... to the April edition of our user and developer PDA tips newsletter.
As always, please feel free to submit requests or ideas through the links
at the bottom of this page. This is also where you will find
subscription and removal information.
This issue has a nice mix of Pocket PC, Phone and PalmOS topics. As usual, there are also several online news and tip sites listed as well.
Palm related items in our newsletters are marked with this icon. Pocket PC/WinCE items are marked with this one. Phone-related PDA tips show a icon.
Please note: This newsletter contains tips and tools that can alter your PDA.
These items are offered here "as is" and without any warranty or support from FO. Please
consider them carefully before using or trying them (and as always ... backup, backup, backup! first before making any changes).
Thank you,
Bill Shadish, Principal
User Tips and Tools
Howard Mobile Phone Forums http://www.wap.howardforums.com (wireless version)
http://www.howardforums.com
A highly useful online forum, where a wide variety of mobile phone topics are discussed. There are phone reviews, tips on ALL of the manufacturer's models of phones, and discussion areas for you to ask your own questions. There are also separate forums here for the carriers (like T-Mobile, ALLTEL, Nextel, Cingular and Sprint) as well as PalmOS, Pocket PC and SmartPhone discussions. The wireless link shown above points to a discussion and the location of wireless (WiFi) hotspots, which were covered in a previous FO newsletter. Access this link from a WAP-enabled phone or visit their home page
from a browser.
Skype is the interesting utility that allows you to make (legible!) free calls across the internet. This is something which has grabbed the attention of the communications industry -- who is a little less interested in having you make free calls anywhere at all.
PocketSkype enables you to make Skype voice calls from any WiFi hotspot. Skype provides instant messaging, personal contact lists and even the ability to make conference calls across the net.
Two interesting and related utilities for software analysts. UML Pad allows you to diagram simple UML (Unified Modeling Language) relationships, while
Rambutan (Requirements Management Tool for Busy System Analysts) helps to gather facts for creating requirements specifications.
UML Pad is a nice little entry tool, but would benefit from being able to tap on an item to directly enter it's description, rather than having to tap the icon for this instead.
UML Pad
Rambutan
EasyStat v0.1 (freeware)
http://www.freewarepalm.com/calculator/easystat.shtml http://www.geocities.com/xavimensa/EasyStat.html
A fairly useful statistics tool, covering Chi-square independence tests;
Fisher's Exact Test plus Risk and Odd Ratios with confidence intervals;
and McNemar's Test with continuity correction.
ShortCut5 v1.1 (freeware) http://www.freewarepalm.com/utilities/shortcut5.shtml
The system shortcuts only support small (45 characters) shortcut definitions. ShortCut5 is a preference panel tool that allows you to add (Large: up to 4096 chars). Once installed, ShortCut5 is found in the Other section of Preferences. You would use the shortcut, like the one in the following graphic, as you would expect -- using a ".FOC" to run this shortcut. OS5 only.
ShortCut5
Pocket TV http://pockettv.com/
PocketTV plays any standard MPEG-1 video file (extension .mpg or .mpeg), including DVDs copied to MPEG format. With support for most of the available WinCE devices:
(Pocket PC (2000, 2002, Windows Mobile 2003 and 2003 Second Edition)
Smartphone (2002, 2003)
Handheld PC
Casio Pocket Manager
This is a pretty well rounded application, but note that it requires registration.
STOIC v1.0a (freeware) http://www.freewarepalm.com/utilities/stoic(stayonincradle).shtml
The question of "How to keep your Palm powered on in the cradle" is something that we have been asked periodically for the last several years. STOIC (Stay On In Cradle) forces your PDA to stay powered on in the cradle.
For OS 2.0 and above.
Stay On In Cradle
FIXES, PATCHES and UPDATES
Palm Battery Drain Fix http://www.metacon.ca/bcs/view.php?page=drainfix
If your Palm PDA has stopped hotsyncing via a USB connection, this is a procedure from Ben Steeves to correct the problem.
Development Tips and Tools
(Sites with content most valuable to developers)
MicroJava http://www.microjava.com/
This site contains a wealth of news and tips for those who are interested in MicroJava (J2ME) applications for mobile phones. There are daily news updates on this page; information from all of the major vendors; and links to applications (mostly games) to try.
Pocket Ping v1.0 (donationware) http://www31.brinkster.com/agangce/software/PocketPing.htm
This is an ICMP Ping utility for the Pocket PC. PING (Packet Internet Groper) is used to see if a particular computer is currently connected to the Internet. It works by sending a packet to the specified computers' IP address and waiting for a reply.
Pocket Ping
PocketHTML.Net v1.1 (donationware) http://www.isquaredsoftware.com
This is a tool that we've been looking for a while now. PocketHTML makes handheld HTML editing simple and easy, with an emphasis on eliminating the repetitive hassles of tag <> entry. "QuickTag" buttons make entry a one-tap operation AND there is a viewer to immediately see how the resulting HTML will look. The auto indent feature also helps to save on keystrokes as well (...as anyone who is used to keying the 3 or 5 spaces before <TR> and <TD> tags can attest to). Note: PocketHTML requires Microsoft's .NET Compact Framework (which you can find here) to be installed first.
PocketHTML
PocketGCC v1.50 http://mifki.ru/pocketgcc/
This is port of the GCC C/C++ compiler (more info on that here) and GCC's supporting tools to the Pocket PC platform. Uses full featured C/C++ and produces code that does not require additional runtime libraries. Includes:
If you would like to suggest topics
for us to focus on, we will strive to add content in the direction
of the most interest. Choose from the following categories, or
add your own, and include this in your email:
Palm Development
Palm User Interface topics (look &
feel issues),
Palm User-oriented topics (tips!),
Palm vs. Pocket PC issues
<other>
If you have other comments or suggestions,
please send us an email with your thoughts by clicking
here.
icon. Pocket PC/WinCE items are marked with this 
one. Phone-related PDA tips show a 
icon.
