February 8, 2000
Handful of Web Sites Can Expand
Horizons for Users of Palm Pilots
By JEREMY WAGSTAFF
Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
IF YOU'RE LIKE ME, all your friends probably own a Palm Pilot or
another brand of what are known in the trade as hand-held digital
assistants. But how many people actually know how to use these devices?
Researchers can tell you that there are at least six million such units in the
world, but there's no Hand-Held Trash Dump Index to measure how many
units sit gathering dust in their desktop cradles. From what I've seen, it's
still hard to find anyone who really uses his or her hand-held device for
anything beyond keying in a few telephone numbers, a patchy to-do list
and a calendar. I, for one, don't trust myself to scribble down a number
from directory inquiries, fearing the machine will misread my imperfect
script amid all the excitement.
All this was OK when the Palm was little more than a novelty item. But
now, the device manufactured by 3Com Corp. has become practically
mainstream.
Launched in the mid-1990s, the Palm Pilot was, in movie parlance, a
sleeper for its first two years. People were suspicious of the gadget, with its
stylus and proprietary script for entering text. Earlier ventures such as one
by Apple Computer Inc. (anyone remember the Newton?) hadn't caught
on. But, miraculously, the Palm gradually won converts, largely through
word of mouth.
So what can you do to squeeze more out of your Palm Pilot? Are there
add-ons that can turn your flat slab of gray plastic into something more life
changing? Well, yes and no. There is a wealth of third-party software out
there (www.palmgear.com, for example has 155 different calculators
available for download). But it's not easy to get beyond the software
gimmicks and find a timesaving godsend. As for add-ons, there are
surprisingly few available, and they are pricey. And while there are some
shortcuts to using the unit, they often require some fiddling and some
know-how. Still, let's take a peek.
FIRST OFF, the software that comes with the Palm Pilot is useful, but
limited. The datebook calendar program and the "To Do List" may be
good for most tasks, but they offer only a few options for setting alarms
and viewing appointments. To expand it, try Datebk3 from Pimlico
Software (www.gorilla-haven.org/pimlico/), which offers a host of sensible
extras such as easier ways to view events, and snooze alarms. It costs
US$20. As with much of third-party software, you can try it out before
buying.
But things only really get interesting when you explore beyond these basic
applications. There are plenty of sites from which to choose. Apart from
PalmGear, there's Handango (www.handango.com/), Palm Boulevard
(www.palmblvd.com/) and the Palm Pilot's official homepage
(www.palm.com). Here are some suggestions to help you sort through the
dross. Forget the free stuff. Palm software isn't particularly inexpensive. It's
small (an average program takes about 30 seconds to download), but if it's
worth its salt, it's going to cost you. Here are some of my favorites:
-- Abroad! A well-designed calculator/currency converter that also
compares time zones, converts weights and measures, and can be updated
from the Internet. You can find it at the above sites, or at
www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Peaks/9768/Pilot.html.
-- If these PDAs are ever going to really catch on, they've got to become
more than just a glorified memo pad. One obvious use: entering financial
data on the fly. Surprisingly, neither of the big players in this field, Intuit
Inc.'s Quicken or Microsoft Corp., have come up with Palm Pilot versions,
leaving it to small independent developers to fill the gap. Ultra Software
Systems Ltd., a one-man band despite its fancy name, offers a neat
package of Windows and Pilot software that synchronizes your Microsoft
Money with your Palm Pilot and allows you to enter transactions into your
hand-held ($34.95 from www.ultrasoft.com/Money). A word of warning:
although the software supports multiple currencies, if lots of zeroes figure in
the equation, you're in trouble. The author, David Kendall, promises to fix
this soon. Quicken has also attracted third-party developers: Try
Landware's Pocket Quicken at Pocket Quicken ($39.95 from
www.landware.com/products/pktquicken/pktquickenps.html). (All of these
programs are approved by the original software manufacturers and require
the original PC or Mac software to run).
THIS IS USEFUL STUFF. But in some fields, the Palm Pilot has come
into its own more as a reference tool than as an input device. This has
become possible with the arrival of the Palm IIIx, which comes loaded with
four megabytes of memory -- more than enough to store large tomes, or
what's called e-text. Try the following:
MemoWare (http://208.13.77.66) -- probably the best of the sites for text
downloads. Categories range from food and nutrition to Shakespeare, and
most of it's free.
MobileDB (www.mobilegeneration.com/databases/) -- focuses more on
compilations of useful information than complete texts (its Top 10 includes
a list of wine types and hotel toll-free phone numbers).
PalmaServ (www.coslink.net/PalmaSrv/) -- one of the first e-text libraries,
it offers a quirky mix of material, from Edgar Allan Poe to "13 Essential
Vitamins for Human Health," detailing their benefits, sources and
Recommended Daily Allowances.
Still, all these bells and whistles come at a price. For starters, without an
easy search method to comb through a wealth of material, it's unlikely
you're going to find specific tools or programs easily.
Secondly, reading whole novels on your Palm Pilot isn't doing your
eyesight any favors (choosing the middle or largest font may help). And
you're going to have to download some special software onto your
hand-held device to read all this e-text. And while that's pretty
straightforward, it's not as easy as it should be. What you need is a
program that reads the PDB or DOC format in which most of these e-texts
appear. To check out the options, and a good explanation of the problems
involved, check out a FAQ (frequently asked questions) at PalmGear.
If you read through that page, you will learn that the problem today is that
commercial vendors don't confine themselves to a single format or
standard. And there's no supplied software that lets a user browse files in
competing formats easily.
My plea to 3Com, which produces the Palm Pilot: Sort this ugly situation
out, and make reading large documents straightforward. In the meantime,
you might find help and camaraderie with user groups, one of which may
be near you: Here are a few: Singapore: www.spug.org/; Taiwan:
twpug.wolfnet.com.tw/ (not always accessible); and Malaysia:
www.pintarnet.com/mypug/.
Write to Jeremy Wagstaff at jeremy.wagstaff@awsj.com |
