PalmAddicts

Share SMS

While at work, I usually stay online with an instant messaging software. I use the software to communicate with my co-workers and friends. One of my contacts, who is a software trainer, happened to be online today, and on his instant messaging status he posted his new blog address. Just before lunch I took a break from work, and out of curiosity I visited his blog. On the top of his blog he told of another friend who received an SMS scam on his cellphone. Seeing that it will be the benefit for others, this guy forwarded the SMS to his relatives and friends, warning them about such scam. The blog post then continued to say that while it was fine and okay, the guy wished there was an easier way to share the SMS. The blog post then went on to tell about such a service. He put the link there, and so I visited the website.

In short description, the website offers free service (for Indonesians only) to post and share any SMS. It does not seem membership is even required. You just need to forward the SMS into a local cellphone number, and after about 5 minutes the SMS will be posted on the website. There will be a permanent link to the SMS. The website offers privacy that the cellphone numbers are not displayed fully.

I think this is a neat little concept.

Trial versions

Every day I discover new ways to use my Palm m500 thanks to Palm Addicts. All of the comments from emails and Associate Writers have me checking out software that helps me to be more productive. Thanks Sammy and everyone who writes. I downloaded a trial version of HanDBase onto my Palm m500. It's great to be able to try out a program before purchasing. I still have 22 out of the 30 days left to use it before deciding to buy. So far it looks like a great program. Lately I have been searching the internet for free programs, but I always check the user comments before downloading a program. Sometimes when you find one that looks good the commenter says how it made his device crash over and over.

Flickering by Treo

Today I take a lot of photos of the Tianguis Turístico in Acapulco. But till night I will be able to be in my home to sync my Treo, so I remember that Flickr has an option that allows me to upload my photos directly to the site. It's fabolous, I just send my photos from my Treo using Snapper mail and ready! They are in Flickr site.  I try the same option whit youtube but I'm still having troubles...

Comfort

Hi Everybody, As I was trying to think about my experience with my PDA, when I started to realize something. I have been using the same mobile equipment for three years. To me that seems like a really long time. But, what is funny is I'm not bothered by it because it works for me. I've had the same pda, laptop and cellphone and even though the new Apples laptops, Iphones or UMPC look totally awesome, I can live without them. I've fallen into a comfortable rhythm with my current system that works for me. I can do everything I need it to do. If you would have asked me five years ago I ever thought I would have the same device for more than a year I would have said "No way, Technology moves too fast and I need the latest things to do more stuff" but I guess I don't need it. Which brings me to my point. Comfort. My Palm is comfortable to use. My use has become so streamlined over the last three years, I am afraid to mess it up. I know most of the tips and tricks and and little things I have to do to get things done. It's also why I enjoy PALMADDICT too. It doesn't have fancy graphics and a lot of flash. But it works very well. It gives me what I need without superfluous tech talk. It's real people sharing what they do to everyone else. It's cool...like a summer pitch in. Except we share mobile stories and ideas not recipies. Thanks everyone for all you do. CF

Alarm for Charger

One of the features I find missing from my O2 Xda IIi is the ability to sound the alarm when the battery charging process is completed. Now, I do not know whether this is actually possible or not (I tend to think it should be possible, if not by hardware then at least by software), but it sure is nice if it is implemented.

I often charge my PDA, every other day in fact, and even more frequent if I play Pocket PC games a lot during the day. So charging is a regular task. When I charge my PDA, I just plug the charger and then leave it to do some work. More often than not, I will then forget about it. From what I know, charging for too long may shorten the battery life. The other day my wife even forgot that she was charging her cellphone; she actually left the device being charged for the whole night. That was definitely not good for the battery. So it would be nice if there is an alarm sounding whenever the charging process is completed.

If anybody knows of such a software for Pocket PC that will give such notification, please do let me know.

Nike & iPhone and iPod Touch

Apple may be planning to bring the Nike+ system to the iPhone and iPod touch. Nike+ is of course a special kit, originally made for iPod nano, that will record the distance and length of a walk or run -- you stick the little sensor in your shoe, and it works as a timer and pedometer to record personal workout stats.  This would be just amazing!  Keep your shoes, ears and eyes open for the NIKE + APPLE ?

Monday day off - Walking and listening to tunes on my Treo

Aloha readers!  Aloha Sammy!  I wanted to share how I spent part of my day off today.  Mondays are usually a tough day for me to get going.  I am sure most of you can relate to this.  So every once in a while, I like to take some time off.  It was such a good day in Mililani, Hawaii, with the sun shining, and cool south easterly tradewinds.  So I decided to take my Treo, with some headphones, and started walking around my neighborhood.  It was great listening to some tunes, while walking and feeling totally relaxed.  Most of the time I use my Treo to for work, but today it was for pleasure!

A Brand New Ringtone

Good day, fellow PalmAddicts readers and writers. I just check-in this website again this morning. So it was a TypePad server problem over the weekend. No wonder I could not post on Sunday and had to trouble Sammy into posting for me. Hopefully everything is back to normal now. Well, not being able to access TypePad properly yesterday, I spent the night on my laptop playing a Star Wars game. The opening intro sound is grand, and so I thought of using it as my ringtone. So I get the .wav file from the game, put it on my O2 Xda IIi PDA Phone, and voila, a brand new ringtone.

On a totally unrelated note, by chance I googled for my own posts on PalmAddicts just now, because I needed to check something, and I just found out that posts in PalmAddicts are tracked and news-fed on many other websites. Suddenly I found links to my posts around the net. PalmAddicts trully is awesome :-)

My BB 7100i side-by-side my Tréo 680

One more thing I can share with you in my posts is that besides carrying my Tréo 680 the company with which I work, has also provided me with one of those Nextel Blackberries that has the walkie-talkie function; the 7100i. I guess this device would be considered a smart phone too.

Having the experience of carrying this particular device along with a Palm OS device now for over a year, I can only say that the Palm OS is far superior, user-friendly, and more open than the BB (and some say that the Palm OS it is dated).

The BB is very good with the email thing but both the GUI and the input are very sub-par as oposed to my Tréo. This BB in particular does not have the full keyboard but a lesser KB with shared keys much like your garden variety mobile phones, which is quite unconvenient to use as opposed to writing with graffiti or with the Tréo keyboard.

Also, the BB's software and the device itself are quite locked as far as information sharing goes. The BB desktop software only syncs with Outlook (which I do not use, personally favoring the Palm Desktop) and even if the device itself has bluetooth I haven't found a way to transfer any contact information to or from it to my Tréo, for instance.

The bottomline is that for the above-mentioned and other reasons I personally dislike this particular BB even if it is not going anywhere anytime soon. A fact of life is that many companies in my country (both customers and suppliers of ours) use intensively the walkie-talkie function of the Nextels.

The bottom-line is that this long term BB usage has helped me better appreciate what we still have in the Palm OS. BTW, I strongly believe that except for the walkie talkie thing with other Nextels, my Tréo can perform without any problem all the other functions the BB provides me with, including push email, and do so with a much more efficient GUI and operation.

Email on Centro

More and more lately, I find that I do pretty much all my emailing using my Centro. I'm a Snappermail user, and have been since the days of my Kyocera 7135, four or five years back. Using Snappermail with my IMAP email account, I'm able to quickly and easily process most of my mail. And I've cut out the redundancies by taking advantage of folders on my server ('done' and 'not done,' for instance) and mail filtering rules on my PC for later archival. I wrote about all that in detail some months back. About the only messages that wait for me to get to my PC are the ones that contain .WMV movies and flash content. The keyboard on my Centro is great for a quick note, and I keep a bluetooth keyboard handy for when I know I'll be doing a lot of typing.

My Treo At Party

Hi, since 2 moths ago i have retaken an activity that i enjoy a lot: Going to parties!! Yeah!! I used to go to the parties a lot but sudendly i cool out but it is starting to begin again... it is so cool to be with your friends and have a good time so... no reason to left my treo at home.

You may think, How a Treo could be a party to be cool? Well easy! first of all what it is at all parties?  Music so when the party is long some people can get sick of the same repeating music over and over, I always carry my 3.5 mm adapter so i can be plugged in to the main stereo and previously or on the fly make a playlist for the party... it is nice.

My girlfriend enjoys a lot fancy drinks and i downloaded a free app called minibar who has recipes for all kinds of drink categorized by name, main ingredient, etc... just awesome.

At parties you may catch up with all friends and the treo is great to get their new address or phone so you don't loose them again and one of my favorites taking pictures, i know that Treo's camera isn't the best but it works for saving those great moments for later, a have a lot of pictures.

Well now you know how to party with your treo just remember:

• Don't drink and drive (be smart)
• If you drink a lot i recommend not to carry your treo i could get lost or broken (it happened to a friend)
• Have fun! (responsably): Life is all about enjoy being alive not the opposite

See you soon palmaddicts!

Monday Reflections: Oh no! My Treo stopped syncing with my Exchange email!

Aloha Sammy!  Hope you are doing well.   I want to tell you about what happened to me early last Friday, my Treo had just synced successfully, and suddenly I was getting the "Air SAMStateMachine.c 3701 3" error.  This means my Treo was not able to send or receive email.  This is not good.  I have my Treo setup to sync over the air with my company's corporate email system, which keeps me up to date with my office no matter where I am.  I decided to do some troubleshooting, and here is what I did:
- My laptop was sending and receiving emaill as normal
- No one else was experiencing any issues
- My mailbox was not over the storage limit

So this eliminates any issues with our corporate email system, so it must be my Treo, or some thing going on with my Outlook email client on my laptop.  I found out that my Treo could sync with my contacts and calendar, but not my email.  So the Exchange Active Sync is partly working.  I then backed up my Treo, and did a hard reset to wipe everything off of my device.  Starting with a fresh setup eliminates issues associated with installed applications.  I then setup the connection to my company's email system.  To my surprise, I got the same error message!  Again, I was only able to sync my contact and the calendar but not my email.  So now the problem points to the email in my inbox on my laptop.  I decided to move all of my inbox items, except for a few items to an archive folder.  So now I had an inbox that had only two items.  I started the syncing process again, and to my relief, the two items in my inbox successfully appeared on my Treo!  I quickly restored my Treo to the previous state before the hard reset.  Everything is back to normal.  I am not sure what the cause was, but I can only guess that it was a bad email that could not be synced.  Removing most of the email may have also removed the bad email, thus solving my issue.  It was a real struggle, but I am glad I solved my issue.  I feel normal again! I may be crazy, but when my Treo is not happy, I am not happy.

Random throwaway just for today, PowerBook 12 inch

We have had a little bit of a crazy weekend with Typepad server problems but they seem to have got the template and site working again. OK so onto winners from last week and here we go with a couple of names and we start with Alex Dunn, Rochester, NY and Mike Ceddie were winners from last week. Now I wanted to do this throwaway over the weekend but due to the Typepad problem I am going to do it for today. It's a random giveaway and it's open for 1 day only, in other words I'll close this one at the end of today at midnight US PT and I will choose a winner for this one at pure random first thing tomorrow morning.

One of the best Apple laptops that we have used for some time is a PowerBook 12 inch. It has always been one of my favorites and this one is about 2 years old. Runs and works fine and comes with a SuperDrive, DVD-R/CD-RW combo all built in.

All you need to do is send me a user thought on how your using your mobile device or a thought that is mobile technology related. No pleas informing why you should be the winner or what will you do with the prizes if you win. Please put MONDAY in the subject line. As I have mentioned in the past I really appreciate the people who add kind words to their me in their email, a small percentage of people just send their thought in without even saying hi or how are you, so your messages are always welcome.

No self sites or software mentions and keep your thoughts positive. If you don't see your user thought posted then please DO NOT resend, we receive so many but all of them are entered. Remember no personal plea's as they will go straight into the trash can and if your user thought has no title then you cannot be enetered. Associate Writers please post directly to the site. Email me your thoughts and remember they must be with me before midnight US PT - sammymcloughlin@gmail.com

PCMag has a review of the device if you wish to read up on the specs.

Easily putting shortcuts on the Treo

[From Morris Herman] Sammy why is there no shortcuts panel in the preferences of the treo? Certainly not on the 650. While discussing Accenter over at 1src and wishing it could memorize words, not to say it isn't fantastic as it is, a user by the name of Wozofoz suggested Shortcut5 and actually it sits in the preference panel and it is activated by pressing the 'period' key, followed by any letters you choose. And then it will create whatever you have told it to memorise, eg. passwords, email addresses etc. so you only have to press two or three keys instead of many more. And By The Way it does a lot more than this as well. And it is free.

Sometimes old fashion technology is better

[From Brando from Udine - Italy] Some weeks ago I was coming back with my car from a holiday in Croatia. When I was near the Croatian - Slovenian border started snowing and then I found queues. Nothing strange since it was holyday and it was snowing but after 1 hour I was went on only 200 m. So I tried to listen to the radio (my croatian is far from perfect but I understand something)and they were saying only that there were queues at the borders. Then I started browsing the web with my phone to see if I can find some news: all the main sites were java or flash dipendent! Then I called my girfriend (she's Croatian) to see if she can find some news. She opened the notebook and started looking for something in Slovenian and Croatian road assistence sites: nothing new. Then she called by phone the road assistence: no way. Ok, I leaved my car and went on foot till the border, and talkin with the policeman I understood there was an incident and he suggested me to change my route. I had to wait in queue 1 more hour on another road, and after almost 4 hours of queues I decided to sleep in Croatia for that night (it was 8 pm). So I thought: I have a cell phone with some web capabilities and a fm radio, my girfirend has a notebook with GPRS pccard and phone, teletext on tv, there are tons of websites and I had to go to the border on foot to have some news. Maybe there's something wrong in the way we use technology, maybe we have to think how it can be more useful for us and how it can connect varius type of medium. And to think less about every new stupid feature we can have if we change our smartphones. And maybe if I had my old CB radio with me I could have had some better news quickly :)

Blogging with a treo 650

[From Morris Wonoate] Sammy you certainly know how to make a successful Blog. I have started to use mo:blog for posting on my blog. I also saw there is hblogger and a couple of others, anyway I got used to mo:blog, and it has a few options, create your own html tags, it adds images from the sdcard and keeps all posts on file and it can designate a category. There are some betas that can do more but I think they work on the pda's more than the Treos. It also allows for post dating/timing of posts, though I have never used this. I guess it is like treo/motwitter but with longer posts and images possible. By the way, a little while ago, Eric mann posted about: Mega Memo, It has the ability to insert html codes, useful and free.

Back to my faithful Hermes

[From Vinit gupta Mumbai, India] Dear Sammy,

How's are you doing. I have been visiting your site since the last 4 years, when I had newly bought a tungsten E. I loved the user generated real life scenarios of people using their mobile devices. That inspired me to use my pda in many ways I didn't know I could ujse it. Your site has been a gateway for discovering a lot of awesome softwares. Keep up the good work dude.

After trying out the blackberry 8700 for a few months, I am back to using the HTC Hermes. I guess withdrawl symptoms set in. I missed the easy editing, the touch screen and other goodies like wifi and camera. The main reasons I feel winmo shines over bb os :

1. Email : I cannot file email into specific folders. Also I missed html email. Also no auto completion of words or spellchecker.

2. PIM : I caanot have categories in appointments. Plus navigating through days is cumbersome due to trackwheel.

3. Internet : the blackberry browser is worse than PIE.

4. goodies : since gprs is painfully slow in india, I sorely missed wifi. Plus missed the camera.

5. Multimedia: my blackberry had no multimedia capabilities whatsoever.

6. Touchscreen : I missed the touchscreen to take notes. Also touchscreen made life easier while navigating.

7. Apps : the dearth of win mo apps for all types of user needs. I sorely missed egress, my fav rss reader.

8. Phone: the phone app is much refined in HTC. Especially the smartdial which searches for phone numbers and names white typing.

Of course I love the thumboard on the bb. Also its built like a tank. I have dropped it many times without any issues. Also loved the automatic screen brightness adjust. But the cons outnumbered the pros. And I retired my backberry and my 5 yr old uses it now to play disco bowling or rooster. :)

So that made me switch back to my windows mobile device. It a sense of deja vu for me. After using windows mobile devices for so long I guess I just could not adjust to any other platform. Love this site.

Let's go Rangers

[From Lawrence(NYC)] Hi Sammy. Hope all is well A few nights ago at the local pub. A friend and I were hoping to have a few drinks and watch the NY Rangers play in the playoffs. But to our surprise, due to contractual agreement between the satellite and the pub, the pub was not about to show the game. So out came the Treo and Slingplayer Mobile. We were able to catch the game and have a few drinks. Thanks to Slingmedia for the Slingplayer, one of the best gadgets I purchased ever.

Two years of TX

[From Lourdes Villegas, from La Paz - Bolivia] I have a Palm TX and I have stored in it all the books I need while on the go. I am a medicine student and I have got digital copies of all the basic medical bibliography, and they are always with me, so I don't have to be carrying around some bulky books. Although the screen isn't big enough (320x480) it is wonderful for displaying the graphics and illustrations from my ebooks (can you imagine a grey's anatomy book without illustrations, or a book of dermatology that lacks all the pictures?). This TX has been my companion for the last 2 years and I really, really love it.

The Thrill of Working a Palm Conversion

[From Jim Baldwin] Today's adventure is to try see if I can get my trusty T3 apps to work on a recently acquired Treo 650. It has taken me years to push, pull, find, and load everything into my T3. Now I am getting a real thrill learning how to make those T3 apps work on the 650. Add to that all the 650 phone and connectivity features I just may not come up for air until the end of the week. I forgot how much fun this can be.

Opera Mini

[From James Moat, Minnesota, USA] I have used several mobile browsers – the built-ins, of course, like Blazer and PIE. I’ve tried MultiIE to enhance PIE, which works well, and have even purchased Opera Mobile. They all work fine, but until last week, I have not enjoyed reading Palm Addict on my mobile device. I could only use Opera Mobile, but it would take too long to load the large page over an EDGE connection (and yes, I want images). I saw a notice about Opera Mini 4.1 Beta (http://www.operamini.com/beta/) and quickly loaded it up. It’s a Java app, which takes some getting used to, but what a difference. Like the folks enjoying Safari on their iPhones, I am now able to see the entire webpage and quickly zoom into the specific text I want to read. Best of all, it’s FREE.

Centro and Facebook

[From Scott Dye] I’ve recently become a facebook convert, and I’m really enjoying how well it integrates with my Centro. Whether by using the facebook mobile site directly via Blazer, or by using the threaded SMS app – it’s a great way to keep in touch with my friends. I’ve also only recently started using text messaging, and don’t know which of my friends get free texting or not - by texting them via facebook I know they’ll get it, whether it’s on their phone or on their computer.

How I plan to use my Treo this weekend: no more pen and paper and stacks of catalogues

[From Pancro] I don't know if you're in the States at the moment or in England so not sure if I should say good morning or good afternoon :-) I thought I'd drop you a line on how I plan to use my trusty Treo 680 this weekend

How I plan to use my Treo this weekend: no more pen and paper and stacks of catalogues

It's exciting times for me as I'm renovating and furnishing my house in South London. I'll be in Italy for the weekend to visit the Salone del Mobile in Milan, one of the world's most renowned events for furniture design.

Unlike other visits to similar fairs, this time I'm fully determined to go digital. I will use my treo's camera to take pictures of pieces and compositions I like, I will then attach notes that remind me of models and makers and I will immediately type business cards into my Treo's contacts. I will use the todo list for things I need to check when I go home, such as measurements I may have forgotten. I plan to solve the bulky catalogues problem by browsing them and taking pictures of what I like, again attaching notes and using Palm's categories to make them fully searchable, I'm a big fan of Palm OS' global find.

Once home, I'll download the pics to my PC and decide what seems to be the best combination! Notes and contacts will allow me to fire emails right away for price estimates, customisations, etc.

I'm quite excited to put my Treo to the test and see what it can do for me on this occasion. Although the camera is only 640x480, I've used it to take casual snapshots in other circumstances and it's fine for quick point-and-shoot things.

Once again my trusty Treo 755p saves the day

[From patrick] Hi sammy my name is patrick and I am from revere ma. USA .Hope things have been going more smoothly for you than they have for me lately. Presently I am in Bowie maryland on business. A couple days ago the one thing that all travelers fear happened . My car broke down in the middle of nowhere in totally unfamiliar territory. Luckily I had my Treo 755p and navibe gps receiver with me . First thing I did was turn on the gps receiver, then opened up an application called " Where Am I ". This app gets the gps settings then directly sends the information to another app named Google Maps. Within a few seconds a map of the surrounding area with the names of the side streets was displayed on my treo. All that was left to do was call AAA road assistance and tell them exactly where I was. A tow truck was there within thirty minutes. In ancient times before smart phones I could have been stuck there for hours being totally aggravated without any assistance at all . Fortunately it wasn't anything too serious with the car. Once again my trusty treo 755p saved the day.

Here's an Palm idea that might be able to help anybody

[From Darcy in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada] The Planisphere program can not only be used to find the stars, it can help keep you from getting lost, even in daytime. First, make sure you set your location in the program. Then click the small icon in the upper-right corner, pick "Sun" and it tells you where the sun is. Hold your palm upsidedown, point that icon in the direction of the sun, and you'll know which way is North!

US-made disposable cell-phone in Europe

[From Morris Wonoate] A US-based gadget maker has released its Eur13 disposable cell-phone in Europe for mobile users, which has no features. An unidentified European distributor has placed an initial test purchase order of 10,000 phones from the US-based gadget maker Hop-on. The low-end GSM cell-phone with no LCD screen is trying to find its way to Europe. The president of Hop-on stated, "This is one of our biggest opportunities to actually have Hop-on become a household name in the US and throughout Europe. No one sells a new $20 GSM cell phone! We are also targeting the Middle East, Asia and India. Bottom line, most people just want to make a phone call. We will sell millions of these phones!" he claimed.

Read in full.

My Palm As Driver Ed Co-pilot

[From Doug Wilcox, Portage La Prairie, Manitoba, Canada] In my neck of the woods, in addition to the eight hours of driving with a qualified Driver Ed instructor, one of the requirements to earn a drivers license is to have 24 hours of formally documented "home based practice" over a nine month period. As the parent of a 16 year old currently working towards his license we need to keep track of the home based practice sessions that we've been doing over the last several months. We hit the road every second weekend or so for practice sessions that can vary from one-half to two hours. On my Palm T3 I have a database list of suggested driving knowledge skills to practice that I refer to and can check off when my son has successfully completed them. The list also is a good way to make sure we cover all the necessary driving requirements. I also have saved Driver Ed textbook illustrations and text on my palm. When required this information can be pulled out to review the proper way to do things. I also use the journaling software on my palm at the completion of each session to document the details of the session. After a total of 24 hours of home based sessions parents are required to report details of all the sessions back to the certifying body (i.e. how long each session was, what the conditions were, and what skills were practiced). If I used a paper based system to track this information I would likely loose it before the nine months were over. The handiness of my Palm T3 and its referencing and record keeping software make it really useful as a Driver Ed co-pilot.

DVD 2.0

DVD 2.0This seems a great program to organize your dvd collection."DVD is an application helping you organize your DVD or VHS collection. It's a powerful database program with a lot of fields to enter certain information about your DVD or VHS. You can easily have a quick overview of your whole collection on the main page, add, change or delete your own categories to personalize DVD even more. In case of a hard-reset, your entries will be saved on your desktop computer during each HotSync operation. The means that you always have a backup of your data, just in case As a registered user you are as well entitled for free future updates for the lifetime of this product. This application is shareware with a 30-day restriction! If you like this application and want to use it after the 30-day period you must register it for only $4.99. Once you've bought it you are eligible to receive free updates for as long as this product exists!"

BillZ! 1.00

BillZ! 1.00This seems a great program to reminder you of your bills etc."If you are like me, you always forget to pay your bills on time, then this program is for you. Never incur charges for late payments and as this program was created specifically for bill payment reminders, it does exactly what it says, it reminds you with an alarm to pay your bills on the specified date & time and you have access to this directly on your palm, anytime."

Word Mix Up 1.0

Word Mix Up 1.0This seems a great addictive word scrabble game."An insanely addictive word scramble game that'll challenge the best of them! Form as many words as you can with the scrambled letters before time runs out. Use all the letters in at least one word to survive to the next round! Packed with GREAT features Supports COLOR and non-color devices! High scores Cheat option Comprehensive built-in dictionary Easy-to-use touch screen interface Easy to learn, with built-in instructions Great way to improve vocabulary skills! Also check out our Puzzle Pack game pack - a collection of some of our best selling games at a big savings."

The Final Battle 1.0

The Final Battle 1.0This seems a great fun program.give it a try."The Final Battle is the best game we ever made. It is a new, huge and funny adventure game which reminds us the old classic ones. The plot is happening at the age of the knights. Your character is a guy which wakes up in a prison cell with amnesia. He doesn������t even know who he is! Your task is to escape from the prison and find out the entire story behind your capture. And of course try to stay alive... FEATURES: * Huge game (over 50 places!) * Hi-Quality crystal clear cartoon graphics. * Deep story with many turnovers. * Amazing music and sounds. * Funny dialogs that will make you laugh. * Fully translated into several languages. * Pure adventure riddles and puzzles. * Launching new easy point and click game play with subtitles. * 320x320 resolution supported. * Funny cinematic scenes * Automatic save and continue system which saves up to the last click. * And as always, export your Hi-Score online and compare it with everybody."

Nominate for the PalmAddict Reader Awards 2008

Obviously our PalmAddict Reader Award for 2008 are well and truely open. 2007 winners can be found here For 2008 we are looking for who you think are the best in the mobile community and categories include, best Palm device of the year, best Palm Website / Blog, best travel program for Palm OS and best multimedia program for Palm OS amongst others. The category list is here so please go and nominate. As per years previous results published periodically with final winners announced in December.

Case-mate Introduces the World's First Touch-Through Case

[From Shawn] Case-mate, makers of innovative accessories for the iPhone, iPod, MacBook, BlackBerry, Treo, and other handheld devices, announces the launch of a revolutionary new case.

The Naked Case, by Case-mate, is the only case that provides full protection of the device, including the screen, while at the same time allowing full touch-through access to the iPhone or iPod Touch.

The patent-pending electrostatic membrane on the front of the case passes electrical pulses through to the devices screen, ensuring that touch controls work flawlessly while in the case. Precise cutouts allow access to all other controls. The solid acrylic protects the device while allowing its true beauty to shine through. The Naked Case is aptly named - it's as if the iPhone or iPod Touch was wearing nothing at all.

The Naked Case is the only case that offers 360 degree protection of the iPhone and iPod Touch. The case is available for order at http://www.case-mate.com.

Case-mate.com offers a wide selection of innovative cases, holsters, and accessories for iPhones, iPods, MacBooks, BlackBerrys, cell phones, MP3 players, and laptops. Cases are available in a variety of colors and materials. Case-mate products have received stellar reviews from consumers and industry professionals for their perfect combination of style and function.

Backing Up Your Back Up!

Recently people have started to focus on backing up.  It's definitely important, no doubt about it.  However, are you backing up your back up as well?  Allow me to explain.

In an earlier post here, I described how my TX went dead and had to be replaced.  This was not the first time this happened, by the way.  So, I get my new TX and using Resco Backup, I restore my files and programs onto the new TX.  My plan was to do that exactly with my new TX, but I ran into a problem.

Upon inserting my card with the backups into my new TX, the TX said that my card was unrecognized and could it format it for me!  I heart fell.  I put the card into my card reader and.. nothing.  It didn't show up at all.  Somewhere, the card became damaged or perhaps a file became corrupt and would not allow it to be read.  Using Apple's disk utility and a data recovery program allowed me to recover some but not nearly all of the things I had on that card.  Most unfortunately, I had lost what was probably the most vital: my Resco BackUp file sets.

It was odd, as I had used the card in my computer a few days earlier to copy my podcasts off of it onto my computer, as well as some pictures.  I was kicking myself now that I didn't think to backup my entire card as well.  If I had simply copied the contents of the entire SD card to my computer, I would've been back in business in no time flat.

So, my message to you today is to learn from my mistake and backup your backups.  Some people suggest even taking your backups off site in case something terrible happens to your house and they are stolen or damaged.  It may be inconvenient at the time, but it will save you the greater inconvenience of starting over later when disaster falls (and if Murphy's Law is any indication, it will fall!).

On a happy note, I was forced to re-evaluate what I really needed on my Palm.  There were a lot of things on my old TX that had been installed just to try out and then forgotten.  Nothing like a little spring cleaning!

Extended Battery Makes My Treo Last

One of the first things I did when I bought my Treo 700p was to purchase an extended battery.  I opted for the Seidio 2400 mAh model.  I almost never burn through the battery in a day, and even if I do, my stock Palm battery is always ready.  For those of us that are constantly using our devices for all things, including MP3 player, phone, PDA, email, web browsing, etc., it is a must that we can rely on the battery lasting for a solid amount of time.  I have had nothing but good experiences with Seidio products, and this battery is right at the top of that list.  I highly recommend making an extended battery one of your first purchases after acquiring any smartphone if you are a heavy user of your mobile device!

Mobile Monday

Mondays are always slow. I have been waiting in line at a Electrical Supply warehouse for about one hour. Being mobile sure makes up for lost time. I am amazed sometimes. Using Business Anywhere I was able to invoice a few customers, prepare a estimate and I even had some time to watch a little ESPN via Slingplayer. Mondays are always hectic, why should mine be.

iPhone MoBlogging

This is my first stab at blogging on my iPhone.  Like many sites, TypePad has created a custom format for the iPhone.  It is very simple and elegant.  To the real question at hand, however, how is typing on the iPhone for me?  Well, it is definitely taking some getting used to.  I am able to type somewhat quickly, and thanks to the auto-correction feature of the keyboard, I am not constantly hitting the backspace key.  Still, I am not sure this could ever approach the comfort and ease with which I can type on my Treo.  There will always be an inherent advantage to having solid keys.  I think that it is just human nature to prefer the tactile feedback of real keys.  The other thing of which I am sure other iPhone users are already very aware, is that navigating around a paragraph or two of text without arrow keys or the ability to cut and paste severely limit the usefulness of the platform tor a true mobile warrior.  Since it seems Apple is attacking that market by adding true Exchange support to the iPhone in the upcoming 2.0 firmware release, I would hope that they will address this as well.  For now, the Treo remains my preferred mobile device for longer emails, moblogging, or text editing.

An online version of Métro with i-Métro

Speaking of Metro I was looking around the website and found a online version of the program so if you have a web browser, or indeed use an iPhone as there is no native program available then this is going to come in real handy. i-Métro is a route calculator on (almost) every subway system in the world and many tram & bus systems too! First available for Palm and PocketPC devices, then for most existing smartphones, you can now get the same features on the WEB and on your WAP or i-mode phone. i-Métro is presently available in 10 languages and covers more than 250 cities around the world. Make the jump.

Release 5.6.6 of Métro

[From Eric Mann] One of the best travel programs for your mobile device and it has to be Metro and now it's up to version 5.6.6. "Public transport networks evolve daily and we try to improve our program frequently. In order to have the most accurate information, you're invited to always download the latest package. Metro allows you to easily navigate through cities by offering you times and schedules for public transportation, such as buses or subways." Now there are some minor changes to those of you with Palm OS devices, and the same goes for our Windows Mobile and Symbian friends.

Noticable changes include:
New cities: Brighton & Hove (England), Kaohsiung (Taiwan), Perugia (Italy), Prievidza (Slovakia)
Major city changes: Bogotá, Brasov, Hokkaido, London, Lviv, Manila, New York, Paris, Pau, San Francisco, Sapporo, Toulouse, Venezia
Other changes: Amsterdam, Barcelona, Beijing, Chicago, Grenoble, Hambourg, Le Mans, Linz, Marseille, Melbourne, Mexico, Newcastle, Nitra, Recife, Shanghai, Tokyo, Trencin
Removed city: Tokyo (chinese version)
Download after the jump.

Laptreo

I'm in the XXXIII Turstic Market in Acapulco. This year the press room has the half of the PCs, so use them is a challenge. The most of my notes will be writed in my Treo 755p... in the press room there is no wireless signal... so I have to use the current signal of my cellphone provider for send my texts by internet (Blazer off course). I have a keyboard for Palm, but the Treo 755p doesn't have the IR signal in the top so I can´t use i'm thinking in sell it.

A new beta of 4cast

[From Eric Mann] So it's time for a new beta of 4cast which is a very good weather program for everyone with a Palm OS device. from the lovely people at the shsh.com and this version addresses a wireless update for those of you with Tungsten TX devices. The beta is available here.

700p saves the day

[From Johnny] Over the weekend we had our building’s power checked and that meant that it was going to be down for 6 hours. I guess when the power returned it caused something to go wrong because no one had any connection to the outside world. Except me! I used my 700p to not only send and receive my email. But we used it to have the GM (who was home sick) email us the presentation from his personal account. I synced my phone to my computer and was able to print the presentation, bind and and have it ready for the client.

It is times like these that having a bulky, heavy and expensive phone pays off. Not to mention being the hero of the office for the day.

Going Mobile: Getting A Call While Riding

Good morning Sammy. Not sure how the weather is where you are, but here in Utah, it's starting to get nice. Which means it's scooter time.

And while it's nice to be riding around enjoying the sun and warmth (not to mention the savings on gas consumption), there's a down side. If my phone rings while I'm riding, I've got to let it go until I get to a place where I can stop, answer the phone and see who is trying to reach me.

In the car, I can use my bluetooth headset and take the call. On the scooter, the bluetooth headset will not fit on my ear inside my helmet.

While this is not a big issue (people can wait 10-15 minutes for me to call them back), it does bring up a curiosity... how many people on motorcycles, scooters and other two-wheeled transports defer phone calls? Or are there others that can fit bluetooth under the helmet and take calls while riding, without having to stop?

If there are options, I wouldn't mind hearing about them. It could extend the number of days I ride my scooter without having to stop to return a phone call. Contact me by clicking here.

Phone Technican Beta - Per-Contact Ringtones (Magic!)

[From Rob at HobbyistSoftware] Hi Folks, For a long time people have asked me to bring per-caller Ringtones to Phone Technician. I have always responded that I haven't found a 100% stable way to provide per-caller ringtones and that I'll stick to 'one-ring-fits-all' until I do.

It is hard to get caller data from the Treo and process it quickly while the call is incoming. On the centro it takes about two seconds from when the call should start ringing until the caller data is passed to applications. Other ringtone programs just have to sit and do nothing for those two seconds - so your phone sits silent.

Once they get the data, they have to process it and work out what ringtone to play. That might mean scanning the (temperamental) contacts database. It's hard to do that right.

Phone Technician takes a completely new approach. Rather than fighting the built in Phone application, Phone Technician works with it. Magic Tones are new ringtones that can play normal Mp3s, flash the LED, vibrate, repeat - all the things you expect from Phone Technician. The Magic thing is that they appear in the normal ringtones database. That means you can select them as normal ringtones, or per-contact ringtones (Treo 680,700+ and Centro).

The normal Phone Application works out what ringtone to play. The normal Phone Application decides when to play it (so No Two Second Delay!). Phone Technician and Magic Tones just make sure that the actual Ringtone has all the flexibility you need.

This is still a beta - so there may well be bugs. However, I'm confident that when we sort those out - Phone Technician will be by far the most stable Ringtone Application on the block! Let us know what you find at the forum! Download at the Hobbyist Software download page.

Mike Rohde has been up to his sketches again

Mike Rohde has been up to his sketches again, boy that guy is talented :-) "I love it when my sketches inspire others to draw. I intentionally choose to share my drawings, sketches and sketchnotes on the web as a way of encouraging others in their own drawings, sketches and sketchnotes."

Today I'm using my Treo as a modem for my laptop

Today I'm using my Treo as a modem for my laptop. While I don't mind checking my email and a few sites from the Treo, there is something to be said about having a full 1028x768 screen to check the news, update my website and stream some music. So while my Treo isn't being used in the conventional sense today, it's crucial for today's activities.

Thanks Sammy for running such a great site. Glad we all have a place to come to for Palm & mobile news and thoughts.

Monday thoughts

[From Peter Murphy] Hey Sam I've never written to you before but I'm an avid reader of the site. I was readng yesterday about Nomophobia and really related to it. The compulsion to stay connected to news, technology news of all kinds has driven my passion for mobility, and related devices. I still don't have a converged device, I'm still sporting a Dell x51v, although I've just recently flashed to WM6.1. It's my portable brain and connection to what i consider the real world. By that I mean the world that revolves around the tech that I love. I'm tied to my rss reader, and thank God for random wireless access points near the railway station where I catch the train to work. I update and catch up on overnight mail, then read my feeds on the way to work. Working seven days a week as I do, even though I love my work, this is the connection to the outside world that keeps me going. Then at work I can almost connect to the wifi in the building from everywhere in the building, all of those stolen moments that keep me going are better than a coffee!

TouchBrowser release

[From Vincent Verweij, Makayama Software] Hi, We’re releasing new Windows Mobile software today. 'TouchBrowser' is iPhone-style webbrowsing on a Pocket PC. It’s bringing touch-capability to Pocket Internet Explorer. "EW Get iPhone-style internet browsing on your Pocket PC. TouchBrowser lets you control everything using only your fingers. You can type using the large keyboard, glide through web content and scroll through pages with a flick, with full page view.

Tired of Pocket Internet Explorer? Forget about the stylus, the tiny scrollbars and the keyhole view of the internet. TouchBrowser gives you the smooth webbrowsing experience of the iPhone, right on your Pocket PC. It lets you scroll pages with animation and iPhone inertia effects for easy reading.

You can use you finger to move the webpage around the screen, something Internet Explorer can't do. Websites designed for mobile use can be watched in 'mobile view' and full pages in 'desktop view'. A built-in navigation aid tells you what section of a page you're reading, so you never get lost."

More info here: http://www.makayama.com/touchbrowser.html

HTC Home screen, messaging woes and Windows Mobile

I enjoyed reading, Murray from PalmMac's editorial entitled HTC Home screen, messaging woes and Windows Mobile and some of his points make sense. "It is very possible that Microsoft fail to appreciate that a lot of people, other than business users, buy win mob smartphones for a variety of reasons...for their superior specs such as wifi so that they can download data such as media and podcasts and then use those devices as sophisticated media type player devices and not for dull business reasons. Even then, navigation is still absurdly slow to get to the business type apps. Take email on my s630. I have to scroll down to the messaging icon, press it and then rather than opening up straight away the ONLY email account I have installed, it takes me to the messaging overview. So, I then have to scroll down to the email account and press that. Bingo...or not quite. To then download email I can't just press a hot key to send and receive email, nope, I have to press "menu" and then press "9" to start it off. Crikey...how convoluted is that?" Read in full but a good editorial.

A Palm addict caught in the act

I was just browsing through Flickr when I found this funny & interesting picture (left), this girl is definetely a Palm addict.

Apparently her boyfriend got the chance to caught her in action, seemed like she couldn't help it but to tried press a button even though it's only a poster. I think she wished to press the "Enter" button instead, but perhaps it was too high for her to reach.

The picture is courtesy of Ricardo Ferreira here, taken at San Fransisco-California.

PS: looks like TypePad is still having a glitch in their system, the picture posted here is not displayed properly. Click on the Ricardo's link above to see the picture, cheers.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Thin or small?

That's the questions pops up inside my mind everytime I read news about new mobile phone handsets, or news about mobile devices like laptop & UMPC. Which one will you pick if there are two choice of device in front of you, one is thin but has average size & the other one is small sized but not so thin?

For quick example perhaps we could use a MacBook Air (MBA) pitted against HP's Mini or Asus' Eee, where MBA represents thin design and Mini or Eee represent small form factor. If you're to put aside the strong brand image Apple has on MBA, and you're to choose one of them for your need in 1 year to come. You only afford to buy one for a year, but okay you have enough to buy the hefty priced MBA this time. Which one do you more prefer to have? The thin one that's light weighted or the small one that's easy to carry?

But even I can't deny that the price of each device is more a factor to what I will choose on buying one, this is why Mini & Eee have been so successful to attract consumers so much. I'm having a dilemma to choose which one to be my next laptop...

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Improve your Palm Blazer with 5 tips

This one for you who still use Palm OS Treo or Centro smartphone, PalmInfoCenter has posted 5 useful tips to improve the aging Palm Blazer browser. They're quite simple and easy to implement, read on here for full details.

[blogged with my Treo 750v]

Random throwaway just for today, PowerBook 12 inch

We have had a little bit of a crazy weekend with Typepad server problems but they seem to have got the template and site working again. OK so onto winners from last week and here we go with a couple of names and we start with Alex Dunn, Rochester, NY and Mike Ceddie were winners from last week. Now I wanted to do this throwaway over the weekend but due to the Typepad problem I am going to do it for today. It's a random giveaway and it's open for 1 day only, in other words I'll close this one at the end of today at midnight US PT and I will choose a winner for this one at pure random first thing tomorrow morning.

One of the best Apple laptops that we have used for some time is a PowerBook 12 inch. It has always been one of my favorites and this one is about 2 years old. Runs and works fine and comes with a SuperDrive, DVD-R/CD-RW combo all built in.

All you need to do is send me a user thought on how your using your mobile device or a thought that is mobile technology related. No pleas informing why you should be the winner or what will you do with the prizes if you win. Please put MONDAY in the subject line. As I have mentioned in the past I really appreciate the people who add kind words to their me in their email, a small percentage of people just send their thought in without even saying hi or how are you, so your messages are always welcome.

No self sites or software mentions and keep your thoughts positive. If you don't see your user thought posted then please DO NOT resend, we receive so many but all of them are entered. Remember no personal plea's as they will go straight into the trash can and if your user thought has no title then you cannot be enetered. Associate Writers please post directly to the site. Email me your thoughts and remember they must be with me before midnight US PT - sammymcloughlin@gmail.com

PCMag has a review of the device if you wish to read up on the specs.

JAVO 2.5mm (male) to 3.5mm (female) Stereo Audio Adapter

JAVO 2.5mm (male) to 3.5mm (female) Stereo Audio Adapter on offer $2.69 Retail Price: $2.99. "Eliminate carrying or buying 2.5mm headphones for travel! JAVOedge's gold plated 2.5mm to 3.5mm stereo headphone adapter is all you need to listen to music on your 2.5mm audio jack equipped Smartphone. Use any 3.5mm (Standard size) headphones with your device. Go ahead; the power of choice is yours! Key Features Gold plated 2.5mm stereo adapter does not have signal loss to ensure maximum performance Simple innovative and functional design Durable , compact , and lightweight >Works great with JAVOeBuds or with any other stereo headphones or earphones A must have for most Smartphone owners with 2.5mm audio jacks."

Palm Centro in Mexico and LatinAmerica

[From Ricardo Hernández Canto] Hi Sammy, Two weeks ago, Palm launched Palm Centro for Mexico and Latin America in Mexico City.

We had the honour to be present in such important launching party, were Palm is trying to replicate Treo success, now with a newer and much cheaper device that will try to reach a completely new market.

The party held the pressence of Ed Colligan (Palm CEO) which shows how hard is Palm making a bet for this particular new device, created to attract more and more users to its platform. The event also count with all the primary staff or Palm Mexico and Palm LatinAmerica:

Miguel Hernández (LatinAmerica Manager), Ingnacion Gallego (Mexico Country Manager), Zorena Albarrán, Erika Garcia, Humbero Valencia, Mario Villarino and more people from Palm Mexico.

If there´s something I´m glad from Palm is the planification that showed up during the entire event. For a start, the invitation I initially received was in Macromedia Flash and was a virtual Palm Centro showing the launching place with Google Maps. After that, we received some paper invitations with RFID technology within a “Centro” kinda-like paper.

The launch party was at Cuché Bar, a well known lounge bar in Mexico City located in Palmas Avenue no. 500 (Even the avenue had the right name..). The entrance had two nice big Palm Centro´s in both colors: Red and Blue.

When we enter, we were welcomed by some really pretty girls wearing black nice dresses with palm logo in their chests. The entrance tunnel had several big Palm Centros with RFID readers, whose function was to read the paper invitation with RFID Chips. We slide our invitations so the staff people let us enter the party. Those wireless rfid readers were made by the famous Mexican mobile hardware technology, ACCSYS 3000, from Ing. Jorge Cabrera.

Ricardo said that the event didn´t had anything special more as it was it on a similar launching party event from Treo 700p that took place in Chicago a some months ago.

Once inside the lounge bar, the lobby was carefully prepared with another four big Palm Centros, just resembling the same thing as the little Palm Centro devices. There were four models (two women and two men) that were dressed for different escenarios were you could use a Palm Centro device: A beach, a soccer game, a bar and and a friends party, they were demostrating the several functions of Palm Centro device.

If you visited each of the four escenarios, you could win the right to introduce your paper invitation inside a pot, were later the Palm Mexico Staff will choose ten winners of Palm Centro free devices.

The device capabilities that the stand models were demostrating were listening to music, taking pictures, makiNg a google maps search and several other software things.

The launching party was focused for Bussiness partners and Massive Press mainly.

For more enjoy, there was an extensive array of drinks as wine, licor and several kinds of drinks as tequila, ron, etc.. There were also lots of different kinds of snacks.

The party also had the pressence of Ximena Sariñana, a mexican younger singer whose music we enjoyed a lot. We also recorded her with Ricardo´s Treo 755p and we inmediately uploaded the video to our mobile video channel treocast.tv.

Ed Colligan was the big celebrity through the hole night beeing constantly chased for pictures and interviews. We think that, apart from the actual Palm hard situation in front of the new mobile hardware players, Ed is part of the little group that revolutionize mobile computing, with Jeff Hawkins and Donna Dubinsky as the other primary players of that time.

We couldn´t pass the oportunity to make a short Interview to Ed Colligan and get Ricardo´s Treo 755p being signed by him. My own 755p Iusacell Treo is black, so the signature was almost invisible. Within Ed Colligan pictures, we couldn´t capture Ingacio Gallego, Country Manager for Palm Mexico, because we was very busy during the party.

After Ximena Sariñana performance, Miguel Hernandez spoke some words and sort the 10 Palm Centro devices to the winners. Curiosly, most of the winners were women; then, Palm Marketing department give USB memories to all the people containing a lot of Palm Centro and Palm corporate information

It was a great party and make us see a little light at the end of the tunnel. During the many times we could spoke with palm directives, including Ed Colligan, they just keep telling us that Palm centro was only the tip of the iceberg, that we could stay calm because great things are just around the corner.

More text and pictures