End of Another Year!

As this Holiday season gets into full swing, come warm up at the Lodge with a hot cuppa Joe and some freshly beamed goodies from your friends! If you're looking for anything special under your tree, let the other members of the group know - it won't help you get any closer to that goal, but you'll find some good company in your commiseration!

One of the things I'm really wanting to see is better wireless options around town. (And by town, I mean the Triangle.) If you've happened onto any good free WiFi spots that others of us might like to check out, why not come with a beamable list ready to share. Name the memo something like "Smythe's WifiFavs" or something, so we won't have 7 different "My favorite Wifi spots" or anything.

Other than new toys and new places to check out, is there anything anyone else would like to talk about? Any pressing issues? How about how you'd improve the state of the Palm community? Or your guess at the next really big thing that PalmOne will spring on the licensees?

I was at an Educational conference last week and was able to harass two different PalmOne employees with how irritated I was with the lack of BlueTooth on the T|C. I mentioned the mono phone plug, but I don't listen to music on mine, so it's not that big a deal. No BT is really irritating, now that everything else I use that's digital is. Anyone find research into 2.4 GHz radiation poisioning?

So, Happy Holidays, see you this Monday night, and stay warm, either through traditional means or thru radiowaves. We'll see you there, 15 December, Bear Rock Café in CrossRoads Shopping Center in Cary, 6:30 PM.

Tempus Fugits

We had 2 great meetings in September and October. The contact management meeting in September turned into a beam-fest, with groups of 2-3 sharing trial version of all the different contact managers, and each person defending and explaining their own favorite. It was great!

October was great, too, in that we had 3-4 new (or long-ago revisitors) folks, each with a new device or two. Things started off quietly enough, with everyone ordering their dinner and chatting about the news of the day. After a half-hour or so (during which most folks munched down sandwiches), things got really serious and out came WiFi laptops, keyboards, and GPS units. Besides a T|3 and a few T|2's, there were several new phones, many BlueTooth-equipped. We did a count at one point and found that there were more than 3 gadgets per person!

I think November will probably be similar. I don't really have a planned program, unless anyone has something new they'd like to show. I'm sure there will be some more new devices, and I've talked with 2-3 new folks that may or may not happen by. One of the guys at work got a Treo 300, and, although that's well over a year old, I must say it's a killer little Palm. Sprint has a $10/month all-you-can-eat data plan, and he's getting more than his money's worth. He has a class on Monday and Wed. for the next 4-5 weeks and can't make it to our meeting, but I think he'll get back eventually and we'll do a comparison of WiFi v. Sprint internet. Should be fun.

See you at Bear Rock!

September Meeting Topic - Contact Managers

Talking with a few different TAPIT members over the past few days, I thought we'd once again visit the subject of contact management softwre. A new contender Contacts 4 - joins powerful rivals SuperNames and Agendus. All three have at least 15 day demos, so checking them out shouldn't be a problem. They each also use your existing Addressbook's data file, so you may want to do a hotsync or two, and lay one of those aside somewhere before you start running them back to back. Although, that warning being given, I've yet to have a problem going back and forth between these very stable and well-written programs. I still find myself wondering, however.... What happened to Contacts 1 - 3?????

We'll be meeting at the Bear Rock Cafe, our new favorite spot. Word is their espresso machine is fixed now. (Priorities must be kept, right?)

Speaking of meeting places (what a segue!), I stopped into our former multi-year domain a few weeks back and they now have WiFi! They have become, along with several other regional Borders stores, part of the t-mobile syndicate. Um, club. Well, you know. I found a coupon code on some Tungsten|C board (yahoo groups, maybe?) that gives you 300 minutes free for 30 days. I've used it a little, and would like to have that type of account, but, alas, they don't offer that type plan. The only ones they offer are buy an hour +, or buy the next 24 hours. ('Course, they'll sell you an all you can eat package for $30 or so a month, but who needs a second ISP, when I'm not in enough t-mobile places to need that?) Go figure.

See you folks tonight, ready to have a contact-management war!

Smythe

August Meeting Report

About a dozen hearty souls ventured into the great unknown of the Bear Rock Cafe in CrossRoads Shopping Center on 18 August. Most bought provisions from their array of sandwiches and salads. Some (this writer included) mourned the passing of their espresso machine, and pray for a speedy recovery or replacement of same. (Why aren't there emergency espresso repair trucks?!? Don't they realize people DEPEND on this stuff!?!?!?!)

OK, leaving that for the moment, the other news of the day was - WiFi! Not just okay signal, but wall-to-wall high bandwidth. We had several laptops and at least two Palm Tungsten|C's online pretty much the entire time. We were joined by Chris Owen who had no transportation, but IM'd in to create our first remotely broadcast TAPIT meeting! Several folks joined up behind the screen as he entered his comments, suggesting pithy repartès and suggesting questionable comments. In general, a free-for-all.

There was some order at several points during the meeting. Alan shared a TELNET/SSH tool (ptelnet) for PalmOS and we shelled into several Unix hosts at various locations, just because we could. I asked about a RSS client for Palm, and although there were many interested looks and suggestions, no true solutions were found. I'm still interested, by the way, and feel that I can get this used in a rapidly growing operation at several universities, if we can make it work easily. (Check out the configuration of Syndirella on PC or NetNewsWire on the Mac. That's how easy it needs to be!)

This led us onto the topic of websites that were specially formatted for mobile devices. Several were mentioned, and a list was later posted to our yahoogroup site. It is reproduced below. (We encourage you to join and participate in the listserv. It's a great place to ask questions, share your experiences, and find out about FREE espresso! OK, not really, but I can dream, can't I???)

Mobile Web Sites (from http://www.pdaportal.com)

AccuWeather - http://www.accuweather.com/pda/pda_5dy.asp?
CNN QuickNews - http://wireless.cnn.com/avantgo/cnn/index.html
compu2go - http://www.compu2go.com/mobile/news.html
Computer World - http://www.computerworld.com/avantgo
Geek.com Daily News - http://geek.com/portable/index.htm
Gizmo Gadget News - http://www.gizmodo.net
infoSync - http://www.infosync.no/pda/epoc/
MovieMinder - http://www.movieminder.com/palm/index.html
Palm Infocenter - http://www.palminfocenter.com/palm/
Pocket PC Life - http://www.pocketpclife.co.uk/mindex.asp
PocketPC Throughts - http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/mobile/index.php
pocketPCpassion - http://www.pocketpcpassion.com/mobile.htm
Techbargains - http://www.techbargains.com/pocket/index.html
USA Today News - http://pocket.usatoday.com/avantgo/index.html
WRAL - http://www.wral.com/mobile/?type=palm
Writing on Your Palm - http://www.writingonyourpalm.net/index.htm

The links below are much older, and there are some dead ones, I'm sure. But I'm just going to throw them up here and let the reader sort it out, 'cause it's late and I'm going to bed. Maybe this wekend, I'll find time to mark them up as links like those above, but don't hold your breath!


Bible
Study......................www.vii.com/~bowserd/bible/palm/index.html
CNNfn............................www.cnnfn.com/services/fntogo/avantgo/chann
el.html
Cruisin News.....................home.stlnet.com/~cruisin/palm/index.htm
Fort Wayne News Sentinel.........www.news-sentinel.com/ns/avantgo
Harbus Online - Palm Edition.....www.harbus.org/PalmEdition/palm.cfm
Mercury Center...................ww5.mercurycenter.com/breaking/avantgo/
Palm Stuff at Studio
Nibble......www.studio-nibble.com/palmpilot/index.html
Pen
Computing....................www.pencomputing.com/palm/avantgo/palmmain.html
PioneerPlanet News...............www.pioneerplanet.com/avantgo/news/
Showbiz Scoop Mobile.............www.showbizscoop.com/mobile/index.html
Star
Tribune.....................www.startribune.com/stonline/html/palm/palm.shtm
l
The Economist - Mobile
Edition...select.economist.com/partners/avantgo/current/
The
Net..........................www.spe.sony.com/tv/shows/thenet/pda/index.html
The Sun News.....................www.myrtlebeachaccess.com/AvantGo/
USA Today........................www.usatoday.com/palm
WRAL OnLine......................www.wral-tv.com/handheld
Yated Ne'eman....................www.teleport.com/~baruch/palm/News-I.htm
ZDNN
Business....................www.zdnet.com/zdnn/feeds/palmpilot/business
ZDNN
Computing...................www.zdnet.com/zdnn/feeds/palmpilot/computing
ZDNN
Internet....................www.zdnet.com/zdnn/feeds/palmpilot/internet
ZDNN Rumors & Comment............www.zdnet.com/zdnn/feeds/palmpilot/rumors
ZDNN PalmPilot Software..........www.zdnet.com/swlib/avantgo/index.html
ZDNN Top
Stories.................www.zdnet.com/zdnn/feeds/palmpilot/pageone

Another move - Let's give it a shot....

The discussion on the list recently tells me two things - there's a lot of interest in having some internet connectivity, and there's a lot more interest in keeping the meeting nearer to the I-40 corridor. The suggestion was made that the Bear Rock Cafe in Crossroads would be a good spot. It's just across the highway from the Borders we used to meet in, but had free WiFi. Let's meet there this month and give it a shot. I'll get the directions modified and posted this weekend, hopefully.

I did take the opportunity of the Sales Tax Holiday and Best Buys having the Tungsten|C on sale for 25% off and picked one up. I'm enjoying the ability to get online where ever I am. I feel like a WarDriver - always hunting for a signal....

See you all there on Monday, 18 August 2003, 6:30 PM, WiFi at the ready....

Smythe

BrainForest

Just downloaded the new version of BrainForest. This app was one of the first outliners that had an actual desktop app that moved data between the handheld and the desktop. It was originally programmed by Aportis (of DOC fame) but when they went under, UltraSoft bought the program.

The current version works a LOT better than the original, even in the first five minutes of use. The original had modal editing and a three-line limit on screen, with no scroll bars. That means if your note took more than four lines, you had to select and drag down, then deselect and edit in the lower parts of that item. Irritating, to say the least. And it was useless, too, since only three lines would display. And the conduit required a lot of convolutions, too.

The new version, however, appears to be a total re-write. There's a nice new OS X desktop version. (The old one came out four or five years ago - when I had a Palm III and that was the top of the line. I don't think even HandSpring was out at the time! OS X wasn't even thought of, since OS 8 was current. On the Windows side, we're talking Win98.) The conduit still requires the "install" back to the handheld (at least as far as I can tell), which is still one step removed from true integration. But it's a great deal improved than the first version was.

You may want to download it before the meeting and play with it beforehand. You can do that here. Or, if you're WiFi equipped, download it at the meeting. I'll have the handheld trial version to beam around, and we can all see what other new capabilities this little gadget has.

Remember, Dakota Grill, not Border's. Directions over on the left. CU there!

SlideFree update

Went to the URL given, and it's not there, only this cryptic message:

The selected product has been removed from our database by its developer!

Actually, it's been updated, and the new URL is:

http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?prodID=49103

I just wanted to share this with the group. I have seen that we have quite a few new Tungsten T owners (excellent choice guys!) and I wanted to share this exciting looking app with you. SlideFree lets you access the functions on the silkscreened graffiti area that are hidden while the slider is closed. With this app you are able to access things like the menu button, home, brightness, the clock and more without having to open the slider. I havn't tried it myself (I'm using a NX70V) but I have read good reviews. The program gives you a full 14-day trial. It's only $6 after that, so I don't see how you could justify not registering it if it works like they say it does. You can check it out at Palmgear.com at this url: http://www.palmgear.com/software/showsoftware.cfm?prodID=49103

Also... to those of you who may still have an older unit and feel like you can't resist the urge to upgrade any longer (Doesn't the Tungsten C look nice? 400mhz and 53meg of RAM!) try to hold out until May 21st. On this day Palm should be announcing a nationwide upgrade plan. Trade in your working or non-working Palm model and get $50 off a new unit. This includes any unit... so who still has a Pilot Professional lying around? Look for it on the Palm.com website on the 21st.


Everyone take care. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone at the next meeting!

- Chris Owens

April Showers

The rain let up for a day or so earlier this week, and a half-dozen or so Palm users made their way to Dakota Grill in Park Place. Buffalo tenders (whaddyamean, you're out of wings!?!?!), and an assortment of electronic goodies to play with. There were games like Triclops (http://www.iscomplete.org/Store/Triclops.asp - guaranteed to kill a day per week for even the most dedicated worker), and Gravity Ball (http://www.handarea.com/products/gravityball/gravity_ball.htm - another time suck), as well as productivity enhancers like WiFi software that works with Sony's Clie to allow wireless email or chat wherever you can find a loose network.

Speaking of which, our new location allows us to surf while we meet and eat, and this benefit allowed us to download, look up information, and chat back and forth between Chris' Clie and my PowerBook. As usual, the topics of conversation ranged far afield - Apple's interesting concepts for software, and wouldn't it be great if they had PC versions, OS X on Intel hardware, TiVo nuggets, new jobs, new Titaniums for a few, and the realization that last year's state-of-the-art is WAY behind Moore's law by this time! With Palm's announcement a few days later of a Zire (http://www.palm.com/products/handhelds/zire71/) with a 640X480 camera and 16 MB of RAM, things have changed quite a bit of late!

Altogether, it was a fun evening, and everyone there agreed that the benefits of the new location were worth the slightly off-the-beaten-path location.

New Location....

For our April Meeting, I've found a new spot to meet that I think will allow us some variety in what we can do. It's called Dakota Grill, and it's in Morrisville, at the corner of Hwy. 54 and Cary Parkway. It's a bit small, and not as easy to find as Border's, but it's closer to those coming from Chapel Hill and Durham, and it has **FREE WIRELESS INTERNET**!!! As a matter of fact, I am entering this article from a table there right now.

For those who can't get a bite before the meeting, they have burgers, "barkers" (hot dogs), and salads, in addition to various SouthWest fare. And, for the Atkins dieters, Michelob Ultra, the world's only low carbohydrate beer.

Chris Owens has promised to make up for bailing out on last month's presentation by showing off two utilities, one a PC-only DOC converter, and the other a Clie-only program. (He's into proprietary stuff. After our last open-source oriented PluckerFest, it's only fair.)

So, we'll see you there, Monday, 21 April, 6:30, Dakota Grill at Park Place shoping Center. It's at the corner of 54 and Cary Parkway, right down from the Food Lion. Be there or be square.

Ice ice baby

Due to the risky road conditions caused by the winter storm, tonight's TAPIT meeting has been canceled. It may be rescheduled -- watch this page for further updates.

notes from Alan (from the Yahoo list)

For those of us who can still use an offline web browser such as Plucker (my first choice www.plkr.org), iSilo (my second choice www.isilo.com), or AvantGo, I recommend http://www.movieminder.com/palm/ with a link depth of 3.

The hires version Plucker works fine on OS5 (with occational, largely avoidable crashes, it's still pre-beta), and iSilo works great. The newest iSilo beta includes 5-way Nav support for the Tungsten.

Finally, here's something that I've been using lately that other Windows users might appreciate: Pilot Install - http://pinstall.envicon.com/ It's a Windows app that allows you to bypass the normal HotSync procedure and simply install .PRC and .PDB files. In addition to allowing me to quickly install programs on my regular PC at work, it also allows me to install programs with other PCs. For example, I set it to use IRDA and install apps with my laptop at home, without the risk of having it double up all of my addresses, appointments, memos, etc. The doubling up has happened to me in the past when I've hotsynced with multiple systems, at its worst, I had 4 copies of all everything in my addressbook, datebook, and memopad (I don't use ToDo's).

And before anyone gives me any static about being a Windows user, I only use it because it has the easiest to find Palm conduit support. My primary PC at work is a Linux desktop and my other one serves largely as a HotSync machine. If there existed a Linux conduit that talked to the central calendar server at UNC, I could abandon Windows entirely. At work at least.... Still too many games to abandon it at home ;-).

-alan

Hey everyone. A few links here.

- Brando Screen Protectors -

First, many people have seen or heard about the Brando screen protectors. These screen protectors are made of a stiff plastic and use adhesive to hold to your screen. They are, however, washable and reusable. They are sold in packs of one, but one will last you at least a year of heavy use. The Brando has a slightly textured surface to reduce glare and give a paper feeling to the stylus, without causing any distortion in the screen at all. I have used Brandos on my Visor Pro, Sony Clie T-615, Sony Clie NR70V, and now my Sony Clie NX70V. There are two places to get them:

Direct from the source: shop.brando.com.hk
Shipped from Hong Kong. $9 per protector with $3 shipping for any number. (1 is $12 shipped, 2 is $21 shipped, 3 is $30 shipped... etc)
While they cost a few more dollars and take a few days to arrive, Brando's site offers every model they make.

Third Party US: http://www.glblsrc.com/shop/customer/home.php?cat=10
Shipping is cheaper, but they only carry Sony Clie models, iPaq, and Palm m505. Visor, Handera, and non-M5XX users will need to go to Brando's site.

- Cheap Sonys -

For anyone looking to get a color PDA for super cheap, I strongly recommend they check out the now discontinued Sony Clie T-615 and T-665 models. The T-615 was my first color PDA, and my first Sony. It is a 33mhz PalmOS4.1 model with 16 meg of RAM and flashROM. It has a polyphonic speaker, "enhanced IR port", MS slot, and a 320x320 color screen. Half inch thick aluminum medal casing, you can pocket it without any trouble. The colors are a bit washed out, and the unit does not have MP3 audio, but it can be had as a refurb-model direct from sonystyle.com here for $199, and I have seen them going for as little as $120 on ebay. I just can't help but bring this to your attention.. I paid $420 for my T-615 back around May of 2002.

The Sony Clie T-665 was just discontinued this week, so it is not offered as a reburb from Sony yet, but you can find some great deals in stores. The T665 has all of the same features of the T615 (same casing as well) but adds a 66mhz chip and built in MP3 playback. Also, it has the same screen as is in the NR70V (sans virtual graffiti area, still just 320x320), so colors are vivid and true. However, the battery life on the 665 is much worse than the T615, so the T615 still reserves my first choice for a cheap color PalmOS PDA.

The Sony SJ20 (monochrome hi-res) and SJ30 (color hi-res) have also been discontinued this week to make room for new, slimmer, color replacements (The new SJ33 will have MP3 playback) so look for great deals on these two units in the near future. Buying a Sony PDA is like buying a winter coat... if you do it out of season you can get some amazing deals!

Showtimes

At tonight's meeting, Chris mentioned that the one thing he missed about AvantGo (which he no longer uses) is the ability to have movie listings for local theaters on his Palm. I suggested that he look at Showtimes, which provides this capability without using AvantGo. Showtimes comes in two pieces: a desktop program (Windows, Mac, and Unix are all supported) and a Palm application. The desktop program downloads Yahoo movie schedules for the theaters you're interested in, builds a Palm database, and queues it to be HotSynced to your Palm. The Palm application is a viewer. I've used Showtimes, and it worked just fine for me. I'd be interested in what other folks think of it.

Slap! and a few new pieces of hardware

This month's meeting will feature a new program from an old friend. Slap! is the name given to Hands-High's latest offering. It's a small program that captures notes and other items you enter, and lets you decide later exactly where you want to put them. Think of it an a portable in box. You enter notes from a meeting, an address, the date of a training session, and some more notes. After the meeting, you can send each of these pieces of information to the proper application: the address to the addressbook, the appointments to the datebook, and the notes to memopad - or whatever applications you have that are handling those data types. It's actually a sweet little program, and we'll be raffling off a free copy!

We will also have "Show and Tell" for everyone that got something new during the holidays. I know about a few, but you're welcome to bring your new goodies and let us drool on them! Following up on that, is there any interest in having a Swap Meet? I have some older items I'd like to get rid of, and I am sure there are other folks wo have keyboards that go with a Palm they lost, or a case they no longer use or whatever. Be thinking about what stuff you'd like to bring, and let's brainstorm places for a meeting. (I don't think they'd let us set up shop in Borders!)

See you there Tomorrow (Monday, 20 January) at 6:30 PM!!!