Just a quick note to all that Canuck PDA is now off of Blogspot's server. We are now completely accessable from http://canuck-pda.ca
Enjoy!
We've switched servers
10 years of Palm and still going strong!
Happy birthday Palm! It's been 10 years since the original Palm Pilot and what a ride it's been. Here's hoping for another ten!
Journal of a TX Upgrade
I've upgraded! Below are some journal entries I made along the way, chronicling the ups and downs of my switch to a Palm TX. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to contact me.
Before buying:
I had only bought a Zire 72 a little over a year, so I had no real reason to upgrade. However, the T3 and T5 both had that high-res plus screen that kept tempting me. It wasn't until the TX came out that I decided I would get a new Palm. And while my Zire 72 is still current in the Palm marketplace, the TX had so much more to offer. The TX's sleek design and dark outer shell first made me give that Palm a second look. And the wifi, bluetooth, widescreen and memory seemed fantastic. I personally have no use Zire 72's built-in camera (it doesn't exactly take the best pictures anyway). With the amazing features of the TX, I began to have some doubts it would live up to expectations. Some things are just too good to be true...
Waiting for the TX to arrive:
So here's the deal. I purchased a new-in-box Palm TX off of eBay for approx. $306 CAD ($270 USD). The auction ended on Feb. 5 and due to various different factors I paid via money order, which I sent out the next day. The seller received the payment on Feb. 14 and I waited until Mar. 3 before I recieved the item. While I was waiting, I began contemplating if I had done the right thing buying a TX when I already have a Zire 72. I know a lot of you people reading this probably consider me a fool for even getting a second current-model Palm. However, the money's spent and there's no going back. I've been reading some more reviews about the TX which give me some concern. Like reports of unresponsive hard buttons, slow Blazer loading, crashes, oversensitive DIA, and mostly program incompatibilities (such is the case with many of the backup utilities). However, I've heard far more positive feedback than negative, especially related to stability of the OS compare to other Palms, like the T5 and LifeDrive. We'll see...
After arrival:
Well it's finally here. After many different incidents and over a month of waiting, I've finally received my new Palm TX.
I opened the box and found the usual stuff, software CD, documentation, sync cable, charger, flip case, and then the device itself. I attached the flip case/flap, which was pretty stiff and to this day won't go completely closed without something on top of it. I'm pretty sure the stiffness will wear down as time goes by. I then plugged my new TX into the charge cable and began to wait for the battery to charge. In the meantime I decided to install Palm Desktop onto my computer from the included disk. Installation from several time, but eventually worked out for me.
By the time I finally got to use my device, I was a little apprehensive to say the least.
The highres plus screen was an amazing difference compared to my Zire 72. The colour on the TX seemed slightly washed out compare to the the Zire 72, but still amazing nonetheless. The screen had a slight spotlight effect in which the edges fade a bit. The ability to collapse the DIA and rotate at a moment's notice really enchanced the experience. I also found that graffitti on the Palm TX is very slow. Now know a lot of users out there just love the one-handed-navigation, but personally I find it very tacky and now very well implimented. In many programs the blue halo is cut off by the edge of the screen. I hate how the home button brings you to the built-in rom-based launcher and I especially hate that whole Favourites program. I know a lot of people complained about a lack of a Home button in the bottom status bar. I don't mind the Find button, but I does slow things down a bit when the DIA is collapsed and I have to press the hard button. I'm picky, I know. The other thing I noticed is that while wi-fi is really fast to setup and connect with, Blazer is terribly slow to launch and isn't especially well at handling complex webpages. It seems that after about 30 minutes of wi-fi, the TX gets considerable warm. Also, it surprised me how long lasting the battery was. I could easily get for several hours on wifi and watch a movie in a single charge. As well, contratry to earlier reviews I've read, the TX seems pretty fast, although reset take much longer than a Zire 72.
Settled in:
Well, I've had the TX for about two weeks now and I've found software solutions to almost all of my earlier complaints. I've used the Home button program by Mobile-Stream to replace the find button in the status bar with a Home button. I used ButtonsEx to change the hard button configuration and now have the Home hard button going to ZLauncher, which I now use religiously. After digging through various 1src forum pages, I came accross the famous Netfront browser. Nefront, with the small Clie fonts installed provides a great internet experience. Then I went to Dmitry's PalmPowerups website. He himself owns a TX and has fixed many of it's flaws. It install a freeware of his called Graffitti 1.999, which sped up my TX's graffitti input considerably. I then installed his BrightnessFix.TX which now allows me to bring the brightness all the way off. I then installed MaxX and my Netfront internet exprience increased tenfold. Landscape Netfront truely is the ultimate! I installed severall other of Dmitry's programs, including PowerClip, UDMH, warpSpeed, skinUI and UnCache. I made a modified version of Cobalt White that has custom commandbar icons, darker text field lines and is a version 8 skin, meaning no more one-handed-navigation, which really made me happy. UnCache really sped up my resets and reduced the number of resets I've had. As for backup, the only program I trust with this NVFS device is Resco Backup, which I've had no problems with. I was honestly surprised to find out that the Targus Universal Wireless Keyboard that I bought almost two years ago works flawlessly on my TX. I've also installed DALauncher along with DBCache and it's DA so I can clear my DBCache in any program. Clearing the DBCache seems to speed up the system immensly.
There are many other programs I use on my TX, especially since there is 100MB user-accessable RAM, so I'll just highlight a few. In terms of games, I have to say Bejewled, Bike or Die, MicroQuad, and Warfare Inc. are my current favourites. For multimedia, I use the built-in Pocket Tunes for music, GrxView for my images, and TCPMP for my videos. I've got all the plug-ins installed, so I can play almost any video (with the exception of Windows Media files, grr). Videos with TCPMP in landscape in breathtaking. And unlike with my Zire 72, TCPMP is able to remove the 2pixel white border in fullscreen mode. Absolutely fantastic. I also frequently use 4cast, because of it's ZLauncher plugin, and, well, it's simplicity. As a student, I also find that the program Due Yesterday comes in handy quite often. And for office documents, I stick with the included Documents To Go, along with the free program PalmPDF. Great combionation and together with my Targus keyboard, I'm able to do fair amount of work on my TX.
My Conclusion:
In conclusion, I have definately found an amazing Palm, worthy to replace my Zire 72. I honestly don't miss the Zire 72's camera as much as I thought I would, especially since I have a cameraphone. I find the wifi, large screen, mega memory, low price, and overall stability to be an amazing combination. The TX is definately a winner and it has overwhelmingly exceeded my expectations. I recommend it to anybody looking for a great Palm at a low price.
A Canadian company brings Skype to the Palm
From my friends at PalmDubai:
I believe Palm community is the only community with running petition for Skype PalmOS support, and finally, a Canadian based company (not endorsed or certified by Skype Technologies S.A.); EQO Communications is about to make it happen.
EQO Communications new solution, Mobile Instant Messaging for Skype, is based on Skype API, and it's currently support more than 40 models of J2ME-capable features phones, Treo users have to wait for the beta release of the PalmOS version.
"In response to tremendous customer demand, we have accelerated our plans to release mobile instant messaging," said Ian Andrew Bell, EQO Communications' Vice President for Marketing and Alliances. "Skype users are consistently requesting this key feature and we are privileged to be the first company to bring it to them."
Mobile Instant Messaging for Skype features;
:: Skype calling,
:: Contact list sync,
:: Start multiparty chat sessions,
:: Incoming Skype call management,
:: Check the status of their buddies,
:: Send and receive IM to other Skype users via mobilephones.
"With Skype contacts accessible for calling and messaging on users' mobile phones, Skype itself can and will become a more relevant tool in both business and personal communications," said Bill Tam, CEO of EQO Communications. "As we continue on our path to deliver online communities like Skype to as many handsets as possible we think we can play a major part in their growth and relevance."
"The growth of online communities and social networks has been staggering, but their success is limited so long as they remain tied to the PC," said Carl Ford, VP, Content and Community Development for Pulver.com. "Extending presence and availability to mobile phones is a no-brainer and EQO has a bright future enhancing the relevance of these communities in peoples' lives."
Here a Treo, there a Treo
First there were rumors of a Windows Mobile-based Treo. Those rumors came true, but will the recent barrage of 'Lowrider', 'Hollywood' and 700p images and rumors emerge into reality?
I hope so.
Treo 700p
'Hollywood'
'Lowrider'
Mobifest - A mobile device film festival launched by Palm Canada
"
Call for Entries at www.mobifest.ca."
From Jake on the Toronto Palm User Group.
Heros Return with Gold Around Their Necks
With 13 medals under their belt, the Canadian Paralympians returned home to Canada after the 2006 Paralympics in Turin, Italy.
Not many people follow, or even know about the Paralympics. In fact, the Paralympics are almost forgotten by most people after the main Olympic events are done and over with. However, for a certain croud, these men and women are our heros.
Winning 5 gold medals, our Paralympic athletes placed 6th overall in the medal standings. Our 13 medals may not compare to Russia's 33, but we reached our minimum goal of 10 medals and then some.
Although our Men's Team Canada hockey team didn't make it to the podium, our sledge hockey boys brought home the gold dropping a 3-0 decision to Norway. Even our men's curling team made first place and sang their song as the Canadian flag was raised (well, Mr. Cormack tried to sing the anthem, but it must have been hard to with tears in his eyes).
So CONGRADULATIONS to our Canadian Paralympians, and welcome home.
FlyZip discontinues all their Palm products
It's sad to see them go. They made amazing programs which people use to this day. They will be missed.
VoIP Finally Coming to Palm OS!
VOIP for Palm OSVOIP, or Voice Over IP (pronounced 'voyp'), is a new technology that lets you make phone calls over the Internet. When you make a VoIP phone call, you use a normal touch-tone telephone and dial the normal phone number just as you would any other time. The people on the other end (usually) can't tell that whether you are calling from a traditional telephone or a VoIP phone. The main difference is that the phone call travels over the Internet rather than through the local phone company's wires. mobiVoip takes it to next step allowing you to use your PDA and make VoIP calls http://ww.mobivoip.net/
The MantraGroup is currently working on stabilizing the product and adding additional features for mobiVoIP including background operation. A list of currently implimented features can be found here http://mantragroup.com/forums/showthread.php?p=212. Listed below are the features available with mobiVoIP 0.9.2:
* Ability to make PSTN calls over IP!
* Caller-ID [via SIP]
* Profiles Settings Dialog [for configuring user Account]
* Secure Account Authentication using SIP MD5 Authentication
* Network Settings Dialog [for IP address related settings]
* Automatic IP resolution [via STUN servers]
* Detecting Dynamic IP [when STUN is disabled]
* Codecs supported: G.711 and GSM 6.10 FR - choose your codec based on your connection speed! [GSM 6.10 FR for low speed connections > 60kbps, G711 for high speed connections > 160kbps]
* Call Timer [should be Enabled from Debug Prefs]
* Audio Configuration Dialog [use to save your bandwidth with voice activity detection]
* Calibration Test - estimate your environment noise and use for noise suppression!
* Noise Suppression - a great feature to save your bandwidth usage - use your connection only to transmit your voice!
* Setting for duration to Keep transmitting after silence [specified in multiples of 20mS]
* Dial, Hang-up & Redial - now with newer and larger button!
* Touch-tones [DTMF]
* Mute Speaker/Mic
* Lookup Phonebook - Dial right from your contacts!
* Bandwidth Test - a simple echo test to get an estimate of your bandwidth! [latnecy = time to hear your voice back/2; (as your voice makes a round trip)]
* Recommended Connections - WiFi, Bluetooth, EV-DO
* Treo 600/650 extras - Easy five-way navigation
* non-Treo extras - No worries of network disconnection on device entering sleep mode
The company has not yet announced a release date or pricing info.
Dataviz Documents to Go 8 Update
From PalmInfoCenter.com:
DataViz today released a free update for Documents To Go version 8. Documents To Go Premium Edition for Palm OS is a mobile Office suite that allows users to open, view, edit and create native Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint files on a Palm OS handheld or smartphone. The Premium Edition also includes support for native Adobe PDF files, spell checking in word processing documents, Excel-like charting, pictures and password-protected files.
This update to v8.003 includes support for:
- Security-enabled PDF files, password-protected PDF files Support for RC4 (40-bit & 128-bit) encrypted PDF files and attachments. Encrypted PDF files can now be decrypted and viewed on the handheld or smartphone. Similar to the user-experience on the desktop, password-protection support ensures only those individuals with the proper password are able to access confidential or proprietary content within protected PDF files.
- eFax.com PDF format
This web-based service allows customers to receive faxes as PDF e-mail attachments. Now, in addition to MyFax.com, Documents To Go customers can access faxes received from the eFax.com service.
- Support for faxes received as PDFs from eFax.com and RightFax.com
- Chinese character support for native PDFs
- Various bug fixes, including some Word Wrap bugs (in PDF To Go)
- Minor speed optimizations in PDF To Go
Treo 650 as a USB Modem
From PalmInfocenter:
Is your Bluetooth DUN crippled? Or do you not have bluetooth on your laptop and you'd like to use your Treo 650 as a wireless modem? USB Modem is a new application from Mobile Stream that enables the Palm Treo 650 to be used as a USB modem for your desktop or laptop computer. It currently works with Windows XP and the developer recommends you try it first to confirm that it will work with your mobile operator. GPRS/EDGE and CDMA Treo 650s are supported. The program retails for $24.95 and there is a free trial available.
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