NYCDAUG 2000 Meeting Minutes & Reviews
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Meeting Minutes for Oct. 19, 2000

NYCDAUG's President, Peter M. Fine, started the meeting by mentioning that this was the last meeting that will be held at the Apple Marketing center. Peter thanked Apple for all their years of support and especially to Apple New York's Ann Hahn. Next month, the meeting will tentatively be hosted at J&R Computer World on a date yet to be confirmed.

Our normal Question and Answer session followed after the introduction which covered areas such as "must have's" for the Palm Pilot: Action Names Datebook, Jot Character Recognizer, Jfile Pro/FM Sync and Aportis.Doc were some of the items mentioned. Also discussed: Think DB, Recharging batteries on the Visor, backing up a Palm device and battery life while using the Minstrel wireless modem.

Vindigo's Joe Cohen and Patricia Han came to show off their product which uses desktop or wireless synchronization and provides Palm users access to restaurant, movie theatre and shopping information on the Palm device. They offer the service for many cities now and are expanding to Europe as well. After the demo, they handed out free Palm V covers with the Vindigo logo on it. 

Peter then demonstrated Action Names DateBook by Iambic which is a contact manager and scheduler for the Palm device. It is an interface changer and enhancer and does not change the data itself which is a strong advantage as the built in applications are not affected in any negative way.

Ron Gerald briefly demonstrated ActiveSky Media Player which allows users to play video clips on the Palm device.

Meeting Minutes for Sept. 28, 2000

NYCDAUG's President, Peter M. Fine, started off the meeting by welcoming the members and first time visitors and reviewing the purpose of the monthly meetings as well as requesting (once again) assistance in providing reviews, demonstrations and redesign for our web site.

The normal Question and Answer period followed which covered such topics as synchronizing Palm devices with Microsoft Outlook, translation software between Palm OS and Pocket PC devices and other software applications.

Peter started the demonstrations with a quick review of Compaq's iPAQ PDA and Hewlett Packard's Jornada 548 PDA both of which use Microsoft's Pocket PC operating system. He also showed us some of the accessories that can be used with these devices including Compact Flash cards and wireless connectivity with the use of a cell phone. Peter added that his induction and exposure into this platform was made possible by Microsoft as he recently attended a Pocket PC conference at their offices in Redmond, Washington.

Afterwards, he demonstrated the following:

Several new styli for both Palm and Pocket PC devices including StylusQ by Simple Com Inc.

Pocket Vineyard for Palm by Neohand (Wine record keeping, food and wine pairings, vintage chart and glossary for the wine connoisseur.

ShowTimes which will download movies and times to the Palm device.

Documents to Go 2.005 by DataViz which will transfer various doc file types onto the Palm

Omnisky Wireless Modem and service which gives your PDA access to email and some portal sites.

Meeting Minutes for June 15, 2000 - courtesy of Savas Kyprianides

NYCDAUG President Peter M. Fine, started off the meeting promptly at 6:30 PM with a Question and Answer session.

Q&A

Zip code programs were asked about. We discussed the Palm OEM Stowaway Keyboard, available at various places. The Handspring version is in the works and will be available soon. There is no passthrough on the Stowaway, a feature found on Landware's GoType keyboard. Palm Hotsync Server runs on NT. Someone asked about a wired modem for the Palm V, which is the Palm V modem.

A problem was expressed regarding an installation of Palm Desktop that adversely affected data. Entries of new users were gone in one computer but appeared in another. Apparently, upon installing the Palm Desktop, a preference was automatically set that new users' data were added as "private" files. On a PC, a suggestion was to type the word in registry and hit find to locate what it takes to repair same.

There was a posting of a warning of some Palm virus. Symantec is developing protection software for it.

New member discounts are on our web pages.

Palm IIIse - problem expressed where time is current, but the date stayed the same.
No answers on the listserv. Call Palm. Try to upgrade the OS as a solution

DEMOS

Peter demonstrated the Rand McNally Streetfinder with GPS- Macs need Virtual PC. Peter advises getting Connectix Virtual PC to do all the stuff the PC users can. Streetfinder is a stand alone product, very detailed. The whole country is accessible with street and area finder. Has a rebate included. Supports sync to Palm without GPS. Download what you need to use for the moment. Downside is that NY, you'll get chunks of NYC, not all of NYC. Hard learning curve of GPS.

Must have clear path to satellite. It can take 20 minutes to get the signal. Updates are faster once you get connected. Then it is minutes in between. Made for Palm V. Demo for indoors used for the presentation.

There is also one for the III series. $190.00 list, you get deluxe car mount and power supply, case and CD. It had a nice interface for navigating in large blocks and small increments. Metro area was 64K. Unless you are looking for an address, it is hard to conceptualize; there are no large contiguous map areas. Close but no cigar - it may locate you near the end of one map but no way to automatically navigate to the next map. Backtracking may not clear the line that it is making as it plots you location during travel.

Quo Vadis is another alternative that comes on one CD.

Is there any unit you can get to add memory - some company does it called the FlashPlug - only good for backup, not addressable.

How do you take stuff off the palm and put it back a later date. User data file versus the archive file. Remove stuff from backups that you do not want to be put back after a restore.

Palm colors made a replacement Palm case that looks somewhat like the Visor. Solid and translucent colors are available. Screw it together yourself. Blue clashes with circuit board. - shown by Chris Bastian.

Peter introduced WAPman, a Palm application that uses the web interface for browsing on phones.
WAP phones - wap man software from Singapore - go to demo mode - $5.00 for NYCDAUG members.- a web interface for browsing. Wapster for a PC makes the WAP enabled sites. Ericson or other web-enabled phone can use this.

Like Omnisky or Avantgo, wap interface channels provided by so and so. Allows access to channel, all text, some primitive graphics. Not html, it's wml. Configuration on an Apache server. Uses the WAPman service. Keyboard driver prevented Vindgo from working.

Peter also demonstrated MultiMail Pro, a sophisticated email client, recently bought by Palm. Expectation that they will be included in the OS down the road.

"Silence" - good for meetings. Set times for alarm clocks to be silenced.- you set start and end times that prevent the alarms from working. A silent periond would have a diamond next to the line item of prevented time. Indicator shows in address book telling sound is off. - this ws shown by Josh. 4square development makes this. Talked about 3-alarm hack.

FITALY keyboard was also shown - This is a sticker/software combination as a software keyboard replacment that minmizes pen travel, speeding up data entry with a stylus. fitaly letters is a program that lets you practice the software. - Not for OS3.5 and color devices. You can still write the old-fashioned way by turning it off. Hack extensions use some of the areas that is occupied by Fitally keyboard.

Meeting Minutes for May 18, 2000

This month's meeting began with NYCDAUG President, Peter M. Fine reminding those present about the special breakfast being offered by Handspring at PC EXPO. Passes to the Expo will be also given to those in attendance. The invitation was given to NYCDAUG members first, then non-members via our List-Serve.

June will be the last meeting of the season at Apple Computer. Other locations where meetings can be held during July and August are being investigated. Jason Perlow, NYCDAUG Chairman, mentioned that an online discussion board is in the works.

The group is always on the lookout for people to help with the design of the web site, demo products and related services for ALL PDA's and looking for guest speakers. Afterwards a question and answer session followed which covered various topics.

Peter started the demonstrations with a product called Pocket Mail's BackFlip service. Backflip is an acoustic coupler that attaches to the back of the Palm device. Pocket Mail comes with and requires that you establish an email account. The entire package is very reasonably priced at around $10/month with free unit included (if you buy a year's service) or free year's service if you buy the $100.00 unit.

Jason demonstrated a new PDA from Japan called OnHandPC, which is a watch-sized wrist computer, by Matsucom. It has 2 Megs of RAM, IR communications and synchronization capabilities via a docking cradle. Jason also showed us a Pocket PC by Casio, which uses a 133 Mhz processor and offers additional software. Compaq will also release their version of the pocket PC which will have a 200 Mhz processor and will have a better screen that will be viewable in daylight.

David Richards demonstrated Kodak's "Palm Pics" which is available for the Palm 3c and 5x. Palm Pics attaches to the bottom of the device and allows you to take digital pictures, which are stored in the RAM on the PDA.

Peter came back up to demo Vindigo which is an Avantgo-like channel exclusively for the New York City area. That will change in the future. He also demonstrated Aladdin's GoBar, which is a launching utility that organizes the items in the Palm device. Frank Beecham demonstrated the Psion Series 7 PDA with internet access. The only problem that he mentioned about the device is that it contains a proprietary word processor that is incompatible with any windows text files. He was able to find software, however that can convert these files to a Microsoft compatible format.

This months raffle winners were as follows: Gerald Goldbaum (Landware Zagats for Palm), Brian Smolarz (Landware Pocket Quicken), Patrick Eckman (Omnisky T-Shirt), Allan Meislin (Landware Pocket Quicken), Benjamin Langford (Palm T-Shirt) and the big winner was Joe Silver (Landware Palm V GoType Keyboard).

Meeting Minutes for April 20, 2000

Ann Culver of Avantgo presented us with information about about the company and the services that it offers which centers around web-clipping, live links to sites and user created custom channels. Some of the items that were mentioned were as follows: Avantgo has 530 partner submitted channels and 450 user submitted channels. The service is available to WAP enabled phones as well as PDA's using Palm OS and WinCE and that the Palm client software has recently been upgraded to version 3.3. This will require the user to uninstall the software from the PDA then installing the new version.

Steven Banton came by to show off a beta product called Pocket Pyro from Ximuoi Technologies. Pocket Pyro is an MP3 player for the Palm III that attaches to the bottom of the device and is controlled through the Palm device. Pocket Pyro comes with 512 megabytes of memory and can be used independently of the Palm device. The product has yet to be priced.

Meeting Minutes for March 16, 2000

Peter M. Fine, NYCDAUG President started off the meeting by laying down the ground rules for membership and ways of participation in the club which include volunteering. A question and answer session immediately followed covering many topics including synchronization with a USB connection and synchronization to a Macintosh computer.

Tom Kolojeski, Palm Sales manager and a great friend of NYCDAUG, came by to show off the new PALM IIIC, which offers a color screen and the 3.5 upgraded operating system. He talked about the new company that was spun off from 3Com. We also got the opportunity to hear from John Cook, Director of Product Marketing Management at Palm headquarters in California via conference call. He spoke of improvements to be made with the PALM units and listened to some of the suggestions from the members on improving their PDAs.

Abbe Kaplan of GoAmerica stopped by to talk about offering wireless modem connection for the PalmV computer using Novatel's Minstrel modem. He also mentioned a special rate for the club to purchase the modem.

This months raffle items were Landware's Pocket Quicken, Zagats Restaurant Guide and GoVox as well as Tee shirts from Palm and Omnisky, the wireless modem service provider.

The meeting began with an introduction by President Peter M. Fine followed by an overall rundown of the benefits of membership in NYCDAUG. Afterwards, he asked the members present for assistance with the web site and to provide demonstrations of anything PDA related.

A question and answer session followed dealing with many topics including printing from a Newton, available markets for discontinued or old PDA,s, upgrades for the Newton 2000/2100 and synching issues between Palm and Outlook.

NYCDAUG Chairman Jason Perlow led off the demonstration section of the meeting with TRG Pro and Backflip. The TRG Pro is a PDA similar in looks to the Palm III with 8 MB of RAM, 2 MB of flash and a compact flash slot. Backups to the compact flash card can be made at 600K per second and has a speaker capable of handling WAV files. Information can be written directly to the compact flash card from your desktop computer with the use of a reader. TRG Pro can also use all of the Palm III accessories. Pocketmail's Backflip is a device that clips on to the back of the Palm III and allows you to use any phone to pick up your mail in the fashion of an acoustic coupler. It requires establishing a separate Pocketmail account but you will be able to establish links for up to three email accounts.

There was also a demonstration by a member of Novatel's Minstrel wireless modem for the Palm III, which comes with Hand Web and Hand Mail software (older versions). Afterwards we got a quick tour of the Palm 3.5 OS beta, which supports color. It was mentioned that this upgrade to a color screen did not include color upgrades to the core applications that come with every unit. Battery life would most likely decrease with the color screens.

There were many raffle items offered this month. Congratulations go to Steven Keltner, Walter Kaufman, Martina Leonard, Thomas Frauenhofer, Lewis Shapiro, Dave Birkenfeld, Bryan Smolarz and Mark Leffler. As always, winners need either to be current members or must join "instantly" upon winning a prize.

TIPS: Managing Your Bill Paying Habits
by David Goldstein
February 9, 2000

Have you ever noticed how bills tend to pile up without you even realizing it? One day you're up to date then, before you know it, there's a stack of overdue requests for your cash! Here's a quick and easy way to manage your bill paying with your palm. Use ToDo (or ToDo Plus) to remind you of your recurring bills. Create a category called Bills or Finances. Put ToDo items inside this category for every bill you pay monthly. (One item per bill.) Check them all as done. Then, whenever you get a bill uncheck the ToDo item that corresponds to it. If the bill has a due date you can enter that too. Now, every time you go into the ToDo list you will see what bills are outstanding.

Want to take this technique to the next level? Get TealGlance. This program displays Datebook items and ToDo list items when you power up your Palm. It is a highly configurable program that allows many display options. When you uncheck the ToDo items relating to your bills they will appear here. That way you are reminded every time you turn on your Palm that you need to pay your gas bill.

PS - If you've haven't yet followed my previous tip and gotten ToDo Plus you may want to do so now. Version 3.11 is now available and it features a snooze button for alarms. This is a must have app!

TIPS: Q: How can I make an alarm for a ToDo List item?

A: The Palm's Datebook application has the ability to set an alarm for a given appointment. Unfortunately there's no way to do this with the Palm's built in ToDo List application. However, there are two solutions. The first is to create a datebook item and set the start time and end time to be equal. This adds an appointment to the Datebook that you can attach an alarm to. I'm not a big fan of this solution because there are some things that are just not Datebook items. Things like 'pickup kids from soccer practice' just don't seem to fit in the appointment category. Besides, the question was how to do this with the ToDo List.

This brings us to the second solution. Get ToDo Plus. Like the built in ToDo list, this add-on allows you to create list items that repeat at user set intervals. Unlike the built in app, it also lets you set alarms for your ToDo items. The latest version is 3.08 and it works fine with Palm OS 3.0 and 3.3.

- David Goldstein, is an alarm loving Palm enthusiast. When asked why he'd want to create an alarm for a todo item he responds "Why not?!".
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Product Information
Todo Plus: $19.95
www.handshigh.com

TealGlance: $11.95
www.tealpoint.com