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What Are Your Ten Best Palm Apps?
doggo asks: "Having just won a brand new Handspring Visor from one of those new .com startups, I find myself happily perusing the various Palm software sites looking for good applications & documents, so I wonder what /. readers find to be the most useful things? For me so far, it's CSpotRun, so I can have copies of various *nix faqs & mini-manuals with me, and a couple of SF stories in case I get caught in line or waiting for a plane or whatever. There's a plethora of stuff out there, and rather than waste my time installing and un-installing various apps, I thought I'd poll other readers on their choices. What are yours?"
Ten? I dunno.
But my favorite apps are:
AvantGo (less so since hollywood.com killed their movie listings channel)
Mapopolis (www.mapopolis.com) - Maps for anywhere in the US.
TealPhone - upgrade to the contact manager app, don't have a URL. TealSoft makes a lot of neat Palm apps. Although I think the Visor comes with an enhanced contact manager to begin with...
RPN - RPN calculator. Again, don't have a URL. Search on any of the Palm software archive sites.
Might want to try DopeWars. Some people love it, some people (myself included) find it insanely boring. You don't know until you've tried it.
retrorocket.o not found, launch anyway?
One of these days I'll probably replace AvantGo with Sitescooper and/or Plucker, but right now I can't be bothered.
The next Cmdr Taco duplicate will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush and see it early!
You do keep your Palmtop next to your bed dont you? In grayscale and colour versions:
http://palmfun.multimania.com/en/MainFrame.html
Baz
I still find the standard apps useful enough for keeping notes / calender etc...
Here are some of the other apps I've installed
Launcher III
Replaces the standard PalmOS 'shell' with a nicer tabbed version. you can drag/drop apps to sort them/delete them/beam them.
HackMaster
very useful little program, that accepts many 1000's of plugin 'hacks' that modify the way the PalmOS works.
Palmamp.
I have an MP3 player in my car (old Pentium). I use PalmAmp to control the music while I'm driving (via serial cable) Controls playing/playlist/equalizer.
Diddlebug.
Lets you scribble notes, and set a reminder.. don't have to use graffiti to jot down quick notes.
Address+
A small addon for the standard Address book. Integrates every Postcode in Australia, for quick lookup.
FreeCell
very nice version of Freecell
Eudora Web/Email
I have a TDK Globalpulse cable, that links to my Nokia 5110. very good email/web access while on the road.
YAUC
Yet another Unit convertor. Handles just about every obscure unit to convert to/from
TealInfo
mini doc-type viewer. there are many TealInfo Folios covering a wide range of topics. Folios are hyperlinked documents. Ones I frequently reference include: detailed info on all Intel CPUs, list of nearly every TCP/IP Port etc..
All these apps can be found on www.palmgear.com
Rohan Beckett
--- RB
If you're mildy familiar with motorola assembly, grab the Onboard Resource Editor. It's great fun. You can examine all the databases of every app you have installed and alter anything you want. Dead easy to disable nagware.
Games: Pyramid, Dopewars, Lines, Freecell, and Vexed.Top Secret. For storing your passwords etc. (protected my TinyDES encryption).
Planetarium. The best astronomy palm companion.
MindSpiral. Just to get freaked out.
Invert. Invert your screen (because some grayscale apps, when backlit, look dodgy)
Convert. The best conversion table app.
Next, I've got some more 'specific' apps to what I do, specifically, the Programmers Calculator, which has great hex-bin-dec conversion and some other nice features for doing computer-stuff (seems to have gone missing, but there are other similar calculators). I also have to report my hours working on various projects, so Titrax (http://www.titrax.com/) is a nice app for keeping track of that without too much effort.
Personally, I like apps that allow me to sync with other data sources. Anybody know of an good way to sync databases to a palm app using a linux box (maybe a plugin for jpilot?
- Mike
QED is an editor, does some minimal rich-text editing, and stores the doc in a compressed format so you can have your entire novel-in-progress on your palm. Way cool.
BrainForest is somewhere between a hyped-up to do list, a project planner, and a Gannt (sp?) chart in an outline style. It works outline style, but you're able to assign details to things, such as percent complete, or target dates. You can then expand or contract the elements below (as in child elements of parent item). Hard to describe, so just try it.
Those are two of the three apps I've ever bought for my Palm, and I'm still using my original Pilot (before the 1000 and 5000 days).
I always go for the GPL stuff. I have a natural aversion to shareware, where you end up having a million apps which do the same thing, but not very good. That's one of the things that bugs me about Windows, and disappointed me about the Palm.
That said, I always go to SourceForge first for Palm apps. Some of the shareware is good, though.
So my list:
<ul><li>GNU Keyring - Great for encrypting passwords</li>
<li>HotDate - A good overview on one screen, and a simple reminder alarm where you simply select a time from the menu and it will beep that many minutes from now</li>
<li>PCash - Keeping track of what's in my bank account is a good thing, especially when I don't have an internet connection. I live in Canada where we use our bank cards to make purchases at stores and restaurants (I only need a Visa for online shopping). It comes in really handy when I want to buy something expensive</li>
<li>Patience - It's almost like PySol for the Palm - 'nuff said</li>
<li>Rally 1000 - Oh the time I wasted playing mille (BSD games collection) back when I had a 2400 baud modem to download Linux stuff from SunSite (using Minicom of course), now I have graphics</li>
<li>Theremini - I'm a fan of the real Theremin, this piece of software spread through my office like a virus</li>
<li>pBill - xBill for the Palm</li>
<li>LispMe - I did engineering rather than CS, so I didn't learn Lisp. My boss is an AI freak (having a PhD in it) and constantly praises it (Apparently Crash Bandicoot was written in Lisp).Me, I want to be able to hack on the Gimp more effectively, so I play with Lisp on airplanes, etc</li>
<li>HackMaster - Yep, some shareware, but a shining example of it</li>
<li>DateBook+ - I'm glad Handspring included this little gem</li></ul>
Now, all I need is software to sync my Palm data into my KDE2 apps. For now, I'm using JPilot, which is pretty good, by itself, and doesn't mind that I'll be pressing the HotSync button before JPilot's sync button. Ah, the joys of USB.
I like ptelnet (formerly known as PalmTelnet). I have used it to connect to headless Linux boxes that are running agetty on their serial ports. It can also connect via the TCP/IP stack which is handy too.
The Palm is such a great platform for interactive fiction. Why limit yourself to just reading? Go get pilot-frotzfrobnitz and some text adventures.
1. Hackmaster
Irreplaceable. Get it and pay the guy.
2. DateBk3
My Bread & Butter app. It's a Datebook/Todo replacement with lots of very useful stuff. There's also a DateBk4.
3. Commute
Bus schedules
4. QED
Doc reader/editor
5. OnBoard C
If your're into coding for fun, this is a refreshing experience.
6. TextPlus
Frequency-based word and phrase suggestion in any Plam application
7. PopUp Favorites
8. PopUp Calculator
Extremly useful helper apps. One is to switch tasks, the other is a small yet powerful calulator.
9. Font Hack & Alpha-NX
FontHack allows you to choose your own fonts, selectable for each app you have installed.
Alpha-NX is small but very readable.
10. TapPad
Adds some nice features to your Graffiti area.
a. SpadeLover Spades
b. Rally 1000
Games. Don't miss them
Censorship on Slashdot
Metro - Need to know the subway trains for any subway system in the world - Metro will get you there.
Currency - For when I travel overseas I can use this currency calculator to figure out if lunch will break my bank.
PocketRogue - Just love it.
III.IIVIVIXIIVIVIIIVVIIIIXVIIIXIIIIIIIIVIIIIVVIII
PocketChess.
--
you can check out my site for a full list, but here's some highlights... FlashPro+FlashPack (www.trgnet.com), BugMe (hausofmaus.com), Z'Catalog/pz/Insider is a good thing to have (those are three similar apps that show you all the DB's on your Visor).... if they aren't linked at the above URL, you can find em on PalmGear.com
1 - iSilo
This app is great at converting HTML pages to load in a nice compact format. The registered copy has hyperlink support. This will also read standard Palm document. I use this for keeping my favorite http://www.linuxdoc.org HOWTOs handy.
2 - HandyShopper (found at PilotGear)
This is a very well designed shopping list manager. It allows you to maintain items across several stores (e.g. soap can be bought at the grocery store and the drugstore), and it allows you to sort the list by aisle. Best of all it's Freeware.
3 - AvantGo
You'll always have some bathroom reading handy with this one.