PalmAddicts

Winter Olympics

Happy Saturday All! I always enjoy the Winter Olympics because they're much smaller than the summer games...and it also means that the World Cup (of football/soccer) will be occurring during that summer! I put the most enjoyable events for me (skating of course, along with others) in my LifeDrive calendar so I'd remember when to watch. It's really nice when so many countries get together for one event and, at least for a few days, differences and wars are set aside for a bit. By the way, seeing/hearing Pavarotti was way cool. He's really grown, hasn't he?

Cheers!

- Dr. Andrew Getzfeld, Associate Writer (waiting for the blizzard, NY, USA)

Gmail Mobile WebPro FIX

If you've been having problems getting Gmail Mobile to work on your device with the WebPro browser, I've found a workable fix. Details can be found in the forums.

This workaround worked great for me on my Zire 72.

-Jeff Cole, Associate Writer, Indiana USA

palmInsider Inaugural Podcast

There's a new Palm podcast in town: the palmInsider podcast #1 is now available at palmInsider. Quite a few things are covered in this inaugural podcast:

1. Holiday Gifts at Palm
2. Linux on your Palm
3. 1SRC Editorial – Is it time for a new Palm OS interface?
4. Portrait, Landscape and Rotation from mobile-stream
5. Daily PDA blog entries over at WindowsMobile247
6. Sync Tunes, iTunes music to your PDA and other devices
7. Astraware's new game Chuzzle, developed from the Popcap game
8. 3-D Games
9. Busker MP3 Player
10. TCPMP, The Core Pocket Media Player
11. Burning DVD's for your Palm

Give it a listen.

-Jeff Cole, Associate Writer, Indiana USA

AvantBlog & AvantType

Yesterday I gave quick mention to AvantBlog and AvantType from Dented Reality, and incorrectly stated that they don't appear to support HTML tags. The good news is, they absolutely do support HTML tags!

AvantBlog allows you to post to your Blogger account (blogspot.com addresses) using an AvantGo channel and HotSync. AvantType allows you to post to your TypePad account (such as PalmAddicts) in the same manner.

I think I've found the perfect solution for making more frequent posts here at PalmAddicts, as well as on my own blogs. I no longer have to find the time to sit down at the computer, or deal with the slow posting and errors that can be common with u*Blog (it works great for Blogger, but not quite as well for TypePad).

Sorry about the repeat mention, but I wanted to correct my misinformation of yesterday, as I can imagine that many people in the PA community might find these channels more useful with HTML tagging.

More information and links to all of the above can be found in yesterday's post.

-Jeff Cole, Associate Writer, Indiana USA

LifeDrive ROM Update 2.0 Finally Out!

Just a quick note to my fellow LifeDrive users that the long-awaited ROM update to the LifeDrive is out and can be found here. According to Palm, the update provides the following changes:

* Wi-Fi coverage in low signal areas
* Roaming performance
* File system stability
* Sound quality when listening to MP3 files
* More flexible multimedia functionality, including file transmission over wireless connections, file saving, and faster recording and playback
* Browser performance, including more efficient, faster page rendering
* The VersaMail® application to version 3.1C for large document attachments
* The Docs To Go application version 7.006
* New hard reset option to erase Program Memory but not Internal Drive contents more info

Also included from the LifeDrive Update 1.0
(previously released June 2005)

* Fixes intermittent connectivity issues with these Wi-Fi routers:
o Linksys WRT54G Wireless-G Broadband Router
o Belkin High-Speed Mode Wireless G Router

Remember to do a complete backup of *everything*, including what's on the hard drive, before you install this or any update. Good luck!

-- Professor Jonathan, Associate Writer (Long Island, NY, USA)

PDA247 Interview with Zane Rutledge

If you're already addcited to the new hype Role-Playing game EDGE, or just interested in looking behind the scenes of Palm game development, PDA247's newest podcast interview with Zane Rutledge, the man behind EDGE should be fascinating.

Maya Rozenshein, Associate Writer (Isarel)

The Value of an SD Card Backup

The true value of backing up to an SD card hit me tonight, as I was working on updating my personal Blog site using my Zire 72 while at work. I was actually using AvantGo as a browser to edit some posts on Blogger, because WebPro will not load the Java pages used on Blogger, but AvantGo will, when I found myself somehow caught in a fatal error loop that required reset.

Every time I would Soft Reset, I would receive the error again immediately after the Zire splash screen. Thanks to the recent review I posted on Grassia Network Solutions Palm Powered Desk Reference, I now knew that a Warm Reset would probably fix the problem. I immediately performed a Warm Reset, which restarted my Palm minus the system extensions, and bypassed the error-causing problem. I assumed that the error was somehow related to AvantGo since that was the software I was using when the error first occurred, so I proceeded to delete AvantGo.

I then performed a Soft Reset to restart my Zire and load all system extensions. At this point, everything seemed to be working fine, but AvantGo was absent from my device, and I wouldn't be at my PC to reinstall it for several hours. That's when it occurred to me that I perform a daily backup to SD card using VFSBackup, and I had two days worth of backups on an SD card with me. Simple enough: I popped the card into my device, pulled up the appropriate directory in FileProg, copied and pasted them back to the internal memory on my device, and I was again using AvantGo in no time.

I mention this for several reasons:

1. Without the recent knowledge I picked up in the Palm Powered Desk Reference review, I would probably have performed a Hard Reset to get out of the error loop, and lost all of my data.

2. Without a backup of my data on an SD card, I would not have been able to recover my data in the way I described above, or in the case of performing a Hard Reset.

3. Without a file manager such as FileProg (which is my preference because I find it to be the perfect balance of features and ease of use), I would not have been able to selectively restore only the AvantGo files to my device.

Just thought it might be worthwhile to share some of these thoughts with my fellow PalmAddicts. Best of all, every product and service I mentioned above is free of cost, except for the Palm Powered Desk Reference, which I've already stated is well worth the cost. It saved me from a major headache tonight.

-Jeff Cole, Associate Writer, Indiana USA

Re: What More Could We Want...

I just wanted to say Welcome Back to RT! I've missed your great posts and it's great to see you back! I'm sure sorry about your best friend's passing! I remember reading a post from you awhile back and it sounds like you were there for your friend until the end.

I look forward to reading more of your posts! By the way, that would be really nice if your new boss got you a Treo!

- Jennifer Chappell, Associate Writer, (NC, USA)

Watch for the VPen

Ever wish you could just write in your Palm using you own handwriting? Here is a company that is working on a new input device called the VPen. Have a look hear to read the article.

- Craig, Associate Writer (Harrisburg, PA USA)

Hello from California...

So Sammy decided to be gracious enough to allow me to be one of the newest AW's. Many of you may recognize me by name or by website as Sammy has been kind enough to post many of my thoughts, comments, and rants in the past. I came across PA about a year or more ago. About six months ago, it became one of the tabs in Firefox that opens each time I fire up my browser. More recently, I've had a few articles posted by Sammy and started a few threads in the forum. However, of all the Palm/Treo sites I visit, PalmAddicts is by far the best for news, softwares, discounts, and valuable opinions. Oh, yeah, and occasionally I hide my identity and post in the forums simply as "Addicted" for reasons that can be shown here (yup, that was me... giving new definition to ADDICTion).

I've had PDA's of some sort for quite a few years, though being a gadget buying freak, they've typically been toys to me that got left in a drawer after a few weeks or months. These included a Visor Prism, Visor Edge, and two Zaurus'. When I bought my Treo 600, though, all that changed. It became an extension of my life. The convergence (pardon the over used term) of PDA functionality, real-time email, internet access, etc in one device has truly changed me. In February of last year, I upgraded to a Treo 650 and I'm anxiously awaiting the results of the rumors we've heard recently of new Treos. Ask me if I could have lived without my previous PDAs and the answer would be yes. Ask me if I could live without my Precious Treo and I'd offer that I would gladly live without twinkies and chocolate (both are very dear to me) instead. My Treo is now like my Bible... life would lose meaning without it.

It must be said from the get-go that I am a very biased person:
  •I'm an IT person. Thus, I am by nature and environment sarcastic and sardonic. Many call me pessimistic. I prefer to think of myself as a realist that would probably benefit from anti-depressant medications. :)
  •I'm a conspiracy theorist. I believe that Microsoft has something to do with everything that's wrong in the computing world; many times directly, more often indirectly.
  •I never sleep and I receive (and yes, I read) email 24x7x365.
  •I am pro-Palm, pro-Treo, pro-free software, pro-opensource, anti-Microsoft (though forced to work with it daily), and anti-PocketPC.
  •I don't care too much for other Palm devices. Don't take this the wrong way... I've already said I'm pro-Palm. In my mind, though, an unconnected or not-always-connected device isn't for me. Sporadic WiFi isn't a solution in my book. Thus, I use a Treo 650. No, its not as fast as WiFi, but in about 98% of the civilized world it has internet access. I prefer to be covered everywhere (if slowly) than to be covered in only a few places, yet at higher speeds. When news of the new Palms come out (such as today's) I don't get too excited. But when they announce a new Treo I'm all over it (except, perhaps for a WM powered Treo). Thus, I'm a "Palm Addict" in that I love and use Palm h/w, PalmOS, and Palm softwares. I'm just a selective Palm Addict. :)

I can be reached at andrew@mobileoptimized.com if you're interested. I'm always interested in feedback (I delete the bad and reply to the good), friendly emails, and donations of Samuel Adams beer (mailing address available upon request). :) Oh, and lastly, I'm marred married with four kids, so all you women out there clamoring for a hunk will have to wait for the next guy. Sorry...

Andrew Davis, Associate Writer (Carlsbad, CA)