Hey fellow Palmaddicts. It's been a while since I've written. We've had two weeks holiday off teaching here in Asuncion, Paraguay. But it meant I was stuck with slooow dial up access - 14kbps, yes that slow. So slow it was impossible to view the Palmaddicts webpage. What could I do? Well, this is where my Palm steps in. With Sunrise XP on the PC is was possible to grap the text only of Palm Addicts through the RSS link at the top of the page. This only took about 10 minutes to download (yes that was for text!). Along with some other fav sites such as the BBC and Engadget (again text only) I was able to keep up with my palm addiction. If you do not yet use Sunrise XP with Plucker on your Palm I really suggest you install them. Especially if you do not have a connected palm.
Another great use for my palm over the last month or two has been listening to and watching podcasts via iTunes, and transferring to the Palm using Card Export. The list of excellent podcasts is growing rapidly - in the last couple of weeks the BBC has has launched a weekly review video podcast of the 10 o'clock news (great news video). Sky news also has a 4 hourly news headline video cast, and other video podcasts. All of these can be viewed on your Palm if you use TCMP video player.
I know some of you readers are Christians, there are also some very good podcasts from big UK churches. Worshipcentral.org.uk is a worship training centre run by HTB and Soul survivor and has a monthly podcast with Tim Hughes. Holy Trinity Brompton itself has a weekly podcastof its sermons (subscription link at bottom of page)- some of the best UK preachers free every week.
Happy listening you on Palm!!
Use Sunrise XP, and Video Podcasts on you Palm
Hey fellow Palmaddicts. It's been a while since I've written. We've had two weeks holiday off teaching here in Asuncion, Paraguay. But it meant I was stuck with slooow dial up access - 14kbps, yes that slow. So slow it was impossible to view the Palmaddicts webpage. What could I do? Well, this is where my Palm steps in. With Sunrise XP on the PC is was possible to grap the text only of Palm Addicts through the RSS link at the top of the page. This only took about 10 minutes to download (yes that was for text!). Along with some other fav sites such as the BBC and Engadget (again text only) I was able to keep up with my palm addiction. If you do not yet use Sunrise XP with Plucker on your Palm I really suggest you install them. Especially if you do not have a connected palm.
Another great use for my palm over the last month or two has been listening to and watching podcasts via iTunes, and transferring to the Palm using Card Export. The list of excellent podcasts is growing rapidly - in the last couple of weeks the BBC has has launched a weekly review video podcast of the 10 o'clock news (great news video). Sky news also has a 4 hourly news headline video cast, and other video podcasts. All of these can be viewed on your Palm if you use TCMP video player.
I know some of you readers are Christians, there are also some very good podcasts from big UK churches. Worshipcentral.org.uk is a worship training centre run by HTB and Soul survivor and has a monthly podcast with Tim Hughes. Holy Trinity Brompton itself has a weekly podcastof its sermons (subscription link at bottom of page)- some of the best UK preachers free every week.
Happy listening you on Palm!!
Your Palm can be a video iPod for free!
Recently I have been getting into downloading podcasts with iTunes. Podcasts are great, I listen to several - 1src for Palm news, BBC for a review of the news, TWIT for Tech news. All are freely available in iTunes. Recently more video has been added to iTunes, and you can also add other RSS audio and video feeds, for example the UK Sky News channel has several news video feeds. Trailercast.tv provides a feed of new movie trailers. (To add another feed in iTunes simply select Advanced/Subscribe to Podcast).
Now for the good bit. It is possible to sync your Palm with the iTunes folder so all these audio and video podcasts can be automatically loaded ready to enjoy on your Palm - just like a video iPod!!. You'll need some programs to make this process really slick.
First, you'll need Softick Card Export $10 to register, free to try. This lets your computer see your SD card in your Palm as a USB drive. Then you'll need a sync utility, I recommend Allway Sync. This can be set to syncronise the audio folder on your PC with the audio folder on your SD Card in your Palm. Finally to view video files on your Palm you'll need TCMP, the excellent free video player.
Give it a go, you'll be inpressed and your iPod owning friends will be jealous. Happy viewing...
1src chat
Last Saturday I joined the 1src chat, you know the one they mention on the 1src podcast. I have to say it was a lot of fun, meeting Alan Gracia, and Tyler Faux et. al. We chatted about the future of Palm OS Linux, the Treo 700p and other palm dark projects! Why not call in next Friday. If you don't already listen to the 1sr podcast I highly recommend you do. It goes without saying you need to listen to the Palmaddicts podcast too.
With so much discussion on the revelation that Palm is creating a Linux OS in house. See the 1src editorial or David Beers blog .
It makes me wonder - which OS will be out first. Palm Linux, or ALP? Check out the forum discussion on this topic.
Windows software can now run on Intel based Apple Macs
Big news just out -
"NEW YORK (Reuters) - Apple Computer Inc. on Wednesday rolled out a software patch that enables its Intel-based Macintosh computers to run Windows"
Update: Press release from Apple website:
CUPERTINO, California—April 5, 2006—Apple® today introduced Boot Camp, public beta software that enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows XP. Available as a download beginning today, Boot Camp allows users with a Microsoft Windows XP installation disc to install Windows XP on an Intel-based Mac®, and once installation is complete, users can restart their computer to run either Mac OS® X or Windows XP. Boot Camp will be a feature in “Leopard,” Apple’s next major release of Mac OS X, that will be previewed at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference in August.
“Apple has no desire or plan to sell or support Windows, but many customers have expressed their interest to run Windows on Apple’s superior hardware now that we use Intel processors,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. “We think Boot Camp makes the Mac even more appealing to Windows users considering making the switch.”
Boot Camp simplifies Windows installation on an Intel-based Mac by providing a simple graphical step-by-step assistant application to dynamically create a second partition on the hard drive for Windows, to burn a CD with all the necessary Windows drivers, and to install Windows from a Windows XP installation CD. After installation is complete, users can choose to run either Mac OS X or Windows when they restart their computer.
Podzinger
There is a very interesting Podcast from twit.tv called Inside the Net. This week they are talking about Podzinger - an audio and video podcast search site. Now listen to this - it does speech to text recognition of any voice (using spy technology!) and builds a text index of the podcast. It allows a search of all that is said in the podcast and can play clips from any point in a podcast. They also provide RSS feeds for Podzinger searches so you can keep tabs on your favouriate topics mentioned in any podcast! Really cool and really worth listening to.
Sammy, they can provide a free search service for the Palmaddict podcast.
Asunción in the rain
When it rains in Asunción Paraguay the roads get overwhelmed with the amount of water from the tropical storms. I was in the car with my son when it started to pour. He thought it was really cool. I was worried we'd get swept away - which has happened to others I know. Anyway I managed to snap this shot. The water is about 30cm deep in the centre of the junction.
Twit Apple anniversary Podcast
Hey Apple fans there is an excellent Podcast from Twit (This Week in Tech) for the Apple 30th anniversary the other day.
"On this special edition of TWiT, Leo talks with four original Apple employees, and one of its founders, on the 30th Anniversary of the company's incorporation." Check it out.
iTunes saved the record business, says Apple
This interesting article appears in The Times today.
"Apple Computer portrayed itself as the saviour of the recorded music industry today in a trademark battle with the Beatles' Apple Corps, suggesting that the Fab Four's own label had lost out by refusing to list their back catalogue on iTunes."
BBC Click - on ebooks
The latest BBC Click is really worth watching. The feature on ebooks and the new readers is excellent. They talk about reading ebooks on PDAs and mobiles and you can see new ebook readers in action. They discuss the future of reading ebooks and how the screen technologies and itunes-style relail sites for ebooks, such as Sony Connect, might be set for the mainstream.
It makes me think if e-ink display technology will soon be put into PDAs. If colour e-ink displays mature in the next couple of years we can look forward to PDAs with hundreds of hours of battery life! Writing on the screen will be even more like writing on paper. Reading an ebook will be a joy.
1src podcast - will we all go to Treos?
Alan Gracia makes a really good point in the 1src podcast this week. He says that Palm are making noises they are ready to exit the traditional PDA market and concentrate on connected PDAs and smartphones. He mentions Jeff Kirvin's and our own Sammy's move to a Treo 650 as an example of core Palm users moving onto Smartphones. He says all of us will move to smartphones eventually. What do you all think? A good forum topic.