NYCDAUG 2003 Meeting Minutes & Reviews

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Meeting Minutes for September 30, 2003 - by Joseph Caputo

This special meeting began with NYCDAUG President Peter M. Fine introducing the evening's guests from Palm, Inc.; Jason B. Campbell, Specialist for Event Marketing, and Nathaniel Freitas, Enterprise Architect. This was NYCDAUG's first "PUGAPALOOZA" meeting and Palm was kind enough to provide pizza and soda to all attendees. Thanks Palm!

Before delving into the meeting, everyone agreed to keep confidential any of the information that we were to be told about three new Palm products that were going to be officially released at the break of midnight on October 1, 2003. Jason read Palm's "Confidential Briefing" before continuing to make everything official.

Jason began by explaining Palm's customer segmentation alignment marketing strategy. Basically, Palm's newest products address the entry level user, the media and technically savvy user, and lastly, the professional enterprise user.

Jason demonstrated the enhanced Palm PIM (Personal Information Manager) software that has been integrated into the new Palm devices. The new PIM offers more contact data, improvements to personal productivity, a better view of schedules and the ability to beam multiple events. The new PIM also provides users with the ability to share more data with the Desktop PIM software and the ability to synchronize directly with Microsoft Outlook.

Jason then broke out the new flagship Palm device, the Tungsten 3. It sports a high resolution display, up to 320X480 when the slider mechanism is fully open and portrait and landscape display capability. The new data entry interface offers streamlined access to key features, and a new and improved organizer.
The T3 comes out of the box with Palm OS 5.2.1, a 400 megahertz Intel Xscale processor, 64 megabytes of ROM (52 MB is available to the user), one SD slot, an improved speaker, an updated battery (lasts 5 days with regular use), improved Bluetooth support, and Documents To Go Professional is already loaded into ROM. All this power and resourcefulness for $399.99 MSRP.

Thousands of Java application will run on the new T3. There are three million Java developers that take advantage of the multimedia features offered by Java.
The T3 is packaged with Kinoma player and it includes Kinoma Producer for creating and transferring videos to play on the T3. The Kinoma player will take advantage of the additional screen real estate by automatically formatting images to 320 X 480. Real One Player and Palm Photos are built-in applications.

The Tungsten E, Palm's newest mid-range device, has a fixed 320X320 high resolution screen similar to the one used on the color Zire 71. The TE has 32 megabytes of memory, an ARM processor with Palm's 5.2.1 OS installed, and an SD slot. The most amazing thing about the TE is the price- $199.00 MSRP. This is an excellent PDA for entry level and enterprise users alike. I personally cannot think of a better PDA to recommend for anyone new to PDA's and wants a versatile, thin, low cost yet powerful device.

The last of three new devices that was demonstrated, the Zire 21, has a MSRP of only $99.00, yet improves on it's the previous entry level Zire by quadrupling the memory from 2 MB to 8 MB on the Zire 71. The Zire is now available for $79.00.

Attendees were also shown some new accessories, like a wireless keyboard that uses infrared, cases, a lighted stylus, a gold plated stylus, a 1.3 mega-pixel SDIO camera card, large capacity SD cards that are supported by the T3, and a new snap-on travel charger for devices that utilize Palm's universal connector.

Jason announced Palm's reintroduction of the Palm Pays Back program. If you don't remember this program from an earlier time, enroll and refer your buddies and become immediately eligible to collect "Palm Bucks." Collect enough Palm Bucks and you can then spend them on PDA accessories at Palm's Web site.

Individual raffle winners won a T3, a TE, a Zire 21, a nifty Palm logo pen and several logo windbreakers. Everyone who attended received a PUGAPALOOZA T-shirt. If you would like information about Palm's newest devices, follow this link to redesigned PalmOne web site.

Pocket PC Meeting Minutes for September 18, 2003 - by Sam Wagner

 
1) A question was asked about macros not running in Pocket Excel. Despite the fact that most of us were pretty much clueless as of how to take care of it, we came up with some ideas. One was to use a wireless connection to Terminal Service into the desktop machine to run the macro. The other was to synch the data from the PocketPC to the desktop and then run the macros on the desktop machine. Sam also looked online and found a little software called PTab Spreadsheet that may be able to run macros. The software is available on the Handango website for $40.

2) The Group talked about wireless networks' (802.11 vs. Blue Tooth), free access points available throughout the city and in other places.

3) Steve Williams showed us his new Sprint PCS CF card that allows him to connect to Sprint high speed data network (connections are advertised in the 50-70kbps range). Steve also showed us OnSite View, a new utility from Autodesk allowing people to view AutoCAD documents on their PocketPC. It's pricey ($195) but offers the best fidelity and support with bringing Autodesk drawings to PPC's. There's also a corporate edition (OnSite View Enterprise) which integrates into databases, etc.

4) A question was asked about how to sync two PocketPCs with the same desktop machine and have 2 different address books (one for each machine). While Sam was a little confused why this didn't work with 2 WinXP accounts (and 2 different Outlook profiles), an easier solution that he thought of when getting back home was to simply create 2 different categories in your address book and then select which category to sync on your Active Sync menu. This will allow PocketPC 1 to get the contacts in "Joe"'s category and PocketPC 2 to get contacts in "Jane"'s category. This should work just fine if you can't get Outlook to synch different address books any other ways. 

5) Sam finally showed a nice little utility that allows people to open pretty much any type of file on their PocketPC. the application is called Quick View Plus and used to come bundled with iPAQs. Unfortunately Quick View Plus isn't available by itself and can only be found on certain OEM CDs; a good thing to do is double check the CD that came with your PocketPC CD to see what kind of application is available (sometimes there is stuff deep into a sub folder).

Steve Williams,Peter Rosoff, Jenny Son and Pancho Pacheco all won raffle prizes and the latter three became new Premiere level members!
 

Palm Tungsten 2 Review - Why "Graffiti 2" has 2 go.

by Joseph Caputo
07-31-2003

I recently upgraded my handheld computer from the Palm Tungsten to the new Palm Tungsten 2. My former handheld, only several months old, exhibited problems recognizing regional taps and required frequent re-digitizing. I used the last remnants of my Best Buy protection plan to swap out the faulty device to the latest release from Palm.

The newest Palm sports more memory than its predecessor, twice the amount at 32MB. The screen is also brighter, and apparently sharper too. Some new software, including an upgrade to the operating system with better security controls, and multi-media applications that show off the power of this device. Palm smartly retained "Bluetooth" wireless connectivity, and the slide-out chassis concept keeps the device compact. I only wish they added a way to lock the device in the open position (maybe next time).

Then there's the addition of "Graffiti 2" text recognition software. Thanks Xerox. I have read that it is the Xerox lawsuit that forced Palm to find a third party source for a replacement for Graffiti. I never like "Jot," the third party software that Graffiti 2 is based on. I loved the original Graffiti. I was very good at entering characters; so good I would challenge anyone who claimed they were faster using the likes of a "thumb board" keyboard. Graffiti 2 makes me a bumbling idiot as I forget to dot my lower case "i's," or perform the second stroke of the letter "k," or second stroke the number four.

While I totally understand the concept behind "intellectual property," I do not understand why Palm and Xerox could not reach an amenable agreement that would permit Palm to continue to use good ole' Graffiti. Xerox apparently sat on this technology and really never applied it to anything useful. Maybe I am wrong. If so, show me. Was the idea really stolen, or did it develop from trial and error by the development team that Palm had in its early years. I guess I need to do more research because this is really bothering me. If Xerox's idea was stolen, they should be compensated. If the idea was developed from scratch by Palm, and it only "happens" to closely emulate the Xerox concept, then Xerox ought to apologize to me, and the thousands of original Graffiti users whose life they just made a little less enjoyable.

I predict that Graffiti 2 will really bother most original Graffiti users. I want some genius out there to give me my old Graffiti back. There is one product replacement that I have found thus far that almost does the trick, Tealpoint's Tealscript, but it is not quite perfect. From what I can tell, Graffiti 2 actually interferes with Tealscript's features, so the product's functionality is affected. In fact, there seems to be a bug after repeated uses the punctuation stroke that I'll bet is caused by G2. I'm going to ride out the trial period before I plunk down $20.00 for this solution.

Meeting Minutes for June 17, 2003 - by Joseph Caputo

This special VIP meeting began with NYCDAUG President Peter M. Fine demonstrating the Kyocera 7135 PDA Phone with Verizon CDMA service.  The 7135 is a fully functional wireless phone and PDA with a bright color screen.  Peter recommends having a spare battery available since the 7135 will serve as your wireless phone, PDA, and portable web browser.

Peter then poured the love all over the Palm Zire 71.  He loves this PDA.  The Zire 71 is nice to look at, has the brightest color screen available, a built in digital camera (a good one too), an SD storage card slot and it plays video clips.  Music can be played through its earphone plug by using MP3 player software like Realplayer for Palm.  The new Palm replaces "Graffiti" with Graffiti 2 character recognition system.  Peter demonstrated how fast the Zire 71 operates by running Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is notoriously slow on the Palm models with the 4.0 OS.  The Zire 71 proved to be zippy-fast and the display was very clear as it quickly opened and displayed a large document with ease.

The evening's special guests included PalmSource's CEO and President David Nagel and Larry Berkin, Director of Developer Marketing at PalmSource and Calin Pacurariu from Handspring.   Berkin and Nagel updated everyone with information about exciting new PalmSource licensees, including ACEECA, makers of ruggedized measurement devices like the Meazura; Tapwave, founded by former Palm engineers who have developed a gaming PDA expected this coming fall; GSL of China who sell very popular handheld dictionaries; Fossil Watches; and Garmin who have developed a combination GPS PDA called the iQue 3600.

Did you know that 29 million units have been sold with a Palm OS?  Did you know that 18,000 software applications
(45% of it freeware!) are available to Palm OS users, and that there are 270,000 Palm OS developers and 165 Palm OS
User Groups in 33 countries?  Do you like to read?  There are over 20,000 e-books out there that may be read on your Palm OS
based PDA.  Simply put, there are three times the software available for Palm OS PDA than its closest competitor.  Over
50% of healthcare workers who use a PDA are using a Palm OS based device.  Palm OS devices are also gaining ground
in areas like education and government.  Nagel mentioned that PalmSource received a call from one of the "big three" in
the automotive industry.

PalmSource is striving to make their operating system the most secure, the best in class for mail and messaging
applications, and universally flexible for the information management needs of enterprise applications.

In response to a question from an attendee, Nagel acknowledged that small business accounts for approximately three
quarters of information technology purchases.  He assured the member that PalmSource is keeping small business in
mind when developing applications and improving the features of its operating system.

According to David Nagel, the Palm OS roadmap has taken us through OS4, OS5, and soon, OS6, which is a scalable
operating system so it is capable of increasing its "capacity" as the system size grows.

The separation agreement between PalmSource and Palm Solutions (the hardware company) is expected to be completed by October 2003.

Calin from Handspring talked a little about Palm's acquisition of Handspring and the hardware that can be expected to be developed from this teaming of the old and the new.  Major changes to the platform are expected as development is focusing on the perfect "smartphone".  Plans to release the Treo 600 in the Fall are already in place.  The newest Treo will sport Palm OS5, a built-in 640X480 camera, a better SMS interface, 32 megabyte of RAM, quicker access to addresses, an improved battery with 6 hours of talk time, and speakerphone capability.

The evening ended with a free give-a-way of TWO new Zire 71s!  Sherry Wilmes and Kok-Young Tan were the winners and one became a new member on the spot :-) (The other was already a member) We always ask of anyone who wins a prize, to please become a supporting member.

© 2003 Photos by Peter M. Fine taken with Palm Zire 71 using available light.

Above is attentive crowd at June 2003 Meeting and to right is PalmSource's CEO and President David Nagel.

Pocket PC Meeting Minutes for May 15, 2003 - by Sam Wagner

There were actually a lot more people than anticipated and it was great. We all talked about new devices coming out. David Woolley showed us is a Dell Axim and Elizabeth Abramson her H5450.

Sam demonstrated the latest version of the Socket 802.11b CF card software which lets users scan for available access points.Jerry showed us a nice little application called Remover that scan program files and registry for improperly uninstalled applications and performs the additional work for the user.
Jerry and Elizabeth also ran a little comparison between Pocket Informant and Agenda Fusion.

Prizes were raffled off for members and instant members and tee shirts given out as well.

Pocket Informant Projected Image -------------------------------------------- Misc Pocket PC Devices

Jerry and Liz Do a Demo

All Photos by Al

Meeting Minutes for February 20, 2003 - by Joseph Caputo

All prices and versions mentioned were at time of meeting.

The Palm OS meeting was hosted by NYCDAUG President Peter M. Fine.  Special guests included Noah Parker of Portable Technology Solutions, and (hiding in the back row) Bill Dyszel, author of Palmpilot for Dummies, available from Amazon.com as well as other retailers.

Peter started the meeting by demonstrating his Sony Clie NR70V, retailing for $599.99.  The device features a digital camera and built-in MP3 player and keyboard and sports a 320X480 brilliant color screen. This model has been superceeded by the new Arm processor OS5 model, NX70V.

Here is a list of the software Peter demonstrated on the Sony NR70V:

A slick replacement for the Palm Desktop and Palm Datebook that preserves the original structure of your Palm's original application data:

• Agendus by iambic $24.95
  • Transforms your handheld from a simple organizer into an extremely capable, attractive and useful scheduling tool
  • New features over its previous versions
  • Improved interfaces, increased simplicity of use, accuracy, fast data entry, precise searches, dazzling speed
  • Support for the latest Palm OS 5 and ARM devices plus wireless technologies
  • Quickly and easily see what is scheduled for today, when the next alarm is, and todayís date and time
  • If iambic Mail is installed you can also see the number of new and unsent email messages
  • Attractively personalize the background with your own picture in GIF or JPG format (JPG currently supported on Sony NX and NR series only)
  • Works great with Sony NR70V and NX70V cameras

Peter's personal favorite game (he's shown this one more than once!)

• Backgammon Pro for Palm OS v.1.06 by Standalone  $15.00
  • Beginner players can learn the subtleties of backgammon while the expert player can still play a challenging game.
  • Fully functional doubling cube
  • Undo Current Move - up to 50 levels of undo available after 200 games
  • Pip Count
  • Six boards including - Leather (Hi Resolution), Future, Brown, Black & White, Wood, Traditional
  • Two Fair Random Die Generators
  • Cheating Die Generator
  • Suggest Moves - learn what the palm would do for a given roll
  • Learning opponent - the computer will analyze games and adjust its strategy against you!
  • IR game play
  • Four levels of computer skill
  • Single Tap Moves
  • Visitor Mode - so your friends don't mess up your statistics
  • Several computer game playing styles and many more options

Astraware's ChromaGames (WhiteHorse) was also demonstrated briefly which is 3 games in one $19.95 package: Chess, Checkers and Backgammon. While this is a bargain
package the implimentation of at least the Backgammon portion is not great since it is slow, tedious and the colors are muted. Not like Backgammon Pro mentioned above.

Another address book enhancement with rich features: 

• Super Names for Palm OS v.2.06 by Standalone - $19.95
  • Enhance the Address Book on your Palm Powered handheld.
  • Adds over a dozen new fields to each name card, along with the ability to link names to one another.
  • Link to appointment and to do tasks, access your recently accessed names, and make use of a host of other Address Book enhancements.
  • Now supports ToneDial
  • Add unlimited numbers of fields to each address (additional phone numbers, addresses, web sites, family members, and more).
  • Link an address to any other address, or to an appointment, to do item, or memo.
  • Full support for HiRes and HiRes+ (the Sony Clie and NR70 devices)
  • Support for Palm OS 5.0
  • Group addresses together in several custom filters
  • Search for text in any field
  • Color code all your categories to quickly distinguish various addresses
  • Fully customizable to fit your needs
  • Quickly navigate using folder tabs and an a-z index
  • Split your Address list so details can be viewed simultaneously
  • Change sorting and display options based on categories
  • Quickly jump to recently accessed name cards
  • Track creation and modification dates
  • Automatically format phone numbers to your specifications
    
    Also shown was DateMan v1.08 by Standalone that handles the Datebook functions and pairs nicely with Super Names.

 Do you need to remember every holiday, well...

• HoliDates by The Ripple Factory, Inc.- $9.95
  
  • View upcoming holidays on one list within HoliDates.
  • Install or remove categories or individual holiday events from the Palm Date Book.
  • Many of the religious holidays come with a brief explanatory note.
  • Jump directly to holiday events in Date Book.

Great mapping software that just keeps getting better:

• Mapopolis
  
  • Free Basic Demo- streets, landmarks, GPS Support, maps expire after nine days
  • Basic- $3.95 per map or $14.95 map pak
  • Enhanced- $6.95 per map or $24.95 map pak
  • Platinum- $9.95 per map or $34.95 map pak
    Platinum is also available on CD with the entire map collection for Palm OS $49.95
  • Navigator- $99.95 which includes dynamic door-to-door navigation with voice prompting, including all Platinum features, for Pocket PC only, requires GPS device, limited map region (20 million population in North America, 13 million population in Western Europe), no expiration.
    

Where to eat?

• Zagat 2002 Restaurant and Nightlife Guide for Palm OS by LandWare.
  • Click above to buy an immediate download for an introductory price of $24.95 (regularly $29.95)
  • Restaurant ratings & reviews for 45+ cities worldwide
  • Nightlife content for key cities
  • Search & sort tools, including "my favorites" lists
  • Regular content updates
  • Also available for Pocket PC devices
  • Beginning January 2003, an annual subscription based Zagat To Go product will be available directly from: www.zagat.com or by dialing (800) 333-3421

My personal favorite for the evening: 

• Tube New York City (Palm OS) $19.00
  • Palm OS application that guides you around the subway systems of the major cities in the world. An essential addition to your Palm device.
  • Includes a detailed clear color (or grey scale) map of the transport system fully scrollable
  • Quick find station utility
  • It will automatically plan the quickest route to and from any station stating the line changes required and estimated journey time
  • The route can be text listed or an animated visual display of the route can be shown tracking around the system map
  • Just holding the stylus down on any station can retrieve additional local information about that station including connections to other transport services, nearby places of interest, theatres, hotels, hospitals etc.
  • Quick Zoom In/Out feature
  • Fully supports Sony Clie and Tungsten T high resolution displays
  • 320x480 Sony Hi-Res+ support
  • Palm OS 5 compatible
  • Storage card / memory stick install supported

Do you need to know what you should know?

• SplashWallet 3.14 by SplashData $39.95
  • Four products in one (can also be bought separately)
  • Includes Splash ID, Splash Photo, Splash Shopper, and Splash Money
  • Supports all handheld models running Palm OS 3.0 or later including Palm, Handspring, Sony, HandEra, Kyocera, Samsung and Symbol
  • Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4, 2000 or XP
  • Mac OS 8.6, OS 9 or OS X

The only other game Peter plays. Need I say more?

• 9 Ball Pinball by Landware- $14.95 (60 Quarters)
  • All the exciting pinball action of a full size pinball
  • Can be tilted
  • Modify the physics used in 9-Ball Pinball to change the level of game play difficulty
  • Friction, table slant and bumper intensity
  • Change the number of balls from available per game as well as the number of players
  • Play by yourself or with up to 3 opponents

Do you need to automate your IR enabled toaster? 

• AirClock 2.40
  • Remote Control Alarm Clock for Palm OS Handhelds
  • Set and forget simplicity with all common functions just one tap away
  • Makes an elegant desk, bed or travel alarm clock
  • Screen shows large, easy-to-read 12/24 time with running seconds, plus day, date and alarm setting
  • Alarm clock gently wakes you by playing one of various MIDI ring tones and/or by turning on your television, radio, CD player or any other appliance equipped with an infrared remote control
  • Also features a snooze function and two unique loud ring tones, great for those hard-to-wake-up mornings!
  • Adjustable background, colors and ringtone settings
  • New! Ringtone volume increases for a smoother wake-up 

Noah Parker of Portable Technology Solutions then demonstrated his company's data collection software TracerPlus ($49.99) on several Symbol barcode enabled hardware devices, including the 1700 and 1550 PDAís, and the pocketable Keychain scanner.

Pairing TracerPlus and one of these devices allows anyone to collect the information you need more effectively using TracerPlus bar code enabled Palm OS Software. With TracerPlus, asset management, inventory control, and many other data collection tasks are fast and easy. No programming knowledge is needed - just fill in your familiar forms, like inspection forms and audit forms, right on your PDA.  TracerPlus is available as a free trial download.

Howard Katz, NYCDAUG's Treasurer demonstrated Dartz v1.34b ($9.95) a shareware dart game with high resolution graphics and realistic gameplay.  An available trial version is limited to nine darts in classic games. You may play as many times as you like, and it will never expire.  The minimum requirements are a Palm III device and Palm OS v3.0.

The evening's raffle winners received the following products:

PTS - Palm Pilot Bar Code Kit from Portable Technology Solutions ($215.00), Instant-Power emergency power supply for PDAs,($20.00), three copies of Airclock's Remote Control Alarm Clock, Handmark's Hearts & Spades ($14.99) & Las Vegas Casino ($9.99 ), Landware's Pocket Quicken ($39.99), Landware's Zagat Survey 2002 and a Leather Palm V series case from Handheldplanet.com

All attendees were offered a complimentary copy of MCSE: Data Networking (PalmOS) training software by Hot Lava Software valued at $9.95.

Pocket PC Meeting Minutes for January 15, 2003 - by Sam Wagner

The meeting began with NYCDAUG's Pocket PC SIG Chair Sam Wagner talking about news items, questions about the upcoming Windows CE.NET OS and the new MSFT wireless displays.

He first showed a dual CF sleeve for H3600-5400 iPAQ. The new small sleeve isn't much bigger than the regular CF sleeve, comes with a Type II CF on top and Type I CF on the side, and costs only $50. It is also available with a CF slot and Memory Stick slot. The sleeve is called the Memplug and is made by Pitech.

Jerry G. then demonstrated his new H1910. The unit features a 200Mhz Xscale CPU, 48MB of usable RAM (16MB ROM) and a very attractive price and form factor.

Jerry also presented us with a small utility, Clear Speed that he has been beta testing for a while and that allows H1910 users to clock the Xscale to 300Mhz which according to Jerry helps while running multimedia apps. The utility doesn't truly overclock the CPU as the H1910 Xscale is rated to be a 300Mhz chip but has been clocked down from factory.

Richard then took over and presented his Compaq/HP Tablet PC. The Tablet PC runs on a Transmeta CPU.
Sam brought his Acer Tablet with him so users could compare both form factor.

The Compaq unit has a fully removable keyboard which is a very attractive feature.

It can also take lots of RAM, where the Acer is limited to only 256MB. One of the best feature of the Compaq unit is the ability to
switch the battery while putting the system in stand-by (as opposed to turning it off on other units such as the Acer).

Downside is that the Compaq is a little slower and doesn't use a presure sensitive screen, something that most users will probably
be able to live with.