TamsPalm - the Palm OS Blog

This one could be very important for all Treo 700p/755p/6xx CDMA users - from today onwards, your travels to Australia will be graced by permanent “No Signal” alerts of your Treo.

PocketPCThoughts quotes Telstra Country Wide Director Gary Goldsworthy as follows:

The old CDMA mobile network would shut down across the country at midnight tonight, closing a significant chapter in the history of telecommunications in Australia. “At midnight tonight Telstra will commence the carefully planned closure of the redundant CDMA mobile network. Today really is the last chance for remaining CDMA customers to move across to a new mobile network, such as the Telstra Next G™ network, and remain connected” Mr Goldsworthy said. “CDMA technology has served Australia well over the years but has now been superseded by more advanced third generation mobile technology such as the Telstra Next G™ network, which carries about 7.5 times the data carried on the CDMA network at its peak.”

In case anyone of you is now looking for an alternative, I can whole-heartedly recommend the Treo 680(review here, here, here and here). People using a Treo 650 on CDMA will not feel any speed difference due to the Treo 680’s EDGE capabilities. Last but not least, the bigger RAM of the 680 makes your life more pleasant…

Fossil discontinued the production of its (in)famous WristPDA some time ago - now, the Microsoft SPOT-powered watches are said to follow suit. Jon Canan, the program director recently stated the following:

As of recently, the Smart Watches with MSN Direct have sold out and are no longer for sale. While we continue to move forward with MSN Direct and seeking out new opportunities for devices that would benefit from the MSN Direct service, we, along with our watch partners, do not have immediate plans to create a new version of the Smart Watch, as we are focused on other areas of our business. We will maintain support of our watch customers and continue to deliver information to the watches, but we do not plan to increase our investment in the watch business going forward.

We have appreciated all of the comments and feedback that the SPOTStop community has provided - and this feedback has been incorporated in every step of the way as we develop new products and leverage our assets within the MSN Direct service. We are proud of the new products that have incorporated our technologies - MSN Direct for GPS navigation devices and MSN Direct for Windows Mobile, and it is encouraging to think that these grew out of the Smart Watch initiative - demonstrating great traction for Microsoft. We will continue to engage with this community and welcome any questions you may have…

So far, so good - looks like smart watches are now entirely in the hands of the fine folks at brando’s!

P.S. In case anyone of you wonders: SPOT watches are wristworn devices that are connected to some sort of FM network(existing only in the USA). This then pushes out various bits of data(weather, etc) onto the devices…

In case anyone of you frees like adding encryption to your applications, being a palm-dev-forum subscriber definitely pays out.

The folks there currently discuss the various encryption options available to Palm OS developers - if your apps need a security improvement, click the link below to get to the first post:
Data encryption Palm OS

When Palm introduced its first model with a reflective(aka outdoor-readable) screen, users were disappointed with the weak colors. By the time the Treo 680 hit the market, the company had improved its technology far enough to verse TFT’s. Usually, consumer smartphone screens are the best-of-breed - can the Centro stack up?

First of all, a Palm Treo 500 versed the Centro. The 500 won. BTW, the Centro’s keyboard backlighting is extremely weak - this is not an optical distortion.

The Treo 680 had no issues dispatching the Centro either:

The rx4240’s TFT screen literally ripped the Centro’s screen to pieces - total ownage:

Last but not least, here are a few more Centro-vs-Treo shots. Please note how the Treo’s screen reflects light a lot better:

In the end, the Centro’s tiny screen renders all further discussion futile as it simply is too small to be comfortable to use for longer duration. The reddish hue, average contrast and weak reflectivity are annoying - but are minor issues compared to the screen size. People coming from a 680 should look elsewhere…

P.S. Yep - the white border around the screen seems to be gone!

Proporta’s original Mobile Device Charger started off the ‘external battery’ craze - indeed, it was(and still is) an excellent product that scored a rave review on TamsPalm some time ago. Now, Proporta couldn’t resist the urge of following the weight-loss trend…can the slimmed down MDC micro stack up to its predecessor?

As usual, Proporta’s stuff ships with standard mail. The products themselves are in a blister package:

Proporta ships the box with a carrying case, charging cable and a bunch of tips - extra tips cost: first one for free and 95 pence then on . The included tips work with the following devices: Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Ipod, PSP and Micro USB.

First of all - the device indeed got a lot smaller compared to its predecessor. It also is a lot lighter:

These pictures show it next to a Treo 680:

As usual, the device charges via MiniUSB and has a full-size USB port for connecting devices:

Pressing the buttons at the front of the unit starts the charging process - the device powers off automatically when no further power is drawn for a few minutes:

The MDC micro now has a sophisticated LED system at the front. When charging, the LED’s pulsate to show that power is being loaded. When discharging, the amount of bright LED’s show how much power is left:

I tested the device on a few of my boxes - and had no problems with any. All of them could be charged without any issues…if a tip is available. Tips for Palm’s Treo series are not included by default, and tips for my QTEK 8500 weren’t available as of this writing…

In the end, the MDC micro is a step forward - but also one step back. Yes, it’s smaller. Yes’ it has the best charging state indicator of all devices currently on the market. But - its capacity simply is way too small. Many devices have internal batteries that a fully-charged MDC micro can’t fill up completely. If you absolutely need a small device(or, if you want to charge a WristPDA), get it for £29.95 inc VAT(45$). If you can live with the bigger size, definitely stick to its excellent predecessor though.

As some of you may know, mobile game producer PDAMill stopped developing and supporting their Palm OS games early last year and took them off the market. Recently though, they posted this on their website:

Several years ago, we developed many of our great titles for the Palm OS platform. However, in February of 2007 the decision to stop development for the Palm platform was made and our products were then discontinued.

Until now, all of these titles were only available to customers who had purchased the games in the past. Due to an incredibly high demand, we have now released all of our past Palm titles for FREE!

Catch the details and download the games for Free here on PDAMills website.

Thanks to Magellan at Brighthand for the tip.

Wordpress on TamsPalm has been updated to version 2.5.1. This release fixes security issues. If you encounter any problems browsing the site, please let us know - mail them to t a m o g [at] gmx [dot] at.

There are a lot of keyguard replacements for Treo and Centro devices. But what when you want to keep the default keyguard an you just need some more information displayed? Then TopGuardEx or TopSignalOnKeyguard by RNS:: might be the solution!
Both applications enhance the default Treo/Centro keyguard with several information. Using the programs ist very simple.
TopSignalOnKeyguard adds the signal status symbol to the keyguard.

Installing and configuring is very easy. Just install it via Hotsync etc and run it. It will install itself in the system - enhancing your keyguard from now on.

If you want, TopSignalOnKeyguard can hide itself from the PalmOS launcher.

That was it - no other steps are required here.
If you want more information than just the signal status then you need TopGuardEx.
TopGuardEx adds additional items such as Bluetooth state, battery level or a clock.
After installing the software you will find it in the preferences panel. In the settings window you can customize your keyguard.

Here you can decide what to show. Bluetooth state, phone signal and battery level can be shown at the same time while the clock can only be displayed alone. Clock + Battery e.g. doesn’t work.
So your keyguard can look like this:

Or like this:

In that way you can see the most important information just on power-on. There is no need to switch to the launcher in order to check your system status which is very annoying when you are working in another app. Just switch on your Treo/Centro and voilà - there it is.

If you want to have a look on your own at these applications, just visit the developer’s homepage and get the trial!
The full version costs $4.95 (TopSignalOnKeyboard) and $9.95 (TopGuardEx). You can get it via e.g. Mobihand.

TopSignalOnKeyboard at MobiHand (Download Demo and purchase)
TopGuardEx on ranosoft.net (Download Demo and purchase via serveral vendors)

Engadget has recently posted images of an upcoming blue Centro with Verizon branding:

As of now, little is known about when the box will hit the road(if ever) - however, I consider it highly likely that the box will eventually be adopted as it has proven to be a runaway success for Palm(and Sprint).

Pricing and color options have not been disclosed yet, either…

Do you have any further information?

Dmitry Grinberg, of PalmPowerups fame, has just released SkinUI, version 2.2.0.0 as freeware.

SkinUI is now freeware, as a little treat to all you guys. You’ve supported me and my programming for five years now, and I only hope that you enjoyed this time at least as much as I did. Thanks.

This is a soft of a farewall post, just a bit ahead of its time. nuRom for LifeDrive is done and SDHC driver for Palms will be my last official project. I will, of course, continue to fix and update old projects, but unless something changes dramatically do not forsee many new ones. I’ve done all I wanted, and I’ve had plenty of fun along the way.

Long Live PalmOS!

SkinUI has recieved rave reviews in the past. Now this wonderful skinning app can be yours for free!
I’m not doing a fullsized review, but poke around 1src freeware for some great skins!

[Download] [Skins]

I have had my fair share of standoffs with Palm’s customer care myself; but this story trumps it all - here’s the best excerpt from it:

…
So I asked employee C11329 to be transfered to her manager. She told me she was the most senior person at Palm. I asked her again politely to transfer me to her manager. She told me she had none. I asked to be transfered to the person that was reviewing her work, giving her assignments, etc.. I was told she had none. I told her I felt that was odd as, apart from the chairman and CEO, I didn’t know of anyone in a company not having a manager. She told me she was the CEO.

For a second, I paused. “You’re the CEO of Palm, Inc.?” I asked again, not really believing what I was hearing. “Yes, I am” she replied, now with a defiant tone. “So you’re telling me you’re Ed Colligan?” I asked. “I am the CEO and that’s all you need to know.”

Well, turns out I was now in a very odd situation. I had been at several industry events where Ed Colligan spoke (including a number of product launches from Palm) and, as far as my memory was concerned, his voice was neither feminine nor did it sound south-Asian in its inflection. My memory might have been playing games on me but I was pretty sure I was not talking to the CEO of Palm.
…

Head on over to tnl.com for the full scoop…hope this helps all those of you frustrated with Palm’s Customer care to a good laugh…

P.S. Wonder how I found this? I was actually looking for horror stories on a courier service…more about that on request!

The folks at PalmInfoCenter’s report that Palm has already discontinued the external/extended battery for its Centro phone(before actually shipping it in numbers). Along the battery, Palm also killed the Z22 travel charger, WiFi card and T1/T2/T3/LifeDrive stylus packages.

The folks also claim that Palm stated that no external batteries from third parties can be used - I am currently awaiting an answer from Proporta’s on this matter…

Dan’s recent PalmGear horror story caused quite an uproar in the developer community - I got quite a few mails complaining about Motricity. One developer I trust very much has sent me the following horror story - as he requested to be anonymous to protect from retaliatory actions, his name has been anonymized as usual:

I also read a story on your site about a guy that is angry with PalmGear/PocketGear/Motricity…
Well I must say I’m angry with them, too. What they do looks like a total lack of proffessionalism from their side, which I can’t completely understand.

Although all my shareware products were transfered almost immediately (with a 2 or 3 days delay, which for Motricity can be called “immediately”) to the new site, and recently it also looks like few of the freeware were finally transfered, too (!), I am really disappointed with what they do. They usually do reply to my e-mails in proper time, however if they have a problem solving my issue, they always say they would fix it and unless I keep asking them how are the things going, they seem to do nothing about it.

In November I reported the issue about Palm OS screenshots being resized to something bigger than the natural 160×160. In February I asked them again, and now in April yet again. I still get the same answer that their IT team is working on it Half a year to change a few strings in the CGI script on their website

Also I have 2 personal issues. While transferring from PalmGear to PocketGear they somehow split my developer account into 2 separate accounts (a few Motricity-powered websites per each account) and now I receive 2 checks each time, one payable to “EEKSQUEEK!” and one to “Eeker Squeeker”. Not a big problem for me (I’m legally registered as “EEKSQUEEK! Eeker Squeeker”), but there’s more to it: they withhold 10% of tax from one account and 30% from the other. They take 10% because I sent them my ITIN and they know that 10% is the only legal tax rate for me now. So I assume they use the 30% rate illegally for the other account.

What’s more, I obviously signed only one agreement with them, so I shouldn’t have two accounts there. And recently I received 2 separate 1042-S forms for 2007, as if I were 2 separate legal persons.
They have this (mostly legal) problem and it looks like they have problems dealing with it or they just don’t care (?)… I keep asking them about it for almost 2 months now, and they still reply their accounting team is really busy “these days” and that they are working on it…

I think I have no more problems with them, but these are really PIA. Don’t you think?

Let alone that they are stupid themselves - with the suppression of PalmGear and moving everything to PocketGear, my sales were reduced there by some 60% or even more. So obviously THEY also earn less because I don’t think I’m the only one. Why did they do this unwise step? Why did they shut down PalmGear? Do you know anything about the reasons for this decision, Tam?

Wow, I expected I’d write two or three lines in this e-mail, and I wrote 30 or 40 Please don’t publish anything that would directly point on my software/company/site/person Other than that, the story is yours

Anybody else have any problems to share?

The recently-surfaced rumors of Danger’s upcoming NES emulator for SideKick handhelds caused quite an uproar in the community - apparently, the idea managed to find a lot of fans. However, the sobering news came out soon: it all was a “hoax”.

This reminds me of a story that happened in the Palm OS sector a few years ago - back then, the now-defunct Tapwave refused to sign a Gameboy emulator. My 2005 article should shed a bit of light onto the matter - enjoy:

Recently, TapWave rejected to sign Firestorm-a highly anticipated and popular (I dare say hyped) software for the Palm OS 5-it is a (slow) Gameboy and Gameboy advanced emulator. Of course, uproar followed imediately-bad, bad Tapwave!

While the rejection looks like arbitary use of power, it can easily be understood when you look at firestorm’s history:
Right after its announcement, Nintendo attacked the program using its emulation patent. However, the company didn’t oblige to the letter sent by Nintendo’s lawyers and published the product.
I was in the first row when it came to getting a demo(oh, may my TT rest in peace)-the program was buggy, and quickly was booted of my handheld!

Now, the program is said to have improved, but speed still is low. Applications that are signed by Tapwave however are expected to work flawlessly on a Zodiac-thats on of the reasons why the signing procedure was introduced after all. Imagine downloading an M$-signed driver and having your system blown up-you would be in a very annoyed state of mind, wouldn’t you.

Now think of an application that you purchase thinking that it works perfectly-only to discover that it is damn slow. While most users will blame CrimsonFire, many will also have ressentiments against Tapwave-why did they sign it after all…

In addition, altough Nintendo’s patent is IMHO highly questionable(I am not a lawyer though, but I attended a few hours of patent management at my higher technical school) because it is way to broad and since there were emulators way before the day when it was issued(2000)-Tapwave doesn’t have the spare cash to fight with Nintendo. Lawsuits are expensive, and fighting a juggernaut like Nintendo definitely isn’t funny!

So, I can understand Tapwave now-hopefully, you can do too….

Do you think that we’ll ever see a manufacturer endorsing an “unlicensed” emulator? Please talk back!