Using PowerRun with a Palm m500 or Palm m505

Using Palm m50X Expansion Card > Using PowerRun

PowerRun will allow you to move entire applications and their data to the expansion card, while allow you to treat the application as if it were resident on the Palm. For example, if you move a game to the expansion card, you will still have an icon for the game that you can categorize and that icon will still show up in a 3rd party launcher (e.g., Launcher III). PowerRun will automatically move the application and all of its data onto and off of the card when you launch or exit the application.

Download and install PowerRun (the English version, assuming you don't speak Japanese...).

Example Task

The task here will be to move the AcidFreecell application from the Palm's RAM to the expansion card, freeing up internal memory.

Step 1. Initial State - Games Tab in Launcher III

Below, you can see my "Games" tab on Launcher III. Currently, some of the applications are in RAM and some are on the card. (The application titles are shortened because I'm using a 4 column view on the tab).

Figure 1. Launcher III "Games" tab.

AcidFreecell, the first application is shown in RAM, whereas AcidSolitaire is on the expansion card.
As you can see, there is a small square that appears on the bottom left of the AcidSolitaire icon. This indicates that that application is already on the memory card.
If you look at the "Yoda" icon, it also has an asterisk after the application name - this also indicates that the application is on the card (it is a redundant cue, which is a good thing).
You can drag either "type" of icon to any other tab, just as if it were the application is itself.
If you attempt to delete an application that resides on the card by dragging it to the trashcan icon on the launcher, it will APPEAR to be deleted. However, only the icon has been removed. The next time you open PowerRun, it will place the icon BACK in the launcher. In other words, you need to open PowerRun to delete an application from the card.

Step 2. Open PowerRun

When you tap on the PowerRun icon, it searches the card and displays a list of applications that are currently stored in the PowerRun directory (if you haven't yet moved anything using PowerRun, it will be empty). My screen looks like the following:

Figure 2. PowerRun Opening Screen.

The dropdown/selection control at the top of the screen (which currently says "Memory Card") allows you to switch views between the Memory Card and the Palm internal memory.
Tap on an application to select it - currently, Zap!2016 is selected. (I have already used PowerRun to Move applications to my card, so the list is not empty.).
After selecting an application, tap the "Run" key and the application will open just as if you tapped the icon in the launcher.
Tap the "Move" key and the application and its associated files will be moved to the other location. In other words, tapping "Move" here would move Zap!2016 into the Palm's RAM (removing it from the card). If we were viewing the Palm's RAM (as in Figure 2), selected an application and tapped "Move," it would be moved to the card.
Delete removes the application and its files altogether.

Step 3. Move Application

Since the goal in this case is to move AcidFreecell from the Palm's RAM to the expansion card, use the selection control at the top of the screen to view the "Internal" applications (i.e., the ones in RAM). Figure 3 shows this:

Figure 3. PowerRun "Internal" view with AcidFreecell selected.

By switching to the "Internal" view, you get a list of applications that reside in your Palm's RAM.

Tap the application you want to Move (or use the arrow icon or scroll buttons to move through the list to find it).
Tap the "Move" button.
A dialog will appear to indicate that the application and its data are being moved (do not remove the card during this operation!). There is a bug in v0.48 that has the "Please Wait" message as, well, scribbles to my eyes (the Palm is trying to render Kanji, I believe).

Step 4. Finished!

At this point, the task is completed. Switch back to your launcher, and you should see an icon for the application you moved. In Figure 4, below, I've moved the AcidFreecell icon to my "Games" tab.

Figure 4. AcidFreecell on the card.

As you can see, the AcidFreecell icon now has the little "card" image on it, just as its brother AcidSolitaire does.

Also note that my free memory (shown at the bottom of the launcher) is now 3289k, vs.3202k where I started in Step 1.

Problems and Oddities

For the most part, PowerRun has caused no REAL problems. That is, no crashes or loss of data. However, there have been a few "oddities:"

If you move an application that you have mapped to a hardware button (e.g., Datebk4 or WordSmith) onto the card using PowerRun, pressing the associated button will not open it. (I'm now waiting for an upgrade to FlashPro to move those applications into the Palm's internal flash memory.)
If you are using SwitchHack, it will not be able to open an application that is on the card. In other words, if you use the control stroke to pop up the list of recently used applications, the one you used WILL show up, but selecting it does nothing.
If you remove the card, or "accidentally" use the launcher to delete an icon just be sure to run PowerRun again (i.e., just open it). It searches its own directory on the card and rebuilds any icons that need rebuilding.

Using Palm m50X Expansion Card > Using PowerRun

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