Plucker-the CHM viewer for Palm OS

Workshops 9 Responses »
Feb 242006

Our new author Alexander Panek(ok, yet another Alexander) inspired me to create this howto-thanks go to him! The discussion started off with ebook formats(and which are best suited for the Palm OS). He lacked a CHM viewer, not knowing that I LOVE chm ebooks because they are so easy to view on the Palm OS.

This tutorial will show you how to get the book showing. All you need is:

Plucker Desktop(open-source freeware)
A Windows box

Step 1-decompiling the CHM file
Essentially, a CHM file is just a archive of HTML files. So, what can be compressed, can also be decompressed. Open a Windows command shell(Start menu-run-enter cmd-hit enter) and navigate to the chm file. Putting it into the root directory of a drive and calling it a simple filename like the.chm simplifies the process.

Then, do the following:

C:>hh -decompile c:targetfolder the.chm

C:>

This should generate the folder c:targetfolder, into which the files contained in the chm file will be decompressed. Please don’t wonder if the command executes in less than a second, the decompilation runs in the background!

Step 2-having fun
Now that you have a nice bunch of html files, you can start the party. Find the index file(mini view and a bit of luck can help), and add it to plucker as a local channel. Or, copy the entire folder to your SD card and open it with a Palm OS web browser. Or, um,… you know what we mean!

Hopefully, this article takes the feat out of CHM files. There may not be a dedicated CHM viewer available for the Palm OS, but this method can be just as effective as a dedicated CHM viewer for the Palm OS.

BTW; if you ever wonder what the benefits of web browsers and dedicated viewers are, this old TamsPalm editorial covers it all:
http://tamspalm.blogspot.com/2005/01/web-browsers-vs-offline-readers-whos.html

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 7:32 pm

What the MAX screenshots really show

PalmSource 6 Responses »
Feb 242006

Now, a few days have passed since the appearance of the first few MAX screenshots. At first, they really looked confusing. No category-style launcher like we know it from the Palm OS, no Palm-Ossy look, no nothing. WTF was this showing??

To be honest, I believe that this was a very phone-centric demo of PalmOS on Linux running an existing NetFront product. Any guesses on what it was? Yeah, it damn looks like Acess Netfront Mobile Client. In case you don’t beleive us, here are a few screenshots:

http://www.access.co.jp/english/products/nf_mcs.html

But what does that tell us? In fact, it tells us very little except that they now have Palm OS Garnet(maybe with some cobaltish elements) running on Linux, and this is good news. We are still about a year away from the publication of the SDK’s, so nobody knows now if they won’t create a “glue library” that will allow PalmOS developers to still use the API’s they know while benefitting from GTK.

Do you believe that the Palm OS as we know it(the API) has a future? Or do you believe that there will be a huge lot of learning and porting ahead of us? Commenting is free and anonymous!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 4:07 pm

SharkLinks & Uncache, simplifying the work of Palm users everywhere!

Uncategorized 1 Response »
Feb 242006

Today I have two new apps I would like to talk about. The first was made by Tyler Faux, and is called SharkLinks. Does anybody here use the feature in the favorites launcher that lets you create URL shortcuts to webpages on the launcher? Well, Sharklinks does this, but it works in any launcher, and on any PDA with Blazer.

The second app is UnCache by Dmitry Grinberg. If any of you have heard of SharkCache, this does the opposite. Let me explain. At every reset, the PalmOS loads all programs through the cache, and locks some of them there in weird positions. This causes lots of fragmentation, a slower boot, and overall worse system performance. This program UnCache will keep these apps from loading into the cache at reset, and will solve alot of these programs. I currently have it, and I can say it does work qreat.

You may download the current version of Sharklinks here, and talk about it on the 1src forums.

UnCache is NOT currently available to the general public, but will soon be out, so keep an eye out on PalmPowerups.com.

Posted by Brad Green at 12:27 pm

The Nintendo DS lite-spotted once again

Hardware News No Responses »
Feb 242006

Apperently, Nintendo does a good job about creating “free PR” for their devices! The Ninterndo DS was just spotted in public once again, and Engadget has loads of videos!

You can find them all online here:
http://www.engadget.com/2006/02/23/nintendo-ds-lite-caught-live-in-the-wild-again/

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 11:05 am

Ubuntu Linux goes Embedded

Software News 1 Response »
Feb 232006

Ubuntu Linux is a “well known” Linux distribution!

Now, a few developers started a branch called Embedded Ubuntu that is targetted at ARM processors(um, wasnt that logical ;) ). They plan to offer easier firmware creation and want to simplify embedded use of open source.

Read more on LinuxDevices.com:
http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS7148992239.html

Do you think that this will endanger Access’s Linux Platform?

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 11:23 pm

Don’t pull a TT with ALP, please

PalmSource No Responses »
Feb 232006

Recently, we saw the first few screenshots of the ALP, the “future” PalmOS platform. The screenshots showed more than just the classic OS; it also showed a few “included apps”. And those appeared to be meager. Well it still is a beta, but lets just put this clear:

A device without a good software library in the ROM is a dead device.

The reason for this is easy. Many stores have handheld displays where user can test out handhelds. These handhelds are hardreset every one to two days, and they usually are not connected to the internet or to a computer. So, the users dont get to see the great apps that are included on the CD-they just see whats in the ROM, and ion devices like the TT, this is more-less empty.

What licencees need to do is increase the “outta-the-box-oomph” factor of their devices. Include music, images, videos, games-just do whatever you can to make the device be more attractive after the initial power up. This may appear to be very expensive at first, but it actually isnt(if you go with the underdogs). For example, there are many DocsToGo replacements on the market that go unnoticed mostly but offer excellent quality neverhteless-those are cheaper to licence and still improve your device’s look.

So, to cut a long story short, a great OS does noit make for a great user experience. The market already rejected many operating systems that lacked enough third party products, and carriers also will reject phones that can’t do anything out of the box! Licencees, use your “volume purchase discounts”, and include as much great software onto your devices as you possibly can!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 9:05 pm

FlexiSkin for Zire 72 review

Cases No Responses »
Feb 232006

Cost: About $30 from www.boxwave.com

Comes with:
- clear colored skin case
- 2 sizes of sling line (long and short)
FlexiSkin for Zire 72 review

Dressing up the PDA (in my case, the Palm Zire 72):
“Bottoms up”

Bottom are the front, top and back view with the skin on:
FlexiSkin for Zire 72 review

FlexiSkin for Zire 72 review

FlexiSkin for Zire 72 review

Pros:
- good smooth rubber grip
- Its contoured form-fitting style maintains a low-profile to preserve the look and size of the device without adding bulk or weight.
- protects from accidental scratches and FALLS. This is a true story….the day after I “installed” the skin, I dropped my Palm on a hard floor. To my disbelief, the Palm actually bounced (just a bit) and came through without any damage. I was lucky that the Palm’s screen must have not made any contact with the floor; otherwise I may have had a broken scrren. This is my next point………….

Con:
- No protection for the screen. However, it will be highly difficult (or impossible) to come up with a variation that does protect the screen from heavy impacts(like sitting on it) in normal conditions. I say normal since we tend to drop our PDA’s when USING them (like what happened to me). You cannot have the screen covered with the skin and use it, too (the FlexiSkin is thicker than the average screen protector).

Conclusion:
The FlexiSkin is a worthwhile investment for anyone who needs to protect their PDA from accidents, thus keeping the trade in or selling value high. It has a good rubber grip and feel nice in the hands. However, one must always remember that this is not a shock proof casing; rather shock resistant casing.

Posted by David Zucker at 5:48 pm

The teaching survey

Public Relations No Responses »
Feb 232006

Recently, a popular ESD invited me to a survey about their development interface. I felt pretty annoyed at first, as I had to rate each and every form(shown in multiple variations).

But after a few seconds, I began to understand which impressive side effect the survey has had. It actually toured me through the entire developers backend.

Many of the images looked so stupid that it was impossible to consider them useful. But they showed all the options available in the backend-options that I never saw before! One can say that I learned loads of stuff in the survey-stuff that I would never have understood without it!

Overall, this may be an interesting way to teach your existing customers about using your products. The output can be sent right to /dev/null(the place unix people send files to for deletition)-but the teaching effects will go straight to /dev/brain on customer!

How are your experiences with teaching surveys so far?

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 4:00 pm

Going CVS-Step 2

PODS No Responses »
Feb 232006

Welcome back to Going CVS. It was a long time since we last had an update here, but as you know-stuff that rests isnt stuf that’s EOL;). In the last part of the column, we looked at how to set up a box with CVS:
http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2006/02/08/going-cvs-step-1/
Today, we will take a look at configuring it! The first thing that you will want to configure is the VNC server, as it allows you to access your server remotely from the network. Setting up CVS is very easy. All you need to do is click the Install Service entry in the srat menu, restart the machine, and presto-it already runs. After that, you need to click on the VNC icon at the bottom right of the machine and click on properties. You can set up a VNC password there, I advise you to use a long one than you can easily remember.

From now on, if a user is logged on, you can connect yourself to your VNC server with a VNC client.

On we go to CVSNT. Open the CVSNT control panel from the srat menu of your NT box(you can use VNC). Click Repository configuration, then click add. Choose the location, then copy the contents of the location text box into the name field. You will receive a few alert boxes, just click yes on all of them!

Now, CVS should be set up. In the next part, we will connect Eclipse to the server.
BTW, here are a few web sites with further hints on CVSNT:
http://www.mobilefish.com/developer/cvsnt/cvsnt.html(covers old version)
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=39516

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 3:09 pm

Detecting vibrators and alarm leds programmatically

Sample code 2 Responses »
Feb 232006

Sometimes, you really need to know if the handheld that your app runs on has a vibrator or a alert LED. These routines can help you:


Boolean hasLED()
{
UInt32 capabilities;
FtrGet(kAttnFtrCreator, kAttnFtrCapabilities, &capabilities);
if (capabilities & kAttnFlagsHasLED)
{
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}
}

Boolean hasVibration()
{
UInt32 capabilities;
FtrGet(kAttnFtrCreator, kAttnFtrCapabilities, &capabilities);
if (capabilities & kAttnFlagsHasVibrate)
{
return true;
}
else
{
return false;
}
}

These routines worked in both PODS 1.1 and OnBoardC. Feel free to use them in your own apps!

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 1:42 pm

A look at Sennheisers new lineup

Hardware News No Responses »
Feb 232006

Many of us love Sennheiser headphones!

Our comrades over at HardWareZOne found out a lot about the new Sennheiser lineup expected to launch Q1 2006. Read more on their web site:

http://www.hardwarezone.com/articles/view.php?cid=9&id=1825

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 7:39 am

PalmPDF 1.1 released

Software News No Responses »
Feb 232006

Many readers find us via Google when looking for PalmPDF. Since MetaView updated the software to version 1.1 recently, here is the list of changes taken straigt from his web site:

1.1 (02/19/06 “1st update”)
- bugfix: Content extraction
- bugfix: security patch from xpdf 3.01pl2 added
- bugfix: MobiPocket is called with the created PalmDOC
- bugfix: Copy/Paste support in the search field
- memory check around Content-extraction, does prevent out-of-memory crahes with large files
- changed Scrollvalues
- changed progressbar a bit, extended “WAIT” to cover also the extraction of content
- added file handling support with RescoExplorer, ZLauncher, MobiSystems OfficeSuite etc.
- direct mode for the apps above, means no stop in the file browser and direct exit after the renderer is closed
- support for keyboards
- swapped quit and rotation button on all devices except Zodiac to have quit on home button on TX
- when moving behind the right or left border using the keys, the display is wrapped around for better readability in large zooms
- Skin support, selectable
- Possibility to rename PDF files in the file browser
- when called by another app or received file (using exchange manager) PalmPDF goes back to the called app when the PDF file is closed

You can find the freeware here:
http://www.metaviewsoft.de/de/Software/PalmOS/Freeware/PalmPDF/index.html

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 1:32 am

How MAX will look-we know it now

Palm News, PalmSource 2 Responses »
Feb 222006

PalmInfoCenter just received a few screenshots of the software that is supposed to be an early beta of the MAX platform-they can be found here:
http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/8399/access-linux-platform-demo-screenshots/

Time to revisit out UI speculation that we ran a few days ago. In fact, we had the choice that seems most likely on our list-it was number 2, the Access Netfront Platform. If you look at the link provided there, you may get a good “first taste” of what to expect for MAX applications!

And to be honest, I somehow like what I see. The blue is calming which is nice, it is not too strong(costs contrast). But what stresses me as of now, is the look of ther included apps. They appear to be very meager as of now, but as said, this is a beta and many new, exciting apps will probably be bundled with the second ALP device( a la Tungsten T, no software back then, I was a more-less early adopter ;) ).

What do you think?

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 9:57 pm

The ipod nano-taken apart

Web sites No Responses »
Feb 222006

Don’t we all love to see stuff thats ripped into parts? In case you do, TechnologyReview had a good time opening up an Ipod nano and enumerating its contents.

For example, did you know that iot has 4 MB of SDRAM as general RAM for the operating system? Or did you know that they switched the manufacturers for their clickwheel controller?

You can find out more at their “effect-loaded” web site here-dont try visiting it with your Treo btw, as there is nothing to see imho. You may need a full web browser:

http://www.technologyreview.com/InfoTech-Hardware/wtr_16058,294,p1.html

Posted by Tam Hanna, Site Founder at 7:00 am
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