What’s on my Treo 600? (Part 1)
I don’t know if anyone will find this interesting, but in the spirit of looking over someone’s shoulder and seeing what they’ve got in their Dock, I thought that I would list a few of my favourite Palm applications.
- TealDoc: It might not be one of the obvious benefits of a Palm, but one of the things I missed most about not having a functioning Palm was the stack of classic novels I used to have loaded up and ready to kill the odd few minutes in a coffee shop or at a bus stop. I’ve had some surreal moments with my eBooks; I think my favourite was reading Charles Dickens’ ‘Our Mutual Friend’ at night while living in a tent in New Caledonia. The juxtaposition of old and new and the clash of real and fictional geographic locations was very pleasing, and the backlight meant that I didn’t even have to hold a torch! In fact, the Treo backlight is so bright that you *can* actually use it as a torch—-just make sure that you prepare yourself by putting some kind of light on before turning on the handset, or you’ll burn out your retinas. Anyway, I bought TealDoc some time ago, after trying out a number of different Doc readers. It’s fairly simple, but has some nice features like custom bookmarks and notes, and it also allows you to read books which are stored on a card rather than the built-in memory—-very useful for ‘War and Peace’.
- Life Balance: I’ve used the desktop version for a while, but my old Palm was a bit too feeble to cope with the size of the database (which says something about the ridiculous number of things I haven’t done yet), so I stopped using it. On the Treo, it runs brilliantly, so I’ve actually switched to entering all of my tasks via the PDA, and just using the desktop version get an overview of—-well, my life. I’ve written about it before, so I won’t cover the same ground again, but having the database literally at my fingertips makes it even more useful. Sometimes I meet someone in the corridor, and the conversation results in me having to do something (this happens far too often actually—-perhaps I should learn how to say ‘no’?). If I didn’t scribble it down somewhere, I would often wipe the whole thing from my memory before I got back to my desk (pathetic, I know). Noting it down on the spot saves having to make embarrassing excuses later.
- SmartInput: This brings me on to the final bit of software today—-SmartInput. If you want to enter some information on the move, it’s a bit of a pain to have to navigate to the application you want to use, then set all the information for the time, date, category and so on in multiple dialogues. I looked into a number of applications which allow you to enter lots of pieces of information in the same place, such as Actioneer (which crashed my Treo constantly) and Slap, but SmartInput worked the best for me. Crucially, you can navigate almost all of the dialogues with the keyboard, so you don’t have to fumble with the stylus on the move. The application allows you to enter information in a text area, add a note, set the date, time, alarm and category, and then send it off to DateBook, Contacts or the ToDo list. Since Life Balance can import and export to the ToDo list, I can also send tasks to Life Balance from SmartInput.
I think that they key to using a Palm effectively is the speed with which you can enter information, otherwise it becomes so much of a chore that you just don’t bother. But it can also be a great repository of information which you can consult quickly. I’m really enjoying using a Palm again, and I’m surprised by how much difference the colour screen makes to the ease of use. Coloured icons are much easier to distinguish than the greyscale versions, especially at the small size necessary on a Palm.
1
don't you worry that you'll eventually be unable to remember anything unless you've logged it in your life balance database? it's happening already: i no longer know anyone's phone number as they're all in my mobile's phonebook. if i need to call someone and i don't have my phone, i'm completely stuck. however, i pride myself on being one of the few people i know who doesn't have to look up their own phone number when giving it to other people!----- dvd: Oh yes. I like to delude myself that by delegating these kinds of things to my electronic brain, I leave more organic disc space for more interesting things. Who am I kidding? And for the record, I am one of those peoples who needs to look up my own mobile number. I do know my home and work numbers, though.
by bsag @ 17/12/2003 9:12 pm • Permalink •
2
E-books are fantastic, aren't they. Instead of packing half my bag with books when I go away for the weekend, I can just slip half a dozen in my pocket and I'm good to go. Where do you get yours?
by Jo @ 18/12/2003 1:12 pm • Permalink •
3
My favourite Palm application (apart from the 24 hour analogue clock I did
is the amazing Planetarium (www.aho.ch/pilotplanets/). This is a masterpiece of design and programming, if nothing else.
I like the idea of a Treo, too.
I can see why you're strapped for cash - you keep buying cool gadgets!
by pete @ 19/12/2003 1:12 pm • Permalink •
4
pete: Cool - I used to have a sun compass application on my old Palm (haven't got round to re-installing it yet). It was one of those things that would have been fantastically useful if I ever found in the wilds with only my Palm (and some batteries). I loved it. In my defence about he expense, I did get a rebate from Orange for switching and trading in my old phone (actually Mr. Bsag's old phone), so it really wasn't too expensive. And it is useful for work. Honest
by bsag @ 20/12/2003 7:13 pm • Permalink •
5
Hey Jo, I read all my ebooks on my Treo 600, buying them from http://palmdigitalmedia.com/ . You can get some good deals, and the Palm Reader app is quite nice for the reading activity.
by keely @ 05/03/2004 3:03 am • Permalink •
6
What's On People's Treo 600's Jenny Levine of theShiftedLibrarian.com has published a list called What's on My Treo 600 which lists the software and services that she typically uses on her Treo. This page has links to similar information on other's websites as well: Albert...
by Operation Gadget @ 25/03/2004 7:04 am • Permalink •
Page 1 of 1 pages