What's on your Palm?
I'm a big fan of PalmOS-based PDAs, for the well thought-out user interface, the relative stability, and the selection of software.
Here's what's on my Treo 650 currently:
Installed
* eReader and Adobe Reader (these came with the Palm installation CD), for ebooks.
* Audible Player. Audiobooks offer salvation to the material world. Or at very least provide entertainment and education on commutes. And Audible in particular is an excellent service -- for $22 a month, you get any 2 audiobooks you want. Since these usually cost $20 to $60 a pop, it's a hell of a bargain, so I've been a loyal customer for over a year. They've got a pretty decent selection; combined with CDs from the local public library and judicious use of .torrents, I haven't run out of material yet.
* FreeCoins is an excellent money-management double entry accounting package for Palm. It lets you record your expenses and balance your checkbook at a glance, and have an idea about your budget. A companion program, freecoinsExport provides a conduit to synch up with desktop financial software (such as GNUCash or Quickbooks).
* Progect is a Project-management software, and a decent outliner in general. I tried the free Ideapad outliner (didn't like), and the Shadow Outliner demo (was pretty decent, but Progect did everything I needed to), and went with Progect.
* KeyRing - is a secure password and account number storage software, which stores any kind of encrypted information you want.
* HandyShopper is just plain amazing. It's a shopping list software, that lets you quickly compose shopping lists for any store or category you want. The neat part is, the items then stay in the database (with prices, if you enter them, tracked by store), so that later on composing to-buy lists is a matter of checking on and off. This is one of my favorite Palm programs, along with FreeCoins and KeyRing.
* CheckList (Freeware) is another excellent general checklist software, this one so quick and easy that I install it alongside HandyShopper. Checklist gets used for quick ideas, to-do lists or general lists, and HandyShopper specifically for shopping lists.
* FreeJong (a beautifully done freeware Mah-Jong game). I used to have some other Palm RPGs installed, but usually I just want something mindless when I'm waiting in line and don't feel like reading. The Game Boy Advance is for more serious RPGs. (Also, I hear there are NES and GameBoy emulators for Palm, which fill this niche nicely).
* PTally - something totally random and single-purpose, but if you need to tally (of the very basic put-tickmarks-on-paper sort), this freeware is very useful.
* Punch Timer (free version) lets you track time on various projects and categories, to the minute if you want. I used this for freelancing or keeping a time log of my day.
* FileZ is an essential piece of freeware for your Palm, a sort of file Explorer that lets you view all the files on your PDA, delete them, and beam them to another PDA.
* Highway Manager (Installed but not using yet) - lets you track your gas mileage (and I think car maintenance schedule, but not sure).
Used to Have:
* BookshelfSE, to track and organize my book collection (which books you own, which you want to buy, lent books, etc). Handy, but lacks a desktop component for data entry, which is frustrating. Then I lost the old book database and registration, so haven't yet bothered to rebuild it.
Need to Install:
* LED Off. The freaking annoying LED keeps blinking on and off, while the phone is on. Intolerable. jwz says this will let you turn the damn thing off. Have to investigate.
* PocketTunes (~$15) (for MP3s in general)
* MobileClock ($10) Since I already use an old cellphone as an alarm clock (crazy? Consider -- powered by the wall outlet but with a battery backup in case of power outage, lets you set up to 4 different alarms for days and weekends, many different tones), I might as well put the Palm to use for the same purpose.
* Card Export 2 or Card Reader, which mounts your Palm (with memory card) as a regular USB drive.
To Investigate:
* Note Studio - a Wiki-pad like software for desktop and Palm.
* WiFile Pro - network file management software lets you access your Windows and Mac file network natively on your Palm.
* KMoria - a Roguelike for palm.
* AvantGo RSS and news reader.
* Talkonaut - Chat and Voice over IP software.
* PalmWac (Wacom Tablet Emulator)
* Bonsai Outliner
cdwfs Recommends:
(in his own words)
* KeyCaps650-- I can't imagine using the Treo keyboard without this feature. Itlets you hold a key down for a few ms to cycle throughlowercase->uppercase->special character, instead of dealing withthe shift and alt keys.
* FlightStatus -- checks the up-to-the-minute status of any flight on most major airlines.
* hblogger -- a pretty nice PalmOS blog client.
* pssh -- a full SSH client. I don't use it often, but every once in a while it comes very much in handy.
* If you grab IBM's Java VM (free for Treo 650 owners), you can use the native clients for Gmail and Google Maps instead of having to go through the web browser.
* FileZ is an excellent low-level file manager.
* VeriChat is a multi-protocol IM client.
* Vindigo is like having Citysearch in the palm of your hand.
So, what essential thing am I missing?
Here's what's on my Treo 650 currently:
Installed
* eReader and Adobe Reader (these came with the Palm installation CD), for ebooks.
* Audible Player. Audiobooks offer salvation to the material world. Or at very least provide entertainment and education on commutes. And Audible in particular is an excellent service -- for $22 a month, you get any 2 audiobooks you want. Since these usually cost $20 to $60 a pop, it's a hell of a bargain, so I've been a loyal customer for over a year. They've got a pretty decent selection; combined with CDs from the local public library and judicious use of .torrents, I haven't run out of material yet.
* FreeCoins is an excellent money-management double entry accounting package for Palm. It lets you record your expenses and balance your checkbook at a glance, and have an idea about your budget. A companion program, freecoinsExport provides a conduit to synch up with desktop financial software (such as GNUCash or Quickbooks).
* Progect is a Project-management software, and a decent outliner in general. I tried the free Ideapad outliner (didn't like), and the Shadow Outliner demo (was pretty decent, but Progect did everything I needed to), and went with Progect.
* KeyRing - is a secure password and account number storage software, which stores any kind of encrypted information you want.
* HandyShopper is just plain amazing. It's a shopping list software, that lets you quickly compose shopping lists for any store or category you want. The neat part is, the items then stay in the database (with prices, if you enter them, tracked by store), so that later on composing to-buy lists is a matter of checking on and off. This is one of my favorite Palm programs, along with FreeCoins and KeyRing.
* CheckList (Freeware) is another excellent general checklist software, this one so quick and easy that I install it alongside HandyShopper. Checklist gets used for quick ideas, to-do lists or general lists, and HandyShopper specifically for shopping lists.
* FreeJong (a beautifully done freeware Mah-Jong game). I used to have some other Palm RPGs installed, but usually I just want something mindless when I'm waiting in line and don't feel like reading. The Game Boy Advance is for more serious RPGs. (Also, I hear there are NES and GameBoy emulators for Palm, which fill this niche nicely).
* PTally - something totally random and single-purpose, but if you need to tally (of the very basic put-tickmarks-on-paper sort), this freeware is very useful.
* Punch Timer (free version) lets you track time on various projects and categories, to the minute if you want. I used this for freelancing or keeping a time log of my day.
* FileZ is an essential piece of freeware for your Palm, a sort of file Explorer that lets you view all the files on your PDA, delete them, and beam them to another PDA.
* Highway Manager (Installed but not using yet) - lets you track your gas mileage (and I think car maintenance schedule, but not sure).
Used to Have:
* BookshelfSE, to track and organize my book collection (which books you own, which you want to buy, lent books, etc). Handy, but lacks a desktop component for data entry, which is frustrating. Then I lost the old book database and registration, so haven't yet bothered to rebuild it.
Need to Install:
* LED Off. The freaking annoying LED keeps blinking on and off, while the phone is on. Intolerable. jwz says this will let you turn the damn thing off. Have to investigate.
* PocketTunes (~$15) (for MP3s in general)
* MobileClock ($10) Since I already use an old cellphone as an alarm clock (crazy? Consider -- powered by the wall outlet but with a battery backup in case of power outage, lets you set up to 4 different alarms for days and weekends, many different tones), I might as well put the Palm to use for the same purpose.
* Card Export 2 or Card Reader, which mounts your Palm (with memory card) as a regular USB drive.
To Investigate:
* Note Studio - a Wiki-pad like software for desktop and Palm.
* WiFile Pro - network file management software lets you access your Windows and Mac file network natively on your Palm.
* KMoria - a Roguelike for palm.
* AvantGo RSS and news reader.
* Talkonaut - Chat and Voice over IP software.
* PalmWac (Wacom Tablet Emulator)
* Bonsai Outliner
cdwfs Recommends:
(in his own words)
* KeyCaps650-- I can't imagine using the Treo keyboard without this feature. Itlets you hold a key down for a few ms to cycle throughlowercase->uppercase->special character, instead of dealing withthe shift and alt keys.
* FlightStatus -- checks the up-to-the-minute status of any flight on most major airlines.
* hblogger -- a pretty nice PalmOS blog client.
* pssh -- a full SSH client. I don't use it often, but every once in a while it comes very much in handy.
* If you grab IBM's Java VM (free for Treo 650 owners), you can use the native clients for Gmail and Google Maps instead of having to go through the web browser.
* FileZ is an excellent low-level file manager.
* VeriChat is a multi-protocol IM client.
* Vindigo is like having Citysearch in the palm of your hand.
So, what essential thing am I missing?