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Freeware Application Review

Pocket Press Freeware Reviews : 2001

HOT DATE
Author : Chris Faherty
Download from : http://rallypilot.sourceforge.net

If you have OS 3.5 installed on your Palm or use Datebk4 or ActionNames, you can view your ToDos and Appointments on one split screen. But everyone else has to switch back and forth between screens, which can be annoying and is always inefficient. HotDate gives you an agenda-type screen, listing pending To Do and Calendar items. It has a choice of Today, Tomorrow, and Week screens. Which To Dos and Appointments are displayed, when and how they are displayed, can all be configured by the user. You can also set alarms and keep a contacts list. When you tap on a task or appointment, you are taken to that item in your Datebook or To Do list (either the built in apps or any application you have replaced them with). This is a small and simple application that can be very handy.

Rating (1 = it crashed my Palm and I deleted it; 10 = I couldn't live without it) : 7

STRIP 0.5i 
Author : Stephen J Lombardo
Download from : http://www.zetetic.net

You probably have several screen names with different passwords on AOL, a couple of free web email accounts, your bankcard PIN number, your login name and password at work, a few quick checkout passwords at web sites like Amazon.com -- and, if you're like me, you've forgotten half of them. The Palm would be very handy place to keep all your Passwords. The only problem is that the Palm's security is all but non-existent. A good encryption application. Like Strip, cures this problem. Strip 0.5 i uses the "Idea" algorithm to encrypt your information. You create Categories (which Strip confusingly calls Systems) and within the Categories you create Accounts. In plain English, you create a Category called Passwords. Within Passwords you create an Account called AOL. Then you enter your Screen Name and Password in that Account. There is no limit to the number of Systems you can create, beyond the physical limits of your Palm. The System names are encrypted when stored. Strip also includes a Password Generator for those of use who can never think up any on our own.

Rating (1 = it crashed my Palm and I deleted it; 10 = I couldn't live without it) : 8

VEXED v1.4

Author : James McCombe, Mark Ingebretson, Steve Haynal
Download from : http://www.geocities.com/ingebret/colorvexed.html

I hate screen protectors and I have limited patience, so I don't play games on my Palm. Except for Vexed. The original Vexed came out several years ago. I quickly became addicted and just as quickly scratched up my Palm III's screen on the, to me, nearly insoluable Level 30. 

Vexed, although wildly popular, was never updated -- until now. James McCombe, the original author, released the Vexed source code under a Public GPL license. Mark Ingebretson added color bitmaps for visual interest, and Steve Haynal added 59 new levels.

There are seven different patterned blocks in Vexed. The object of the game is to remove all blocks from the screen. You do this by dragging or dropping the blocks through their surrounding empty space. Blocks may move side to side or downwards. They never climb. The screen has multiple immoveable blocks as well, which create obstacles and barriers. If two (or more) like patterned blocks rest next to each other, they are removed. For instance, move the Green Cross one space to the left. It falls on top of the Green Cross below. Poof! They are both gone. Simple. Except that now there is no way to move the Yellow Spot over the barrier. &#$%!!! Time to hit the ReDo button and begin again. Once a screen is successfully cleared, you move on to the next level.

This is the best time waster since FreeCell offered a reason to upgrade to Windows 95. But use a screen protector! 

Rating (1 = it crashed my Palm and I deleted it; 10 = I couldn't live without it) : 10

DRAW IT v.1.43
Author : Andrew Empson
Download from : http://www.drawit.co.nz/

DrawIt! is a remarkable, full featured paint program for colored Palms. Mr. Empson was working on a gray scale version (and a desktop bitmap converter) when he recently suffered a hard drive failure, so for now, it requires OS 3.5 and a Palm IIIC as a minimum. However, if you own a color Palm OS PDA - download this program. 

DrawIt has an almost bewildering range of brush shapes, sizes, and textures, plus a text tool. It can handle anything from freehand drawing to mechanical specs. Once you've created your masterpiece - or map, or doodle, or caricature - you can add labels, titles, directions, etc., with Graffiti. An included applet lets you choose which tools to add to your DrawIt toolbar, allowing you to make the program increasingly complex and sophisticated.

If DrawIt has one drawback, it is that the program is not very intuitive and the documentation is sparse. However, I've seen desktop paint programs that cost over $100.00 and offer much less. The time spent learning (read: playing with) the program is a small price to pay for an application this robust.

Rating (1 = it crashed my Palm and I deleted it; 10 = I couldn't live without it) : 9

PALMCOINS
Author : Vlad Mereuta 
Download from : http://palmcoins.sourceforge.net/ 

You know what I truly hate about Pocket Quicken - even the excellent and much improved new v 2.0? It costs more than Quicken does, and that's just not right. There must be a cheaper way to track your checkbook balance on your PDA.

Palm Coins is a light accounting program for the Palm. It does not export its information to Quicken (or any other desktop checkbook program), but it does allow you to keep multiple accounts on your Palm OS PDA. It also supports double entry bookkeeping and scheduled transactions. If what you want is a PDA based accounting program, with no desktop integration, this is a good choice.

Rating (1 = it crashed my Palm and I deleted it; 10 = I couldn't live without it) : 7

For several years, I used SecureMemo, from Certicom, to keep encrypted information in MemoPad. Unfortunately, SecureMemo has disappeared from Certicom's web site without explanation. Fortunately, CryptoPad is a worthy replacement. Like SecureMemo, CryptoPad uses the Palm's MemoPad database to store its Memos. It also adds some nifty features, like support for multiple fonts, a look up field that lets you search for Memos by entering a few letters (similar to AddressBook), and an On Top sorting scheme that lets you keep your most commonly used Memos always at the top of the list. After you encrypt a memo, a small key icon will appear next to its name in the index. Tap on an encrypted memo and you will be asked for a password. You can assign a Global password to encrypt and decrypt all memos in a given session or you can give each memo its own password. Encrypted memos are not readable on the Palm Desktop version of MemoPad. A desktop decoder is in the works, however.

If you assign CryptoPad to the Memo hardkey, you can, for all intents and purposes, replace MemoPad with CryptoPad, adding several useful features to your Palm.

Rating (1 = it crashed my Palm and I deleted it; 10 = I couldn't live without it) : 9

If you have a color Palm, you've probably wished you could customize the display colors as you can on your desktop computer. The generic Palm blue and white color scheme can get boring. Khroma was originally written as a way for developers to add color to their applications. However, it can be used by anyone who wants to jazz things up a bit.

Khroma, like the shareware Chrome, comes with a selection of preloaded sample schemes. However, creating your own scheme is not very complicated. Each element of the screen has a pop up color palette. When you change a color, the change is immediately applied to the display - so you can instantly realize what a bad idea that pink back fill was.

A scheme can be used to change the over all look of your Palm or you can launch it only when using certain application or under certain conditions. For instance, I've created a high contrast, easy to read scheme for using my IIIC in bright, outdoor light. If you want to duplicate the Sony Clie's attractive blue screen for your doc reader on a Prism, create a scheme that you launch before you open the reader. (Schemes are global. They cannot, unfortunately, be applied to only one application. You have to go back and forth between your default display and any special schemes.)

I've only tried this application on a Palm IIIC. The author reports that it has been extensively tested on the Visor Prism and the Palm m505. There is no indication that it *won't* work with other Palm OS color PDAs - but there is no documentation saying it does, either. So be sure to back up you PDA before trying it out on a Sony Clie. Khroma requires Palm OS 3.5 or higher.

Rating (1 = it crashed my Palm and I deleted it; 10 = I couldn't live without it) : 8

If you do a lot of writing on your Palm or Visor, you probably also use an external keyboard. The keyboards are great - except when you need to tap a button. Some programs, like WordSmith, have keyboard commands built in, which allow you to access drop down menus or to chose command buttons without a stylus. Most, unfortunately, do not.

Unless you use PointerHack. This small, ingenious hack emulates a computer mouse on your Palm. Once you invoke the hack (the default command is the "\" key), a small pointer appears on your screen. You can move it around with the arrow keys, or you can use a number of pre-programmed keys to move it quickly around the screen. The command keystrokes are fairly intuitive and easy to learn. Position the cursor over the button, hit the "s" key - and the button considers itself tapped. Drop down menus are invoked by "\1" for the first item on the menu, "\2" for the second item, etc.

If you frequently use the "\" key in your writing, the default keystroke can be changed. The navigation keystrokes are hard wired, but they do not interfere with the normal operation of the keys when the pointer is not on screen.

Rating (1 = it crashed my Palm and I deleted it; 10 = I couldn't live without it) : 9

Not all Palm applications allow you to use the Copy and Paste commands on the Edit menu. (AvantGo has been one of the most annoying examples.) ClipStringHack will allow you to copy *any* text to the Palm clipboard. From there, it can be pasted into any field that accepts text entry. If you've ever found yourself grinding your teeth in frustration while trying to transfer a few simple words from one screen to another, you'll love this hack.

Rating (1 = it crashed my Palm and I deleted it; 10 = I couldn't live without it) : 7

Most Graffiti characters are easy to figure out and easy write. But the high Ascii characters are neither intuitive nor simple to form. The Palm can even reproduce a number of letters and symbols that don't appear on either the Graffiti help screen or the virtual keyboard. With ASCIIPopHack, you can copy all these characters to the Palm clipboard and then paste them into any field that accepts text input.

First, you swipe your stylus from the silkscreen Menu button to the silkscreen Find button. A Pop up window will appear on top of whatever application you are in. Tap on the character you want (there are two screens worth of international letters, symbols, numbers, and superscript characters). The character is copied to the clipboard. Close the pop-up window and paste the character into your Memo, WordSmith document, etc.

The Copy & Paste routine takes several taps. It would be less cumbersome if the character were automatically inserted into your document. However, chances are you won't be using this hack constantly. For those few hard to create symbols you do use over and over, you can always use the Palm's Shortcut command in conjunction with AsciiPop Hack to create your own auto character insert.

Rating (1 = it crashed my Palm and I deleted it; 10 = I couldn't live without it) : 8

If you always want to open your Datebook when you start your PDA, you can just push the Datebook hard button to power on the display. This works for all four hard keys. You can assign any program you wish to the hard keys, so you can theoretically start up any program when you turn on your Palm.

But what if you want to use the hard keys for their default applications - and still want to always open to a different, specific application. With PowerButtonHack, you can assign any application to the power button itself. For instance, install PowerButtonHack, open its configuration menu (which is accessed from within HackMaster), and assign, say, AOL Mail to the power button. Now, every time you use the power button to turn on your Palm or Visor, you'll find yourself in AOL Mail, rather than at the Launcher screen.

Rating (1 = it crashed my Palm and I deleted it; 10 = I couldn't live without it) : 6

This is one of those "How come nobody thought of this before?" applications. Pester allows you to set an alarm to go off at prescribed intervals. It is not tied in to your Datebook. It's not a sleep alarm (that is, it doesn't go off at a prescribed time and then every five minutes until you reset it.) It just bleeps when you want it to: once every five minutes, ten minutes, thirty minutes - whatever. Use it to remind yourself when it is time to perform simple, repetitive tasks.

Rating (1 = it crashed my Palm and I deleted it; 10 = I couldn't live without it) : 7

The Palm's built in calculator is, to be generous, inadequate. Registered Palm owners can also download a Lite version of the popular Parens, which is pre-loaded on the Visor. Even so, many folks, including students, need more power. Easy Calc has evolve from a simple - and simple to use - Palm calculator replacement to a powerful, multi-featured calculator that can hold its own against many stand alone calculators.

This is how the author describes it, "Scientific Calculator with trigonometric funcs, complex numbers, graphs, unlimited number of variables, degree/radian mode, HEX/OCT/BIN/DEC conversions and more. You can work with number ranging from 1E-100 to 1E250, displaying them all with up to 15 decimal points."

If you're looking for a calculator, this one is worth investigating.

Rating (1 = it crashed my Palm and I deleted it; 10 = I couldn't live without it) : 8
(It should probably be rated higher, but I avoid any numbers that I have to take off my shoes to add up.)

Most DA Launchers assume you have a list of half a dozen or more Desk Accessories - which, in my case, is just overkill. I use lots of hacks on my Palm, but only a few Desk Accessories. I have already assigned my hard keys and silkscreen keys to various applications. Pen swipes are likewise pre-empted. Launching my few useful DAs has been alternately perplexing or annoying until I discovered K-Launcher.

The K stands, I assume, for Keith (the author's name) and not 1,000. It's designed for the PDA user with no more than four DAs. The graffiti area is viewed as two abutted rectangles with a total of 8 corners. You assign an upper corner of the graffiti area to a DA or an app. Tap it and the Desk Accessory is launched. K Launcher is simple, its small, its easy to use, and it works. If you need a small launcher, this is a gem.

K-Launcher requires HackMaster or X Master.

Rating (1 = it crashed my Palm and I deleted it; 10 = I couldn't live without it) : 10

The Palm's built-in Datebook is a useful, but limited, application. Unlike all other Palm apps, it has no Categories feature. You can't easily sort your appointments by Personal and Business or a similar scheme. Many PDA users get around this by buying a third party program like Datebk4. But what if you don't want to give up 400+ Kb of RAM or spend $25.00? What if you don't need all the extra features? What if you just want Datebook to keep your personal and professional lives separate?

Then you need Calendar. It looks and acts like the Palm's own Datebook, which means you can use it without even reading the instructions. Of course, it also shares Datebook's limitations. But if you just want to keep two schedules, it is an excellent solution.

Rating (1 = it crashed my Palm and I deleted it; 10 = I couldn't live without it) : 7

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Pocket Press Freeware Reviews : 2000
Pocket Press Freeware Reviews : Jan-Jun 2001

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