TamsPalm - the Palm OS Blog

Nowadays one can’t have enough memory: Wikipedia, TomTom, music, videos – everything is eating a lot of memory. A 2GB or 4GB SD card is not enough for these requirements. What you need is more storage.
Now it is possible to have up to 32GB (external) storage which should be enough for most users!
All you need is a SDHC card an the new SDHC driver by Dmitry Grinberg.
Installing the driver is pretty easy: just install it on your device and run it once – thats it.
I tested the driver on a TX, T5 and Zire72 with a 8GB Transcend SDHC card. On every device the driver worked without problems. Just the filesystem of the card caused problems on the T5 and Zire72 as it was formatted with FAT32 which couldn’t be read by those devices natively. The issue can be solved by installing a FAT32 driver which can be downloaded from Dmitry’s site: http://palmpowerups.com/downloads.php?cat_id=2
In addition the default card info application will report wrong values for cards greater than 4GB. You’ll need the application ‘CardSize’ from the link above to get correct values.
The write and reading speed with the SDHC driver is faster than with the Palm drivers (according to the benchmark - however you won’t notice it in practice).
Have a look at these two benchmarks:

The first picture shows the speed result of my normal 4GB SD Card with the original Palm driver. In the second picture you can see the speed of the same card – but now with the the SDHC driver: the speed increased significantly.
Now look at the speed of the SDHC card:

As you can see the speed is even faster than the normal SD card. But when working with the card I didn’t realise a big difference between both.
Now with so much storage you might want to use your SDHC card as a backup card. But be careful! As the SDHC driver is stored in the normal internal memory of your Palm device it will be deleted when you perform a hardreset. Then you won’t be able to read your SDHC card and you can’t restore your backup. So you have to keep a copy on a normal SD card or on an other device. Otherwise your backup is unreachable! As an alternative you can flash the driver into the ROM of your device. But don’t forget to add you license key as the driver won’t run without it!
If you want to try the SDHC driver on your device you can download a 9-days trial key from the author’s website. After the trial period you can still access your SD card – but with a speed of 50 kB/sek and in read-only mode. The full version costs $20.95 and can be purchased through the developer’s homepage.
At the moment the following devices are supported, others might follow:

Download PowerSDHC
Download PowerSDHC trial key

A while back I compared Resco’s IDGuard with SplashID (see “Resco idguard versus splashid: whats in your pocket“).  I’ve been beta testing the desktop component Resco has created for IDGuard.  The app is just about ready for release.  You can already get the latest beta directly from here, or go to this page to read about it and download from the beta section on the page.

Previously, my only real reservation about switching from SplashID to IDGuard was the lack of the desktop component, I have switched now.  Resco is honing the desktop component for release (there are still a few bugs, although not in the conduit).

More to come when I’ve more fully tested it!

I am a bit of a time fanatic and I like all my clocks, watches and Palms to show the correct time. I even have a monthly Palm reminder to go around the house and set all the clocks using BigClock since it shows seconds. For years I have been using a freeware Hotsync conduit called TimeCopy which sets the Palm device to the desktop time. On the road I used a simple program called SNTP to set the time manually via NTP.

I then found AtomClock which can be scheduled to adjust the time once a day which means your Palm clock will always be correct. It has a simple interface where you select the NTP server (and add your own if required) and then select “Set Clock” if you want to manually sync the time.

Atomclock has 3 themes depending on your taste:

The latest Palm devices such as the Centro (which I have) have no reset buttons. Pulling out the battery for a reset normally messes up the clock. Now my standard procedure after a reset is to run AtomClock. Now I never have to look elsewhere to set my Centro time, I just manually run AtomClock and then schedule it to keep the time correct all the time. My Centro is now as accurate as an atomic clock!

AtomClock is written by Alex Pruss and is available from Palmgear for $4. It has just been updated to support NTP protocol servers as well as TIME servers. TIME servers are being phased out since NTP is a better time sync standard. The latest beta with NTP support can be found at http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=145150.

Use the discount code CHEAPGATEWAY to get 20% off Softick Audio Gateway in the TamsShop!

For ages, Palm devices have been plagued by breaking headphone jacks. As I always had issues with headphone cords, Jaybird’s AD2P device seemed like a perfect fit. Unfortunately, Palm OS devices do not support AD2P - can Softick Audio Gateway even up the odds?

The program’s main screen is clear and simple. The toggle at the bottom let’s you choose where the audio goes to. Click one of the icons to launch the corresponding media app. The list at the top allows you to pick your headset:

A variety of quality options are available to “adjust” the tradeoff between sound quality and CPU load. The settings shown below work flawlessly on my Treo 680 - no noticeable speed losses here:

Softick integrated an extra option for silencing the program while a call comes in. Extra points should be awarded to the genius who decided that the ringer should always be played via the speaker…no more missed calls here:

Generally, I am very satisfied with the performance of the product. Audio quality is excellent, and there is no more stuttering or hissing than on a wired headset. My final torture test involved connecting to a headset and a bluetooth keyboard: occasional audio pauses became audible while typing fast.

This review looked at version 1.21.2120 on a Palm Treo 680. The program needs 468KB of memory and can NOT be run from an external memory card.

In the end, Softick’s Audio Gateway fulfills its promise - my Jaybird JB200 headset works flawlessly with my Treo. Seeing that there is no other way to use an AD2P device with a Treo, the product is a must-have. The well-thought-out extra features make the purchase price of 20$ a bargain…

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)

With the first NVFS handhelds, a memory region commonly known as DBCache has been introduced. The DBCache holds databases that have been decompressed from Flash in order to be used - if it runs out, no more databases can be opened. So far, flushing the DBCache required you to either use Resco Explorer or softreset the device - can this app improve the situation?

OffFlush has a very simple, self explaining UI:

When the handheld is powered off and the free DBCache is below the threshold, OffFlush delays the power-off and attempts to flush the DBCache. This process usually takes 30secs to 1 minute on my Treo 680 and can not be aborted.

The program needs 10k of RAM and cannot be installed onto an external memory card. It has not caused any crashes so far. This mini-review looked at version 2.0 of the program, it can be downloaded here.

In the end, one question remains: what for? This program can automatically flush your DBCache - but do you need it flashed automatically? My Treo 680 has never had any DBCache issues, so I say no. People having a Palm TX or a Treo 650 could consider it useful, though…

DialByPhoto(TamsPalm review here) was GX5’s first attempt at giving Palm OS Treos a new phone interface. UltimatePhone plans to extend this stylish interface to include application launching and web favorites - can it stack up?

When starting UltimatePhone for the first time, the product presents you an eight-page tutorial about some UltimatePhone features(unfortunately leaving out the core functions):

After closing the tutorial, UltimatePhone displays its regular start screen. The currently-empty squares in the middle are ‘photo containers’ - they can contain contacts, web sites and/or applications that are opened when the square is tapped(look at our DialByPhoto review for more info).

The squares can be aligned in a variety of styles:

Like with the regular phone app, typing letters allows you to browse contacts. Alternatively, a skinned dial pad is available:

Alternatively, voice dialing can be used if VoiceDialIt is installed(never was a fan of that feature…all hail the duffergile :))

The new feature in UltimatePhone is the web view - pushing the right nav key opens a tab where you can place your favorite web sites for one-click access:

Both web pages and call are handled by the native phone/web browsing applications. However, the product can now bind the launch button. It then replaces the standard launcher and allows you to launch applications by typing their name:

As always, the product’s look can be customized heavily - you can adjust the background picture, and choose overlays,…:

Unfortunately, international users can not use the included fonts - they lack accented,.. characters:

This review looked at DialByPhoto version 1.5007 on a Treo 680. The product needs about 3MB of RAM. It was exceptionally stable in the testing period, and the periodic slowdowns seen in DialByPhoto have also been reduced significantly.

In the end, UltimatePhone is not an application that should be rated on its merit or usage value - that simply is not the point of the app. It is intended to give your Treo a fresh new look - if that’s what you want…get it for 20$ and sacrifice the 3MB…

Palm’s Treo devices have obtained universal loathing among speed freaks as damn hard to overclock(aka it is impossible to speed them up without loosing some kind of functionality). ClieVideo’s latest release of LightSpeed(version 3.0) promises unlimited Treo support - can it stack up?

LightSpeed usually takes about 5secs to start up - it then displays a list of all applications in RAM:

Unlike most other overclocking tools, LightSpeed does not support the definition of a ’system-wide’ frequency. Instead, you must select all applications and tap the change button in order to set the CPU frequency:

The frequency setup itself happens in two stages -bus frequency and multiplier can be set up independently. The program automatically takes care that the processor’s frequency isn’t overclocked beyond 624MhZ:

Newly-installed programs always ‘default’ to the standard frequency:

The evaluation version of LightSpeed randomly pops up annoying nag screens when changing from application to application:

Last but not least, the program also displays a bit of info about the installed CPU…

So far so good - here are a few performance snapshots made with Speedy:

260×1.0 STABLE
Calc Test 0.66 sec
Mem Test 0.14 sec
Graph Test 0.37 sec
Total 1.17 sec ~256 MHz
1282 % / Palm Vx

156×4=624m; NOT STABLE
Calc Test 0.26 sec
Mem Test 0.21 sec
Graph Test 0.21 sec
Total 0.68 sec ~441 MHz
2206 % / Palm Vx

208×3.0 = 624, highest possible FSB, STABLE
Detail [now]

Calc Test 0.27 sec
Mem Test 0.16 sec
Graph Test 0.19 sec
Total 0.62 sec ~484 MHz
2419 % / Palm Vx

My Treo 680 has survived quite a few PalmPI stress tests at 624MhZ - the secret seems to lay in staying away from multipliers beyond 3.0.

Leaving all handling oddities aside, LightSpeed 3.0 does an excellent job at speeding up your Treo. My 680 has seen a 50% increase in performance without any other features being affected - if you feel like playing around with your Treo’s clock frequency, get this by all means!

A calibration is important for all devices which have a touchscreen. Because of calibration, the device can recognize where exactly you are tapping. In the most cases, the standard calibration program is sufficient for Palm PDAs. But if your Palm is older than 2 years, you often have problems with digitizers, sometimes even earlier. In my case, I calibrated my screen again and again, but the recognition of my touchscreen was very inaccurate. Especially the lower parts of the touchscreen were my main problem. I had almost no chance to tap onto the buttons in the lowest line (for example “Done”, “New” and “Delete” in the Note Pad). And sometimes, I couldn’t even finish the calibration.

So I had a look at PowerDigi, a calibration tool by Dmitry Grinberg (Palmpowerups.com). It uses special technologies and algorithms in order to make the recogntion of touches more accurate. Dmitry told me that even owners of Palms with cracked touchscreens may have a chance to use their device again.

There are three versions of PowerDigi (PowerDigi320, PowerDigi440 and PowerDigi480). The first version is for devices without Graffiti area (Tungsten C, Treo smartphones, …). The second one is for devices with a Graffiti area (Tungsten E2, Zire 72). The third will run on PDAs with a 320×480 screen (Palm TX, LifeDrive, …). The user interface of PowerDigi is very easy to use. There is one button for calibrating the screen and one to test the digitizer. Using the checkbox “Enabled”, you can enable PowerDigi’s calibration.

When you start it for the first time, you have to calibrate your screen before PowerDigi can be activated. There are three calibration modes. The first one (”fast”) needs 12 taps, the second one (”medium”) 35 taps and the third one (”accurate”) 70 taps. The more taps you make the more prober is the calibration. This is the first reason why PowerDigi can help you: Palm’s calibration tool only needs three tabs.

According to the developer, the “fast” or “medium” mode should be enough in the most cases. Only if your digitizer is almost completely broken or even cracked, you may need the “accurate” calibration.

Tapping the screen 30 times and more at special positions can be very annoying. But the developer had a good idea: if you tap at a wrong position, you can repeat this tap by pressing the down button. By pressing the up button, you can cancel the calibration. I also see the second pro of PowerDigi: Palm’s calibration tool will not save your calibration if it “thinks” that the position you tapped at is too far away from the target. But this may happen if your screen is old or broken. Then you even cannot exit the calibration. In my case, I either had to do a softreset or to tap 3 mms to the left of the target so that Palm’s tool accepted the calibration (which was, of course, very decalibrated). In contrast to that, PowerDigi accepts every tap you make, no matter where you tap and where the target is.

This may help owners of broken screens, but can also be dangerous. I tried this feature and made a completely wrong calibration (e. g. when the target was in the upper part of the screen, I tapped into the lower, ..) and in this case, you cannot use your screen because PowerDigi takes your wrong calibration. Even Palm’s calibration tool could not help. So I did a warm reset and deleted PowerDigi’s calibration data (PowerDiGi2 DB.pdb). After that, I could do a soft reset again and record a new calibration.

The image below shows some grids I made in Note Pad using a ruler and my stylus, the first one using Palm’s calibration, the three other ones using PowerDigi (and its three calibration modes):

As you can see, not a single line is exactly straight. This may be because of little inexactnesses during the calibration. But this is not a problem. I have used my Palm with enabled PowerDigi for some days now, and all my screen problems are gone. I can tap all buttons, even the small ones which appear in some programs. And also drawing detailed sketches is no problem anymore. When I draw a line and (later) want to continue it, I just need draw a new line starting on the old line’s end. Without PowerDigi, I couldn’t exactly reach the end of the old line - my Palm started drawing 2 mms above it.

In my opinion, PowerDigi is a must-have for all Palms with a screen that has calibration problems. Working with a decalibrated screen can be very annoying (I did it for more than one year now). According to the developer, it supports almost all Palms with OS5.x. The included install instruction manual mentions 25 different devices, but there may be support for other ones. So I recommend testing the program before buying. If it works on your device and you buy it, your screen problems should be solved. The $16.95 may sound a little bit expensive - but I think they are cheaper than buying a new digitizer. PowerDigi at Palmpowerups.

I must also praise the support for the program. Dmitry Grinberg was immediately availible on Google’s chat and could answer my questions about PowerDigi. He told me that he also offers support via e-mail, Yahoo, MSN and via phone.

Since Palm’s OTA update requires a blank SD card and my PC runs Windows XP, I decided to use the wired update process. I connected my Treo and started the updater - the Treo reset and the updater bickered about ‘no connection’.

A quick check of the error cause revealed that VersaMail was the culprit - thus, a hard reset became necessary. I used Resco Explorer to create the backup(the trial version suffices…altough this is truly a must-have app):

After a hard reset, the Treo stayed connected after the initial, update-induced soft reset. It then proceeded to download the firmware from the PC:

Once the firmware is on the device, the actual flasher is launched:

After that, the device needs to be reparametrized. I then restored my backup with Resco Explorer and went off to a meeting…no problems here:

Overall, I currently can’t report any incompatibilities or other problems with my Treo. The device is as reliable and as fast as it has been before; all applications still are compatible. As for battery life, my Treo never had any battery issues; Oliver will have more information on the topic soon!

P.s. The device did NOT get the Centro’s IM tool that apparently was included in AT&T’s update! This is a bit strange…as the unpatched version I was provided worked so well on my Treo 680 that OZ’s legal department felt like sending me some false threats(apparently, the guys didn’t quite understand the concept of press freedom)…

RNS::’s HiLauncher was the first application that attempted to bring a Windows-like start menu to Palm OS handhelds. HiLauncher recently was updated to version 3.4 - let’s see how well the program has survived the bites from the teeth of time.

When starting up HiLauncher for the first time, you can either make the program auto-generate a menu or start from scratch:

The program’s main screen is well-done; each menu item has a number indicating the sequence in which it should be looked at.

Setting up the trigger is very easy - binding the program onto the Treo’s launcher key unfortunately disables the list of recently-used programs.

Once the trigger is defined, the menu must be created. HiLauncher allows nested menus; each item can have its own foreground and background colors:

Menu items can do a variety of things - dial numbers, trigger actions, display information….and, last but not least, launch applications. The images below show a few of the possible settings:

Unfortunately, the ‘last-used’ icon is not as smart as it should be - it’s name does not change, and multiple instances cannot be cascaded in order to create a ‘last-used’ menu:

After the basic configuration is done, the menu can be tested:

HiLauncher has a few configuration options that allow you to customize the menu’s appearance:

This review looked at version 3.4 of the program on a Treo 680. HiLauncher must be installed to RAM and needs about 150k of free space.

In the end, HiLauncher remains what it has been in the ages of the IIIc - a super-solid, stable and fast application from an experienced Palm OS house. While the application lacks a few features found in competitor’s apps(e.g. plugin support, background images), the truly insane speed achieved by lean, no-frills code definitely is worth it. Free trial available; full version costs 20$ with free updates for a lifetime!

In the beginnings of mobile computing, password databases were utilitarian, light and bare-bones(e.g.). Eventually, companies added features like desktop synchronization and fancier user interfaces in order to differentiate themselves from their competition. SPB Software then set a new standard with SPB Wallet, a program that combined a “real” database(aka more than one field) with secure encryption and beautiful looks(review at our sister site TamsPPC). Resco’s IDGuard is set to trump them all - can it stack up?

While most password managers are limited to a single database, this one can use more than one database. This can be useful for “sharing” passwords with others on the same handheld - just create a private and a shared database, and keep the private database’s password to yourself:

A database’s contents can be displayed in various forms - the images below show a few of the hundreds of variations the flexible rendering engine can generate:

Text entered while the application is running acts as a filter - this initially confused me a bit, as the area at the bottom is not a text field and can not be focussed. Tapping around doesn’t help one bit - type blindly and the “field” shall accept your input:

IDGuard continues the database mantra pioneered by SPB. Data is stored in “objects” containing various data fields - each object has an associated “template” that determines what fields it contains. Our evaluation version contained a few templates:

Creating new templates is very easy:

The program can lock itself when idle; and can import existing data from various data sources; data can be exported to HTML, XML and CVS formats.

Essentially, we now have a fully-functional password manager. But IDGuard wouldn’t be a Resco app if it didn’t have a zinger feature…let’s all welcome binary attachments. Binary attachments is an incredibly useful feature that allows you to protect files found on your memory card by attaching them to an object(which takes a bit of timer as the files must be compressed):

Once the files are attached to a card, they are stored in an encrypted form. Tapping on them “beams” them into the application that’s set up as their default handler - this, unfortunately, could become a security issue if the viewer application isn’t as secure:

This review looked at a beta version of IDGuard on a Treo 680. The version was designated as IDGuard 1.00 and needs approximately 400k of RAM. The application was perfectly stable in my tests; however, Resco advises customers not to save important data in it yet as the database formats may change once more before release, making all stored data unreadable…

In the end, IDGuard calms my paranoia…data theft experiences like the one I had a few days ago should now be a matter of the past. Our friends ship an excellent password manager; and then proceed to completely 0wn all competitors with its binary attachment feature. If you are willing to accept the slightly steep learning curve, get this as soon as it ships!

TealPoint has released a new application in its beta section. TealScan shows information about your system, memory and helps you diagnosing problems. Currently it has four tabs:

Status

System information (battery, memory, phone signal). The “system” button shows another window with additional information about the operating system, CPU, Flash ID, … The “storage” button leads to a fatal exception and “BG Proc” shows apps that are active in background.

Scan

This section seems to be inactive. Once completed, it will scan the device for special issues. At the moment it shows only “MORE COMING SOON”; a tap on the “Scan” button causes a soft reset.

Maintain

Here you can probably set up tasks which should be performed regularly. But it is also inactive right now.

Update

This seems to be something similar to TrackerDog. Using the internet, it checks if your applications are up-to-date. On my device, it shows only one app which is too old. This could be because their update database is still small.

You can download the second alpha version which crashes very often and is many missing features. But if TealPoint continues developing, it could become a very interesting application for every Palm user!

Peter Thorstenson(known for tejpWriter and thumbboardDA) has provided us with yet another open-source tool. As usual, it is centered around text entry…and replaces Palm’s classic keyboard dialog with a significantly improved one offering a bigger clipboard, capitalization support and even macro support:

Peter himself describes the application as following:

Release Notes
tapboardDA 1.00

This is the first release of tapboardDA. It’s an attempt to not only to give you “just a keyboard”, but a complete editor environment packed into a DA.

Features:

• User configurable key layout.
• 39 macros of max 45 characters each.
• Enhanced mode.
• Ergonomic key click on key down.
• Display showing character position, words, field size, time, and battery.
• Automatic field focus
• Smart Word Select
• 32kb Clipboard with Undo
• Scrollbar
• Toolbar with clipboard functions, case functions and exit.
• Four Built-in fonts.

A quick test of tapBoardDA on a Treo 680 and a Palm TX showed no anomalies - the program seems to work well.

tapBoardDA can be downloaded here - please let us know about any issues you encounter!