TamsPalm – the Palm OS / web OS Blog

SlideshowToGo 7 was the first PalmOS program that could display native PowerPoint files. DataViz sent us its successor for review-and indeed, it works well. We tested it on a Tungsten T3 with this PowerPoint presentation.

The UI of the application still is file-centric. This makes usage easier, but gets confusing if you have more than a few presentations. PalmOne handhelds with Files are said to have a file dialog as well(click images for bigger versions):

SlideShowToGo has three rendering modes. Textual rendering displays the slide’s text in a tree-ish form. Multi-column slides and bulleted text are displayed perfectly, but text in tables is lost:

Mini rendering shows the full slide on the screen. It works well, and the text is really clear-a significant improvement over version 7:

Last but not least, there is zoomed rendering. In this mode, slides are shown in ‘full size:

Gif and JPEG images are displayed in 8bit mode(click images for huge bitmaps):

Complex tables are no problems:

Equation editor is no problem:

Our visio example wasn’t rendered fully-but it was o.k.

The editing functionality is decent-you can add slides and modify existing text.

Files are opened pretty fast-you usually don’t have to wait more than 10 seconds for a slide. We had one crash that killed the entire suite for good-but it worked well again after opening a file via VersaMail.

Overall, this program takes the fear out of PowerPoint. Native files can be opened decently fast. Slides are rendered in a pretty complete fashion, the content is displayed well. We experienced one major crash, but I beleive that this was just bad luck. SlideshowToGo 8 is a good powerpoint viewer-if you receive many presentations on the go, purchase it!

Austria apperently is full of teenagers who are willing to pay loads of money for ringtones and mobile phone stuff… These “ads” have appeared all over Vienna in the last few days:

Here is a little 3gp video made in a subway station(don’t listen to the sound-I know that the grammar sucks;)).

I spotted those machines at the western railway station(gone now), at the U4 in Hietzing(gone as well-major subway station) and even in a cinema(there were three of them).

You simply place your mobile phone’s IR receiver next to the “eye”-and you should receive a message with a link to the ringtone within a few seconds. While this didnt work (immediately) with my Tungsten E2, I dare to say that it will probably work with most regular phones.

What does this have to do with the Palm OS? Imagine a company like PalmGear constructing a “kiosk” that sells/distributes PalmOS software. Strategically placed, people would permanetly get supplied with new apps that they will eventually buy-generating revenue for the owner of the ad. In addition, this would make people more aware of the Palm OS.

What do you think? Did you spot something like this? Feel free to comment-its free and anonymous!

This is all speculation. We have no idea if it is really true
Mike Mace started talking about the LifeDrive. Then, the PIC chimed in…

One of the core points made in the discussion was why the LifeDrive used NVFS with a hard drive(this was the source of the lag most of us experienced). This was especially ridiculous, because the first rumours said that ther LifeDrive would have real 32 MB of RAM and the 4 GB disk mounted as a VFS drive similar to the T5’s internal drive.

Now, some marketing executive at Palm’s felt uncomfortable about the RAM size or about how it lost all of its data when the handheld was “force-powered off” due to an empty battey. But the planar already was produced-so do what? An OS patch was chosen as “quick fix”. The StrataFlash that was needed to store the OS code was used for an NVFS partiton, and the RAM was used for NVFS’S caches and databases. As soon as this system somehow worked, one fired it out onto all the planars and began selling them as the LifeDrives we know.

This would explain why the rumours were talking about a 32 MB RAM device. Because-um-most solid rumours can’t exist qwitrhout hardware backup, there must be at least a few LifeDrives with “Real RAM” on them. If you are lucky enough to own one of them-please contact us at Tamog@gmx.at! Your email will be deleted immediately and your name will not be published!

There are several GUIs for Linux on desktop computers: KDE, GNOME, … On handheld computers, the most famous ones are GPE and OPIE.

Today we’ll have a look at GPE. The Palm-Linux development is very young, so there aren’t many devices which support GPE at the moment. But on the GPE project page (http://gpe.handhelds.org/) there is some information and screenshots where we can look at.

To see the applications of GPE, click on Projects. There you can read about PIM apps, multimedia apps and so on.

Documentation contains useful information about GPE and its apps. There are many screenshots.

Now, let’s look at some screenshots (http://handhelds.org/~gpe/gallery/:

PIM apps

file management

multimedia apps

networking

several themes

well-known apps running on GPE: GPSDrive – Minimo – VideoLAN – GNumeric

To type letters, Rosetta (handwriting recognition) and a virtual keyboard is used.

So, what do you think of GPE?

For a while now, Zakai Hamilton has been working by himself on a project called Screens. It is an environment that runs on top of the PalmOS, and allows developers to write special Screens programs, that can extend beyond the normal limits of the PalmOS. It will be fully free and open source, but at the moment, the developer needs some help with coding and management. If there is anyone with some programming experience who thinks they can join his team, take a look here, and contact him at zhamilton1@yahoo.co.uk

Some of you will laugh your hide off whenm you see this post. However, there is a discussion at the developer mailing list going on right now about this topic. To cut a long story short:

Windows Mobile 5 is not Palm OS! You can essentially run all kinds of Windows Mobile apps including StyleTap, but no PalmOS apps of any kind! So, anything that comes out of your PODS will NOT run on your Treo 700…

Apperently, Sony currently is axing all kinds of products. The Clie handheld series already is dead, and now the cute robotic dogs aka Aibos follow suite according to Cnet:

http://news.com.com/Sony+puts+Aibo+to+sleep/2100-1041_3-6031649.html

The statement says that only about 150000pcs were ever sold. The series will be eliminated, and will not be revived in the near future. However, Sony will still offer 7 years of support for the latest model…

What do you think?

There’s a new FTP server software for Palm OS. You can access ROM, RAM and VFS from clients, you just have to type the IP address. Now many people think why to use a Palm as a server? It’s not really to store homepages or something like that, but rather to use it as a wireless Drive Mode. So, if you have a Wireless LAN / Bluetooth router, you have to connect your Palm and tap on “Start”. Then enter your Palm’s IP address in your favourite FTP client and you can copy files to your computer. To write files on your Palm, you have to enable writing access in the menu.

I tested it several minutes. It wasn’t very stable, I often lose the connection, and one time I had a Fatal Exception. But it’s an alpha version, I think we can except an update soon. And additionaly, it’s free!

http://www.freewarepalm.com/communication/palmftpserver.shtml

What do you think? Do you know other FTP servers for Palm OS?

Processor fakes are a common thing nowadays. So, when purchasing a CPU that isn’t boxed, you can never be 100% sure of what you got.

Now, pictures of a fake 2GB Sandisk SD card have appeared on the internet:

http://members.shaw.ca/fakesandisk/

To cut a long story short-the two cards shown on the web site definitely are different. However, I am not 100% sure if this realy is a criminal fake or if SanDisk just decided to change its printers. Also, the seller’s ebay account was not yet suspended-we cant be sure…

I have no problems with fake SD cards because I always purchase mine at Amazon’s or directly at the distributor’s. But if these cards are real, buying a used SD card may become a game of russian roulette….

What do you think?

If you own a Tungsten C, you probably have the same complaint as many other TC users…”WHY doesn’t it have a stereo output?” As sad as it may be, Palm thought it would be a good idea to put a mono output onto a feature packed top-notch device like the Tungsten C. It is the equivalent of using Windows ME for an operating system on one of Dell’s XPS 600’s.

However, our friends at Pocket PC Techs have come out with a wonderful way of correcting this glaring issue. There have been other solutions, but none have been quite as well done as the product coming from Pocket PC Techs. Its a mouthful but it is called…Tungsten C 3.5mm Split-Mono Headphone Adapter with Built-In Mic & Answer Button!

Basically, it plugs into the mono Tungsten C outlet and splits the audio to allow for mono audio through both ears which sounds very good in my opinion. To top it all off, they added a built-in mic in the middle of the cord which works very well also.

The built-in mic is made for recording audio between 1-2 feet away from its source. I have tested in at even longer distances and the recording is very clear and well done. I have been extremely impressed with the quality of this product and its mic capabilities. It even has an “answer button” which activates Palm’s voice recording application and is very useful.

If you have a Tungsten C and have yet to solve your “mono problem” then you should give this product a try. It is a very simple fix, but, in my opinion, it is the best solution for enhancing your Tungsten C’s audio and recording capabilities.

-Brock

Most people know that deleted data can be regenerated from a hard disk pretty easily. Ipods contain a hard disk too-and they even remember where a file came from. This could be uncomfortable for all those of you that use their ipod as a mobile USB stick-read more here:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3513_7-6423090-1.html?tag=nl.e404

Whenever a new version of DocumentsToGo ships, people discuss what changed in comparison to its predecessor. Thanks to a helpful person over at DataViz’s, we can now offer you this URL:

http://support.dataviz.com/support.srch?DocID=2430&id=2000

It shows every change back to version 2.0! Have fun!

Google recently debuted a so-called proxy service. A Proxy service is a server that “slims down” web sites as you visit them from your handheld. Find the proxy here:

http://www.google.com/gwt/n

Will you use it?

Palm handheld cases are usually made of metal or leather. Boxwave’s just-released ActiveCase goes a different way-it is made of a PVC-like glassy substance. Let’s review!

My review sample was shipped with ‘regular’ mail:

The ActiveCase is packed in a blister. Just for giggles-the front shows a Palm Tungsten E with TomeReader installed:

An ActiveCase appears very thin. It does not weigh much either. You ‘flip’ the handheld into its case. A little bar on the left locks the handheld in place by docking into the silo:

Our E2 handheld sits firmly in the case. There are cutouts for the hardkeys at the front-the case doesn’t need to be opened in order to access those. While this can come in handy, it increases the probability for the machine to boot on its own. Reset button and speaker get cutouts as well:

The hotsync port is accessible from the ouside, this is also valid for power button, stylus silo and memory card:

This ActiveCase opens to the right. The lid can be flipped to the back. However, there is no clamp that keeps the lid closed:

Overall, ActiveCases look cool. They are very beautiful, one almost doesnt feel their weight. However, mine already has a few scratches after just a week of moderate use. The plastic feels less tough than the aluminium in other cases. Also, there is no space for SD cards,… . If you need toughness and are willing to carry the weight, this is not for you. If you want to add a good bit of scratch/impact protection without the weight, an ActiveCase is a beautiful way to go!