TamsPalm - the Palm OS Blog

Palm’s recently-released VersaMail 4 for Centro can be installed onto a Treo 680 with ease - I tried it, and must urge you not to do so!

At the first glance, VersaMail 4 is a smooth upgrade. All data is retained, the program runs smoothly and the new background send/receive facility really works a-ok.

In case you never sync your emails with your desktop, update to version 4 - you have little to loose and gain the aforementioned new feature. If you use the hotsync conduit though; DON’T DO IT. Once VersaMail 4 is on the Treo, you can kiss synchronization goodbye.

Centro owners - can you hotsync VersaMail email accounts with the PC using the software shipping on your Centro’s CD? Please let us know!

Once again(on the occasion of a few emails from OZ’s legal department): we will NOT provide you with IM.prc! Please do not post further comments asking for the file - we will not respond!

A insider source inside of Palm has provided us with a binary file called IM.prc containing the Palm Centro’s IM client. Initial tests with a Treo 680 confirm the compatibility of the application:

IM supports AIM, MSN and Yahoo! messaging services - ICQ and Skype aren’t available as of now:

The online help states that the program supports the adding of contacts and background mode - making the application a viable alternative to Mundu or Gizmo.

Meanwhile, all else I can say is that the application arrived in a 1.5MB PRC file called IM.prc. Further testing will commence as soon as I am back in Vienna!

It has been well documented on how to get PalmOne’s file manager Files working on devices other than the the Tungsten T5 and the Lifedrive, but it’s been a little harder getting VersaMail to cooperate with Files. With Files installed, if you try to save an attachment to your expansion card with VersaMail, most likely your Palm TX will crash. To stop this from happening, you need to delete two files in your TX’s RAM.

MMSDCARD
MMSDCARD_enUS (or whatever language localization file you have)

You then need to replace those two files with the same files, except from a Treo 680. So install from a Treo 680

MMSDCARD
MMSDCARD_enUS (or whatever language localization file you need)

Soft reset your device, and you now should be able to save attachments to your expansion card through the PalmOne Files interface!

What do you think?

p.s. This works with Files 1.0 and 2.0!

Margi’s Presenter-to-Go was a very interesting add-on for Palm OS handhelds. It allowed these machines to output data to a monitor or beamer attached via an analog VGA port. However, the manufacturer gave up on the product some time ago…and the drivers are said to be incompatible with the LifeDrive.

Anyways, 1src user Caitoz reports a way that made the Presenter-to-Go work on his LifeDrive. Get the full scoop here:
http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128551

We don’t have access to a LiveDrive and thus couldn’t test this approach. If you manage to try it out, please let us know about your results!

From the moment the first NVFS devices hit the market, users and developers alike wished for bigger DB caches. Soon, developers found out that removing unneeded applications from the machine’s ROM increased the DB cache - and so-called custom ROM’s began to spread like wildfire(in fact, they spread so much that the Treo 680 includes a warning about them).

While Treo 650 users could customize their ROM’s for quite some time, Treo 680 users can now follow suit. A few TreoCentral users posted a few custom ROM’s complete with instructions - and users are already reporting successes!

Get the full scoop here:
http://discussion.treocentral.com/showthread.php?t=144028

If you take the plunge, please tell us how you fared!

After having received a few inquiries about this, PalmOne’s Note Pad is NOT included into the Palm Treo 680’s ROM per se. So, a hard-reset Treo does NOT include this application.

However, the instructions outlined in Note Pad for Treo 600 also work for Palm’s latest GSM Treo, the 680(tested) and will probably also work for the Treo 755p.

Please let us know how you fare!

1src users have reported success with ROM nicking VersaMail from a 700p onto a Palm TX.

Full instructions and a list of the needed files are available here:
http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=128082

PalmInfoCenter has published a howto on moving the Palm Treo 680’s slot driver to the Palm Treo 700p in order to enable SDHC support on it:

http://www.palminfocenter.com/news/9166/howto-enable-sdhc-card-functionality-on-the-treo-700p/

Commenters report success on Treo 650’s, too - what about trying it out and telling us how you fared?

EDIT: Don’t try it on PDA devices if you don’t have a backup. It was tested on two PDAs (TX and TC) where it caused a hardreset / reset loop !!

Alexander Gratz just told me that you need two extra files called CompressionPng and CompressionZlib for beaming notes. Thanks, Alex - it now works
When I got my Treo 600, the first thing I missed was a freehand sketch application. While third party products like BugMe were available, buying those for a secondary device is overkill imho. So, I decided to rom nick a bit - and tada, here is a Treo 600 running Note Pad:

Accomplishing this feat was not difficult - start FileZ on a OS5 machine with Note Pad(I used a Palm Tungsten T3), and beam the following files over:

• Note Pad
• Note Pad_enUS

After that, return to the launcher and enjoy!

Technorati tags:
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Treo
Treo 600

Many users of old Palms, e. g. T3 or TC are interested in getting background images in their launcher and calendar, and contact pictures. On 1src.com you find the files, and they work on a TC. Here is the post with the download link:

http://www.1src.com/forums/showpost.php?p=896524&postcount=71

These files belong to the library:

• CPM Library
• ImageUtils-PIUL
• ImgFile
• IMUMath-PIUM
• LocalReceive
• PalmPhotoLib
• PalmPhotoLib_enUS
• PhotoConvert
• PhotoManager

Media application: Photos-Foto, Photos-Foto_enUS (version 1.0 from Zire 72. Older versions doesn’t support the image library, newer versions may need other files).
Calendar: Calendar-PDat, Calendar-PDat_enUS, CategoryLib-catL, CategoryLib-catL_enUS (version 1.1 from Zire 31 / 72. Older versions doesn’t support the image library, newer versions may need other files).
Contacts: Contacts-PAdd, Contacts-PAdd_enUS (version 1.1 from Zire 31 / 72. Older versions doesn’t support the image library, newer versions may need other files).
Launcher: Launcher, Launcher_enUS (version 4.5.2P ??? from Zire 31 / 72. Older versions doesn’t support the image library, newer versions may need other files).

Hotsyncing these files is no good idea, copy them to your card and then into RAM. Some files (ImgFile) even need a special file manager (ZLauncher, McFile, PalmInsiderPro???), e. g. FileZ cannot copy them.

What do you think?

UPDATE: Sorry if we forgot to write, this should work on the most Palm(OS) devices. Just test it and write us a comment!

The Fossil WristPDA has 8 megabytes of RAM - this was extremely much a few years ago(in the days of the Palm m5xx series, for example). However, the WristPDA does not support VFS - so, Palm OS applications that demand an SD or MMC card can not work on the WristPDA. Installing a RAM disk application doesnt work either, as the WristPDA lacks the Palm OS expansion manager - but Alexander Gratz and I managed to fix that up!

The first step involves installing the VFS manager from a Palm OS 4 PDA. Get the following files(for an english WristPDA), and install them:

• Card Info.prc(optional)
• Card Info_enUS.prc(optional)
• ExpansionMgr.prc
• ExpansionMgr_enUS.prc
• FATFS.prc

Afterwards, you need a RAM Disk aplication. RAM Disk applications snatch up a bit of RAM, and then make the Palm OS believe this area of RAM is a memory stick or SD card. We decided to use RAM Disk from Handwatch, and it worked really well - the picture below shows Card Info running on the WristPDA:

The launcher supports launching programs from card, however, it does not support moving files over, etc. Use a freeware like FileZ to accomplish that, and all should be done!

People who switch to the Fossil WristPDA from a Palm branded device will probably lack the freehand NotePad application. But this can be fixed easily!

Beam the following files over from a Palm V with the OS4 upgrade-a m500/m125 shouldn’t be a problem either. Install FileZ on the source machine to beam the files-using the internal launcher won’t work! You will need about 150k of memory for the installation, Note Pad gobbles up a bit more than 60k after installation!

• Note Pad
• Note Pad_enUS

After that, the WristPDA ran Notepad just like a Palm V

BTW1; better stick to an OS4 box. The OS5 apps won’t work imho!
BTW2;Jot should be disabled before taking a note!

PalmOne’s latest handheld offerings include a funky app called Favourites. It allows you to present web sites, applications-and with some trickery even files in an attractive way.

Anyways, this app is available on T5, E2 and other handhelds. However, since an E2 is the only thing readily available to your fellow author, this focusses on it. Getting the files over is a no-brainer! Just use FileZ to beam the following files over:

Favorites-Fave
Overlay, e.g. Favorites-Fave_enUS for english handhelds

After that, the cookie is eaten. While you still don’t have access to background images(coming soon) or file links(you need Files for that), Favourites now allows you to list apps and web sites(works with WebPro 3.5). As an added bonus, it also works well on OS4 handhelds like an upgraded Palm V or a WristPDA.

This photo shows Favourites running on a T3:

Here is a 3gp video.

This one wasn’t too hard. Please let us know if it worked out!

Most of you should known Clie Organizer, the PIM suite of the Clie TH55 and VZ90. It’s well-known because of its singularly features: icons, colors, and drawing sketches into the Calendar. It was very difficult to get this running on other Sony devices, e. g. UX 50. But some people reported their success although it wasn’t very stable. But nobody got it working on a Palm device.

Some people said it would be impossible due to hardware differences, Handheld Engine and so on.

Now I tried it again on my Tungsten C with the files from SonyClie.org. With a special modded version of MakeMeClie, I could get Clie Organizer working (lets say 10% working):

(sorry for the bad image quality but at the moment I have no other digital camera.)

• Calendar part: Clie Organizer starts with the Calendar tab. I can use almost everything (except of free notes and changing the font). When I try to exit Clie Organizer, to switch to another tab or to start another app the device crashes.
• App launcher: works almost 100%, but it is unstable.
• When you tap on another tab, either nothing happens or the device crashes. When you tap on “To Do List” a dialogue appears “needs library”.

So, I think Clie Organizer could work (almost??) 100% on a Palm device if you have patch some files and / or you have the right libraries. I think this is an interesting app and I will continue working on it!

What do you think?