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[From eReader] Here is your eReader discount for the weekend. "Punch in this week's Promo Code ERA415 to receive a 10% discount off any eBook that you purchase at eReader.com. Offer good through April 22, 2008 on all eBooks. This discount cannot be used with any other special offers." eReader after the jump.
[From Adriano Chiaretta] Hi Sammy,
Friday, April 18, 2008: we are happy to announce the release of Agendus for Windows Mobile version 2.21, available for both Windows Mobile Pocket PC / WM6 Professional and Windows Mobile Smartphone / WM6 Standard.
- Short Summary
Agendus for Windows Mobile has been designed from the ground up with one goal in mind: to bring order and piece of mind in the busy life of today's windows mobile phone users. It accomplishes such goal by seamlessly unifying schedule, contact management and task organization in a homogeneous, straightforward and pleasant to use interface. Its out-of-the-box ready to use functionality is complemented by a variety of fine tuning options and preferences aimed at satisfying the novice as well as the power user audiences.
Version 2.21 is a maintenance release containing various improvements and functionality refinements. Particular attention has been given to the localized versions, thanks to feedback and suggestions recently received through our User Community.
- Release Details & Download
For the complete list of new features and improvements please see:
http://www.iambic.com/agendus/wmppc/whatsnew.asp
Hans just threw this over to me for those of you with iPhones, "It was only a couple months ago that Starbucks announced that AT&T would take over hotspot services from T-Mobile. Now the WiFi hotspots are rolling out to some of the Starbucks stores." TUAW is carrying this story.
Palm really knows what they are doing. I was trying out a few too many programs on my Palm m500 (which is getting quite old) and began to have problems syncing my calendar/date book. All I had to do to fix the problem was un-install and then re-install Palm Desktop. It runs perfectly now. I did not have to follow a long list of steps or anything complicated. It's nice when they make it easy for the users!
Winner 
OK, so the winner of the OQO is Adrian Donoghue so congrats Adrian, Lindsey will be back to full speed shipping items next week so with and bear in mind the new throwaway is open for the iBook and the guidelines, as always, are in this post which remains a sticky at the top of the page.
If you have not played Astraware's new game Platypus then it really is pretty wonderful, I spent a couple of minutes playing it this morning and I want to spend some time over the weekend giving it a shot. I'm away for the weekend so this will be the game that I am taking away with me and I have to say that it looks very good on the Centro. Hannah did a review of it here as did Maya which you read here but it is a great game and one that I enjoyed playing this morning. In the meantime you can download the trial of the game from the Astraware website and it forms my game of the weekend.
How does your mobile device keep you sane well Aziz at TreoToday posted a thought this week on how his iPhone keeps him sane. TreoToday after the jump.
[From Eric Mann] Finally from the world of Teal we have an update to TealDoc which fixes a bug in the bug in the TX to renable full screen mode icon in landscape mode after system mistakenly disables it. "Read, edit, and browse documents, Doc files, eBooks and text files with TealDoc, the enhanced doc reader. With extensive display and customization options, TealDoc is unmatched in features and usability.
Standard features include editing, search and replace, screen rotation, anti-aliased text, high resolution FontBucket fonts, smooth scrolling, full screen mode, beaming, and direct full support for docs and plain text files stored on external VFS-compatible media cards such as SD/MMC, compact flash, and Memory Stick. Only TealDoc offers all this and supports enhanced documents with HTML-like tags for inserting TealPaint pictures, oversized scrolling bitmaps, hyperlinks, hidden bookmarks, and stylized headers.
TealDoc even offers full support for the high resolution displays and full screen modes of devices from Palm, Sony, HandEra, Samsung, and Alphasmart. TealDoc is PalmOS 5 compatible."
[From Eric Mann] Another software update from the guys at TealPoint is TealDiet. "Shape up your life with TealDiet, the diet, exercise, and personal tracking application for mobile devices. Whether you're trying to lose weight, build more muscle, or simply live healthier, TealDiet can help you achieve your goals.
Use TealDiet to record your daily food intake, exercise, and measurements. Then graph the results to see your progress as you go.
TealDiet comes with a fully editable database of over 100 exercises and 1000 foods, complete with detailed nutritional information. If you need more, create your own entries from scratch or use TealDiet's advanced importing and exporting features to load additional selections from external sources."
[From Eric Mann] Look for a 17th April version of TealDesktop which looks a great Palm OS program. "Launch applications with TealDesktop, the themed replacement for the standard system launcher screen.
With features to satisfy every power user, TealDesktop supports category tabs, multiple card folders, document launching, drag and drop, tap-and-hold menus, background images, fill patterns, and much more.
The addition of Themes, however, really lets TealDesktop shine. Other launchers limit you to a few visual 'skins', while TealDesktop themes can change functionality too. Want your launcher screen to look and work like a classic Macintosh? Windows? A tricorder? TealDesktop can do it.
Not satisfied with presets? TealDesktop lets you customize fonts, colors, patterns, and backgrounds. An integrated Theme Editor is even included so you can modify or make your own creations from scratch." More after the jump.
This is not necessarily mobile orientated but because I do a lot of spinning tunes and club mixes at clubs etc when I am not updating my sites or doing my normal day job, I found this AW1 Premium Wireless Audio Adapter for Audioengine's A5 speaker system and it gave me a idea, which I have Julie over at the gadgeteer to thank for. "What is the worst thing about setting up a stereo speaker system? In my opinion, it's running all the necessary wires. I always said that if I ever build a new house, that it will have speaker wiring pre-installed in all the walls. But for an existing house without this feature, what do you do to get around this issue? You can either buy a wireless speaker system, or you can check out a wireless audio adapter like the one I'm going to tell you about today from Audioengine." Thanks Julie, read in full, the gadgeteer after the jump.
Got too many business cards? Well Andrew at the Treonauts does a fine review of something that may well just come in handy and it's called the CardScan Executive Business Card Scanner and Andrew has written a review. "There are a few tools that today’s modern businessman and businesswoman should never be without. One of these is naturally a smartphone such as our Treo or Centro and another in my opinion is the CardScan Executive v8 Card Scanner whose full capabilities I finally discovered a few weeks ago. While the Centro is absolutely great at helping me to quickly retrieve contact information the fact is that I rarely add any data directly on my smartphone beyond a name, mobile and email while on the go." Read in full.
If you have a Palm smartphone then CallBlock Ringtone Edition certainly looks interesting enough. "CallBlock is a simple yet effective tool to block unsolicited incoming calls. Now you do not need to turn off your phone just to avoid unnecessary interruptions. Just leave it to CallBlock to filter all your incoming calls and sms.
Select the appropriate CallBlock modes like normal mode (multiple schedulers), temporary allowing all calls, allow VIP numbers only or block all calls to suit different situations.
Uses 'Background Blocking' method that does not interrupt your work while you use your phone. Conserve battery power without waking your phone from 'sleep' mode when blocking calls.
CallBlock also supports wildcard '*' pattern blocking. You can configure CallBlock to filter out incoming calls beginning or ending with certain numbers. "
This caught my attention over at the Gizmodo this morning - Windows Mobile 7 Could Be Too Little Too Late, But Might Come On Microsoft Hardware. Firstly I do want to say how cool does the user interface look, that was the first thing that grabbed my attention, anyway interesting editorial. "You may not remember this because the news came out during CES, but back in January there was a gigantic leak of Windows Mobile 7 details, including an Alaskan Senator's dump truck full of images. Brandon from Pocket Now recently got to SEE Windows Mobile 7 at a Microsoft MVP event, and while he thinks it's a fantastic OS, he's got a huge problem with the release date." The Giz after the link.
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.
[From Justine at Creative Algorithms] Hi Sammy, Just wanted to let you know that I just posted new content to Mobile Evolution: http://creativealgorithms.com/blog/
The new blog post is entitled, The ESD Equation - Marketing Mobile Software – Part I, Distribution (Place). "Does it make sense to distribute your mobile software via the Electronic Software Distributors (ESD's)? Are the commissions too high to be worthwhile? Can listing be a win-win situation? Many blogs and developers have vented frustrations about commission rate increases at the ESD's, typically those run by Handango and Motricity. In some cases, commissions and fees have doubled from 25% to over 50% in the past five years." Read in full at Creative Algorithms.
The latest 1src Podcast is available for your listening pleasure. "This week we talk about Centro sightings in Colombia, Palm is looking to beef up their PR department; and Astraware releases Platypus!" 1src after the jump.
PalmDiscovery keeps us up to date with the latest in free Audible.com files that you can download to your Palm device. As always Palm Discovery after the jump.
[From Hannah at Proporta] Proporta have a new Mobile Phone Leather Case and we don’t know what mobile phone you’ve got, but this’ll definitely protect it.
Hand stitched from elegant leather, this case has been designed to keep your device snug and safe from any scratches or scuffs, and is made from the same high quality leather that Proporta use to make their trademark Alu-Leather cases for PDAs, Smartphones, iPods and the like. It even comes in small, medium and large to best suit your specific mobile phone.
A magnetic closure system ensures that the case is easy to open when needed and remains securely closed when your mobile phone/cellphone is not in use.
All in all, it’s a very handy little leather case which we’re sure your mobile phone would just love to be housed in :o)
P.S. Cut to size, the Overlay Screen Protector offers your mobile device’s LCD display near-invisible protection from scratching.
Here I am one more time sleeping at the hospital. My mother has a fracture and I will be here a lot of hours. My 755p friend is the best company because I can read whitout light, I can play for hours, work and edit office documents and hear music. Great machine, great friend. Also I have installed a Vademecum in the memory card so I know what kind of medicine was medicated.
Who does not know Tetris? The famous falling-blocks puzzle videogame has been around since 1985. It was popularized in Game Boy form in 1989. Nowadays I think most Operating System include it or its variants by default. The Ubuntu Linux box I am using comes with Gnometris, a Teris variant for Gnome Desktop Environment. It is also quite common in mobile devices. So it is rather strange that Windows Mobile 2003 on my O2 Xda IIi PDA Phone does not include one.
Therefore, two days ago I decided to find a Tetris variant to install, especially since I am preparing for next week. Of course I am looking for free one first. I actually stumbled upon Kevtris in the past, but could not get used to the control. Then two days ago I finally found S-Tris 2. S-Tris 2, as well as its predecessor S-Tris, is a free Tetris variant developed by Elements Interactive for Pocket PC, Symbian, GP2X, Gizmondo, and Windows.
One thing I find that is very nice about S-Tris 2 is the ability to play it with stylus on PDA. It is rather difficult to play with the buttons on O2 Xda IIi, and since my hunting for thumbboard is still not successful, I find it a nice touch to be able to play with stylus. The gameplay is just like the good old Tetris, so there is no need for me to say here. More information can be read on the website.
As usual, disclaimer: I am not in any way affiliated with the game maker company, but great thanks to Elements Interactive for giving away this nice little game for free.
[From Anton (Bratislava, Slovakia)] Hi Sammy, another thought about a little handy software i use,
have a nice day!
Turn off the Treo keyboard lights.
I use my treo 650 in many ways, in two of the most important ones,
i get more user comfort with the help of a little app from LilApps :)
When i read at night, or use navigation software in my car, i do not use
the keyboard. Imediatelly when i started to use my treo as GPS nabigator,
i tried to search for an app to allow me to switch off the lights of the keyboard.
I found an app, that does that exactly as its name suggest.
KB LightsOff! from LilApps (http://www.lilapps.com/)
allows me to turn the lights off after determined period of time,
and also to configure it to turn them off pressing the treo side button.
Definitelly improves my e-reading and car-navigating experience.
KB LightsOff is not the only application that allows to turn off the keyboard.
Somebody eager for power saving should consider trying PowerHero
(http://www.hobbyistsoftware.com/power-hero-more.php), which is a little bit more
expensive, but includes wide range of power saving options.
[From James Fire] Greetings! My Treo 700WX is my confirmation, let me
explain. I'm an auditor and we often need
confirmations for verification. My Treo verifies time
logs for billing purposes. I send a quick text message
to my email at work when I start or finish a task and
the audit it was associated with. When it comes to
allocating my time at the end of the week, I simply
look at my email to confirm the times. It really beats
my not-so-trusty memory.
Our new throwaway the Apple iBook is now open 
A quick reminder for those of you who may not have noticed there is a new throwaway online and I'm still waiting for my writers to confirm post numbers and soon as I have that I can draw the winner for the OQO. The new throwaway is to win a iBook as the one in the office is being replaced with a MacBookPro hence why I am giving it away.
The iBook is in perfect order and runs Apple's Tiger OS. I'm not sure how long I am going to keep this one open for it may be a couple of days, a week or a little longer but whatever, get your entries in sooner rather than later. Please, as ever remember that this is a random drawing and providing you have followed the guidelines you are entered.
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 APRIL16 in the subject line and IMPORTANTLY give your mobile thought a title, or it will not be entered. Let me know your town/ country too as that's always interesting to post where people are based. 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 and I'll let you know when to inform me of your post count. Email me your mobile thought to - sammymcloughlin@gmail.com
[From Shimon Shnitzer form shsh.com] The other day I was showing my wife the various way I can use voice commands
to "talk to my Treo", and she reminded me of an incident I had when I was just
starting to develop voice commands in my apps:
I was trying to have the Treo respond to a pre-record command I had in the app - holding it in front of me, and saying "Open the screen" - no go. Louder: "Open the screen" - no go... Shouting "Open the screen" - no response. So - frustrated (and with the sound of my wife laughing at me talking to my Treo) I said "Oh f..k off" - and to my amazement, the Treo responded - terminating the app and returning to the home screen !
Since them things has improved, and voice command work much better - dont know if it's the voice detection libraries that improved, the faster devices, or me fearing to hurt my Treos feelings and talking to him politly, and without raising my voice...
[From Darcy in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada] Hi Sammy! I am currently using a Tungsten E inherited from my boss, and thanks to your Palmaddicts blog and a little bit of ingenuity and perseverance on my part, I finally managed to make that terrible whining it was making go away! If somebody else has the same problem I was having, maybe this will be able to help them.
The first step was getting Whinehack working. Which I found out about via Palmaddicts. Version 1.1 and lower had NO effect, but the beta for 1.2 available here http://marex.hackndev.com/whinehack.prc managed to stop the whining! Hooray! I had to set the divisor to zero for my unit, and the hack level at least to at least the second level.
But unfortunately now my Palm was unstable, and would lock up when certain programs changed the screen depth. As the one thing I've been doing most was read books with MobiPocket, and that program insists on running in 16-bit resolution, my Palm needed to be reset three or four times a day. Yuck!
The solution to that turned out to be also from Palmaddicts. I installed Force16 and told it to use 16-bit depth for ALL of my programs, including the Launcher. And so now, when I switch from app to app there is no more changes to the screen resolution, and so no more lockups! Hooray again!
[From Harold Arnold, Berkeley, California] Ever since I bought my secondhand Tungsten|T3 a couple of years ago, the battery has been marginal. Eight months ago, I bought a 1400 mAh battery, but was unable to get up the courage to disassemble my Palm. A couple of days ago I managed to wipe out the memory of my T3, So I decided now was the time.
I managed to disassemble my Palm, replace the battery, and put it back together again without breaking anything, then take it apart and reassemble it again to put back a part I had overlooked the first time. I charged my T3 for three hours, then Š nothing. It was as dead as the proverbial doornail. So I took it apart again, and reinstalled the original battery, which made my Palm work again. Then I remembered that a few months before I stumbled on the 1400 mAh battery, I had bought an 1100 mAh battery, which I never installed. So I took my Palm apart yet again and installed the 1100 mAh battery, which fired it up before I had even reassembled it. I put my Palm back together again, disassembled it again to put back the same darn part I had forgotten the first time, and put it back together yet again. My T3 is now resting in its cradle, happily soaking up electricity. What a day.
[From Richard] I spent most of today at a trade show here in London. But I wasn't out of touch! My Centro gave me access to my emails and text messages. I picked up several calls from colleagues and friends, used the calendar to check dates and book appointments and even fed my Facebook addiction while having a coffee. I had a laptop with me, but didn't need to even turn it on! I quickly realised I wouldn't need it so I put it in my rucksack and checked it in at the cloakroom. My Centro was a *lot* easier to carry around.
[From Jay Bennett
Lansing, Michigan] I was sitting in my car today waiting for my son to get out of preschool. I had just had a meeting about some potential employment opportunities and I wanted to jot some things down and send an email or two. I pulled out my Centro and went to town. I jotted a couple of things down in my memo section, sent off an email using gmail, and looked up a couple of things on the Blazer browser. Instead of wasted time sitting in a car, I made it productive. I do love my Centro!
[From Nick Hopkins] I am a avid Palm user who is also deaf. I was using a Palm T5 and a Sidekick II with an unlimited data plan. Being deaf, this is the only ideal way to use a mobile device, having a plan that allows unlimited use of instant messenger, emails and internet browsing for all of our communication needs. I grown to hate the lack of features and software available on the sidekick, so I decided to upgrade to a Treo 680. I use a unlimited Data plan with AT&T and love it! Now I have all the stuff I had on my T5 on the treo and now just use that only. I have choosen to use Mundu as my instant messenger and love Snappermail. The only thing I miss is the autotext correction that sidekick has that allows you to add as many as you want, thus creating shortcuts when typing. Otherwise, this is the best upgrade I ever done for myself.
BarBack (R) Blended Drinks Guide 1.0This program seems to offer great advise on drinks,give it a try."Get the Get over 700 different blended drinks for every occasion; use the Search feature on your handheld to search by ingredients, liquor, or even type of glass to pour in!
The Blended Drinks Guide includes:
Smoothies
Shakes
Margaritas
Daiquiris
Coladas
Punches
Freezes
Other blended and frozen drinks
Each drink listing includes:
Drink Name
Ingredients
Pouring/Mixing Directions
Type of Glassware
Be the life of the party! Other Guides in BarBack Series: BarBack Cocktail Drinks Guide, BarBack Drink Guide, BarBack Hot Drinks Guide, BarBack Liqueur Drinks Guide, BarBack Mixed Drinks Guide, BarBack Non-Alcoholic Drinks Guide, BarBack Party Drinks Guide, BarBack Shooter Drinks Guide, BarBack Specialty Drinks Guide."
EURO.calc 2.21This seems a great program to check currency and a handy tool."EURO.calc is a Currency Converter, Calculator and Expense Manager in just one application! When on travelling convert your spendings to your home currency and save them with Add2Expense. Supports Palm OS 5, High Resolution, 5 Way Navigator, Sony JogDial and Handspring Rocker Switch."
Ancient Maze 1.1 This seems a great and fun program."Ancient Maze is a labyrinth exploration game for the Palm OS featuring highly detailed graphics, and advanced game world generation engine.
The maze structure and location of the game objects are generated on the fly providing you with unique gaming experience each time you start a new game.
Chests full of ancient treasures, twisted walkways, secret passages and deadly traps are waiting for you."
Airport Codes Pocket Directory 6.0 This seems a great program to obtain information on international airports worldwide.
"Look no further than our Airport Codes Pocket Directory™ Database! The Database contains:
Updated 2/20/04 with more international codes
Major US Airports, including Full Airport Name, Airport Code, Website, and State
US Airports by Region, including Alaska & Hawaii, California, Central States, Mid-Atlantic States, North Central States, Northeast States, Northwest States, Southeast States, Southwest States, and Texas & Oklahoma, each with Full Airport Name and Airport Code
US Airports by Code, including ABE to BZN, CAE to DVL, EAR to GUC, HDN to KWN, LAF to NME, OAJ to RWI, SAF to TYS, and UCA to ZRK, each with Airport Code, Full Airport Name, and State
US Airports by City, including City, State, and Airport Code
International Airports, including Africa, Asia, Australia, Bermuda, Europe, Middle East, North America, and South America, each with City, Country, and Airport Code."
