Tag: Handhelds

If you are a fan of mysteries (and if you aren’t, you should be), and have a Palm, WinCE, Psion, or even Apple Newton handheld device, then HandHeldCrime.Com is an absolute must have.

Published twice monthly, HandHeldCrime.Com features short stories, news, and reviews relating to the mystery genre. You can access the newsletter through Avantago, by downloading a Palm Docs formatted file. You can also choose to receive each new issue as an attachment to an e-mail message.

The other day I mentioned how much I liked the outlining features of Keynote. Another outlining program that I find indispensable for maintaining my web sites is Aportis’ BrainForest Professional.

BrainForest Professional is certainly not the best outliner out there (in fact if you’re looking for an outliner for your desktop, I’d strongly recommend against buying it — there are much better programs out there), but it does have one big advantage — its available for the PC, the Mac and, most importantly, the Palm platform.

I use it as a souped-up “To Do” list of all the (literally) hundreds of tasks that have to get done eventually on my web site, and track the various things that have been accomplished so I can keep track of the goals I set.

The desktop version will export to HTML which is also helpful. I uploaded a recent version of my web site outline to as an example of how I use it to manage tasks.

ZDNet is reporting that in just a few weeks, Handspring will announce two new PDAs including a color version of the Visor:

First color Visor
Handspring’s first PDA with a color screen is the $449 Visor Prism. Palm released its color IIIc earlier this year, but the display was limited to 256 colors. The Prism will have 16-bit color screen generating 65,536 colors and will be pushed as a game player. It will be bundled with at least one game.

I’ve been wanting a Visor since they came out, but held out for a color PDA to replace my Palm IIIx. I wasn’t very impressed with the Palm IIIC’s 256 color display, but if Handspring can deliver a 16-bit color Palm OS machine at $450, I’ll be in line to buy the first one.

O’Reilly Networks publisher Dale Dougherty has a long review of the iPAQ — Compaq’s PocketPC handheld that is getting rave reviews across the board and is, as a result, in short supply. Dougherty loves the color screen and the ability to do a lot of things with the iPAQ that simply cannot be done at the moment (at least easily or without spending a lot of money) with the Palm.

More importantly, Dougherty wonders if the central idea that made the Palm a hit is getting a bit worn at the edges today:

The insight behind the Palm was to do a lot less: just focus on being a PIM. However, much has happened since the Newton and even the Palm were first introduced. While the PC has remained the same, we have seen a proliferation of small devices, including PDAs, but also cell phones, pagers, digital cameras, MP3 players, digital voice recorders, Gameboys, and specialty reading devices such as the Rocketbook. There seems to be an opportunity — a new niche — to begin combining some of these functions in a single device.

Well said. One of the devices I am really interested in are the e-book readers, and I’m going to have to resist the temptation to buy Franklin’s E-Bookman when it comes out. I use a lot of book-length reference materials that are usually in PDF or HTML form that I’d like to carry on a handheld. I cannot imagine reading a novel on something like the Rocketbook or E-Bookman, but I can see stuffing a 1,000 page reference manual in there rather than having to tote my laptop or, even worse, a physical copy of the book.

And Dougherty is right that the Palm has not kept up. The screen on my Palm IIIx is good enough for reading short articles from AvantGo while I am stuck in line at the bank, but is simply not suitable for more serious reading tasks. On the other hand, buying an iPAQ is probably investing in dead technology since although the iPAQ may be a great machine, the PocketPC platform as a whole seems to be just as dead in the water as Windows CE was (ironically one of the barriers here is that several of the applications I rely on with my Palm do not have Windows CE/Pocket PC versions).

When I needed a lot of different materials at hand during a meeting or speech I used to carry around these large 3″ ring binders. Now I typically take my laptop. It would be nice to shrink that further and put it all in the same handheld where I have my schedule, pictures of my daughter, and a computer chess program, but it looks like I’m still going to have to wait awhile longer for a good all-purpose handheld.

Okay, I probably could live without it, but the Palm IIIx is one of the few gadgets I have actually ended up using on a regular basis rather than relegating to some desk drawer. The Palm is successful because it sticks to doing its core functionality very well.

I bought my Palm, for example, largely to replace the various paper-based calendar systems I have used over the years. If you are a hardcore Franklin or DayTimer fanatic like I was, the Palm is a godsend. With the Palm I can carry several years worth of appointments, along with all the personal contact information I need — all in a package that weighs only a few ounces. Compare that to the huge Franklin planners I used to tote around (and have you ever tried to do a quick search for specific appointments over an entire year in a Franklin planner? The Palm wil spit that back at you in seconds).

Recently I started using my Palm for some of my smaller database needs. I have databases filled with my CD and book collections, for example, as well as my Lego want-list. I also use it on occasion for word processing. But for the most part I stick with the basic organizer functions.

Considering the model I have now retails for well under $200, the Palm is a steal.