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Thanks to everyone for attending, and especially to the representatives of Synergy Solutions, based in St. Louis, who shared their expertise and gave insights into their products (more below). Return to top

Rumors and News

Qualcomm and Ericsson have settled on a standard for CDMA communications, and this opens the way for acceleration of this technology into the US. Qualcomm and 3Com have collaborated in producing wireless phone/page/PDA units that combine the wireless access features of CDMA with the Palm OS, all in a handheld phone format. Photo appears in ComputerWorld.

Rumor has it that Lucent is about to buy 3Com. Although Palm is only a small component of 3Com core businesses, this could be a great fit for Palm users.

Clones are coming -- suspect 4^th quarter this year.

Two of the creators of Palm Computing are now backed in a new enterprise by a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm -- the new company is Handspring . The website tells you nothing. Expect nothing from this company this year, but who knows what 2000 will bring? Return to top

Synergy Solutions Brings Hardware and Software to Meeting.

Blake and Alan brought lots of goodies! Before showing off their own impressive products, they gave us an opportunity to check out a wireless PALM VII, and a repackaged Pilot from Symbol Technologies that contains a barcode reader. This is a sophisticated product that reads unique barcodes and uses Synergy Solutions "Listmaker" software to retrieve (and store) relevant information from the product or item scanned. We went off on some tangents about the numerous potential uses of this technology, which is astonishingly cheap compared to comparable products (a little less than $600 at this time - we expect it to go lower with market maturation). www.barpoint.com and www.ephysician.com were cited as relevant links.

Synergy Solutions is a St. Louis company that distributes products through usual retail and web-based delivery (cf. www.nwt.com) methods. They hinted at a 4^th quarter "medical related product" - probably something to do with their "listmaker" technology and pharmaceutical information that they anticipate will have a large medical market. Their current software products available singly or in a "Hi 5" bundle (under $40 list, $25 street) include Launch'EM, (separately available for $10) an organizer for the application menu that features tabbed folders (like shareware Launcher but more powerful), and includes "drag and drop" functionality, a trash can, etc. Droodle is a drawing/doodling program for simple sketches ("Okay, it's not Photoshop 5"). Return to top

Most impressive was their scientific calculator SYNCALC , see image: which performs as described "the best algebraic calculator available for the Palm". This does not use RPN (like RPN or FCPlus), but the usual pencil and paper type of formula notation. The program is extensible with "shortcuts" -defined formulas which can be created and exported or imported.

The company website includes formulas which have been predefined or contributed by users, which are downloadable as *.PDB files and can be imported as an expression "shortcut". This in itself answers an expressed need of several in attendance. The developer notes that unlimited nesting of parentheses is enabled, which sets this program apart. He claims he has crashed every other scientific calc program for the Palm, but hasn't been able to crash this one (sounds like a dare - try it and let us know).

No, this is not a Ginzu knife commercial - but wait, there's more!!! This program can provide a solution to a multi-variate equation ("if x+y+z=10, solve for z:: z=10-x-y). Sounds great. Coming soon to the next version is a graphic calculator capability. Very very nice. Return to top

Today is another program that gives some cross-application functionality to the Palm. It is like a datebook "todo" list that carries forward past due events, that rise to the top of the list within a datebook view. (Actioneer and DateBK3 have some similar functions). Lack of cross application functionality is one of the common complaints (or "wannas") with the Palm OS that this program tries to solve. Return to top

TIP: When you use datebook, you can just start writing a time in graffiti (bottom of screen, right side, enter 2, for instance) and you will directly go to the start/end time form ("2:00" for our example) and you can complete it there. You can also enter the shortcut stroke (from bottom left to top right "/") and the letter "L" to "lookup" a name/address/phone from the address book to enter into the datebook. If you have highlighted a part of a unique entry in you address book, it will be pasted into your datebook schedule. Return to top

Other software from Synergy includes MagicText and Listmaker which will be explored in more detail next month. MagicText allows drag and drop, cut and paste to be used with Palm applications. Listmaker allows creation and management of lists - sort of database management. It includes drag and drop, cut and paste functionality, and the next version promises word completion and spell checking - all on the PalmPilot. Return to top

They also brought a collection of flip cases for the PalmPilot - everything from simple leather to alien skin covers, flip cases for carrying or pocket use, and a belt clip style as well. Prices are reasonable for the product. Return to top

EDITORIAL COMMENT: WHY USER GROUPS ARE BETTER THAN BOOKS OR THE INTERNET:

In St Louis, before the internet became huge, monthly meetings of user group were spectacularly well attended by a broad range of people - IT professionals to "just-out-of-the-box-how-do-I-plug-it-in" types. This was the place to get questions answered, see new products, and interact. With some seasoning of experience, the novelty of PCs wore off a little, and you could find a friend, neighbor, or maybe your own kids to help out with the out of box experience. With the internet, you could get answers to more complex problems by scanning newsgroups, or reading FAQs at various sites. The user groups dwindled in membership as the need for them faded and their purposes were filled by quicker more accessible means. PC groups are now poorly attended (unless it is something truly arcane like LINUX - there is a great LINUX group in St Louis, but I feel like I need a translator to get it all).

The PalmPilot is different than a familiar desktop, or an arcane language - its small enough to take to a meeting, it is cheap, and it is pretty easy to get up and running (duh! Just put batteries in it, okay?). Yet everybody (everybody, even the most experienced) who has been to one of our user group meetings has already learned something new and useful by being there.

I don't know what it is, but there is something different about someone showing you how to do something, instead of trying to read about it in a manual or a book, or on a web page. Reviewing the so-called TIP above makes me realize that I could go on forever with words trying to explain why a "lookup" shortcut is so neat, but I am already frustrated with describing it.

It is so much easier to just do it and learn by example. The IR beaming capability of the Palm PDA is much easier to demonstrate, and the a-ha factor so much greater if you can see it happen.

Thousands of developers program small and cheap software for the Palm PDA, and every one of them is looking for "the killer app". And who do you think they turn to for ideas? You! Your ideas are important! Where can you share your ideas? At a meeting! You can learn something new! You can have fun with it! So come to the next meeting, okay? Return to top

HARDWARE NOTE

One Palm VII (wireless) at the meeting, a couple of IIIs, a couple of IIIxs, and a PalmPro. Amazingly, the PalmPro user had never HotSynced because he doesn't own a computer at home, and the Win3 box at work was too much of a hassle. Living on the edge redefined for most of us, but it works well for him. 3Com take a note: there are people out there who use the PalmPilot as a personal organizer just as is! They are happy with a $200 device - don't price them out with features they do not need. This user was concerned about the integrity of the case, and was please to see the dust cover over the sync port on the IIIs, and the screwed on memory cover as well. He has been using tape to achieve the same result. He uses 3M silk gift wrap tape over the grafitti area. Although he is not yet connected to a PC, we suggested Penguin single disk backup as a possible fix to avoid a complete install at work

Penguin: (http://wwwipd.ira.uka.de/~witte/pilot/backup/)

He also expressed interest in a good scientific calculator application (suitably demonstrated in SynCalc), a spreadsheet program, and a drawing program. He mainly uses the calendar, phone, and memo apps. Return to top

EMULATION

Using a Powerbook (we are mostly PC folks- but after all, the PalmPilot does have a Motorola processor - like millions of Apples have had), the Synergy Solutions folks demonstrated programs using the Palm OS emulator available from 3Com. It is interesting to know that they use the "debug" roms available through 3Com to thrash out the kinks in their programs. The emulator is very useful for trying out programs on your desk machine before hot sync/installing to the PDA. Return to top

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). The Dummies book also has a CD-ROM, and we had copies of these two books, plus Palm III and PalmPilot - Visual Quickstart Guide available for reference at the meeting. The quickstart guide is truly excellent for reference (no CD, but lots of links), with simple, quick explanations - here are some page references with notes regarding some of the topics: Return to top

. Palm III and PalmPilot - Visual Quickstart Guide

By Jeff Carlson

42 Beam Box

61 IRSync

81 performing a phone lookup from date book

130 RPN and FCPlus calculators

139 Hackmaster

177 Newsreaders

194 Drawing

195 Imageview

201 Converting text to Doc format

213 Using Actioneer, floating appointment in DateBk3

220 Jfile and Quicksheet - databases and spreadsheet

230 Games - YahtC, Chess, Solitaire

234 BackupBuddy

240 Developer’s Backdoor for timeouts

Links

Several diskettes with free/shareware were distributed - Beambox(sw), Hackmaster(sw), Listlite, Actioneer(demo); Omniremote(demo), and ImageView(nagware) We are reminded again: R.A.Y.S. Register All Your Shareware. Return to top

FUTURE BUSINESS

The next meeting remains the third Saturday of the month at 2pm at the St Louis County Library – Main Branch. June 19, 1999. Possible other sites are under discussion for meetings after summer.

INCREASE PUBLICITY

Extended distribution of flyers throughout the county is planned - copies were given to be spread around., Post Dispatch Thursday entertainment supplement – Get Out was contacted, but they do not list user groups generally, ComputerUser newspaper carries the announcement, which was recently updated, and Yahoo was contacted as well as 3Com for listing as a regional user group. Synergy Solutions said they would drop a line to 3Com, and include us on their site, which gets 1500 to 30,000 hits per day (Thanks, guys). Word of mouth of course, probably will be very effective as well.

POTENTIAL TOPICS AND MEETING FEATURES

3Com will provide a formal presentation if membership/attendance justifies it. We look forward to hearing again from Synergy Solutions, this time in more detail about Listmaker and MagicText. 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 follow a "low bandwidth" style.

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

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All trademarks and copyrights remain the property of the respective owners. No financial support or other inducements were received from any developer, manufacturer, or distributor of any product mentioned. Privacy of persons in attendance or corresponding by email is maintained to the extent reasonably possible and not collected for commercial use by PUGSL.

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ADDITIONAL LINKS: Return to top

Synergy Solutions with our thanks for contributing to an enjoyable meeting.

PalmCentral http://www.palmcentral.com

3Com/Palm Computing http://palm.3com.com/

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

PalmPilot webring http://www.palmcentral.com/webring.html

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

PDA Page http://www.pdapage.com/

Penguin single disk backup http://wwwipd.ira.uka.de/~witte/pilot/backup/

Palm OS Emulator http://www.palm.com/devzone/pose/pose.html

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