Houston Palm Users Group

Today’s meeting was a lot of fun, thanks to everyone who came out. We started off with a presentation covering the new Zire 72. I’ll see if there’s a way to put the presentation on the web later. We had lots of interesting discussion on the best value in PalmOne PDAs right now, I think it’s the Tungsten E but Chris thinks it is the Zire 72.

After the PDA review we covered Bluetooth technology such as how profiles work between different devices. We tried to sync my Tungsten T to my laptop using its Bluetooth adapter and much to my surprise it worked. There was some general bluetooth discussion covering mice and keyboards (get Logitech) and the Treo all-in-one versus the Bluetooth Trio of a handheld, phone, and headset.

Finally we covered handheld PCs running Windows CE, 4 year old technology that is still pretty hot. The website Chris evangilized was Used Handhelds.com.

The other programs we talked about briefly during the meeting:

• Firefox
• Open Office
• Salesforce.com

Thanks to all who came out and brought food. Our meeting which was shared with the Web Technology SIG actually had a bit more content than I expected. We covered the Christmas PDA rankings, had a discussion on the best cell phone service and PDA/phone combinations available, and finally a bit of information from Christopher Hurtado about his thoughts on Graffiti 2. If you took any pictures at the meeting please send them in and I’ll attach them to this entry. I hope everyone has a great holiday!

It seems like the email I sent out announcing the meeting yesterday arrived a little late for some people, so it refers to the meeting being “tomorrow” and you may have received it on a Saturday. Rest assured that our meeting time has not changed, we’ll still be meeting today (December 13, 2003) at 1 PM in our usual place. I’ll try to take some pictures at today’s party and upload them later.

Today’s meeting went pretty well I think, though it was short due to the event next door. We discussed the new HPUG website (you’re looking at it) and some good sources for news and updates about PalmOS software. Finally we covered a bit what a “blog” is and how it’s changing where you can get your news and what sort of information you can get online. Here are some of the sites we covered:

Palm InfoCenter

Probably the best PalmOS news site but the quality has gone down a bit lately. Usually good comments on the articles

PDA Buzz

Currently experiencing technical difficulties, but a really good all-around site. Very active forums and good timeliness with breaking news.

PalmStation

Used to be the best around but is now seldomly updated.

The Gadgeteer

Great and very thorough reviews of gadgets in general but they most always cover the latest PalmOS units.

Visor Central

Good, but visors themselves are dead, so there’s not a whole lot happening on the site anymore.

Treo Central

The best resource I’ve seen for Treo news and resources.

Palm Gear

In my opinon, the best place to browse and buy PalmOS software. At the meeting we couldn’t get this site to pull up, but now it seems to be working just fine again.

After that discussion we went to the Microsoft event next door that talked mainly about Office 2003 Personally I was underwhelmed and disappointed, but I’ll write more about that later.

For tomorrow’s meeting Eli Bensky will be sharing with us some of the best freeware he has found. Here is a list of websites he would like to share:

Abacus: http://solair.eunet.yu/~djajic/palm/ + more freeware
Alpha Bravo: http://www.freewarepalm.com/educational/educational_language.shtml
Bible Reader: www.olivetree.com Install Bible Reader first – then pick version
Bible+: http://palmbibleplus.sourceforge.net
BigClock: www.gacel.de
Black Jack: www.stefan-pettersson.nu
Card Trick: www.anima3d.com
Card Tricks: www.freewarepalm.com – a FREEWARE GOLDMINE
CFB Pong: www.cfbsoftware.com
Cfbtimer: http://www.brothersoft.com/palm.asp
ChemTable: www.palmgear.com – Monochrome is free, color is shareware
Cool Fonts: www.palmgear.com
DataViewer: www.towncompass.com
DB: http://pilot-db.sourceforge.net
Declaration of Independence: http://pdacentral.ozbytes.net.au/palm/preview/33753.html
Diagrams? www.questions.cz
Dictionaries: http://www.palm-dictionaries.com/company/signup.html
Doctor Database: www.freewarepalm.com
e-reader http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com/browse.cgi?category_id=
Earth and Sun, Rise and Set, Algebraic Formulas: http://www.40-below.com/palm/
Educational + :http://www.goknow.com/Products.html
English > 7 Language Dictionary: http://www.freewarefiles.com/programs.php?ProgramID=3462&categoryid=16&subcategoryid=177
FileZ * Micro Fluxx: www.nosleep.net
FreeJournal: www.handango.com or http://home.clara.net/curtisfamily/ (No PC edit)
Freeware: http://www.freewarefiles.com/search.php
FXPilot: www.oanda.com
Golf Score: http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2358-8283972.html?tag=lst-0-5
jMileage: www.palmgear.com
Languages: http://www.anki.com/languages.html
List: http://www.magma.ca/~roo/list/list.html
Lucky Draw: www.pdasoftnet.com
Magic Squares: www.palmgear.com
MakeDocW: http://www.cognitiveroot.com/makedoc.htm
McInventory, McRebate, Flights+xt: http://members.networld.com/mcintosh
MileageX: http://www.pdasoftnet.com/
Minibar: http://minibar.sf.net
Miscellaneous: http://www.shesearch.com/pda_freeware.htm
MyCheckbook: www.thequickster.com or http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2360-10130896.html
NoahLite: www.arslexis.com
Omaha Poker: www.palmgear.com
Palm Biorhythms: www.brianapps.net/
Palm Covertor 2.2 – http://www.freewarepalm.com/calculator/converter.shtml
Palm Reader: http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com/product/reader/browse/free
Piloy Install: http://envicon.de/e/pinstall/pinstall.html
Sun Compass, Palm Benchmark: http://www.ive-software.com/palm.php3
Vikao: http://www.freewarepalm.com/utilities/vikaoforpalm.shtml
x-Master: http://linkesoft.com/