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User Tips and Tools
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Fin-Calc1 v1.00 (freeware) 
http://instructorsoft.com/fin-calc1/fin-calc1.zip
This is almost a must-have if you are out car shopping. Calculates simple interest, discounted interest, compound interest and interest conversions (discount to simple, simple to effective, etc). Includes breakdowns to work the calculations different ways, such as to show the
principal needed (given an interest rate, payoff time and amount to be paid).
Fin-Calc
Cheap or Free dial-up Access (~freeware | cheapware)  
If you are looking for a low cost (or no cost) internet and email access -- the WiFi access approach isn't always the best for security, local availability or cost reasons.
The following sites can be a perfect answer for that PDA that you wish to have internet access from, only a day or so a month while on the road.
These sites list ISPs that offer very low cost, and even free within certain thresholds, ISP services. Each have pluses and minuses -- so be sure to read the contracts and acceptance agreements that you are presented as you go through the sign-up process. Many of the ISPs listed below are national, providing access through local phone numbers (meaning low phone charges while you are on the road).
http://www.access4free.com costs nothing to use up to 10 hours/month -- and then no more than $10/month if you go over that limit. http://www.access4less.com is a very closely related site (they even use many of the exact same paragraphs in their contracts) which costs $6.95/month. The "catch" to these sites is that they limit your connection time and cut you off after 10 minutes of inactivity, or 5 hours regardless. This is to ensure that everyone can get in -- and is fine if you are only checking email, a price, or some contact information while on the road.
Note that even though the cost may be free, you are still required to enter a credit card number during sign-up; just in case you exceed the free limits.
FreedomList
http://www.freedomlist.com
(Excellent site breaking free/low cost ISPs out by state and price).
D9 v0.71 (freeware)
http://www.freewareppc.com/communication/d9.shtml
D9 is an open-source, freeware, advanced phone dialer for Windows Mobile Phone Edition devices. D9 is faster than the built-in dialer and easier to work with. Features include: - Predictive text entry: D9 figures out who you are trying to call – so that it takes less keystrokes to make your call.
- D9 uses your Outlook contacts for its database, so there's no need to enter any names or numbers.
- Speed: There is no delay in finding the name you are after.
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PPC Phone Edition Dialer
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PocketSkype v1.0.0.21 (freeware)
http://www.skype.com/home.html
We generally try not to repeat tools or sites in our newsletter -- but with the explosion of WiFi sites (and the rise of phone charges) -- this one is worth revisiting.
PocketSkype is a free application that enables you to make Skype voice calls using your WiFi-enabled Pocket PC, from any WiFi hotspot that you can access. There are also versions for other platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OSX) as well.
USAToday Wireless News (freeware | adware)
http://www.usatoday.com/marketing/wiresplash.htm
Daily news formatted for your specific PDA device.
WordNetCE v2.5.02 (freeware)
http://www.ebswift.com/
WordNetCE is a comprehensive freeware dictionary/thesaurus based on Princeton's WordNet.
Requires Princeton's (12.3 mb) WordNet v2.0 support file (ftp://ftp.cogsci.princeton.edu/pub/wordnet/2.0/WordNet-2.0.exe). There is also a Windows and ASP version of the WordNet front-end on the ebswift site.
HellChess v1.1 (freeware) (soon)
http://hellhound.nl/hc/down.html
http://hellhound.nl/
http://www.freewareppc.com/games/hellchess.shtml
A PPC (and Windows, Linux and other platforms) chess game with good tutorials; a strong AI engine and the ability to play online. A PalmOS version is discussed, but not yet found at this site.
Hell Chess
WMV AVI MPEG MPG Converter 1.16 ($29)
http://www.tomdownload.com/multimedia_design/video/avi_wmv_mpeg_converter.htm
Love how easy it is to copy a video onto a Windows system, but hate the fact that the files are locked into fat Windows WMV files? The WMV AVI MPEG MPG Converter is a video converter that moves AVI, MPEG, MPG & WMV formats from one to another. This tool supports MPEG-1 and MPEG-2. For those who are interested, about everything else that you can think of in the Audio/video conversion realm is available at the following site: http://www.tomdownload.com/audio_mp3/index.htm
PDASupport.com (freeware)
http://www.pdasupport.com/
A site with pointers to a variety of PDA-related topics. Includes magazines, reviews, true support sites, tip sites, foreign language sites, web-rings and more.
PDASupport
How to configure a Peer-to-Peer connection for Toshiba e740 (freeware)
http://www.tweaks2k2.com/ad-hoc.htm
Struggling to set up that WiFi connection to your desktop? If so, here is a complete run through of how to connect a Toshiba PPC PDA to WinXP; that is adaptable to your own set of hardware. Includes screenshots of every step along the way.
Fuel Record v1.2 (freeware)
http://www.geocities.com/trandorous
This is a pretty powerful record keeping application, that works for up to 255 vehicles
and includes (useful!) features such as being able to export the information to a CSV text file; which can then be uploaded into a spreadsheet.
Liter/Kilometer and Gallons/Mile conversions are supported -- see the Metric | Imperial option under the top level Preferences menu.
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Fuel Records
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Development Tips and Tools
(Sites with content most valuable to developers)
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SiEd v0.9.3 (freeware)
http://benroe.com
If you're a developer, you have likely used SiEd variants on the desktop side. This Palm version allows you to edit text documents, using .doc and plain text formats and multiple windows (split-screen). You know that you would like split-screen editing -- if you are a developer :-)
Titrax v4.09 TimeTracker (freeware)
http://jack.testnetz.detecon.net/software/
Titrax |
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Titrax is a time management/planning tool which helps you to keep track of the amount of time that you spend on projects.
It is fairly easy to use, and you can switch between
projects with 2 taps on the screen (using the top dropdown list). Projects are totaled and the data can be pushed to the Datebook as well.
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WiFi Graph v0.3 RC1 (freeware)
http://www.kasuei.com/wifigraph
WiFi Graph finds wireless LAN access points and displays the connectivity that they offer.
Locates the best spot within seconds, and updates every 2 seconds to show actual availability.
Scrollable display and XML logging for network analysis. (This is a brand new tool -- so tread carefully and check the site for its' limitations). |
WiFi Graph
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ceNetTools v1.0 (freeware)
http://www.mourfield.com/NetToolsSetup.msi
A Pocket PC app that provides Ping, TraceRt and WhoIs support. TraceRt (Trace Route) shows the path from where you are to a given IP address or hostname.
SqlCeSpy v1.0.2 (freeware)
http://www.primeworks.pt/site/Release/SqlCeSpy_1.0.2.exe
SqlCeSpy allows you to peek into the layout and data of a PPC's SQL CE v2.0 database.
The Code Project - Porting a registry viewer app (freeware)
http://www.codeproject.com/ce/porting_to_smartphone.asp
This is a decent starter app that shows how to create a "registry viewer" on the PPC side.
Notice in particular the code to handle the back key (which is obviously a concern on a smartphone...)
// ...
case WM_COMMAND:
switch (LOWORD(wParam))
{
// User chose to close the dialog
case IDCANCEL: //Handles the BACK KEY
EndDialog(hDlg, TRUE);
break;
// ...
Registry Viewer
PalmOS Simulator Tip (tip)
If you (as a developer Or a user) are annoyed at having to tap through the entire, first-time-on, start-up sequence every time that you open the simulator, here is how to get around that.
1. Run the simulator (5.3 versions and up) and take a snapshot.
(Right-click the Simulator window and choose "Storage > Save".)
2. Modify the PalmSim.ini file and add the following line under [Settings]:
StorageSnapshotFile=<full path to the snapshot file>
There are additional options that can be entered into this INI file, such as screenheight: [160|220|240|320|480], alwaysontop:[on|off], zoom:[1|2|3|4] and redirectnetlibcalls:[on|off].
See this site for more: http://www.palmos.com/dev/support/docs/simulator/Simulator_Using.html#996833
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FO News
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foSync 2.0
Our foSync product has been updated to add better data encryption and improved data compression.
A customizable toolset for the enterprise, foSync provides connectivity across TCP/IP and/or dial-up connections between PDAs and host machine data. PDA executables, row-data or entire databases can be synchronized with the host.
Registration (licensing) of user pdas is optionally available directly on the client-PDA-side or via a server-controlled registration process.
See our site (http://www.fo.com/pda/fosync.htm) for more information.
foSync 2.0
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