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From: hymie! on 6 Jul 2010 09:49
Oh, good, I've been hoping a thread like this would appear.

I'm not enjoying the transition from Palm to iPhone (technically, iPod
Touch). It's depressing to me how immature the Apple apps are compared
to what Palm was doing with their apps 15 years ago, and Apple has a policy
(loosely enforced, but existent) against allowing you to re-write their
built-in apps.

I'm also a Linux user primarily, so most of the need for desktop companion
apps don't apply to me.

Side question:

I never minded downloading 10 pieces of shareware, evaluating them, and
purchasing one for $10. But purchasing 10 pieces of software for $1 each,
evaluating them, and selecting one (or two) to keep seems wrong to me.
Am I the only one who feels that way?

In our last episode, the evil Dr. Lacto had captured our hero,
arnstein+usenet(a)pobox.com, who said:

>Calendar, Contact List, Notes:
>-----------------------------
>These apps sync nicely with Microsoft Outlook (2003 or newer). There is
>no use of "the cloud." Data flows through the USB cable.

The built-in calendar is missing a major feature -- well, I guess I
should say I couldn't find it. How to make a monthly recurring appointment
on the 3rd Sunday of each month. It only appears to offer monthly
recurrence on the Xth day of the month.

I bought Pocket Informant. It doesn't sync (it syncs to google but I
don't use it), but it's a much better calendar than the built-in. Doesn't
compare to DateBk6, of course, but I'm getting over the withdrawal.

Nothing that replaces TealPhone, so I use the built-in Contacts, and
downloaded NoteMaster for notes.

>Password Store:
>--------------
>"Secret" is an app that syncs with a companion desktop application.
>Again, the sync operation is separate, and the data flows through your
>home WiFi network.

Sadly, nothing will ever compare to ReadThis. :'(

I've moved most of my username-password combinations to
http://nsd.dyndns.org/pwsafe/ , a linux version of
http://passwordsafe.sourceforge.net/ . The linux version supports
(but not easily) encrypting free-form memos, but prefers username/password
style entries.

I used LinkeSoft's Secret, mostly for maintaining shareware password
that had to be re-entered after resets. I don't think I need it anymore,
but I'll check this one out.

>I have a lot of other "PDA type" apps on my iPod Touch. If there is a
>particular PalmOS program that you would like to replace, you could post
>here. Most of these apps are cheap or free.

Dunes Trader (Jim DuBois) -- my favorite buy-low-sell-high game. I
bought "Science Wars" (I think there's also a zombie-themed version of
the same game) which is much closer to the old Drug Wars game.

GinRummy by Tan Kok Mun. The only Gin Rummy programs I've seen have
been way to cutesy. iPhone apps seem to prefer neato-keen graphics to
actual gameplay or usefulness. I really don't want to play Gin Rummy
against an animated panda.

HandyShopper -- "Shopper" (http://myshopperapp.com/). Doesn't appear
to offer comparison price shopping or easy unit-price computation, and it's
a little slow to start up, but otherwise, very nice. If you have an
Intenet connection, then you can scan or input a UPC code and it will
find the product description for you.

iSilo -- haven't splurged on re-purchasing iSilo. Loved it on the Palm.
Now using Files on my iPhone. Doesn't require reformatting files into
a built-in format, supports TXT, PDF, images. Doesn't (I don't think)
support a single file containing multiple HTML pages like iSilo does,
so I may end up buying it anyway.

MathPad -- I'm settled on PowerOne (which I believe exists for Palm as
well). I'm looking for a program that lets me solve for any variable,
when values for the others are all provided. I was going to go for
"Formulaic" by Hoy Moon , but they have neither a shareware version nor a
web site.

MegaWiki -- sigh.

NetWalk -- ?

Parens -- I bought HiCalc, mostly because it was on sale. I find I don't
use a calculator all that much, but I liked this one. Lots of "modules"
for things like currency conversion, unit conversion, graphing...

Picture Logic -- enjoyed this game a lot, gave up on it when the
Palm digitizers stopped being precise enough to support the small boxes
in the 25x25 puzzles. Would like to find something similar for iPhone.
I'm almost positive they exist, but my search-fu isn't strong enough
to find the good ones.

Pocket Dimension -- I like simple random dungeon-crawlers. I don't like
having to solve long complicated puzzles. I found a free Rogue clone
that I like, which uses finger-swipe movements for commands rather than
having to nagivage through menus.

Pocket Nums -- ?

Rally 1000 / Mille Bornes

Space Trader -- Hyper Warp. Very good clone, a few added features, and
a developer who's very responsive to bugs.

Strategic Commander (Zindaware) -- not terribly "strategic" unless the
strategy is "get lots of ships", but a fun diversion to kill some time
on the train.

WordUs -- I loved this game. Based on a game show called Lingo where you
have to find the five-letter word. WordMind is a very similar game,
but I'm used to WordUs not allowing plurals. WordMind's "five-letter" words
include pluralized four-letter-words-with-an-S-at-the-end , which I'm not
crazy about.

--hymie! http://lactose.homelinux.net/~hymie hymie(a)lactose.homelinux.net
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: David Arnstein on 6 Jul 2010 12:10
In article <MvGYn.11691$YX3.277(a)newsfe18.iad>,
hymie! <hymie(a)lactose.homelinux.net> wrote:
>The built-in calendar is missing a major feature -- well, I guess I
>should say I couldn't find it. How to make a monthly recurring appointment
>on the 3rd Sunday of each month. It only appears to offer monthly
>recurrence on the Xth day of the month.

The work-around for Windows users is to program the appointment to occur
exactly as you state: in Microsoft Outlook. I suppose that there is no
hope of finding an equivalent in Linux, unless you jailbreak your iTouch.
Another reason why iTouch is not an ideal PDA.

I don't have any suggestions for replacing the other apps you cite in
your post. I used Palm PDAs since the first Pilot, and yet you have made
a list of application types with almost no overlap with the list of apps
that I have used. This illustrates how widely useful the Palm PDAs were.

Sorry it had to end, Palm.
--
David Arnstein (00)
arnstein+usenet(a)pobox.com {{ }}
^^
From: Harald Hanche-Olsen on 6 Jul 2010 13:22
+ hymie(a)lactose.homelinux.net (hymie!):

> I'm also a Linux user primarily, so most of the need for desktop
> companion apps don't apply to me.

It is perhaps worth remembering that palm was not exactly linux-friendly
(or mac-friendly) out of the box either; it was strictly sold as an
extension of your windows desktop. It took third-party hacking to change
that. But then, palm was definitely more friendly to third-party hackers
than the iphone, and the platform quickly attracted the attention of
some great software developers, so you do have a point there.

> I never minded downloading 10 pieces of shareware, evaluating them,
> and purchasing one for $10. But purchasing 10 pieces of software for
> $1 each, evaluating them, and selecting one (or two) to keep seems
> wrong to me. Am I the only one who feels that way?

No. And given Apple's strict control, it shouldn't have been hard for
them to create a framework for actually enforcing shareware contracts.
I.e., you download some software, and if you haven't paid for it within
two weeks, say, the software is disabled. Their present model has the
virtue of simplicity, however. And the reviews help, though they need to
be read with more than a grain of salt.

> The built-in calendar is missing a major feature -- well, I guess I
> should say I couldn't find it. How to make a monthly recurring
> appointment on the 3rd Sunday of each month. It only appears to offer
> monthly recurrence on the Xth day of the month.

Yes, annoying. For us mac users, the workaround is to create repeating
events on the desktop, where we have that kind of control.

--
* Harald Hanche-Olsen <URL:http://www.math.ntnu.no/~hanche/>
- It is undesirable to believe a proposition
when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
-- Bertrand Russell
From: drruth2 on 6 Jul 2010 21:17
On Jul 6, 1:22 pm, Harald Hanche-Olsen <han...(a)math.ntnu.no> wrote:
> + hy...(a)lactose.homelinux.net (hymie!):
>
> > I'm also a Linux user primarily, so most of the need for desktop
> > companion apps don't apply to me.
>
> It is perhaps worth remembering that palm was not exactly linux-friendly
> (or mac-friendly) out of the box either; it was strictly sold as an
> extension of your windows desktop. It took third-party hacking to change
> that. But then, palm was definitely more friendly to third-party hackers
> than the iphone, and the platform quickly attracted the attention of
> some great software developers, so you do have a point there.
>
> > I never minded downloading 10 pieces of shareware, evaluating them,
> > and purchasing one for $10.  But purchasing 10 pieces of software for
> > $1 each, evaluating them, and selecting one (or two) to keep seems
> > wrong to me. Am I the only one who feels that way?
>
> No. And given Apple's strict control, it shouldn't have been hard for
> them to create a framework for actually enforcing shareware contracts.
> I.e., you download some software, and if you haven't paid for it within
> two weeks, say, the software is disabled. Their present model has the
> virtue of simplicity, however. And the reviews help, though they need to
> be read with more than a grain of salt.
>
> > The built-in calendar is missing a major feature -- well, I guess I
> > should say I couldn't find it.  How to make a monthly recurring
> > appointment on the 3rd Sunday of each month.  It only appears to offer
> > monthly recurrence on the Xth day of the month.
>
> Yes, annoying. For us mac users, the workaround is to create repeating
> events on the desktop, where we have that kind of control.
>
> --
> * Harald Hanche-Olsen     <URL:http://www.math.ntnu.no/~hanche/>
> - It is undesirable to believe a proposition
>   when there is no ground whatsoever for supposing it is true.
>   -- Bertrand Russell

About 45 days ago (when Palm Pre came out on AT&T) I moved from Cento
to the Pre. (Previously I've used every Palm device from III onward
except for Treo).

The Classic app from MotionApps has worked very well. Every Palm OS
app listed as Classic certified has performed as in the past. I have
found a couple that while not Classic certified do in fact operate w/o
problems. The sync is to my desktop via wifi, so nothing goes out the
the 'cloud'. To address the list question asked above, SplashNotes
(from the SplashID folks) while not listed as Classic certified has
worked quite well. HandyShopper is certified and has worked w/o a
hitch, including the desktop replacement in Excel. The other list
alternative to consider would be the old Note Studio program. Also
works well under Classic and has a desktop companion. Lastly,
SmartList also performs very well.

Dennis
From: Harold Fuchs on 7 Jul 2010 03:16

"drruth2" <dennis.ruth(a)verizon.net> wrote in message
news:f4a9b9cc-8b73-4434-b2cb-0526ce20ad94(a)i31g2000yqm.googlegroups.com...

<snip>

>About 45 days ago (when Palm Pre came out on AT&T) I moved from Cento
>to the Pre. (Previously I've used every Palm device from III onward
>except for Treo).
>
>The Classic app from MotionApps has worked very well. Every Palm OS
>app listed as Classic certified has performed as in the past. I have
>found a couple that while not Classic certified do in fact operate w/o
>problems. The sync is to my desktop via wifi, so nothing goes out the
>the 'cloud'.


Please, how much does Classic cost? The MotionApps web site doesn't give a
price (or I need new spectacles).

<snip>

>Dennis


--
Harold Fuchs
London, England

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