should cover most ‘Smartphones’ available. I trialed the PalmOS version.

Main Screen, and about the only screen! "Port" can be Bluetooth or USB

It downloads and installs smoothly and asks you if you wish to load a related application, PdaReach, at the same time. We will discuss PdaReach a little later.

Your first connection may be a bit tricky, but certainly nothing too difficult. You just choose USB or Bluetooth on the Palm, and if you choose Bluetooth, check the Bluetooth option in the desktop PdaNet application (it will be in the  taskbar). You may need to play with the COM settings but it usually does it right the first time. Oh, and if you do go with Bluetooth, make sure your Hot Sync is set to Bluetooth as well. I actually had to work harder to connect with the USB cable than I usually do using Bluetooth!

(OK, so there are a couple tricky little bits sometimes. The on-line documentation is good, but it can be kind of spotty on questions like this. My experience so far has been that figuring out the problem and a solution was usually easy.)

Open it up and you’ll be surfing the net at a ‘blazing’ 56 to 144kbps- from about as fast as  to almost 3 times the speed of a 56k modem. You remember 56k modems, right? According to Speakeasy.net, my wireless Cox connection is running at about 10,000kbps, so just a bit faster. The network determines your speed. Once launched, it is pretty stable. I occasionally lost the signal but it usually reacquired it quickly.

It is not perfect- in one trial I had a huge headache with the COM settings, but I was also trying to run several different Bluetooth applications and I think they were tripping over each other. I was never able to clear it up until I actually wiped my hard drive and restarted. In my other trials, however, things went smoothly. Speaking of trials, the free trial period for this is about 2 weeks and seems fully enabled.

According to the website, PdaNet for the Palm OS can run in the background on some Palms but it does not seem especially stable that way. Overall, this is a small (73k), inexpensive ($34.95) program that is a great addition to the mobile warriors bag of tricks- a nice, cheap way t contact the Internet anywhere you can get bars. In fact, keeping the .zip program handy to use for free in an emergency seems like a good idea.

PdaReach is a separate program that allows you to run your Palm device on a laptop, using your keyboard, mouse, etc. It is a great idea for training, easier access, etc. It runs $24.95 and takes 64k. It only runs on a USB cable, and for some reason I cannot seem to get it to load on the Centro.

PdaReach, Palm screen (the real action happens on your computer)

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Bluetooth Gear, modem, Palm, Palm OS related, Wireless

PdaNet – Palm OS Utility originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 9, 2009 at 12:11 pm.

As Google absorbs more and more of my cyber-life (resistance IS futile!), I am wanting to coordinate between things like their calendar and my Palm Centro more and more. (Yes, I can look things up on-line on the Centro, but it is slow and awkward to work with.) GooSync is a free on-line tool that will do the job with little fuss.

GooSync offers this program in a free standard version (which is what I am using) and a Premium package that can sync multiple Google calendars, sync your contacts, etc.  One big difference between the two versions is that the free version only syncs the upcoming 30 days, while the premium does the upcoming year. Another is that the premium package offers an Autosync option. Personally, my social life is not so busy that either of these is a big need!

Main Screen

Main Screen- during a sync

Installation was about the same as any other Palm program, and there was no difficulty getting it to work over WiFi or to access my Google account. The on-line documentation is OK, but I only tried it for one issue that it really did not help me with- setting up Autosync (it is supposed to be available only in the Premium Edition, but there is a screen for it in the Standard Edition.)

Autosync Preferences Screen

It does a good job putting things from the Google Calendar into the right places automatically, and so far has worked for me the way I want- set up the Google Calendar as I want, hit a button on the Centro, and Tah-Dahhhh! The job is done. The screen may not be exciting, but it tells me what I want to know- the Palm Zen spirit, if not the usual Palm Zen look.

The program only takes about 500kb of memory, and has caused no glitches or problems for my Centro at all.  This is not a big ‘gee whiz!’ kind of program, but rather one of those little unsung utilities that just plain works the way it should.

If you are like me and all of these computer options that are supposed to make our lives easier is confusing you just a little bit, then you’ll appreciate how easy GooSync is and how convenient it is to carry a calendar that is stored, shared, and synced on-line.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Google Calendar, Palm, Palm OS related, sync

GooSync- Google Calender Sync Tool Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 18, 2009 at 1:00 am.

The zen of the Palm OS is that it is easy to use, intuitive, and helpful. A key element of this is being able to quickly jot, store, and retrieve notes- but… is your note a memo? A contact? An SMS? How many times have you had to actually (**shudder**) write something down and add it to your Palm later? Splashdata’s Snap solves that.Snap describes itself as “A central place to put all your notes that you want to organize later.” This handy little application offers a simple Memo-like screen with a series of icons running down the side. The idea is that you will write a note and later assign it to an application represented by the icons. Snap will try to figure out what data in the note goes where in the application.

It is mostly intuitive, with only a few things in the User’s Guide that you cannot quickly figure out on your own (like putting codes at the end of phone numbers to categorize them as home, work, etc.). The program is smart enough to guess that ‘tues.’ is the upcoming Tuesday, or that 4 is 4:00- if you told it 4p, it would call it 4:00 pm.

Note #1: As entered in Snap

Note #1: Intermediate screen going to Calendar

Note #1: As shown in DateBk 6, right date and time.

Enter the info, then tap on the application it is going to. Most of the applications have an intermediate screen to let you fine-tune what goes where before you add it to the app. You can cut and paste things from field to field, correct typos, set categories, etc. at this stage. You can also leave the info in the Snap format for later editing.

I found that is was pretty good for sample memos- it did not recognize Omaha as a city, but then, a lot of people can’t.   When I made a more ‘natural’ memo- as if I were recording data as it happened, it had a harder time making the right guesses. The ‘intermediate screens’ come in handy at times like this.

Note #2: A little more vague.

Note #2: Intermediate screen for Datebook- got the time and date right!

Note #2: Intermediate screen for Contacts- not as good on the name.

Note #2: As an SMS

The good: This is a nice program. It fits the ‘Palm zen’ groove nicely and fills a real need. It is nicely priced at $9.95 (although my copy was a freebie from Handango a while ago), and well-documented.

The bad: I would wish that you could enter several Snap memos and store them for later conversion, but as far as I can tell, you can only do one at a time. The Palm Centro is a bit awkward for text memos- having to switch back and forth between numbers and letters. Sigh… I miss Grafitti

The ugly: It crashes my Centro. At first, it was resetting while trying to enter the registration code. Later, after entering data, every time I tried to hit the Home key, it would show home, then flick over to Memos. Somehow it remapped the Home/Applications button to Memos, possibly because of another application on board. (I assume the problem is on my end.)

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: memo, note, Palm, Palm OS related, Software, splashdata

Splashdata’s Snap – Palm OS Utility originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on February 24, 2009 at 1:00 am.

Judie Lipsett mentioned the original Insaniquarium in a 2003 article about Spring Break and what she was going to take. While brief, the comment points out how much fun the program is. Well, PopCap Game’s Insaniquairum Deluxe is better.

You may as well buy a wrist brace to wear on your stylus-slinging hand, because this game is going to push your tapping to the limits. Naturally, it starts off slow and innocent-like. You are managing a small aquarium with a couple of goldfish. You tap the screen and a bit of food appears and floats gently to the floor of the tank, unless one of the hungry fish eat it. Each bit of food costs you points, and unless you buy an upgrade you can only have one piece of food at a time. So far, so good- but it gets worse.

Game screen showing healthy fish, an easy to kill alien, and a snail that helps collect coins.

OK, the fish start ‘dropping’ money as they get older- first silver, then gold coins- that you have to tap on to collect or it evaporates away. You can use the money for upgrades, new fish, etc. Add new fishies for $100 each, and have more mouths to feed. If the fish is hungry it turns a sickly green and will eventually groan, die, and evaporate to background music. You can upgrade to a more nutritious food, or buy the ability to drop more than one pellet at a time. So far, so good- but it gets worse.

One of the options is a predatory fish that eats baby goldfish, so now you have to feed these guys (who drop diamonds) and work on keeping the older fish healthy. The more fish you have, the more coins are dropping, the more food you need, the more tapping is happening. So far, so good- but it gets worse.

Game screen with predators and a sickly fish.

There are aliens that transport in and try to eat the fish- both your $100 goldfish AND the $1000 predators (did I mention how much these things cost?) You can attack them with taps- tap at their feet and they move up, tap at their heads and they move down. Tap them enough and they die… in the earlier levels, at least. Oh, and not only do the aliens eat the fish, but while you are defending your aquarium, your fish are going hungry and the money is going untapped and evaporating. So far, so good- but it gets worse.

Worse, you say? How could it get worse? Well, at each level you buy pieces of an egg. 3 egg pieces gets you a new pet with super powers. At each level, the egg pieces cost more, too. The pets are awarded semi-randomly and include a momma fish that give birth to new goldfish, swordfish that help fight aliens, oysters that offer you pearls if you tap them in time, a seahorse that helps feed the tank, etc. You can only bring a limited number of pets with you to new levels. So far, so good- but it gets worse.

Egg-hatching screen showing a bonus tank helper.

Every so often, there is a bonus game, like the one shown below where you have to catch as many falling shells as possible.

At each level, you start over again with 2 baby goldfish and a few bucks for food. At each level the aliens get more numerous and harder to kill, the prices for eggs and other things go up, new pets and toys are available, and your tapping wrist gets sorer and sorer.

Whew. What a game. All of this for $14.95 (thanks in part to a new lower price policy at Astraware). It takes just under 3m of memory and runs smooth as silk on my Palm Centro- an occasional delay for laoding or pausing, but nothing special. Because of the game specs, it will not run on Palm Tungsten, T2, or Zire 71 PDAs. I appreciate the graphics and screen- even the combination of the small Centro screen and my old eyes don’t interfere with enjoying the game. This is also a game that appeals to a lot of age groups- younger kids may not get too far, but my kids usually surprized the heck out of me with their scores on the original version. Just FYI- it is considered a new game, not an upgrade- your Insaniquarium code will not work for it.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Astraware, game, Palm, Palm OS related

Astraware’s Insaniquarium Deluxe – Palm OS Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 22, 2009 at 5:26 pm.

Another in my series of pet peeves with my Palm Centro (which I swear I cherish even with all of the peeves and annoyances) is the fact that the memory card is literally trapped inside. Some reviewers said they can open the card cover without removing the battery cover, but most of us cannot. I love shuttling files and programs back and forth between my Palm and PC, and I miss being able to do this by just popping cards. My options seem to be to solve this by modifying the battery cover so I can pop the card cover, or to use software. Since this is a software review and not an Instructables.com “how to” posting, I guess we will look at software.

Softick offers two programs to help- Softick Blue Files, which makes your card available to the PC via Bluetooth, and Softick Card Export II, which does it with the sync cable. Since I sync with Bluetooth, I was especially excited by the possibility of accessing my card that way. Softick offered us a copy of each to test drive.

Softick Card Export II uses the USB sync cable and turns your Palm into an USB Mass Storage Device, which means it basically becomes a thumb drive of whatever size your card is. By using industry standards, you ought to be able to plug into any PC with a USB port and go! It can handle any files- even those the Palm itself cannot access, and you can use the desktop tools on the card just like it was another drive- format, erase, restore, etc.

[Softick's Card Export II. Nothing fancy, but functional.]

Card Export II runs $14.95 from their website. While it does not work on all devices (such as Kyocera devices, Palm m130, Sony Clies, and the Treo 90), it does the job with only about 101k of space and runs smoothly on my Centro. Install it with a hot-sync, open it, and go. It will open up just like a thumb drive or other removable storage device… sort of like the term ‘USB Mass Storage Device’ implies. Once open, it works about as quickly on my XP laptop as moving files on the hard drive does.

If Softick would have stopped here, I would be impressed, but they took it to the next step with Softick Blue Files- the wireless version. It is a “Bluetooth File Exchange server which implements standard Bluetooth OBEX File Transfer profile” according to the website. This means it should work with any Bluetooth system when properly configured. Don’t let this throw you- I mess with my settings all the time and constantly test software, so things often do not work quite right on my computers, but Blue Files worked correctly right out of the box.

[Softick Blue Files. Waiting and connected.]

In fact, even though there is not a lot of on-line support for Blue Files, and the ‘readme’ is not very helpful, the only problem I had with this program at all was finding where it showed up on the PC… which was a bit sneaky. Start Blue Files on your PDA. Open your Bluetooth Places, look for connected devices, double click on your device. You should see an entry for Blue Files. Clicking on it opens the card on your PDA.

It runs a little slower than Card Export II- pauses as folders are changed, etc., but not slow enough to make me grab for the sync cable! Blue Files run $14.95, and takes about 100kb of space. It has been tested with several systems and is updated often enough to keep it functional. Softick itself is a pretty good place to work with- good policies, good service. I have used them since way back when I used Softick PPP to solve various connectivity issues in the earlier days of wireless Palms, and always been happy with them.

I strongly recommend Blue Files for Centro owners to overcome the annoying card access issue, but I recommend these programs in general for people who want to use their devices as thumb drives, etc. I also recommend that Blue File users keep a demo copy of Card Export II available for those times that the Bluetooth just does not want to work, or you need to access a non-Bluetooth computer. Softick might want to think about bundling these for an ‘all in one’ solution, but they work well enough that I am not sure there is a need.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Palm, Palm OS related, Software

Softick Blue Files and Card Export II – Palm OS Software Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 15, 2009 at 8:51 pm.

Palm’s press conference at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas just ended a few minutes ago. Since they originally announced this “New-ness” event, quite a few people have been speculating that their announcement would be underwhelming at best. We’ve been hearing that Palm has been down for the count for months now. As a long time Palm fan and user, I know I’ve grown bored with them over the past couple of years, but I continue to go back to the Treo or Centro time and time again. Their phones (Palm OS) feel like an old friend to me and I couldn’t help but keep my fingers crossed for the past few weeks while I waited like all of you to hear what they would be announcing. Well, I don’t know about all of you, but I’m really excited about the Palm pre (the name is completely lame though…). So long Palm OS and hello Palm webOS!

The phone looks great and I’m so happy that they included a slide out keyboard. Touch screens are great, but I likes me some keys. Here are some specs (scraped from other sites since Palm hasn’t updated their own site yet).

• New TI processor with laptop-like performance
• EVDO REV. A (Sprint)
• 3.1 inch 320×480 display
• WiFi
• Bluetooth 2.0+ (with A2DP profile)
• GPS
• 8GB integrated memory
• 3 megapixel camera with LED flash
• 3.5 mm headset jack
• Slide-out QWERTY keyboard in portrait mode
• Accelerometer, light, and proximity sensors
• Trackball ala Blackberry

There is no word on pricing yet, but it will be available sometime in the first half of this year (I hope sooner, better than later) and will sell first through Sprint. I was really hoping it would come as unlocked GSM or Verizon first. I would seriously consider jumping ship from AT&T to Verizon for this phone, just from what limited info  I’ve seen so far.

What do you guys think? Is there room for yet another mobile OS? Can Palm webOS compete with ‘old’ Palm OS, Windows Mobile, RIM, iPhone, Android and Symbian? Are you as excited about the Palm pre as I am?

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Gear Diary, Palm, Palm pre, Sprint

Palm pre – Is this Palm’s Rocky Balboa moment? originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 8, 2009 at 3:12 pm.

Astraware is one of my favorite software places but I admit that I have not popped by much recently. On my last visit, I noticed they had tweaked their prices, updated their PopCap Games Pack 1 to version 2.61 back in August, and are selling it for $19.95. This collection of popular Web games was a lot of fun when I first got it, so I decided to try it again- especially since my old registration code still works for them!

The star of the pack is the original Bejeweled, the classic game of swapping adjacent pieces to form collections of three or more in a row. The matching vertical or horizontal row vanishes, pieces settle to fill in the gap (and also vanish if a new group is made) and you keep on going. When this came out, Palm PDAs around the world developed little square patterns of scratches on the screen from people playing it so much. I think this game single-handedly fueled the screen protector market for a while! A great game for only $9.95 if you buy it by itself. It plays beautifully on my
Centro and is very stable, using about 1.4m with music.

alt=”BeJeweled”>

[The familiar Bejeweled game My next move probably would be the orange and blue gems in the second column, or the middle red and green in the 7th column. Maybe the...]

Alchemy lets you turn ‘lead into gold’ by placing pieces next to each other that match color or symbol. When you reach across the board, the row turns gold. The goal is to turn the whole board gold. There are, of course, a variety of additional elements- extra pieces, a place to toss unwanted pieces, nice sound effects, a great tutorial, several levels or ‘ranks’- all done to PopCap Game’s usual standard of quality. Everything looks good and plays nicely. I think it is a little too like Bejeweled in overall feel to add a lot of variety to the game pack, but it is fun to play. It is sold for $9.95 separately, plays nicely on the Palm Centro, and seems stable. Uses 697k. with music.

alt=”Alchemy”>

[Alchemy game in progress Yellow squares had already been 'turned' in previous moves.]

Atomica has one of those back stories that I think most of us read before we buy the game, and never pay attention to again. Here, you move colored pieces to make ‘molecules’ or squares of four matching atoms in Dr. Atomica’s lab. This is sort of a Bejeweled meets Tetris game where you move pieces to make the groups. More pieces appear (politely telling you where they will show) faster and faster. As the board fills up, it gets harder and harder to move the atoms to make the molecules. Good game- I like it better than Alchemy, and it only costs $4.95 by itself. It does well on the Centro, but I did have to reset the Palm once when it would not exit properly. 642k.

alt=”Atomica”>

alt=”Atomica 2″>

[Atomica The atom symbol is where the next atom appears.]

Mummy Maze is my second favorite game in the pack, after Bejeweled. You control an archeologist/explorer who is trapped in a maze with a mummy trying to kill you. All you have to do is get out through the inconveniently located exit. The thing is, you can only move one square at a time, and the mummy moves two. You don’t get a gun or even a whip to protect you- all you have is your wits. You see, the mummy is really dumb and will always move straight towards you in a predictable pattern. This means you can trap him behind walls or in in little alcoves. As the game progresses, you need to get more and more creative and more and more problems come up, like little booby traps. It costs $4.95, and uses 815k, but I cannot figure out how to exit the game on my Centro- I have to do a ‘take out the battery’ reset. Annoying. I seem to have the problem on many of the game packs I get- the Backgammon game on the old Handmark Classic Board Games did something similar on my Palm Tx.

alt=”Mummy Maze 1″>

alt=”Mummy Maze 2″>

[Mummy Maze mazes The stairs in the second shot are top center]

Seven Seas is the game I rarely played the first time around, but seems more fun the second time around. It is similar to Mummy Maze- you have a ship that moves a square at a time, and are being attacked by other ships. Some of these ships are dumb enough to crash into islands, skulls, and each other as they hunt you but some, the Pirate Captains, are pretty smart. You have cannons and transporting whirlpools to help you survive. Like Mummy Maze, it is $4.95 separately, under 600k, and like Mummy Maze, I have to reset my Centro to get out of it.

alt=”Seven Seas 1″>

alt=”Seven Seas 2″>

[Seven Seas White flag is you. Red sails are the Captains]

I did not see much sign of change in version 2.61, which turns out to be mostly the inclusion of an upgrade of Bejeweled- version 2.61- a changed menu choice, more sparkle and general overhauls for newer devices, language support, etc. The Game Pack installs as separate games and does not include any sort of package installer, master menu, etc. as do programs like Astraware Solitaire. At $19.95 it is a decent value if you enjoy the various games, which would run you $34.75 if purchased individually.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Entertainment, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

PopCap Games Pack 1 – Palm OS Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on December 11, 2008 at 5:36 pm.

The Palm Centro. Small. Cheap. Powerful. No Notepad program.

Ah, Palm… I know things are not going that great for you right now, but come on- leaving NotePad off the Centro? Forcing thousands of your devoted fans to use (shiver) pencils and paper for quick notes? You might think that Voice Memo is good enough, but one cannot scribble the design for a working Flux Capacitor in Voice Memo now, can one?

OK, so you can beam NotePad from any other Palm that has it (although I understand that notes saved on another Palm cannot be opened on the imported version). There are also some good freeware versions that work nicely (such as DiddleBug). Then there is Electric Pocket’sBugMe! Notepad.

[BugMe's Main Screen- clean, simple, well-organized... and an example of how everyone seems to test pens and notepads.]

BugMe! is a Notepad replacement for $19.95 that has been around in various incarnations for years. It brings some nice touches to the party. The addition of drawing tools and colors is the most visible part, and it greatly helps my doodling and notes to be able to change colors. The addition of ‘rubber stamps’, or icons you can place and move is fun as well- and you can use many standard icons, such as Datebk and other programs use. Fun, but honestly not something I use often.

[Simple, intuitive drawing tools and a good color pallete.]

[Some of the 'rubber stamps' and a rather dumb doodle using them.]

Another fun and more useful tool is the ability to draw or write on images- photos, screenshots, imported images- pretty near anything BugMe! can display, you can scribble on! In my sample, I took a photo of some shelves for sale and scribbled the approximate dimensions on the note. Other examples can include marking directions on a map, putting people’s names and/or numbers on photos, etc.

[Photo with written notes, and embedded phone number.]

About the phone number* on that last screenshot… If you use the Text tool, you can embed a phone number, website, etc. in your image and open it by tapping on it. There are some limitations to this, but it is quite handy! BugMe! is full of nice touces like that- a sweetly simple alarm that opens the image and whatever notes or links you associate with it, and other nice features in 1.23M of space. It runs nicely on the Centro- stable and easy to see. The icons are simple and easy to figure out, and there is a well-done menu with ‘undo’ and other familiar commands that makes it hard to mess anything up too badly. (*- the number listed here is a local business. It had to be a real number to work for the demo. Please don’t call it.)

BugMe! can be thought of as a Notepad replacement, a simple ‘Paint’ program, and a nice alarm all rolled up into one package. I find it so useful that it is one of my ‘Old Reliables’ that I almost always have on my PDA. To make a really bad pun, BugMe! is one of the few programs that has never bugged me.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Palm, Palm OS related, Software, Utility

BugMe! Notepad: Palm OS Utility Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 27, 2008 at 8:15 am.

The Palm Centro is an amazing device for its price and size. I love mine almost unconditionally- almost. Today, I am going to rant about a couple of the things that bug me.

{Rant Mode}. A couple of things that tick me off about the Centro include the odd tendency for the built-in alarms to only sound once or twice regardless of how you set the repeat, the worthlessness of the ‘green button’, and the inability to easily reprogram other buttons. I mean really- as a Certified Power User, why do I have this dumb big green button that apparently does absolutely nothing? {/Rant Mode}

I’ve already expressed my fondness for Hobbyist Software in earlier reviews of their software titles: Initiate and Power Hero. This review looks at a program that could have been written just to help the Centro become more of a power tool- Butler.

alt="Butler Menu 1"/>
alt="Butler Menu 2"/>

[Butler's menu is so long, it takes 3 screens. Here are two of them!]

Butler is “the assistant who thinks of everything” according to the website. If by ‘everything’ you mean handling the Palm’s alarms, button assignments, key guards, and even LED use, then yes, Butler thinks of everything! The $14.95 program comes with a 100% satisfaction guarantee and a years worth of free upgrades, and the typical sweet trial offer that Hobbyist uses on other programs. After my trial, I knew I had to have this and Hobbyist graciously offered me copy for a full review.

Butler does so much that a review like this can easily become just a quick list of features, parroting the website so let me touch on a few highlights.

alt="Butler Alarm"/>
alt="Butler Attention"/>

[Alarm Manager and Attention Grabber screens]

I hate to wake up, and have kind of an odd schedule of when I need to be up. Normal alarm clocks are not flexible enough so I have used my Palm ever since they got loud enough to work. When I started using my Centro, I could not get the alarm to sound often enough to do the job- a few chirps and it was done.

Butler, however, features not only a good, intuitive alarm element that lets you set 6 different independent alarms, it combines with Attention Grabber (a program that helps make sure you don’t miss alarms or messages) and Flexible Alerts. These work together to allow you to tailor an alarm to flash the screen, flash the LED, vibrate, launch programs, start up MP3 files, and more.

With this arsenal, I can create a series of alarms that pretty much force me to wake up on time just to stop the cacophony! (Between you and me, I still use the default alarm in Calendar as a pre-alarm so I can stop Butler before it explodes.)

alt="Butler Button"/>

[One of the button managing screens]

Applications like Key Launcher, Volume Keys, and Buttons allow me to assign more keys to more functions than I can remember! Resetting the volume control keys to scroll keys was handy, but giving me a quick button for Memos and Notepad* saves me tons of aggravation on a nearly hourly basis. I have a LOT of memos on my Palm and I use them and Notepad for a lot of things, and I really missed the Quick Buttons other Palms included. No more- now I can launch them with 1 or 2 button presses as long as I remember the buttons because, of course, they are not labeled as such this way. Using the button management software, I can set up many other options simply.

(*= OK, so Notepad is not standard on the Palm Centro- rack up another annoyance. You can beam it from another Palm, or use something like BugMe

alt="Butler Keyguard"/>
alt="Butler Keyguard Icons"/>

[Keyguard Manager and Keyguard Icons]

A suite of security applications allows you to tailor the keylock- how and when it works, what it displays, timing, and so forth. I like that it can be rigged to display status icons, like battery, memory, etc. It almost makes up for the loss of the status elements in the Centro from the Tx.

Butler finishes off with some nice touches- it addresses you politely as you request, it can restore some “old” features, and so forth.

alt="Butler Prefs"/>
alt="Butler MP3"/>

[A couple more screens...]

This little 211k program is stable, well-documented and supported, and reminds me a lot of the ‘Power Toys’ for Windows in the mix of fun and powerful. This program has been officially added to my list of programs to automatically reload whenever my Centro is wiped out.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Palm, Palm OS related, Software, Utility

Butler – Palm OS Utility originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on November 7, 2008 at 4:31 pm.

New Palm games are getting less and less frequent. This really saddens me- I really love my Palm Centro and I get bored with games quickly, so constantly need fresh blood… er, I mean ‘games’- yeah, that’s what I meant.

Ashley Glenister wrote ‘The Belt: 2120′ in her spare time, and it compares nicely to games offered by many of the ‘big boys’.

I could describe The Belt as a space-based vertically scrolling shooter with elements of Asteroids mixed in, and that would tell you about 75% of everything you need to know. Toss in a couple of screen shots and you will instantly understand about 90% of the game.

[The opening screen and options menu have a comfortably familiar look and are nicely done.]

The Belt is one of those games that requires you fight through each level each time you play since there is not a save option. Because the levels do not seem to be quite as repetitive as some games in this genre, it is not as annoying as it usually is.

[You start in Earth orbit, and travel outwards, eventually passing the moon.]

I have not gotten very far yet. I don’t know whether it is intentional or a happy accident, but you need to learn some of the rules on the way. A quick example would be that the semi-stationary asteroids cannot be shot and cannot hurt you. The ‘Help’ screen is just an explanation of icons. I think I like this feature, but it means I am not advancing screens as fast as I may want. The first several plays (I refuse to reveal how many) did not go far with the dang hard-to-kill asteroids crashing into me all the time!

[A couple of examples of enemy ships and weapons. Weapons are always on auto-fire.]

Albyte’s The belt is available for $14.99 from PalmGear. It takes a little space- 1.77M, but runs nicely on my Centro without any glitches. The author hopes to release a Windows Mobile version as well as additional levels, etc. I like The Belt so I wish her the very best of luck! As I have said before, I like scrolling shooters (if they are configured well for the screen and controls on the device I am using, as The Belt’s are), and I like Asteroids, so it is probably not surprising that I like this crossover.

(Hmmm, thinking of crossovers… what about a Frogger game that arms the poor frog so it can defend itself? Put some kids in school buses that lose you points if you shoot them, and replace some of the gators in the river with, say, manatees or otters you should not shoot… If anyone makes this into a real game, be sure to let me try it out!)

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Entertainment, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

Albyte’s The Belt 2120 – Palm OS Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on October 23, 2008 at 7:30 am.

Hobbyist Software is
now on my official list of "Good places for Centro/Treo software",
and their browser/launcher Initiate Pro is
an example of why.

As faithful readers will remember (ignoring for the moment the question of
whether I actually have any faithful readers), I have previously
reviewed a group of browsers before here.
At the time, I was unimpressed with launchers in general and not looking at
them very aggressively for a while- even though one comment about the review
mentioned Hobbyist Software’s Initiate.

Initiate is available in a ‘standard’ or ‘pro’ edition. The standard edition
is a capable, but rather typical browser that sells for $9.95. The Pro edition
opens a wide variety of files, supports voice commands, and even lets you launch
websites from your memo pad. The Pro edition runs $24.95 and takes about 600k
(assuming I counted all of the applicable files- this is one of those
applications that uses several small files in addition to the main program.) So
far it is stable and plays nicely with my Palm Centro.

Hobbyist Software was kind enough to not only offer me Initiate Pro to try
out, they signed me up for the on-line tutorial
they offer. Every day for a week, they sent me a nice little e-mailed lesson
covering one aspect of Initiate. This is a great idea. Most of the lessons only
took a minute or two to go over. While many of the concepts are familiar to power
users, it really helped to figure out some of the more novel aspects of Initiate
Pro. (Besides, Hobbyist obviously knew a real power user wouldn’t read no stinkin’ manual.)

You already know what a regular launcher does- opening programs (hopefully
including those on your memory card), using icons to perform a variety of
tasks, offering skins to customize the experience, etc. Unsurprisingly,
Initiate does all of this, and does it well, even in the ‘standard’ edition.
You can display backgrounds, download or create skins and icon packs, and even
install a variety of plug-ins (free or low cost) to further customize your device.
Many of the plug-ins (listed here) are designed
to work seamlessly with the Datebk6
or 2Day programs. (Note- a
review of Datebk 6 is in the works, and 2Day is a possibility in the future.)

The three areas Initiate Pro shines are search, views, and launching
assorted files. Like the newer PC and Mac OS’s, Initiate Pro lets you select a
specific file, and open it with a click. If the file is an image, it will
automatically open the viewer you assign. If it is a contact, it will dial the
number (or send a message). If it is an MP3 file, it will play it (Initiate
even has a built-in player if you want). Movies, books, documents… it opens
them quickly and reliably. Interestingly, it can even open web sites from Memo
entries and other sources.

alt="Main Browser Screen"/>
alt="Power User Screen"/>

[The Main and Power User Screens]

Under launching, let’s not forget that it can also ‘Voice Launch’ anything
it can launch otherwise as long as your device supports voice recording! Record
the commands, then next time you say them, they will launch your files or
applications.

You can view things in the default ‘Applications’ view, which looks like
every other icon-based browser. Like many browsers, the top and bottom of the screen can
become very cluttered with icons, commands, etc., but you can configure most of
this away. You can also go to a ‘Power User’ view where it will lit things more
like the ‘List’ command under ‘View’ in Windows. The screen now shows every
file that Initiate can play with. Clicking on the ‘binoculars’ icon allows you
to list various categories, such as music files or files on the SD card. I
don’t know if Hobbyist Software counts this as a search element or a view
element as it works for both nicely. The ‘Power User’ view coupled with the
search makes it easy to open the files I have scattered all over my Centro’s
memory.

Palm’s search capabilities have always been good but underutilized by most
users. Initiate allows you to ‘SmartSearch’ for anything on our Palm,
usually with only a few letters. Type in a letter, and all files that start
with that letter. Type any other letter, and now it only shows those files with
that other letter in it as well. For example, if I type "MV" when Initiate
is open, it brings up five of my files- three contacts, a memo title, and an
application (MobiTV). A quick scroll or tap and it is open. Initiate also
offers ‘SmartGuess’ in which it tries to fill in missing web info or phone
numbers for you. Both of these functions, and most others, can be turned off or
adjusted in ‘Preferences’.

alt="Searching for MV"/>

[Using the search features for 'Mv'
Notice the letters in the upper left corner]

Initiate Pro is loaded with features- so many there are still a lot I have
not used in weeks of use! This makes the tutorial series they offer very
helpful. They also offer a lot of help on their website- which is nice because
I needed it a lot. Most of Initiate is easy enough to figure out without help,
but it is good that they offer it in such an organized fashion. At one point in my experimentation, I got to an odd screen that took some time to get back out of. The helps helped.

alt="Menus"/>
alt="Preferences"/>

[A small sample of the settings you can play with.]

Overall, Initiate Pro is a well-designed power program for the Palm
Smartphone power user. It is hard to do justice to large programs with this much going on. Hobbyist has a great trial policy (full versions with escalating nag screens for most programs), so if this review has tweaked your interest at all, give it a try!

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Palm, Palm OS related, Software, Utility

Initiate Pro – Palm OS Utility Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on September 18, 2008 at 4:20 pm.

This is not the game I planned on reviewing. That was going to be Astraware’s Westward, but I was beseiged by demons while trying it out (named Small Screen, Bad-Eyes, and Lotsa Rulez) so it will have to wait.

I was excited to discover, however, that what I have long believed to the The World’s Greatest Palm Freeware App: Trivia Category has been updated since I last saw it- Steve Litchfield’s (3-Lib’s) Trivopaedia.

Trivopaedia is ‘just’ a list of trivia subjects, organized neatly for quick reference, available in several formats- Psion, Pocket PC, Smartphone, iPod, and, of course, Palm. Within the Palm world, you can get it in Plucker, PalmReader, Doc, and Memo formats. This review will focus on the v2.0 Palm Memo format, although the newest version for Palm is v2.3 in iSilo and MobiPocket versions.

‘Just’ a list. And the Bugatti Veyron 16.4 is ‘just’ a car. Trivopaedia is not the fastest trivia list on Earth, nor is it heavily appointed with German engineering- although the design team IS British! (Which explains the odd spelling and UK-heavy content.)What Trivopaedia is is just plain cool.

alt="Trivia List 1"/>
alt="Trivia List 2"/>
alt="Trivia List 3"/>

[Sample "Trivopaedia" Lists]

Like any good compilation of trivia, most of the stuff here has almost no real value. Lists include:
- Airline Codes and Apollo Missions
- Artifical Languages and Beer Measures
- A dozen different lists of things in the Bible
- Lists of natural features, geological ages, cities
- Lists of movies, kings and queens, inventors
- Lists of weird British stuff, like Wombles and UK Sea Areas
…for a grand total of some 237 lists (with about 15 more in v2.3)

It is astounding how far-flung the lists are- Wacky Racer cars and Star Trek movies… the Seven Dwarfs and the ‘Seven S Business Model’… Santa’s Reindeer and the Scart Lead Connections. The lists make nice little quicky ‘did you know’ games, are helpful in settling arguments, make for interesting quick reads, and they are still looking new input.

alt="Sample List 1"/>
alt="Sample List 2"/>

[A Couple of Random Lists]

By the way, didja know…
…the 1900 AND 1924 Summer Olympic Games were held in Paris?
…the top adult fears are public speaking, getting fat, and walking alone at night?
…the Latin abbreviation of D.V. means Deo volente or ‘God willing’?
…the daily naval toast for Friday is ‘a willing foe and sea room’?
…a water polo ball weighs 400-450 grams?

These are Memo lists- so they take almost no memory, can run on all Palms, and have no issues with crashes or hangs, etc. Installation (as a Palm Memo) is a tiny bit different in that you have to ‘Import’ it into Memos after loading it- but the Readme is very helpful.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Entertainment, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

Trivopaedia – Palm OS Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on August 20, 2008 at 9:40 pm.

Hobbyist Software offers a great line of software for the Palm
Treo and
Centro user, and some of it can even be used for other Palms. When I asked for some codes so I could trial their products for a long enough time to figure them out, they were very helpful. They started me with Initiate Pro and Power Hero. I am still learning about Initiate Pro, so let’s look at Power Hero.

The claim is that “Power Hero gets the best from your battery!” I am one of those lucky power users that can charge my PDA at work, have a charger in the car, and a battery-powered booster, so low charges are rarely a problem for me. However, I know that a lot of users are not so lucky as to be able to recharge when they wish, and I think that they will find Power Hero a great value at $14.95.

What does it do? Basically, it turns things off. Yeah! When all is said and done, it shows you charts of your usage and turns things off. That’s about it. Period. Done. Bye bye!

You are still here? Ah, you want details! OK, Power Hero gives you the ability to set a lot functions so they turn off according to various schedules or timers. Things like Bluetooth, keyboard, network, phone (without signal), infrared. Things that constantly put out small signals, or that are looking for signals all the time. Your Bluetooth-enabled Palm, for example, is constantly looking to see if there is a Bluetooth device in the area even when you don’t especially want it to be.

Many of these systems can be toggled on or off in the Preferences, but Power Hero not only pulls them all together, but it adds more things than you can easily find there, AND gives you the ability to add rules for turning on or off.

Scheduling, for example, lets you turn your phone, network, Bluetooth, Infrared, keyboard, and/or screen on or off at various times of the day, while Power Saver lets you decide various rules, like “Turn Network off after (fill-in the blank) minutes”. The Main Screen of Power Hero lets you turn the things listed earlier on or off right there as well as showing you a power usage chart and a screen brightness slider! Turning off unused features, reducing screen brightness when you don’t need it, etc… this is all stuff they have recommended for Palms for years, all rolled into one simple and powerful package.

[Scheduling and Power Saver screens]

Power Hero uses less than 150k, and shows no tendency towards being unstable or crashing. The screens are done like many good Palm screens- no major surprises and only a few things that are not intuitively obvious (in my mind, this means a good understanding of the Zen of Palm.) It really helps if you have a Bluetooth headset (which I don’t), and has several other features other power users might drool over- like power-related shortcuts that can be used in a launcher. One glitch I found was that the Bluetooth features seem more tuned to headsets than syncing the Palm, etc. Minor issue, quickly resolved!

[The Main Screen (with quick access buttons and screen slider) and one of several screens about the charge status]

[Preferences settings]

Bottom line: Has it helped me? Not massively, my Palm rarely gets below 70% charged. Will it help you? If battery life is a concern- then the answer is a definite YES! Not only do I think so, but Rob at Hobbyist Software proudly proclaims, in big, easy to see letters, “100% Guarantee: If for any reason you don’t think Power Hero is fantastic – I will give you a 100% refund.” Other users report about a 30% improvement in battery life- which seems well worth the asking price.

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Palm, Palm OS related, Software, Utility

Hobbyist Software Power Hero – Palm OS Utility Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 29, 2008 at 8:00 am.

As I was a cruzin’ for new games, I found that eSoft Interactive, the home of one of my ‘All Time Favorite’ games, Traffic Jam, had several titles I had not seen before, including the previously reviewed Traffic Jam 2. I also asked for codes for a couple of other games that looked interesting- Earth Day, and Spot!, They were kind enough to provide codes for all of them.

My momma always said ‘if you can’t say anything nice about someone, don’t say anything at all’. Thankfully, there are nice things to say about these two programs- they look really cool! On most Palms, especially those with larger screens, they really look great. Now, on to the rest of the story.

Spot! is a ‘spot the differences’ game, which is a bit limited by the small screen and resolution of a Palm. You really cannot make a ‘Where’s Waldo’ kind of game on this small field, so what we have is basically 2 small screens with nearly identical images. Each image appears to be in three layers- a background n(such as large, translucent watermelons), a foreground (like dozens of nearly identical pieces of pie), and a mid-ground where the items that are different hide (maybe some green apples). You have a strictly limited time to locate all of the items in the midground of the lower image and tag them.

alt="Spot 1"/>
alt="Spot 2"/>

[Seeing and tagging differences- the heart of the game.] Note the timer on the top edge- .06, counting down to .01- tight time limits are a big part of the challenge.

Spot has three ‘different’ games, and several fields. I leave it to you to determine how different everything is:

alt="Spot 3"/>
alt="Spot 4"/>
alt="Spot 5"/>
alt="Spot 6"/>

[Game Selection, and sample screens.]

A lot of work went into this game, but I am not sure who the audience is. It does not motivate me to try to win, my teens won’t bother with it, and younger kids seem frustrated by the time limits. I want SOOOO badly to end this by quoting Mary Poppins- “Spit Spot!” even though it does not quite make sense… but I am not sure the game does either.

Earth Day got my hopes up, but a.) I found it annoying to figure out the settings and controls, and b.) I’ve played this game before. It is basically a clone of Asteroids, with a bit of some other games that got into the teleportation chamber and fused their DNA together. “Help me!” indeed! (Yeesh. I am really going for the dorky movie quotes today, huh?)

alt="Earth Day 1"/>
alt="Earth Day 2"/>

[Point at'em and blow'em up]

This is not a bad game, just nothing that caught my attention in a good sense. The main thing I noticed was that the controls felt annoying no matter how I tried to reset them. Both games occasionally hung my Palm Tx up as well- but the poor Palm was already dying when I was trying the games, so it might not have been their fault.

alt="Settings"/>
alt="Control Panel"/>

[The control panel I never mastered]

Maybe it was just me, maybe I am too far outside the target audience for these games, but I was almost glad to see…

alt="Game Over"/>

Filed in categories: Uncategorized

Tagged: Entertainment, Palm, Palm OS related, Software

eSoft Interactive Spot! and Earth Day – Palm OS Game Review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 8, 2008 at 8:19 pm.