Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with palm

How to replace a broken Palm?

creepygirl — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:44:41 -0800

My Palm TX (which I used for games and e-books) died. What should I replace it with? I had a Palm TX that I used to play simple games (Cake Mania, word games) and to read ebooks. The touchscreen digitizer died, and from googling I gather that this is a fairly common problem with the TX, so I'm not really enthused about repairing it or buying another one.

It seems like PDAs are a dying product and being replaced by smartphones. At some point, I would like to buy an iphone, but not until it is available with T-Mobile. Unlocking the iphone is not an option I am willing to consider. I'm rather clueless about all of the options for smartphones.

Basically I want a handheld device that will keep me amused with games and ebooks, and I don't need a lot functionality other than that. I don't need a top-of-the-line device, and I'd feel bad about ditching one for the iphone if it becomes available for T-Mobile next summer. I'd like to keep the cost of the device under $300 if possible. Any suggestions?

Its Alive! Its Alive? (Uses for sad lonely PDA's of yore)

edman — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:40:19 -0800

What are some useful or cool apps for the sad lonely PDA's sitting at the bottom of my junk drawer to turn it into a interesting desktop display (ala chumby) I have a handful (5) of older PDAs (Palms, Windows Mobiles), most of them are fairly fast (300mhz and faster) some of them have built in WIFI and or bluetooth. With all the cool technology packed into the devices, it seems it would make a cool desktop eye candy, RSS feeds, twitter, clock, digital picture frame, email notifications (everything that chumby can do). The only one I found was permaclock, which is a picture rotator with alarm clock functionality. Are there other such cool apps such as this? What are you using your old PDAs for?

Why does this trick with my arm work?

twoleftfeet — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 03:15:58 -0800

Why does this trick work? Turn your palm face up. To turn your palm face down you must twist your wrist, right? But if you do six simple moves you can turn your palm face down without twisting your wrist. The trick appears at the beginning of this talk by Lennart Green but can also be done backwards.

Adios AvantGo, now what?

omnidrew — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:39:03 -0800

Adios AvantGo... miss ya. Anything similar out there for a Palm OS smartphone without data service? AG now references Snacs as a solution... but that requires wireless (and they don't have a Palm client anyway).

I already pay too much each month for my phone as a phone, so I'm not willing to add wireless data service.

Suggestions?

Palm has been taken over by cancer causing smartphones

jb — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 18:52:44 -0800

The Palm Z22 is the most perfect pda ever made - but the world being what it is (aka stupid), they have discontinued it. Now my husband's has died, and we have no idea what to replace it with. He definitely does not want a smartphone - he has a mobile phone that he likes, and doesn't want to pay an extra $100-200 for a bunch of chunky hardware he has no use for.

He wants a simple, robust PDA that runs PalmOS (preferrably a version since 2006), and will ring for alarms. He doesn't need/want expansion slots and hates proprietary cables. He doesn't need much memory (32MB was plenty). He doesn't need any sound other than simple alarms - he has an iPod. In other words, the Palm Z22 was basically perfect.

Is there anything like the Z22 still on the market?

[the Z22 is so awesome that someone is on Amazon asking for $500 for one - it originally retailed for $100-150. You would think that Palm wouldn't be so stupid as to spit at the whole low end market - after all, they could charge $200 and still undercut most of the current sellers.]

Areca Palm

page123 — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 09:01:15 -0800

My Areca Palm (the tall variety) is dying one branch at a time. Any suggestions to save it?

How dangerous is my palm tree?

cr_joe — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:33:21 -0800

How dangerous is the palm tree in our backyard? My neighbor and I have a palm tree in our backyard (technically my property, improperly fenced into his) that's about 35' tall and about 10 years old. It's around 15' away from my house and 20' from his. We think it's a Mexican Fan Palm.

He wants to cut it down as he thinks it's in danger of falling on one of our houses. I'm not so sure - it looks healthy and happy and provides great shade. We live in San Antonio, so the danger of a hurricane knocking it over is a bit remote.

How long do these trees remain stable and safe? Should we cut it down or not?

Library job vs. My hand pain (not carpal tunnel...)

wowbobwow — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 16:27:28 -0800

My dominant hand has a painful, bony bump at the joint where my index finger and palm meet (the MCPJ) and I AM going to see a Dr this week about it. Can anyone recommend things I can do to help it not get worse? I cannot not type at my job. If you've had something similar where just one digit was out of commission, what did you do? I want something like a splint to keep it from bending at the base, but I can't find anything like it for the palmar-finger joint. I work at my keyboard constantly, and using the mouse is getting difficult. I've heard of ergonomic mice but I'd like to know people's experiences before I plop down some cash.

But also... WTF? I've had this thing for years but it suddenly grew to the size of a pea and started hurting. Can people even get bone spurs in their hands? Again, am seeing a Dr soon, but I've never heard of this sort of thing. I asked a similar kind of question on AskMe last year which turned out to be very helpful! My hope is to find a similar outcome for this query. Thank-yee.

Why won't my Palm Z22 connect to a computer anymore?

Waldo Jeffers — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 23:51:10 -0800

My Palm Z22 no longer syncs to my computer. This problem just appeared outta nowhere. I tried different cords, reinstalling the desktop, hard reset, and switching computers. No luck. Any ideas?

How can I move my calendar from Palm Desktop over to Google Calendar, and then sync there instead?

Stewriffic — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 06:55:03 -0800

What I want to happen: Make the existing calendar entries that I have on Palm Desktop move over to Google Calendar and then be able to sync Google Calendar with a used (empty?) Palm Z22 I have. Hold my hand, please? I encourage you to assume only basic computer knowledge. Here are the specs:
1) Palm Desktop v. 4.1.4
2) Windows XP Professional 2002 version
3) Used Palm Z22 that someone gave me. It's replacing a Zire 21 I had that broke. I have not yet tried to link it up to my Palm Desktop, because I had a bad experience where I did that and it deleted my entire calendar. I think that was because the blank PDA overwrote the content I had on the desktop software. Why it would do that, I have no idea. I just don't want it to happen again.
4) Extra super bonus--I have a macbook at home. If you can get the PDA to sync there, in addition to at work, that would rock.

This is confusing the crapola out of me. I'm not even sure where to start, and I made very little progress searching both the Palm Desktop and the Google Calendar Support pages. This previous AskMe didn't help. Googling palm desktop google calendar resulted in my thinking I might need some kind of 3rd party software to do this? This is about where I shut down from being overwhelmed with lack of understanding.

What I've done so far:
Exported my Palm calendar to my desktop. It's a .dba file. When I tried to import it into google calendar it doesn't work. The error message is Sorry, Calendar is temporarily unavailable. Please try again in a few minutes. If the problem persists, visit the Help Center. I assume that is because of this google calendar instruction: Choose the file that contains your events. Google Calendar can import event information in iCal or CSV (MS Outlook) format.I'm thinking this first step of moving my current calendar to the google one might be an inherent issue.

What I want in the long run is the ability to use my PDA to input and retrieve entries onto a calendar I can access via the internet, without having to manually enter the existing information. Can you help me? Is my goal achievable as proposed? If not, can you suggest another way for me to do what I want to do?

Palm 700W Flashing/Internet

neolith22 — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 18:13:45 -0800

Help! Can't get internet to work - Palm Treo 700W (flashed, originally Verizon) on Cricket. Hello all. Once again, it seems like I might have better luck with the hivemind than with corporate drones. My situation is this: I've just purchased a Palm Treo 700W from another Cricket user (she upgraded to a different model, no problems with the Palm), and everything on the phone is working (calling, messaging, windows mobile functions), except for the internet. When I try to connect via the built in Internet Explorer, it indicates that the username/password is incorrect. Looking at the details, the phone is dialing #777, username (myphonenumber)@mycricket.com, password (same as login to mycricket.com through main computer to manage account), domain mycricket.com. I've also tried a password of "cricket" and have tried leaving the domain blank, based on a couple of other forum posts I've stumbled across. No luck.

I tried taking the phone back to the cricket store to get the appropriate settings; the people there stated they did not have this information and that this should have been taken care of by the (non-Cricket) service that flashed the phone. Here's my confusion on that - firstly, it's a username/password to Cricket; how would an outside service know what this is, and why would Cricket not know? Secondly, my understanding of the flash process is that this is analogous to flashing the bios on your computer; basically just updating the bootstrap program on the phone's EEPROM. Individual account settings would not be part of this. Thirdly, the phone had already been flashed (to the tune of $120) by the prior user and was fully working; the Cricket employees seemed to feel that it would be necessary to reflash the phone to get things working.

Now, I'm not entirely opposed to that idea, if it's necessary, but $120 is a whole lot of money (more than I paid for the phone) for essentially just loading a file that I'm probably capable of loading myself, if I had a source for the file.

So, bottom line, if there's anyone out there in the know that could tell me what the appropriate settings would be, where I might set the username/password on the cricket website if necessary, whether or not re-flashing the phone would even be relevant, and/or where I might get the appropriate files to flash the phone, preferably for a lot less than $120. I live in Portland, Oregon, if it's relevant.

Thanks all!

MHTML blues

sonicbloom — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 14:04:38 -0800

I have a huge collection of MHT files and would like to view them on my Windows Mobile or Palm device. I save web pages like a madman. I have about 2000 wikipedia pages, and about 1500 other pages. I use the most recent version of Opera (windows) and use it to save as MHT (single file). It is much more convenient than saving as HTML + folders and images.

However, I'd like to read them on more than my laptop. I have a Windows Mobile 6 smartphone and a Palm T3 PDA. I am an avid Isilo/IsiloX user, but it seems they will never support conversion from MHT.

I have tried a MHT --> HTML conversion program, but it was slow, buggy, and would crash a lot. Definitely not good for the volume I have. A good conversion program would let me convert the resulting files to IsiloX's .pdb file format, which is readable on both devices. That would make me happy.

I have tried browsers on the Windows Mobile device. Neither pocket IE, Opera mini, or Netfront 3.5 will properly open and render a MHT file. I had seen different posters on message boards claiming that netfront 3.5 would open MHT, i tried and got "unable to open page".

My only success with MHT on the PPC device is by using a freeware app called Qusnetsoft MHT Viewer, which will open the MHT file in temp memory, then open it with the default browser. This works pretty good, but the conversion process takes a while, and the rendering is about 85% true. I'd really like something that did this natively and quicker.

Does anybody have a solution for me?

Please help me sync iCal to my Palm before my Palm sinks to the bottom of Puget Sound

tristeza — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:28:24 -0800

Please help me sync my Palm Z22 with Mac's iCal and Address Book before I chuck it out the window. I have Googled articles and AskMe all day, followed all instructions to a T, and am still not finding success. Please help?

I have changed the conduit settings in HotSync to enable iSync, as instructed. I have set iSync to sync "iCal" and "Address Book". I have reinstalled the Palm software 5 times and factory reset my Palm 5 times.

I have synced over and over and over, and while both the Palm and iSync/Hotsync act like they're doing something (Palm says "syncing to do list, syncing contacts", spinning icons, progress bars, etc), my Palm remains empty of any information.

The weird thing is that I HAD a Palm Z22 before that DID WORK with iCall/Address Book, but it just died, and now I wonder how I ever got it to work in the first place!

I've read about an app for sale - Missing Sync - that could help, is that my only option?

Many thanks. (Comparable AskMes were at least 2 years old so I thought something may have changed since then)

How to sync my Treo with Mozilla's Lightning?

armoir from antproof case — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 22:05:48 -0800

I'm looking for a way to sync my Palm Treo 650 with Mozilla's "Lightning" calendar add-on - on Linux - without having to use an over-the-air data service. I've been happily using Ubuntu for quite awhile now; currently, Hardy/8.04 (which works *perfectly* on my Toshiba Satellite, btw). I would like to be able to synchronize the Datebook / Calendar app on my Treo 650, with the Thunderbird "Lightning" add-on. (If I can get Tasks to sync to, then, Rock; but that's a lesser need.)

It seems that at the moment, the number of synchronization-with-PDA options for Lightning seems small.

The best I've been able to think of, is:

- get a data plan for my Treo
- get an account with Goosync
- use Goosync to sync my Treo, over the data network, to Google Calendar
- use one of them add-ons I've seen for syncing the Google Calendar with Lightning

The problem is, I don't want to buy a data plan for my Treo. My thinking is: if that's what's needed in order to get my PDA to sync with my PIM of choice, then I really need to start being honest with myself and admit the sad truth that the Treo / PalmOS is a dying platform, and just go by a frikkin' iPhone. Sigh.

FWIW, I am able to successfully sync the Treo with my linux / KDE desktop, via KPilot, and get the data into Kontact. Wondering then if there's a way to get Thunderbird / Lightning to sync with Kontact?

All ideas will be entertained and appreciated. Thanks!

What's the best phone OS for me?

abkadefgee — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 23:37:14 -0800

Which mobile phone OS will work the best for my needs and can be easily expanded with free software? I'm looking at a new smartphone purchase and want to choose the phone that has the best OS for my needs. I want to run Skype on the phone for the occasional cheap voice call through SkypeOut and I want to be able to continue loading my phone with free software and features.

Of the OSes I know of, including Symbian, BlackBerry, Windows Mobile 6, and Palm, which support the most and best free software and applications? Which has the most active community? There's a lot out there for Palm, but is that community dying off? What are some examples of apps you use on those OSes?

I know that similar questions may have been asked in the past, but this is a case where I think the answer could have changed quite a bit over time.

How do I export everything from Palm Desktop?

charlesv — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:43:03 -0800

I want to get away from Palm Desktop. I started using a Handspring Visor back in 1999. I synced it with Palm Desktop for several years, until I got tired of carrying the Visor. Since 2003 or so I have just kept Palm Desktop installed on my laptop and looked up dates and addresses when I needed them. I am tired of doing this, since I no longer carry the visor or use the software for anything else.

I am currently running Palm Desktop v4.0.1.

I would like to move all my info to an easy-to-use, preferably freeware or inexpensive shareware application.

I may move some of the info into Outlook or Gmail.

I saw this post, but I want to go to a new application and don't have a Treo to sync with.

So now the question:
How do I export all of the addresses and dates out of Palm Desktop, and where do I send them? Is there a way I can export the whole db to excel or something, where it will be easier to work with?

i need to satisfy a craving

raztaj — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 14:49:08 -0800

Where can I find this vegetable (fruit?) in the Boston area? I lived in Costa Rica for a while, and was introduced to the pejibaye or Bactris gasipaes. Squeeze a little fresh lime juice on it, and it's an awesome tasty, starchy snack. Yum. I don't think I've seen them at haymarket, but maybe I've missed a stall. Anyone know where I might be able to find some of these around town?

Which of these smartphones is best for me?

iamisaid — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 20:16:47 -0800

I'm finally making the jump to a smartphone, and am looking for advice on choosing the right model. I'm an AT&T customer and have narrowed it down to the following: BlackBerry Curve 8310, Motorola Q, Blackjack II, Palm Centro. I'm mostly focusing on the Blackberry and the Motorola, as I'm much less familiar with the other two. Each of these models costs roughly the same with my upgrade discount from AT&T. I do not plan to use the phone for any sort of enterprise/office functions...I'm more of a power personal user. My needs:

-Personal email, preferably of the "push" variety. Easy access to my gmail is a must. I've used the java gmail mobile client on my current phone and it works well enough, but I want instant notification of new messages, whether that involves using a blackberry.net address, IMAP, whatever.
-Rough ability to browse the web when in a pinch. The more intuitive and less clunky, the better.
-Moible AOL Instant Messenger that functions similarly to the Windows client (the version of AIM available on my current SE W810i is rather unimpressive).
-Ability to interact with social networking sites (namely Facebook) would be fantastic. It appears that Blackberry has a dedicated Facebook app - I'm unsure about the others.
-A QWERTY keyboard that feels intuitive.
-A relatively small form-factor. If it fits in my jeans pocket, even better.
-Ability to run java games (I'm guessing they all have this) and take photos (video is optional). Playing MP3s is not so important, although ability to use MP3s as ringtones would nice.
-Last but not least, decent functionality for voice calls.

I'm not interested in an iPhone at this time, but if you have other AT&T smartphone suggestions besides the four above, I'm all ears. Full list here. If you have used one of the models above, please let me know your experiences. Thanks.

PDA that can play MP3 and adjust its tempo on-the-fly?

irv4oh — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 17:19:10 -0800

Is there a PDA that can play an MP3 file and adjust its tempo during playback? Or, is there software for a PDA platform (Windows Mobile or Palm) that can do this? I'm looking for a PDA that can playback lecture recordings that are MP3 format and that can speed them up or slow them down on-the-fly. A bookmarking feature for the MP3's would be nice also.

Nothing clever here. Just point to a phone that will work puhleeeze.

typewriter — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:31:59 -0800

Smartphone that plays best with Thunderbird? I don't currently have a smartphone, but am considering it since my cell contract is ending and I may be looking at a much longer commute within the next year. I have the option to switch providers, so open to the best options.

Boring details: I'm freelance and so I work on 3 different computers: 2 PCs (XP), and my personal ibook. (OS X). The best email solution for me has been to gmail/IMAP everything so that it all syncs up on Thunderbird on each computer. Works great. I want to be able to have the same functionality that I get on my desktop Thunderbird clients on a smartphone. (The only other thing that I need to have is the phone. If it comes with anything else I will probably use it, but there is nothing else that is a dealbreaker.)

Googling around it seems like Thunderbird hardly plays nice with any smartphone, but does anyone have a personal experience of any phone being better than another?

And I'm in Canada, if that makes a difference. Thanks.

Help with Palm V

CollectiveMind — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 05:48:41 -0800

I've recently bought a old Palm V with OS 3.1. I like its elegance, simplicity and feel. I'm not interested in the email function, but I see there are upgrades available. The most recent is v. 4.14. But posts talk about incompatibilities in fields, pointer alignment as well as COM port connections related to serial vs. USB connections after upgrading. I also wanted to upgrade the memory from 2MB to 8MB and found a company called EFIG.com that used to do them, but doesn't seem to anymore.

My questions are, (1) Is there a PALM software upgrade (below 4.14) that'll increase functionality without turning it into a paperweight, and (2) Is there anybody that can break the glue that seals the thing shut and replace the battery as well as EFIG.com seemed to?

A cheap bastard's e-book reader.

zardoz — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 23:10:10 -0800

I'm interested in getting an e-book reader. The only two readers that seem to have a following are the Sony e-reader and the Kindle. Problem is, I don't want to spend anywhere near the price of those two. Is there anything you can recommend for a lot less money, say under $100 US? Being a cheapskate, I don't want to pay any more than is necessary for a decent reader, but as I understand it those are the only two that use e-ink technology, which makes reading off an electronic screen very easy on the eyes. I was thinking of buying a simple Palm(-esque) computer, likely an older model. Any palm computers out there with above-average screen quality? Again, an older model that can be found on eBay on the cheap might be just right.

The Kindle is butt-ugly and ridiculously overpriced. But it really seems to be exactly what an ebook reader should be. It's disheartening to know that good ebook technology is here, but it'll be some time before they're reasonably priced, and even longer before they actually become cheap. So in the meantime, what are some good options?

Palm based RPGs?

jeribus — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:01:07 -0800

Palm Zire Z22 games. RPG's mostly. Or things like that. Looking for turn based ones mainly. Had a palm long long ago but have inherited a newer one and am looking for turn based fun!

Inputting Kanji on a Palm

Oneirokritikos — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 16:09:17 -0800

I use a Palm TX to help me study japanese. How can I input kanji directly into a document ? I run CJKOS, which is cool but only allows input in kana (I think - I've never found a user manual in english !); i'd like a system that works like the Windows IME - you type in kana, then select among an array of kanji the correct one that corresponds to that pronunciation.

So far I have tried J-OS IME, which crashes my PDA, and POBox, which as a hack, doesnt work under PalmOS 5 which I run. I tried replacing CJKOS by J-OS, but it only led to more crashes, and never displayed japanese correctly.

Anyone has more ideas? Thank you !

PDA that syncs with Outlook 2007?

brownbeards — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 10:35:55 -0800

Help me find a PDA that syncs with Office 2007. My boss has tasked me with finding a simple PDA that can sync with Outlook 2007 contacts and calendar. She does not need to read e-mail or have internet/cell phone access, just a bare bones PDA with syncing capabilities. I have looked at the Palm Z22 but the description notes that it only syncs with Outlook 2000, 2002 and 2003. Any suggestions?