Palm OS/WinMo Software

[#1]

For the most part, these Forums are a place where people come looking for help and, in some cases, complain.  But as a part of the Palm Community, we would also like to see the Forum more widely used as a place to share your own reviews and opinions of third-party applications with other Forum users.  Hence, this new thread, in the Software Board.

From the seemingly mundane (playing games, viewing photos, and writing/editing desktop documents) to the wild and crazy, I am amazed by the cool applications that have been written by people infinitely brighter and more clever than me, for Palm OS handhelds.  And I come across new ones (at least, new to me) all the time.  These new discoveries continually feed my addiction to Palms.

So with that introduction, please post your own software reviews here in this thread.  Whether it is a widely used application such as Documents To Go, or something with a very narrow audience, please let others know about them, and about your opinions.

Suggested things to include in your reviews:

• EDIT the Subject line of your Reply to this thread, to include the Name and a *brief* description of what the application does;
• state whether you had any issues or difficulties in downloading and/or installing the application.  Is there a desktop companion application?;
• describe your user experiences with the application.  Include the good and the bad.  Is it useful?  Does it do what it is intended to do?  Is it attractive, and is it intuitive to use?  Does it have hi-resolution and/or 320 x 480 (full screen) support?  Is it stable on your Palm (i.e. does it run well, does it ever freeze, cause Fatal Alerts, or other difficulties)?  Does it have any on-screen Help information?  Does it come with user documentation, and if so, how good or helpful is it?
• indicate where the application can be found (i.e. third-party sellers, or the developer's own site, etc.);
• tell us whether you have sought help from the developer, and how responsive they were;
• indicate whether the application is freeware, shareware, or its cost if it is only available for purchase.

Please be mindful that we cannot post information pertaining to things illegal, such as links to unauthorized copies of copyrighted sofware, registration codes, and the like.  Also, if a "review" looks, sounds or smells too much like an advertisement for your own commercial application, it is subject to being edited or removed at the discretion of the Moderators. 

Lastly, this thread is *not* a place to rant & rave over Palm Desktop...please take Palm Desktop posts over to the Synchronization section.   Thanks.

[#2]

Alex Pruss's NVBackup works quite well on my Tungsten T5. It doesn't backup the internal drive, but if you mess up something in ram, you don't have to hard reset and lose the contents of the internal drive in the first place. The feature I love is the 128-bit AES encryption. I have a lot of personal, sensitive information on mine, so I lock it, and NVBackup encrypts it, so it is very difficult to get at that information. It unfortunately only works for NVFS devices, so anything older than the Tungsten T5 won't work. So far, this is the only backup program that has never gave me any errors, even Card Backup throws itself into a constant loop of backing up repeatedly. Many backup programs can't be scheduled, but NVBackup has that ability. Best of all, it is completely free! It even syncs the time with servers, although I do not have Wi-Fi, Trying it with a wifi card has proven a little shaky, being that the servers are typically uncooperative and returns a dialog stating it couldn't connect. Overall, it is a nice, stable, secure backup program for NVFS palms, such as the Tungsten T5, TX, Lifedrive, Tungsten E, and Tungsten E2.

 Overall rating:4.5 out of 5 stars, or 9 out of 10.

Find it here:http://www.freewarepalm.com/utilities/nvbackup.shtml

Message Edited by palmgeek5394 on 07-30-2007 11:59 AM

[#3]

Skin UI skins absolutely everything that is currently safe to skin. The best thing is the wide availability of skins. Palm revolt skins can be imported using the "Import" button on the skin loader screen. It has an app customization list, in which you can enable/disable different parts of the skin as needed on a per-app basis! That means that apps such as Real Player don't look cheaply pieced together, while still maintaining the same look and feel as the rest of the GUI. One can also change a skin's colors, if they feel it needs a small tweak. If one, for example, likes the Cobalt look, then it can be used in lieu with Pruss's Skin DIA! to give it that cobalt look. Due to cache issues, it does make the pda a bit less stable, leading to more crashes, keeping it from a perfect score. For example, some skins force 16-bit color, and some applications hate being forced into 16-bit, which requires one to disable Skin UI for that app. The most annoying thing it does is to fill up the cache and lock up the pda. For $11.95, it is about $3 cheaper than Palm Revolt, and has the ability to import its skins. I'm using Skin UI rather than PR because it has more skins, and the skins support 5-way navigation. Overall rating:3.5 out of 5, or 7 out of 10

Get it here:http://www.palmpowerups.com

[#4]

DateBk 6 from www.pimlicosoftware.com has been my preferred calendar application (starting, I think, with version 3 maybe) for a long time.  A 30-day trial version is available.  After that, it costs $28 to buy it new, or something like $12 to upgrade from a previous version.

The thing I like best about DateBk is the Week-At-A-Glance view it provides, similar to a paper calendar.  All appointments, anniversaries, To-Do's etc. are there on one screen in a graphical Calendar view (particularly with a large screen like the T5, TX or Lifedrive, this is really a benefit).  Switching views is simple, with the tap of an icon.  Another popular calendar app I tried out, Agendus, also has a Week-At-A-Glance view, but among other problems I had with that program, this view just wasn't as clean in my...view.

The flexibility of views, preferences, options etc. is almost overwhelming, so it takes a little time to work through those.  If there is a downside to this program, that's it.  What a down-side, huh...too many user options.  The most recent version upgrade from 5 to 6 incorporated support for the "birthday" field in the Palm Contacts database.  You know, when you set a Birthday for someone in your contacts list, it would put a birthday cake icon into the Palm calendar database.  Until recently, DateBk could not read those Birthday entries, but it does now.

In the years I've been using this app, I have never once known it to freeze or cause a reset.

There is also a very active and helpful support forum on Yahoo!Groups, in which the developer actively participates.

[#5]

For Bejeweled addicts (like me), Bejeweled 2 has great graphics and everything, and it has great sound effects. But, for most people, the only differences between the original Bejeweled and Bejeweled 2 are the addition of two new types of gemsower gems and hyper cubes, and a couple new game modes. Hyper cubes blow up all the gems of the color it is swapped with, giving 100 points per gem. Power gems explode when in a row of similar gems, destroying all adjacent gems. If you already have the original Bejeweled, then it isn't the best deal for $20. If you don't already have either, then it would be a reasonably good deal.

Overall rating:4.5 out of 5 or 9 out of 10

Download it at the palm software store.

[#6]

Freeware doesn't get any better than Yahdice 2.01.

It is a perfectly-excuted rendition of the dice game Yahtzee.  Simple, not much in the way of fancy graphics or music, but it works all the time, every time, doesn't crash your Palm, has 1-4 player options, and will take up entirely too much of your normal work day (which is why we have games on our Palms in the first place, isn't it?).

Find it at www.palmgear.com and other places.

AND, I would love to ask other users who plunked down $20 for Handmark's Yahtzee, to post back with their feedback on that version, in particular, how the two versions compare.

Message Edited by smkranz on 07-30-2007 03:34 PM

[#7]

ProfileMD, available at profilemd.com is a freeware application that provides the following medical tracking functions:
Personal Info
Family History
Appointments
Problem Log
Vital Signs
Weight
Blood Glucose
PeakFlow
Allergies
Medications
Illnesses
Surgeries
Tests & Labs
Shots

Some of these can also be graphed. It is useful for managing ongoing health conditions, tracking family members you may be a caregiver for, and to store questions for your medical provider, especially when traveling or seeing a doctor for the first time. Maintains records for multiple users and is HIPAA compliant. Works on NVFS and pre-NVFS devices.

I was involved in testing the current version, released in 2005. Have had no issues with the application and no further need to contact developer once released.

Message Edited by DTfromBH on 07-30-2007 05:38 PM

[#8]

TCPMP Beta v0.71 is in my opinion, some of the best freeware applications ever written! It'll play .wma, .wmv, .mp3, .mp4, .mpg, .wav, .amr, .avi, .ogg, and even PSP videos! If you have a plugin for it, it'll play it. There are, so far, no errors whatsoever, other than having it tell me I haven't installed a particular plugin. It is extremely stable. It is my best friend! Very impressive, with a very simple UI.

Overall rating: perfect 5 stars, or 10 out of 10

Download it here: "picard.exceed.hu/tcpmp/"

[#9]

FileZ is a really simple and efficient file manager. It presents you with three options:View and Edit Files, Information, and View Preferences. The first option will allow you to view every file in the device or on cards, drives, ROM, etc. It has tons of options, and allows you to change file attributes. The second option shows you a large amount of imformation about your device. The third option is for power users only, as it is really complicated and deals with hexadecimal preference values.

So far, it is a 3.5 out of 5, or a 7 out of 10

download it here:www.freewarepalm.com/utilities/filez.shtml

[#10]

I have always been absolutely amazed by my Palm M505, and I am constantly striving to improve it, make it cooler, and give it more GAMES!!! After virtually flushing out Freeware-palm.com and mobiletopsoft.com (amongst others), I decided to stray into Shareware turf. I heard Astraware.com was good, so I gave it a try to see what trials I could get. Surprisingly, there were even a few freeware Palm games there as well, so I decided to stop there first. I found two really fun games: T-blaster and Bang Bang.

T-Blaster:

The idea of T-Blaster is pretty much the same for most games: There is an alien invasion, you have to fend it off, yadda yadda yadda. But you don't just shoot at them. You type at them. Most of you will think of the game "Giraffe" and laugh at it, but it is so much more than that.
     Aside from the better graphics, T-Blaster also has many more features than Giraffe, such as a Power Meter that limits how much you can "shoot", and enemies that consist of words, and not just letters and punctuation. Added to that, it is also painfully addictive, and like most other games I have, I've egged myself on many times to get another high score. It starts off nice and easy, but soon turns into a real bloodfest, and I forget that I'm meant to be learning something. So it puts the "add" back into "addictive"
     The graphics are astonishing for a low-res game, and there are some pretty nice explosions as well. It will only work for original Graffiti (not Graffiti 2) Palms, but that's no worry for me and my M505.

Overall, a well-earned 9 out of 10. Addictive, and I've noticed my writing has really improved recently.
Download from: http://www.astraware.com/palm/tblaster/

Bang! Bang!:

Bang Bang is a pretty weird game, to be honest. It goes along the premesis of acheiving a high score and beating everyone on the Hard level, but there aren't any enemies or time limits. Basically, you have to shoot as much as you can without running out of ammo, and are awarded ammo for shooting some things.
     Coke cans, targets, birds and even cats are among the poor things you're about to blow the heck out of, and I find it nice to release some energy after a long day. The graphics, being low-res, aren't exactly photo-realistic, but they don't try to be. they are nice, basic cartoon characters. There isn't much animation, apart from the bouncing of the ammo you get, but that's ok. it's cartoony.
     And, as always, it gets harder as time progresses, with enenies giving out less and less ammo for each kill. It may seem a bit "play it for 5 minutes then get bored", but it just... isn't. Somehow. So yet again, it's addictive.

Overall, a sweet 8 out of 10. Addictive, and delightfully absurd.
Download from: http://www.astraware.com/palm/free/bangbang?skucode=0010-000-0008

Please Note: Despite these games being free, they require a registration process. This isn't hard, and in my opinion, is well worth the games you get out of them. Enjoy!!

That was completely OTT, wasn't it? Oh, well. I like being in-depth

Message Edited by Tamiyaguy on 08-06-2007 03:10 PM