Quickies: PalmReader, Digi-Map, Bluetooth, and More

Sorry, but the only new thing about this are the PC/Mac-Versions of the PalmReader. The apps fpr PalmOS and WindowsCE have been there for a while. They haven´t even been updated.

Phil

Sorry, I may have missed your announce earlier, but Kinoma released their version 1.1 today. It does the Clie wide screen conversion so you don't need to do a conversion before Kinoma makes it Palm OS worthy. As well, it has better voice to movie matching.

Wow, there is actually something positive for the end-user in the End User License Agreement:

> 7. LIMITED WARRANTY. Palm represents and warrants to
> Licensee that for a period of ninety (90) days
> following the installation of the Software (the
> "Warranty Period") the Software shall operate
> substantially in accordance with the Documentation;
> provided that: [...]

It then goes on to limit this statement, however it is rare to see any thing positive to the End-User. Usually this clause in a EULA states in effect:

> We warrant nothing.

I have long enjoyed reading books on my Palm OS via many methods available. Peanut Press, iSilo, or even WordSmith (doc files).
Getting even more mobile in this cut throat world of layoffs, I found it so easy to get books on CD in either wav or MP3 format. Dump them onto a Clie and listen as I go. The price of these read books is lower than I had thought they would be, especially in the MP3 format.

I am downloading it right now but I want to know what people think of it? I am about to buy those new Terminator books and maybe i'll be able to test this thing out.

So what do you guys think of the desktop versions?

Some time ago I was looking for a car-navigation software for my wife’s Palm IIIc/car.

After some time I found a programm called DIGIMAP, which I wanted to show you since it’s great value for the money and the nearest to „real“ car-navigation I’ve seen on Palms for the European region.

(I don't include the link to screenshots since its
posted in the news section. I also recommended this
application to PIC for their news section. So - thanks to the author for his quick response!)

What I liked about DIGIMAP:

It’s available for different European countries until now, the developer Harald Körtge is charging about 150 EUR (or Dollar, as it stands ) for it with one region (e.g. Britain) included. For this you get the software and the up-to-date- card-material from Navtech.

The maps are great: Everything, even with small paths (biking) and the smallest road: It’s all there in the windows part of the program. You zoom the areas as you need them and sync them to your Palm. The software let’s you select the amount of details you need, so you can get to the file-size you can afford on your Palm. I got a big area in middle-west Germany up to the smallest roads and it is about 2.5 MB on the Palm. Germany with every motorway and main road is about 3-4 MB.

The Palm-application is showing you the adequate map; turning the card in the direction you drive, giving you the street names and signaling the way you ought to drive. It’s got an automatic, like the „big ones“: Once you leave your route, ist auto-calculating the new route in about 20-40 seconds (not bad for 16-20 MHZ).

Besides the map, you get a distance-bar, showing you the distance to the next turn and an arrow above it, indicating where you’ve got to turn next. It also tells you the street-name you’ve got to turn to next. When you leave one of the „maps“ on your Palm, the Software is changing to the next best one available.

Of course, the software can’t make your Palm TALK, but instead it beeps in different ways, according to the direction (left/right) and distance to your next turn.

I compared it with the Becker-Car-Navigation-System I’ve got in my own car. There, I’m left on my own in every small area or town, once you come to the really small roads. With the Digimap-Software and the Navtech-Data – it’s all there, period. That was really a surprise – I thought that this was the best map-material for the price I know of.

All in all:

This is really as near to „real“ car navigation as I’ve ever seen for Palms. I think it’s well worth the money- for my car-navigation, they want 250 EUR/$, just for the new CD alone. For those who understand german, there is a well-done test at www.palmrouter.de.
The guy who runs the site somehow came to selling/adapting gps-systems and software, for those interested I can also recommend buying gps/software of him.

Of course, I’m not in any way related to either of the mentioned developers. I just bought of them like a lot of other people and think they’re doing a great job.