... to the October 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.
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
HARDWARE – What's what?
With today's dizzying set of new vendors and new hardware releases – it can be fairly difficult to keep up with what is out there. Our newsletter starts with some sites that provide lists of the current hardware devices. Included is detailed information about each device.
Here is a new one – a Palm device (running the "Tapwave enhanced Palm 5.2T OS") specifically for gaming (and videos, and MP3s, etc). Here are the Zodiac specifications. The Zodiac is wireless to allow you to play other gamers. Can you say a couple of Gameboys without the cables?
A time logging application that helps you to keep track of the time that you spend on individual jobs. Hours even captures break times.
License: Freeware
You can budget and work with your job expenses. You can add a note about each expense; group by categories; and even graph the expenses per account. This is a useful application if you are managing multiple clients.
License: Freeware
FormulaCalc v1.0 http://www.40-below.com/palm
A formula calculator where you can set up (and run) your own calculations. Supports square roots, If statements, Log, Int, Sin, Degree, Rad, etc. Like a handheld calculator, there are 26 memory storage locations to hold temporary values as your calculations run.
License: Freeware
Note: Combining these tools with the Progect (a Palm-based project management tool) and Converter (which converts between many different kimds of measurements) applications from our April newsletter provides an even better toolkit.
Development Tips and Tools
newObjects ActiveX Pack1 1.0 http://www.newobjects.com/product.asp?ID=63
A collection of many ActiveX components and a scripting host tool for the Pocket PC. Read and write from streams, the registry, files, etc. The ActiveX pack is available for ARM, MIPS and SH3.
License: Freeware
In our last newsletter, we showed PERL and Pocket C development tools
for Pocket PC developers. The following are a set of Pocket C add-ins, as well as other traditional developments tools like FORTH, that have been adapted to run on a Pocket PC.
Pocket C (sic: that is PocketC) tools
CEAPI http://www.pcform.net/
CEAPI provides an interface for calling Windows CE API functions directly from PocketC. Includes Windows compatible header files and example PocketC programs. Supports all versions of Windows CE from version 2.0 to PocketPC2002 on HPC, PPC, HPCPro, PocketPC, HPC2000 and PocketPC2002 platforms.
PCForm http://www.networkdynamics.net/PCForm.html
A IDE environment, for building Pocket C forms and applications, directly on a Pocket PC device.
License: Commercial ($29.99)
Other Pocket PC/Windows CE development tools
BRexxCE 2.0.6 (Rexx) http://ftp.gwdg.de/pub/languages/rexx/brexx/html/rx.html
This one will be appreciated by old IBMers. Rexx is a vast scripting language, which feels like working with PERL. Versions are available for Windows NT, CE, 2K, the MacOS and versions of Unix. There is a help FAQ about installing and using BRexxCE on the site. License: Freeware
dsFORTH 2.0 beta 1 (FORTH) http://www.delosoft.com/
A ANS FORTH language compiler. Support for ALL Win32 platforms: Windows CE (3.0 only), 9x, ME, NT, 2K. Note that there is also a version for the PalmOS on the site. License: Freeware
SapphireGZip v2.00 http://www.sapphire-solutions.co.uk/
A compression/decompression DLL for the eVB (Embedded Visual Basic) developer to use in working with gzip. It seems pricey at $199, but that is a fair price when compared to Windows compression libraries. License: Demo
Palm Expansion Slot: Add extra memory, or content like a
dictionary, sold separately. Supports SD, SDIO and MultiMediaCards.
Updated PIM apps: Calendar, Contacts, Memos and Tasks.
What's in the Box: Palm Desktop software for Windows and Macintosh, Tungsten E.
Desktop System Requirements: One available USB port PC running Windows 98, 2000, ME, XP or Mac OS 9.1 or higher, or Mac OS X v 10.1.2 to v 10.2.6 (Windows 2000 and XP and Mac OS X require admin rights to install)
FO is a reseller for Palm, Handspring and Hewlett Packard PDA hardware.
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
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. Pocket PC/WinCE items are marked with this 
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