06:54 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

My favorite calendar application for Treo 650 is DateBk5. There are other options such as Iambic's Agendus, KSDatebook, A5, and others. Plus the built-in PalmOS applications of course. But DateBk5 works best for me, and not only does the developer give fantastic support, but gives away the profits to a gorilla sanctuary project. I tried to do without it for a while, and even tried to stick with just his WeekView product, but finally I just couldn't stand it anymore and went back to my favorite DateBk5, and it feels like "coming home!"

There was one surprise waiting for me, though. The newer Palm's have a field called location that I've become accustomed to using. It's very convenient. But when I started using DateBk5, I noticed all the locations I entered were not to be found. A little research turned up a note from the author indicating that noting is done yet with that field. But here's the tip for those of you that are synching with Outlook.

Sync your Palm device. Go to the calendar view in Outlook, and choose View... Current View... Active Appointments. You'll see all your (future) appointments with a column for the location. Manually cut and paste that location into the the appointment text. No big deal! I couldn't find it, but you could probably do the same with the note as the new location for the location text.

And this might be a bit out-of-date, but I saw a note from the author also talking about how location would be integrated into DateBk5 with the next major release. It quite excited me because it said roughly around the turn of the year, which is actually not that far off. I'm very much looking forward to more improvements in this already great program!

08:11 PM by Alexander Turcic in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Ilya sent us note that DataViz released RoadSync for Palm handhelds, the first commercially available software solution to provide secure, wireless and direct synchronization with Microsoft Exchange Server 2003. Licenses range from $49.99 to $99.99 USD per user.

05:25 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

If you own a Nokia phone you should be able to unlock it online for free with the Nokia Online Calculator. You can obtain your IMEI number by entering *#06# into the phone. Then enter the Network that the phone is locked to (not the one you wish to use). Make sure you don't forget to remove the SIM card before you enter the generated code!

I am not a lawyer, though I've heard that it's not illegal to unlock a phone, even if the operators might like you to think it is. Only be careful when entering the unlock sequence. As far as I know you got 5 attempts to unlock by code; after that you would have to call your network provider to unlock the phone for you.

Note that a few of the newer Nokia models are not supported, inluding the 6630, 6680, 7710, 9500, 9300 and 6620.

05:04 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Have you ever had the dream of becoming a successful business leader of a big company? Jeff Kirvin might have such a dream as he reveals in his latest 1SRC editorial, If I were Palm's CEO.

Palm CEO Jeff would reach out to developers, work on a Palm OS 5.5, and refurnish the marketing department.

And what would you make different to help Palm become handheld maker #1 again if you had the chance to earn a six-digit salary?

04:19 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Legal on-demand music service Napster has announced that it will include support for Palm OS handhelds through the third-party software Pocket Tunes 3.1, writes PalmAddicts today. Devices compatible with the software include the Zire 31 and 72, plus the Tungsten C, T, T2, T3, T5, and E2 models.

The player, Pocket Tunes 3.1, does also support Real's Rhapsody and Yahoo's Music Unlimited service, and all other music stores that use Microsoft's Janus DRM technology.

04:05 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

Curious to know more about the development of the forthcoming Nokia 770? Then check out this Wiki of the Maemo platform. The Wiki will be used to document ongoing projects, announce ported applications and find answers to frequently asked questions related to the Nokia device.

03:17 PM by Colin Dunstan in Archive | Portable Audio/Video

WSJ Online reports that Apple is seeking to license music videos to sell through its iTunes Music Store. The newspaper further states that it is likely that Apple will announce an iPod player that can play video by September. A music clip would be sold for $1.99 each, with the possibility of a discount if consumers buy a music video and a song at the same time. Apple has refused to comment on the report, calling it "industry speculation."

In addition to licensing music video content, Apple might also be looking to license television shows. The creation of a whole video-distribution service could hint at the possibility of future portable Apple devices dedicated for playing video content.

Among those media companies approached were Warner Music Group Corp., EMI Group PLC, Vivendi Universal SA's Universal Music Group and Sony BMG. As to the question whether his Pixar company is also going to make its blockbuster movies available for portable video players, Steve Job replied:

"So far there really hasn't been a successful portable video device other than those that play industry standard DVDs, and that we participate in just because we sell DVDs," Mr. Jobs said in the call. "So who knows what's down the road?"

Update: Paul Sloan has some more information regarding Disney's intent to team up with Apple on the Video iPod.

06:00 AM by Bob Russell in Archive | Handhelds and Smartphones

"We Already Have All The Gadgets We Need"... That's the newest entry for PDA Thoughts by Shaun McGill over at PDA 24/7.

Surely, he doesn't really believe that!