Yard Sale/Swap Meet, anyone?

The regional Mac user group has a swap meet every year or so, to allow members to shift their equipment and software from one person to another. They're kind of fun, if you're geeky enough to enjoy that sort of thing. (What am I saying - this is the website for a group of PDA users!)

So, I'm proposing we do the same at our next meeting - look through your basement, closets, or the Dead PDA Drawer and pull out all the stuff you no longer use or want, and bring it out. We'll set up tables, have "show and tell" of the strangest devices and software, and I'll have a few t-shirts and maybe some more stuff to give away.

It's a central meeting month, but instead of lugging stuff into Panera, perhaps I can arrange to get a different location with a bit less public face. More as details become known.

New post of interest to Mac folks

I have posted an article about Mac apps for Palm over on my personal blog. Thought you folks might be interested.

October Meeting

The October meeting of TAPIT will be at the Panera in Patterson Place. This is the new shopping center on the Durham side of 15/501 from I-40. Here is the google map page.

We have lots to discuss: the selling of PalmSource, the Windowization of the Treo, the Palm® TX handheld, the Palm z22, and other news. Plus, there's the new portability options from Apple in the form of the video iPod, downloadable TV shows at $2 a pop, and I'm sure bunches of other items of interest. See you all there, 6:30, WiFi at the ready.

Tonight's meeting location - Panera in Centrum on Walnut in Cary

(I can't think of a way to add more prepositional phrases to the title.)

Centrum is the shopping center just past Crossroads on Walnut on the right. They have WiFi, and it's a good sized store for a meeting.

I apologize for not getting this updated sooner. I have been out of town working over the weekend, and my plane was diverted and the flight cancelled last night - long story.

Directions:
I-40 to Hwy 1 South, Get off immediately at Walnut Street.

Turn Left onto Walnut Street, go through 4 lights. The 4th
light is at Dillard Drive, just past the Lowe's Home Improvement Center on yur right.

After passing through the light, take a right into Centrum Center.

Take the very first right, and you'll pass by Carolina Ale House. The next group of buildings is anchored by the Panera.

New HotSpot directory

I just had to pass this along. Alan Hoyle just sent me a link to the best HotSpot directory I've seen yet. It's very complete, fast, and uses something we've not seen in a while - straight HTML. No funky Java, Ajax, or Flash to trip up your Palm's browser, just pure, sweet HTML, the way the Web was meant to be.

http://www.wi-fihotspotlist.com/browse/us/2000252/

That's just the NC hotspots. The searching and such is pretty easy to find spots in other states and countries.

Go forth and surf!!!

4-18-05 Meeting Links

Aeroplayer now has an AAC plugin, which allows you to play songs encoded or purchased with iTunes. They recommend using JHymn to remove the Apple Fairplay DRM from your store-bought tunes, enabling them to be played with Aeroplayer. Aeroplayer is free, but the AAC plugin is $14.95.

Aeroplayer at Aerodrome.us

Blog upgrades

This blog now has a working syndication feed (you'll find a link in the sidebar). It's an Atom feed (because Blogger no longer supports RSS), but it should work with most aggregators. Let me know if you have problems with it.

I also gave the blog a makeover with a new template because the original one was really primitive and ugly. But I've saved a copy of the old template, just in case everyone hates the new one.

This is my way of making up for missing three meetings in a row.

Directions for the 2005 February meeting

I have re-directed the "Directions" link on our main web page here to the Weaver Street Market's own directions page. Rather than try to re-do what they have up, I figure I'd just point to it.

See you folks at 6:30 PM, on Monday, 21 Feb. Bring your pod-cast-able handhelds, of whatever stripe they may be. Or, if you don't know what that pod-casting stuff is all about, bring questions. See you all there! With game discount coupons as swag!

Podcasts

I just wanted to add a note. Not only will Podcasting work on iPods (and other, greater digital music players) but many people load podcasts onto PDA's and smartphones. It is even possible to stream some podcasts to wireless devices. I'll do my best to cover these bases as well at the meeting.

Chris

Ever wonder what a podcast is? Never heard of the term?

Well, for those of you who have heard of it and wonder what the heck it is, member Chris Owens will share not only the what's and why's of this new method of staying up to date while being mobile, but he'll go through the process step-by-step, so that you can know how to play along at home. Or, better, bring your laptop and iPod (or other, lesser digital music player), and follow along from software download to install to setup to sync. Sweet Cracker Sandwich!

We're meeting at the Weaver Street Market in Carrboro this month, remember, so we should have no trouble with the town-wide internet service there, right? We'll see.....

Smythe

Acid-Spider

Things continue to get better in the doorprize sphere. Our friends at Red-Mercury, makers of the phenomenal Acid-Image, have offered us a wonderful deal: a full copy of their newest game, Acid-Spider, plus 3 copies at $5 off of the same program. I'm offering the free copy to the first person who submits a review of the product. If you've never played Spider solitaire, I recommend you don't start if you have anything that needs doing in the next few hours. You'll be - um - involved with testing the app for at least that long, maybe longer.

Sedio Retractable Sync"N"Charge USB Cable - a review by Phi Sanders

I recently purchased the PalmOne Treo 650, which has the "new universal" connector slot, and is thus incompatible with all previous charging and syncing cables. The cable that is included with the Treo is a hydra-style cable: there is a USB-to-Treo section and a power-to-Treo section, the latter of which plugs into the back of the former so that you charge as you synch. It's a clunky, multi-headed affair. As of this writing there is still no cradle from PalmOne for the 650. But there is a more elegant solution: the Sedio Retractable Sync"N"Charge USB Cable.

This compact cable allows your Treo (and presumably other "new universal" slot devices) to charge from your computer (laptop or desktop) while you are synchronizing your data. The cable, when fully retracted, is about two inches long, making a much smaller addition to the clutter in your bag.

One morning, I realized my Treo was dangerously low on juice after several days without a charge, and I slipped this tiny cable into my jean pocket on the way out the door for a busy day. I stole minutes here and there while roaming the building to plug it in to randomly available USB ports as I hurried about my inter-office travels. By the time lunch came around, and I finally had the chance to sit down and do a proper charge, I no longer needed to worry about my Treo shutting down due to low power, as I had managed to charge it up beyond the 25% "red zone" in the 650's battery indicator!

The only drawback I can see to this accesory is the common weakness of all retractable cables: the flat, thin wires required to compactly spool the cable means that if feels fragile. Past experience with a similar retractable headset cable taught me to deliberately and steadily pull the two ends of the cable away from the center spool at an even rate to avoid jamming or tangling while extending. Also, you should remember with retracting these sorts of cables to make a slight tug and then allow it to spool up casually. Tugging the cable harshly may effect a snappy retraction, but is more likely to result in a tangled cable, or even to break it. The tradeoff for this compact single-thread cable, then, is a requirement to take more care in how you extend and retract it.

I have had no problems synching with this cable, and it is now my exclusive way of charging and synching when away from my home office. Whether you work in an office, or carry a laptop and move about, I recommend you buy the Sync"N"Charge before a car charger or cradle - you may find, as I have, that you really don't need anything more.

Updating the website....

I hate having to update things. I can't deal with To Do lists well because they have to be checked off, updated, and otherwise manipulated to keep them current. (Task 1 is now 25% complete. Task 2 is 50% done. Task 3 is finished.) But they do serve a purpose. I am learning more and more that I can let my Palm manage my lists - which it's done for the 6 years or so that I've had it, like the Newton before it. But I'm far from being a project manager type, with mile stones and charts and such. Seems more time is spent updating the lists than doing the work.

And so it is that months go by without an update to the web site. (You knew there was a relationship between this article and the title, didn't you? Thanks for staying with me.) I was reminded Monday night that the web site was a bit out of date. He was being nice. Most of our information sharing takes place in meetings, and they are very random events, for the most part.

This month, however, we have a bit of a surprise. Phi Sanders, member, Treo 650 user, and erstwhile co-worker of yours truly, has written a review of a cable that one of our vendor sponsors sent for that purpose. We've had some swag off and on in the past 18 months, but nothing like in those halcyon days of the dot-com years. So, to do justice to the nice folks at Seiko, who in December came out with a retractable sync cable specifically fitted for the "new universal" connector of the 650, Phi's review will appear as a post here.

But I would like this trend to continue. Are there folks out there writing about topics that we should share here on the TAPIT page? I think so. If you'd like to assist me in managing contributions to the web site, please drop me an email, either here or through the yahoo group link. If you have a blog that covers PDAs and other mobile tech, let me know and I'll make sure I add a feed to your posts here.

A users' group, after all, belongs to the users, not just to the founder of the group. And, who knows? You may benefit from a nice piece of software or the next sample to review.