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Domain: vindigo.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to vindigo.com.

Comments · 15

  1. The last true PDA user? by singularity · · Score: 2, Insightful · on PalmOne Releases 4GB PDA [updated]

    I cling to my Sony Clie T665C. I keep thinking about going with one of the current Palms, but they offer so little beyond what my Sony does that there seems to be no reason to pay money for basically the same device.

    What do I use my Clie for?
    1) Keeping my calendar on me at all times. I do find that I am using it less now that I also have my iPod set up to keep sync'd with iCal. It is nice to be able to add appointments while on the go, though.

    2) Keeping the local bus schedules on me at all times. Without a car in a major metropolitan area, the ability to see when the next bus is coming is extremely handy.

    3) Being able to read the New York Times and Rueters on the bus on the way to work.

    4) Being able to get maps, walking directions, and local restaurants/bars/shops when I go out.

    My friends used to laugh at me when I would stick my Sony in my jacket pocket before we would go out for a night on the town. The first few times I pulled it out and said "ok, there is an all-night eatery with good reviews about six blocks from here. Go three blocks in this direction and then turn left", though, they stopped making fun of it.

    In addition to everything listed above, I keep a few photos on it, a couple hundred addresses, and a couple thousand datebook entries. Even with this, I am barely breaking 8 megabytes of the 16 megabytes storage on the device.

    Sure, my 12" PowerBook could do most of what I have listed above. When I go out for a night, though, I cannot slip my laptop into my jacket pocket.

    All this desire for gigabytes of storage, hundreds of megahertz of performance, and wireless make little sense to me.

    This entire idea of convergence, with PDA/game device/cell phone/MP3 player/camera seems to be getting ridiculous. Palm seems to have completely ignored innovation on the low end of their devices.

    What ever happened to the idea of a simple device that did its job and did it well?

  2. Re:Electronic Paper by singularity · · Score: 1 · on Internet Kills LA Times National Edition

    About a month ago I started using AvantGo on my Palm (Sony Clie, actually) for my 45 minute commute to work.

    Syncs with New York Times Top Stories, Business, and Technology news. I also have it syncing with Reuters, which actually gives a better column at times. The coverage is more complete, at least.

    Those two channels pretty much fill up my commute. I also have C|Net and a couple of others. More than enough news for most any commute.

    It is not perfect, but it is free and it works.

    Between that program, Vidigo, Metro, and MBTA on Palm my Clie is a very valuable resource commuting and just going around town.

    If only Sony was still making them...

  3. Re:Where's the f'ing CONTENT? by singularity · · Score: 3, Informative · on WAP is Dead, Long Live WAP

    Check out Vindigo.

    An entire Palm application, for $25/year, that does everything you want it to do.

    The best $25 I ever spent on my Clie.

    It can also do wireless sync'ing, so you can update the information from your Treo easily.

  4. Yahoo Sucks Ass by interociter · · Score: 1 · on Best Online Mapping Site?
    Yahoo has gotten me lost more times than alcohol has. Every time I've used Yahoo Maps to get directions in San Francisco, it insists that I make left turns. That might play in Des Moines, but in most of downtown SF, it's simply impossible.

    Vindigo, on the other hand, is fantastic. It's a city guide for Palm OS that includes mapping and door-to-door directions. As in "Show me how to get to The Fillmore from where I'm at now, find me parking, then show me all the Italian restaraunts within a 1 mile radius." I've used it in SF, San Jose, LA, DC, Baltimore, San Diego, and it's always been a winner. When my car broke down in Central Los Angeles, it was quite literally a life-saver. Plus, you can walk down a city street holding your PDA like a tricorder as you home in on your destination.

  5. After 1 year, then what? by interociter · · Score: 1 · on Color Sidekick to be Released Tomorrow
    Last year on the way to Comic Con San Diego, the guy sitting next to me had a pre-release Sidekick. I asked him about it, as it was the coolest PDA I'd ever seen. He gave me a quick demo, and I spent the next 90 minutes pestering him with questions. I've been watching the product closely ever since, but still haven't traded in my VisorPhone. As long as my existing phone works, I'd need a pretty compelling reason to upgrade.

    For those of you who bought the original Sidekick, I have a few questions:

    • Danger claim unlimited data for one year. What happens after one year? How much does data cost then? I don't want to suddenly find out that it costs me $2 to look up a map online.
    • How is coverage now? I've heard mixed reviews, including one poor sod who couldn't get coverage in downtown San Francisco. How is T-Mobile's coverage now? How is coverage outside urban areas? The last thing I want is a cell phone that doesn't work when I leave home.
    • One major reason I'd been holding off on the Sidekick is the lack of third-party applications (Vindigo kicks ass, yo). The Sidekick SDK was finally released in March. Has anyone used it? Is it any good? Are applications being developed and released? How about installation? How do you install apps if you can't sync with a PC?
  6. Location-aware by ward99 · · Score: 2, Interesting · on Geocoding All Content
    While adding geo-information to web sites is interesting, I think the more compelling technology is the location-aware technologies that are starting to come out. Things like Vindigothat provide that information ina package, or things like Geocache and AnnotatedEarth that provide a user-driven community of location information. As the author says, Ultimately, the logical conclusion of wireless graffiti systems would be the ability to attach information to any object or place on earth with an accuracy of a meter or less.

    The challenge now is to figure out how to best use those location-aware technologies, and some of the things that can be done with the technology.

  7. Re:Several ideas... by leighklotz · · Score: 1 · on Mid-Air Messages To Your Mobile

    Isn't this called Vindigo?

  8. Vindingo by imuffin · · Score: 2 · on Web Access on Handhelds

    I really like Vindingo. I ran across it a week ago while searching for software to fill up the seemingly vast 16 megs on my treo.

    You choose specific cities to download - they have most metropolitan areas covered - and then when you sync your handheld, the software checks on the web for updates.

    To use the software, you tell it what neighborhood your in, and then what intersection you are nearest. It lists restaurants (with reviews), movie theatres (with showtimes and reviews), and shops, sorted by distance from your current location. It will also generate walking/driving directions from your current location - all while offline!

    It also has a wireless sync option so I can sync using the modem in my treo and never have to hook it to a desktop.

    Overall, I think it's pretty damn cool.

  9. Vindigo already does this by MrRagu · · Score: 4, Informative · on Time for a Beer?

    If you have a handheld (Pocket PC, Palm, and certain internet enabled cell phones) and live in a major city, this has been available for months from a free app called Vindigo. Its even better in that it tells you directions to the nearest bars, restaurants, stores, and movies and it doesn't even need GPS as long as you know what block you're on. It also has reviews for everything -- which is extemely useful.

    I don't want to sound like a marketing guy, but IMHO Vindigo is indispensible if you live near a place like NYC and often have trouble finding places.

    Downsides: It is currently only offered in 18 cities and has ads but I bet that watch doesn't work all over the place either. The upsides are tremendous, though. Having a bar finder in a watch is all well and good, but if you already have a Palm you might as well get all the other useful info as well. You'll never have to wander around the Village looking for the Original Ray's Famous Pizza again.

  10. Vindigo, Zagat's, etc. by lcorc79 · · Score: 1 · on Writing Messages In Empty Space With GPS
    When I first read this (a month ago) .. I was initially worried about advertising, etc. When I saw the topic again today, I had the same reaction (and posted as such). Now that I'm thinking about it more though -- I've used something similar with Vindigo on my Palm handheld. You type in your current location in a city, and you can search for nearby restaurants, movie listings, etc. I've found it VERY handy. And there were small localized text advertisements, nothing intrusive, but those were even useful sometimes.

    Localizing content is great. And while we need to worry about spam issues, the benefits will outweight the disadvantages. I forsee a selection of content available, including the old standby Zagat reviews, etc. If there is a filtering, moderation, or some other sort of preference for content this will be an amazing tool.

  11. Re:PDA's are even more vulnerable to attacks by 4n0nym0u53+C0w4rd · · Score: 2, Insightful · on Viruses, Trojans And Worms -- Unplugged?
    Once you get something executing on a Palm platform it can really take over, but it's fairly hard to spread malicous code around on the palm. Most people only beam business cards, not executable applications.



    The palm does present a fairly straightforward vulnerability to beamed viruses. Because you can beam applications as well as data, and the verification screen that the palm displays upon receipt of an item is generally just "okayed," there is a possibility for sending malicious apps.



    I'm sure somebody could write an app or a hack that captured beam attempts and sent virus code instead of (or in addition to) the intended data. So, you try to beam a business card and a small application gets sent to the other person. The new application is named, lets say, "Preferences" or "Updater", the person runs it, and infects their own palm... etc. etc. (and imagine a trojan with a time delayed payload... a cool app with a feature set like vidigo could be all over the place before Bad Things happen...)



    A lack of tech savvy users, coupled with frequent beaming is a potential danger. Not pretty...

  12. Re:The best of both worlds... by pyota · · Score: 1 · on Linux-Based OS For Palm Hardware

    i take issue with your claim that palm freeware is "crappy". both ... vindigo and avantgo are extremely useful free tools. the former is available for palm only.

  13. Furthermore... WinCE to emulate Palm by mclaugh · · Score: 1 · on On the Question of Handhelds: iPaq Best?

    I had a Palm Vx, and recently upgraded to an Ipaq (the color screen makes a huge difference, and looks much better than the Palm m505).
    Palm OS has a lot of great software, though, and there were applications that I missed (such as Vindigo).
    Solution- they are now working on a Palm Emulator that will run on your Ipaq- so even if you like the Palm datebk, address book, etcetera more, you can run them on your Ipaq.
    Palm Emulator Brighthand Discussion
    (One sad thing about the project is that many WinCE users will be running around yelling "can your Palm do that???")

  14. Re:Pocket Quicken and others by beagle · · Score: 1 · on What Are Your Ten Best Palm Apps?
    These are in no particular order, and many are repeats from earlier in the discussion. I went through much of Palmgear when I first got my Visor Deluxe and thought the enclosed list of companies made some pretty cool products.

  15. Pocket Quicken and others by beagle · · Score: 1 · on What Are Your Ten Best Palm Apps?
    Oh, where to start? The Visor is so useful, I've got it loaded with stuff. Some of these (AvantGo and RPN) were already mentioned but I'll list them anyway.

    I have never used it, but a friend of mine is trying out the Geode at http://www.geodiscovery.com.

    Someone mentioned DateBk3/DateBk4, and I agree, but know that the Visor includes this software as Date Book+ (thanks, Handspring!).

    I've got a list of about 50 places that I think make cool software and will post them if desired.