PalmPilotUG

PalmPilot Users Group –St Louis (PUGSL)

PUGSL home page http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Forum/4272/

Minutes of April 17, 1999 Meeting

St Louis County Library – Main Branch

CONTENTS:

ATTENDANCE
A GROUP IS FORMED
WHY DID WE GET A Palm PDA?
WHAT HARDWARE DID WE GET?
WHAT ABOUT MODEMS and CONNECTING TO THE WEB?
WHAT ABOUT CELL PHONES AND THE Palm PDA?
POWER CONSUMPTION
BEAMING

INDIVIDUAL USES
TEXT
DATABASE
PROGRAMMING

TIP: EMULATION
BUILT IN PROGRAMS
WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE AND WHERE CAN I GET SOME MORE PROGRAMS?
WEB SITES
FUTURE BUSINESS
INCREASE PUBLICITY
POTENTIAL TOPICS AND MEETING FEATURES

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

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ATTENDANCE

Attendance by a fairly diverse group for the inaugural meeting, occupations including IT professional, structural engineer, custom audio-visual businessperson, physician and entrepreneur. All described both personal and business uses of Palm PDA.

A GROUP IS FORMED

A consensus on the need for a local users group was confirmed by enhanced understanding of the operation of the Palm PDA and the exchange of hints and tips demonstrated by all present. The "show and tell" format worked well.

The sign-in survey revealed that flyers/handbills were the most effective form of communicating the time and place of the meeting, although web and computer user monthly newspapers also carried the announcement. Apparently the web page is not turning up on the search engines most used.

WHY DID WE GET A Palm PDA?

First exposure to the Palm PDA was recalled as curiosity about the technology, or receiving one through work, or just trying it and liking it. A great quote: "my friend the computer geek gets everything except the Palm PDA from work, and he couldn’t get one, so I got one – it brings out the geek in me." The price was right.

WHAT HARDWARE DID WE GET?

Most had Palm III’s or IIIx’s, one had a Personal upgraded to the III OS with 2mb and IR link. One said his Personal/Pro suffered a cracked screen and he bought a III to replace it. So he has an extra cradle! Cost of repair of Personal probably balance well against local price of a PP Professional ($129) which can be upgraded for just over $50 to a III. Perhaps when enough PP personal/pros get cracked open, a less expensive means of repair will be available from a third party. Under $200 entry cost to Palm PDA was an attractive feature for some, with the extra cost of IIIx, V, and so on seeming a little high for routine use of something that can be lost or misplaced. Nevertheless, sales force and field data entry & lookup use in businesses may drive purchases of the more expensive units, possibly at the expense of individual consumers (if the low end models are discontinued).

WHAT ABOUT MODEMS and CONNECTING TO THE WEB?

Modems were discussed at some length. Uses include modem hotsync, accessing your desktop files from the field, and using the Palm PDA to access email directly. Use of Proxiweb (formerly TG Wingman) to browse the internet was also described, although no direct experience with this was demonstrated. Alternatives such as HandWeb and Avantgo are available. Also mentioned was the pinout diagram for the Palm PDA cradle, which can be adapted to an external modem. External 14.4 modems are a little hard to find right now, unless you clear out your basement. Fast modem speeds are not part of the Palm PDA experience. An interesting prospect for "emulating" a modem connection for the Palm PDA is described in using your Win95 box as a conduit to the web, which goes through the process of sharing an IP dialup connection between your desktop (connected by phone) and your Palm PDA (connected by direct cable – the serial cradle – to the desktop). Although this is a kludge beyond most belief, it would give you a chance to see what using a modem with the Palm PDA is like, and possibly influence your decision to plunk down $129 for a modem. Of course, if you are supplied with a modem through work, you are set.

WHAT ABOUT CELL PHONES AND THE Palm PDA?

As far as using a cell phone with a modem, apparently in St Louis only analog systems support data links, and this requires a "cellular capable" modem – a PC Card modem. A suitable phone, cable, and modem (for laptop mobile connection) were displayed. Connection speeds of 4800 to 9600 (this is not a misprint) can be anticipated. Some vendors advertise radio/cellular links that hook directly to the Palm PDA, but have not been seen personally in St Louis.

POWER CONSUMPTION

Most reported 7 to 8 weeks of battery life, but intense use decreased life. This issue arose in the context of increased power usage with the PP modem. The beam receive mode apparently also consumes power, and the undocumented features site was referenced for details. An "easter egg" was shown.

BEAMING

Few had direct contact with other users prior to this meeting, and sparse experience with beaming had been gained. Infrared beamed business cards flew like crazy as we Palm III and up people tried this out. Some units were a little erratic, but it worked out okay. Later, a freeware program (.prc) was shared by IR beam, and a calendared event (the next meeting) was beamed around as well. Distance of beaming is limited. The audio-visual businessperson has investigated using the Palm PDA as a remote control, and is exploring using an infrared repeater to increase distance, together with software to control innumerable components.

INDIVIDUAL USES

TEXT

Using Word or similar WP program on the desktop, with cut and paste into the Palm Desktop application for Memo, and back was described as a quick technique for handling text. Travel arrangements, meeting notes, and the like were the specific instances of this use. AportisDOC, DOC and MakeDOC were cited as readers for compressed document files on the Palm PDA, together with the wealth of documents available on the Web in this format.

DATABASE

A program called "LIST" is used to catalogue scores of engineering drawings to supply easy access to the right one as needed. Pendragon Forms is another data handling solution that is used by one to keep track of rebates, and to record stock performance parameters to export to an Excel or Access format for analysis on the desktop. Handishop was demonstrated as a useful means of keeping track of needed food items, prices, and coupons in multiple stores. Sales force data entry and field retrieval of information appears to be a key business use.

PROGRAMMING

CBASPAD is programming on the Palm PDA itself, and can output into memopad format, which can then be input for PPlot, allowing scientific function graphing! Experience with Satellite Forms, or CodeWarrior for Pilot is lacking at present. The former is a "form" or database environment with many other features, and the latter is a development environment, essentially for C programming. None present were "hardcore" programmers, or even have the time to slough through more than 5 or 6 manual pages to get to the core of a problem. But there is always tomorrow. Pendragon Forms is programmable to a degree.

TIP: EMULATION

Some concern was expressed about crashing the Palm PDA after loading up too much software just to see what it worked like. It was suggested that the Palm OS emulator available from 3Com can be installed on the desktop, and .prc files can be tried out there without having to hassle a hot sync and risk a reset. (The stylus with the III unscrews to reveal a perfect point for reset as well.) The desktop harddrive has huge capacity as well.

BUILT IN PROGRAMS

Everyone agreed that "they got it right" with the selection of memopad, addressbook, calendar/scheduler, and todo list for the Palm PDA, which are useful across the board. "I would be lost without it", "I kissed my Franklin/Covey planner goodbye forever" are two sentiments expressed. The lack of an integrated environment for these programs (like MS Office environment) was frustrating for some, but can be overcome somewhat with Actioneer, which automates the process of inserting information into the scheduler, todo list and memopad from a single entry.

WHERE CAN I LEARN MORE AND WHERE CAN I GET SOME MORE PROGRAMS?

What PalmPilot Books are available lists no less than eight books in print. We saw "Dummies" and its "okay", but we really liked "PalmPilot: The Essential Guide" for content, and because it includes a comprehensive CD-ROM with over 750 programs (freeware, shareware, crippleware). Excerpts from the executive tips from the first 4 chapters of this book were distributed as hints and tips.

WEB SITES

A list of favorite web sites was reviewed – it will be upped to the PUGSL web page as a link list. PDACentral and PalmCentral seemed to top the list. A list is attached in no particular order.

FUTURE BUSINESS

The next meeting remains the third Saturday of the month at 2pm at the St Louis County Library – Main Branch, at least through July, 1999. The Palm PDA showed its elegance by allowing todays calendar entry to be beamed to others, and then using a repeating entry to automatically select "every third Saturday" through July to mark this out.

INCREASE PUBLICITY

We intend to explore extended distribution of flyers throughout the county, Riverfront Times ad, Post Dispatch Thursday entertainment supplement – Get Out, Show Me St Louis TV Feature, local computer newspapers, and web search engines as means of sharing our interests. Word of mouth of course, probably will be very effective as well.

POTENTIAL TOPICS AND MEETING FEATURES

A member intends to explore his computing connections to see if a 3Com or other vendor representative would be willing to provide a formal presentation within the next several meetings. Our email list will continue to be used to determine member’s interests in particular applications for future discussion. The web page will continue with the simple first page and grow from there.

As always, meetings are free and open to the public, and any level of experience is completely welcome.

Return to PUGSL home page

All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of the respective owners.

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ADDITIONAL LINKS:

PalmCentral http://www.palmcentral.com

Stanford Pilot Users Group http://www.rahul.net/flasheridn/spug/

3Com/Palm Computing - Web Resources http://palm.3com.com/resources/usergroups.html

PalmPilot Homepages Webring http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/9600/

How to Connect PalmPilot to W95 Box http://www1.tip.nl/~t322016/palmpilot/pppdcc/index.htm

PDA Central http://usol.pdacentral.com/

PalmVNC - remote access and collaboration client http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/~minenko/PalmVNC/

Palm OS Drive http://www.pdamart.com/palmos_drive/