Wednesday, March 31, 2004

Email
Email has been become an indespensable communication tool for me, not only keep me in contact with my family and friends but also help me with my job. Which brings me to my T3, it allows me to collect not only my email from my POP accounts but thanks to VersaMail I can get my outlook email too!.

It is very convenient to be able to write an email with the meeting minute during the meeting itself! It is convenient too to sync my email and take it with me every where or by using my T608 I can sync it wirelessly!

Conclusion: a palmOSdevice is an excellent device for email.

Gabriel Castellanos.

Saturday, March 27, 2004

Dictionaries

Something great about the PalmOS handhelds is that they are excellent reference tools, I live in the USA but english is not my first language, so when I am writing or I am in a conversation I need to translate words but this is really easy, since I have two english-spanish dictionaries and the PalmPak Dictionary Thesaurus card, these three utilities are really useful. Complementing the package I have 2 books about english grammar, which after reading them I can say that my writting skills have improve a lot or at least that's what I hope :)

Gabriel Castellanos

Thursday, March 25, 2004

Digital Dashboard
One of the best features of my palm is the ability to keep all my information in one place, I manage differents projects so it is important to keep always with me all the important information that allows me to take decisions on the spot, for these I use the following software:

1. ShadowPlan: Essential to keep all projects and task information in one place
2. MyWeek: Allows me to keep track of meetings and deadlines
3. Built-in To-do: Always show me what to do next (link with Shadow).
4. Slap: Where I take my meetings notes.
5. Handbase: Where I save all my projects notes and contacts.
6. DocsToGo: I keep one spreadsheet that gives me a status summary.

As you can see I cannot live without my palm

Gabriel Castellanos.

Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Divorce
Such an ugly word I must say but since I got my first PalmOS handheld I hear it frequently from my wife, the main complaint is because every 5 seconds or so I pull out my T3 because I have something to input or check, now I do it even without thinking so one day my wife decided to count how many times within and hour I will use my palm, 10 times!!

So fellas are you having marital problems because of your palm?

Gabrie Castellanos

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Compulsion.
I have a little compulsion, I love to try and use new programs for my T3, I just love it, but it is getting a little out of hand, I was checking all the programs that I have bought in the last year and I spent over 200usd just in software!!!, enough money to buy a TE to replace my wife's Clie (an older T model). On the bright side this makes me realize how useful is my T3 for me, even though sometimes I have duplicate programs (docs to go, quickoffice, mobileDB, HandBase and SmartListToGo for example), but I really use it for a lot of things, not only fun things but to keep my productivity and my quality of life up!. do you have a compulsion too?

Gabriel Castellanos

Sunday, March 21, 2004

Browsers
I am amazed everyday that I use my T3, it is just amazing what it can do. Today my wife is using our desktop computer and I am running a maintenance program in my Laptop, which basically leave only with my T3, not a problem, I am writing this using mo:Blog in my T3, since I am doing some research I am using my T3 to browse different websites to gather information, I use two browsers, Blazer (I have this since my m505 days) and Webpro, usually when I need speed and I am just reading I use Blazer, if I need details and interact with the website I use Webpro. I so wish PalmOne upgraded the Blazer browser to use the T3 screen but I believe that they will move on and use Webpro only, probably we should do a petition to ask them to upgrade it? how many of you out there use Blazer? any other browser out there I should be looking at?.

Gabriel Castellanos

Friday, March 19, 2004

More on Bluetooth
I've been reading that the main use of bluetooth for many people is to access the internet, either using a mobile phone or by using an adapter attached to their computers. Even myself I use it that way but it is not the only use of bluetooth, I use it to for syncronizing, no cables!! I use it also for to send files back and forth with my PC, to keep it in sync with my mobile phone since I am a Windows user and I don't have iSync, so I send the information that I need from my T3 to my T608, I use it also to dial my T608 since I don't want all my numbers in it, just the one that I need the most, so sometimes the phone is in my T3 so I just dial it using bluetooth. I also use bluetooth to send some information from my outlook at work to my T3 since I don't want to carry around with all of my work information, I just select the appt I need to transfer to my T3, go to File and then select "Send to Bluetooth". It works for notes and calendar events, this is really handy for me.

There are many other uses for Bluetooth and hopefully more companies will bring to the american market more accesories that we can use. I know that several companies are working in digital cameras (imagine to take a pictures send it to your palm and then send it through email!), keyboards, etc. so be patiente and if you have a bluetooth enable PDA, use it to the maximum!

Gabriel Castellanos

Tuesday, March 16, 2004

Travel with my T3, Part III

The final accesory I am reviewing is the veo photo traveler digital camera, is an excellent complement to the T3 if you keep your expectations real, how much real you would ask, let's start by saying that in no way this accesory will replace your 5 megapixel digicam, but it is a good "always on" camera for those "I wish I had a camera" moments.

I use the veo photo traveler quite often mostly at work, how? I take pictures of the white board during my meetings, there is no easier way to take notes!, sometimes I have to take more than one mainly when the whiteboard is crowded with information and since the Veo is a very low resolution I'd loose details if I don't divide the whiteboard in sections.

Another use for the Veo Photo Traveler is to share experiences, my family lives in another country and this camera has brought us closer together, since I can share more of what I see around here. One good example is my recent travel to LA, where I was able to take pictures of the improvements in my sister's in law house so I could share them with my wife as well as pictures of my nephews, hardly a "magic" moment but something that I wanted to share :).

Conclusion, I believe that this camera is a good investment as long as your expectations are real. I enjoy this little accesory a lot, it's a shame that veo cancel its 1.3 megapixel camera, hopefully the reason behing is because they are working in a 2 megapixel camera ;)

Gabriel Castellanos

Sunday, March 14, 2004

Traveling with my T3 part 2

The next accesory I want to review is the proporta 9v emergency charger.

As you can imagine when flying for more than 2 hours there is a huge posibility than my T3 runs out of juice, even faster if I try to browse the internet using bluetooth while you are waiting for your next flight, since I wanted to take advantage of my time I decided that I need it to take with me the proporta charger, which basically uses a 9v battery to charge your palm, the concept is simple and worked as advertise, you just need to be aware of the following:
- One battery will charge your palm between 30-40%. In my case (T3) it was 30%.
- It takes almost 2 hours to charge your PalmOS handheld.
- It does not show when the 9v battery is out of juice, the only way I figure was by taking the tempeture of the 9v battery, if it was hot, it still had juice.

Even with its shortcommings I believe is worth every cent if you fly frequently or you are going to be in a place withouth access to an electric plug.

Gabriel Castellanos
Mobile blogging
I've been testing two PalmOS blogging programs, Vagablog and mo:Blog (I tried to test other programs but one kept crashing my T3, other wasn't able to post wirelessly and other didn't work with Blogger my blog provider). I am impressed with both programs, since I can create posts and published them using my T608 or my home internet connection through bluetooth. Hopefully they will help me to keep my blog up to date :).

First let's talk about what features both programs have:

1. Update blogs wirelessly.
2. Help with supported HTML tags through menus (basic but helpful).
3. Support for blogger, MoveableType.

Both programs do this really well, so if this is just basic need, then any program will do, now let's focus into the differences:

mo:blog

1. Support for MetaWeblog
2. Multiple blogs support, so you don't have to change your setting everytime you want to publish in another blog.
3. Multiple post publishing, which allows you to create multiple post and then publishing them, this is handy when you are keeping several blogs and you want to update them once a day or you don't have connection all the time.

Vagablog.
1. Supports WordPress, B2, LiveJournal, JournalSpace and wordpad.

My only inconvenience with mo:blog is that if you switch applications without saving, you lose your work, this is quite annoying but more of a training issue.

One big advantage of VagaBlog is the price, 7usd, mo:blog cost 14usd, so you can choose based on your needs and money. but whichever you choose you will be happy.


Gabriel Castellanos
Travel 2
The first accesorie I want to review is the PalmOne wireless keyboard.
I already own a Palm keyboard but I wanted one that allow me to use it accross PalmOS powered handhelds and it looks that this is the perfect keyboard for this.
I am late to finish my second expert guide this one about PalmOS development (you can check my first one about time tracking here) so I decided that 6 to 7 hours of flight would be excellent to catch up. Setting up is easy, just install the driver in your PalmOS powered handheld and you are ready to go, by the way the driver supports the connected keyboard too, so you can use both keyboards, which is my case. This keyboard uses the same key layout as the compact keyboard, package size is pretty much the same size as the folding keyboard although is thinner and lighter, I am not particularly fond of the layout, since I can touch type but it makes a decent experience, the keyboard is incredibly responsive. One of my complains with the folding keyboard was the power drain since it takes its power from the PalmOS handheld, which in the case of my T3 could diminish the life of my battery a lot, the good news about this keyboard is that it has its own powersource (two batteries) although it uses the IR in my palm but it seems that the battery last longer. Still battery life does not goes all the way through my trip but with the proporta accesorie I was able to make it with little down time but you will have to wait for that review a little longer.
My conclusion? It is a decent keyboard, you can feel cramp if you touch type but you get used to keyboard, quality and responsiveness are good, you can take advantage of the portrait and lanscape mode of the T3, it works in almost all PalmOS handhelds (I tried it in a CLIE ), only problem is that you cannot use it in your lap as with the compact keyboard but for 69usd plus taxes I think is a pretty good deal.

Saturday, March 13, 2004

Travel 1
I traveled to LA last week, usually I would take my laptop, digital camera, cell phone and T3 with me, but this time I decided to take only my T3 with the following accessories:

-Wireless keyboard.

-Proporta 9V emergency charger

-Veo travel camera

-SprintPCS T608


It was a pretty good trip I loved traveling with my palm and l was able to survive for 2 days without computer, in my next blogs I will describe my experience with these accesories.



first post using mo:blog
I am planning to keep my blog using, of course my new palm, a Tungsten T3 and mo:blog (or similar software), this is my first post with this configuration
I am planning to keep my blog using, of course my new palm, a Tungsten T3 and Vagablog (or similar software), this is my first post with this configuration
Again I've been busy, but I am testing some new tools that will help me to keep this blog updated more frequently so stay tune!