Don't Forget to Pack Your Palm (AvantGo mention)
time.com
Don't Forget to Pack Your Palm
Savvy travelers know that the key to a great trip means loading up their Palms with helpful and entertaining apps
FROM FRIDAY, MAY 26, 2000
Good patriotic American that I am, Memorial Day means - weather permitting - a long-awaited three-day weekend in the sun. This year it also means stuffing my Palm in preparation for life away from the office. Here are my picks for the must-have apps that every savvy Palm vacationer needs to get the most out of her downtime:
Even though most Palm owners know about the amazingly cool AvantGo app, it still deserves a mention here. This smart application allows you to download virtual reams of articles, stories and other information onto your PDA, PocketPC and web-enabled cellphone. AvantGo features content from some of my favorite online destinations, including Salon, the New York Times Book Review, Weather.com, Slate and - coming soon - TIME Digital. (Meanwhile it's easy to tell AvantGo to grab web pages, hint, hint.) Not only is AvantGo great for bumper-to-bumper hang time relief, it's also an easy way to lighten your beach bag, since there's no longer any reason to carry eight magazines and a book along with your beach chair, towel, cooler and umbrella.
After catching up on what the movie moguls are doing via AvantGo's Variety.com channel, I know I'm also going to want to spend some time vegging out. In homage to the boys from "South Park," I downloaded the Bomb Canada game from CNET's Download web site. Bomb Canada's premise is that Wendy has been kidnapped by "the evil Canadians, with their beady little eyes and flapping heads." Your mission: Drop bombs from your airplane on an unidentified Canadian city in order to destroy all the buildings and rescue Wendy.
Undoubtedly by Sunday or Monday, I'll be missing Gotham concrete and police sirens, so I'll be sure to pack DopeWars. The drug trafficking game keeps it real - or not, as the case may be - even for those of us lying on the beach listening to the gentle whoosh of the ocean lapping at our ankles. How do you win? Buy and sell a variety of illicit drugs, "jetting" around New York City neighborhoods to check on the local action. Meanwhile, DrugWars presents you with choose-your-own-adventure scenarios (i.e., Officer Hardass is chasing you. Do you run or fight?). I've found that DopeWars can raise my blood pressure a notch or two when I'm $14,000 in debt to the loan shark and he's coming to get me. The stock market may be closed for the weekend, but this drug-trading game gives new meaning to "buy low, sell high."
One thing that always makes an impression on me when I'm out in the country is the inevitable sound of crickets chirping happily in the distance. This year, I'm ready to put their chirping to use with the Crickometer. This application promises to tell me the temperature based on the number of times a cricket chirps. All I have to do is tap my stylus on the picture of the cricket and, after a couple taps, I'll get a temperature. Sounds like a bit of work, though - someone should upgrade the crickets to beam with my Palm's infrared port.
And finally, for budding mixologists, be the hit of your Memorial Day barbecue by keeping the Palm Bar handy. Recipes for 200 fabulous concoctions, like the refreshing Cape Codder and the foreboding Dark 'n' Stormy.
-- THERESA RILEY |
