PalmAddicts

Nokia 6300 syncs well on a Mac

For a number of years I used my Tungsten E as my main PDA.  But it was getting long in the tooth and, being skint I did not have the money to buy a shiny new smart phone.  What to do?  Well, when I started a new job I was given a Nokia 6300 - I asked for a Blackberry, but no mission.  I discovered to my delight that with a wee plugin for Mac OS iSync would beautifully add Apple Address book contacts and iCal calendar entries to my phone. A little sync calendar entry in iCal automates the connection between my Nokia 6300 and iCal every night at 10pm.  Sorted!

With Spanning sync I automatically update Google calendar, so I can add personal appointment to that from anywhere.

Also my Windows PC in work with Outlook syncs with Google using their little Google calendar sync program.

Happy days.   Would I buy a Palm Pre?  Ohhh yes.

Give Missing Sync a try

A couple of months ago I bought a reconditioned Tungsten E2. For £50 off ebay it was excellent value. Having switched to a Mac I decided to try Missing Sync as my Palm Sync software. I am so glad I did - it is a very powerful syncing program. I know can sync my palm with iCal - and also sync ical with Google calendar (another wee program is needed for that - try Plaxo). It also will automatically add recent photos from iPhoto, podcasts from iTunes. Awesome program
http://www.markspace.com/

The year ahead

I think this will be an interesting year for Palm. We'll see perhaps two new Linux based OS released - one from Palm, and the other from Access. I think either one will cause a stir in the market. I also think we'll see some innovation from them. Everyone knows that we need to see that, and they know it too and are working on some stunning products. Let's look forward to a good year.

Well my humble Tungsten E has nearly almost died a death

Hi Sammy, Well my humble Tungsten E has nearly almost died a death. The battery is shot and it will only work when plugged into the charger. It does soothe me to sleep most nights listening to a podcast. My diary has gone to pot now however. I struggle to use my phone bluetooth synced to my mac and spansynced to Google calendar. At least I can get SMS reminders of appointments. It's not the same as carrying my trusty Palm everywhere though.

My Prediction of Palm's new device

For a bit of fun I'm going to make a prediction of what the new device from Palm might be. I think it will be a mini-tablet sized device with permanent internet (wifi & cellular connection), location based services (GPS built in?), and multimedia. Kind if a hybrid of a mobile manager and Treo. It may also have some prediction based "intelligence" that Hawkins has been working on. We shall see - it's going to be an exciting day!

Transcoding video for better viewing on your Palm

On of the best things about having a Palm is listening and watching Podcasts.  There is the PA podcast with Tyler of course, excellent.  Also essential listening/viewing are TWIT and DL.TV.  Using iTunes to download, Card Export or drivemode on your Palm, and a folder syncing utility like Allway Sync, you're all set for multimedia enjoyment.

There is one drawback however.  The power of humble Palms like my Tungsten E often means that play back is jittery - reduced to very few frames per second and jumpy audio.  Then I discovered the BBC news video podcasts and they play very well, 25 frames per second, great audio.  Why did these play well and others were jittery?

Well it seems that most video podcasts are aimed at ipod video, or dedicated portable media players.  These machines have powerful chips designed for video play back, a palm does not.  So is it possible to get good smooth video playback from podcasts on your palm?  Yes it is.

What you need is a video transcoding program.  There are several shareware ones out there that look good.  I downloaded an excellent open source freeware transcoder called MediaCoder.  It's a little difficult to understand, video transcoding is a minefield, but the program has some plugins to help you transcode.  Modifying some of the settings from a plugin will get you well underway.
Here is an example of how I used it.  I have dl.tv  downloaded via iTunes.  In MediaCoder the original file has a resolution of 640x480 and bitrate of 519Kbps.  This is way to high for a Tungsten E to handle.  Choosing the iPod plugin sets the transcoding settings, and reduces the resultion to 320x240, (320x320 is the Tungsten E's resolution).  I set a lower bitrate by hand in the Video tab, to around 300Kbps.  Ten minutes of transcoding and I had a smaller file (80MB smaller) that plays much better on my palm!

I looked at the BBC video files and they have a bitrate of 256Kbps and resolution of 320x240.  That seems to be around the best settings for Palm playback.

So if you like me think that you can use a Palm instead of a video iPod (with some geeky helper programs to assist).  Then give MediaCoder a shot! 

By the way it will also convert your home videos into formats for writing VCDs, SVCDs or DVDs on your home DVD player.  Or using the same procedure as above to put them on your palm.

powered by performancing firefox

When will we see a Palm Google Calendar Sync tool?

I love Google calendar. It has a great interface and excellent integration tools: a lovely little Google Desktop gadget, and it can even accept appointments by email. It is one of those classy Google free tools. What about getting my Palm calendar onto Google? Well, using a convoluted route of syncing with Aircal, and publishing calendar feeds I can even get my Palm calendar data up onto Google Calendar. (Aircal is great by the way. Google if you are reading this consider buying them). But It's Google's interface and integration that make it so good. The twisted method to get Palm syncing to Google via Aircal really is lame.

The big unanswered question is therefore, when will we see a good Sync tool between Palm OS and Google calendar?

I'm sure developers read this blog and we the users want to ask you, are you working on this?

To Palm Inc., is anyone there working on a little Palm conduit you might release for beta testing?

Developers in Google Calendar, do you read this blog? Do you use a Palm? Are you guys working on a Palm sync tool?

Or any other developers working on this? Can you at least tell us how is it going? Is it difficult writing a sync tool for Palm and Google Cal?

This is a blog - where the masses can talk to the heart of companies developing these products. We want to hear from you. Send Sammy an email, or talk even talk to us in the forum.

ps. I know there is Companion Link - but it seems to be a partially function expensive solution. We need a free sync tool in the Google spirit of excellent free tools that just work.

pps. I know also that you Mac folks with Missing Sync and iCal are sniggering right now... and well you should too, macs are just way too cool.

Thanks for listening,
Your humble Palm using public.

Amazon.co.uk SD card offers

Amazon.co.uk have some great SD card offers this week only:

Kingston Technology 2GB Secure Digital Card - £19.99
Viking 1GB Secure Digital (SD) Memory Card - £10.92
Datawrite 2GB SD Card - £19.99
Bytestor Hi-Speed 66X SD Card 1GB - £16.90
Viking 2Gb Secure Digital Card - £21.58
Kingston Technology 1GB Secure Digital (SD) Card - £10.80
SanDisk ULTRA II 1GB SD Memory Card - £18.48
Make sure you check them out of you are in the UK and looking for a new SD card. Has anyone used any of these makes of memory card and can give a little review on them?

If you do not have a big SD card yet I suggest get one. It can really transform your palm making it more of a mp3 player or even a portable video player than ever before.

Microsoft's browser gets upgraded

From the BBC: Microsoft has made Internet Explorer 7 (IE 7) available to the general public. The new version is the first upgrade to the web browsing program for more than five years. New features include tabbed browsing, the ability to search the net directly and an anti-fraud system to thwart phishing attacks. The new program is available as a free download on 19 October, but many will get it as an automatic update to Windows XP in November. Read on...

Sunrise XP link rewrite for Guardian

Do you like reading newspapers on your palm? The Guardian provides an excellent internet version with web feeds. However, the feeds point to the full article with extra links and pictures. I've put a little tutorial on rewriting links in Sunrise XP to grab a PDA of the Guardian from their web feeds. The tutorial is in the What news sources do you read on your Palm? thread in the forum.