Lenovo quits cellphones business market

"What, Lenovo released their own handsets??" Those were probably the lines you say when you read the news on Wall Street Journal article here too, I'm as surprised as you to know Lenovo did have their own handsets branded with their company name.

Seems that those handsets are mainly released for Chinese market, so it's no wonder nobody have ever heard or seen them outside the designated geographical area. Still we should know what they all look like, no matter how un-attractive they are; as seen on the picture there. Picture is from Engadget, read on if you want to know more.

Palm is being lazy to give informations about Treo 755p ROM update?

Got the early news from Kris Keilhack (from PalmInfoCenter) on ROM update for Treo 755p Sprint, seems that Palm don't give much informations regarding this one update even in their website...

They only described it as: "This software update is a tune-up that improves audio, stability, software quality and device usability." Anyways, if you own a Treo 755p from Sprint carrier; then you should get it whilst it's still fresh.

More news on Palm's closing their retail stores

Seems like there are more than simple strategic plans for Palm when they've announced closing retail stores, and when one of PalmAddict associate reader see a Palm store is still open at the airport. TreoCentral got what actually is going on: "The first thing to note is that there are essentially two types of Palm stores - stores owned directly by Palm (see update below) and stores owned by Airport Wireless and operated in partnership with Palm. A spokesperson for Palm has verified that Palm is indeed closing down all of their stores except for one - the one located at Palm's own headquarters."

Read the whole story at their site here.

The best mobile web browser is in the making

This sounds too good to be true: a mobile web browser that can perform like the usual desktop web browser, and it's free. I'm talking about the fresh-new comer; Skyfire. The developer said it can handle the most cutting-edge nowadays website add-ons such as Java, Ajax, QuickTime, Flash, etc. And probably the most favourite for everyone, is to able to play YouTube directly from the web browser itself.
They have the Beta version ready for USA subscribers only for now (nicknamed "private beta"), but they plan to broaden it for anyone to enjoy. Although Skyfire is currently run on Windows Mobile 5 and 6, Skyfire Labs Inc. say it'll run on other popular OS and the first roadmap is Symbian.
Glad to know that the best isn't always expensive, heck it's even free! Watch out Opera, this one is a serious new contender in mobile web browser competition...
Hopefully Skyfire Labs Inc. Keep their promise to offer it for free then.
(blogged with my Treo 750v)

What fans' loyalty worth

I've been following HTC Kaiser mobile phone problem with their video/graphic issue, the latest news is that fans & owner of that device have been gathering more than US$5,000 to offer to anyone who can make a driver to overcome the problem. The reward money is growing as the post at XDA-Developers forum is getting more attention and support from fellow fans.
We can pull off two conclusions from above event which is:
1.) Even though HTC is a giant vendor in mobile phones business & a well known for their up to date devices, they seems to ignore the owner's right for driver & firmware update. And the worse thing is their official response; they encourage their loyal customers to purchase newer HTC devices to resolve the problem above.
2.) How loyal fans can be to keep on using their devices, even though the manufacturer stopped their support for that particular device.
Doesn't this sound familiar to Palm fans? Just like me, and you perhaps, we keep using the critized & mocked Palm Treo (680 and 750, or even older ones) devices despite there are plenty other tempting same devices out there. Sometimes I do have a thinking; should I pay someone to modify my Treo 750v so it can have a WiFi inside it? Or boost up the screen resolution better? The thoughts are surely tempting, but I want stability above additional features, so I'll wait untill Palm release a better Treo next time.
Please Palm, don't you let down these loyal fans of yours.
(blogged from my Treo 750v)

Not everyone accustomed to use their mobile phone's camera...

The year is 2008, and mobile phones with camera in them is already a standard accessory; and every young to middle age people use at least carry & use one mobile phone.
Just last night, I went to my best friend's wedding. I met plenty of colleagues & old friends, of course I planned to capture those precious meeting with my Treo 750v. Took it out and snap couple of pictures, when one of my friend asked to take over the Treo so I could join in, I gave it and joined the crowd. Just few seconds later he had difficulty to take a snap of picture with it, although I kept telling him to push the middle button, he couldn't do it. I felt very dissapointed cause the fun moment melt immediately when everybody was going home in a hurry.
Just when we're walking home, we met with another old friend, so I decided to give it a try once more. But this time I gave it to another friend to try, again this one also had difficulty to make the snap. I really can't believe it this time, is it my Treo which had error or what? Then I realized that friend of mine is pushing the middle D-pad button too long, I told him that he's supposed to push it lightly only once. After that the snap was successful, although the picture is a little blurry because my friend moved the Treo too fast before the picture was taken perfectly.
What happened there got me thinking, how can two of my friends who carry around modern mobile phones had so difficulty on such trivial thing: push lightly the middle button in order to take a snap of picture?? At first I thought Palm Treo phones are different from other vendors' phones? But that's not the answer, the answer is: there have been lesser people we thought of who actually use their mobile phone's camera. I asked both of my friends there, and their answer is just what I've mentioned; they never use their mobile phones to take a picture! Wow, how many people out there like that I wonder...
(blogged with my Treo 750v)

Contacts disaster!

When I saw MacBook Air, I immediately agreed to sell my ThinkPad R61 to my friend who's been asking for it, I'm going to order it as soon as it's available. I used to sync my Treo 750v with it before, so after I sold it yesterday I have to use my PC once more.
The thing is I forgot to set the sync settings at my PC to not to replace the contacts in my Treo 750v. The result is like what I'm most affraid of: I lost every contacts! Because the Outlook 2003 in my PC is still empty, I know now that I learned a valuable lesson to look at the settings first before pluggin my Treo ever again.
But on top of all that, I really hope Microsoft could change the ActiveSync settings default into ask the user first when it's going to replace any contacts. Please be careful you guys if you also use Windows Mobile.

Palm Drucker is coming soon than we wanted

Brace yourself for another round of Palm Treo 800 leaked info, apparently Andrew from Treonauts stumbled upon a mistaken option for the phone model when he was trying to update his Telenav, but without any picture available yet.

This could be a very strong evidence that Palm Treo 800 a.k.a. Palm Drucker is being prepared by vendors and Palm partners to be launch soon. Still according to Treonauts, besides the previous specs mentioned many times before, it seems that this new Treo will not have headphone jack anymore. So the owner must use Bluetooth connection or micro-USB jack (if there's any) compatible. See the full specs here if you still can't get enough of this news.

Brace yourself for another round of Palm Treo 800 leaked info, apparently Andrew from Treonauts stumbled upon a mistaken option for the phone model when he was trying to update his Telenav, but without any picture available yet.

This could be a very strong evidence that Palm Treo 800 a.k.a. Palm Drucker is being prepared by vendors and Palm partners to be launch soon. Still according to Treonauts, besides the previous specs mentioned many times before, it seems that this new Treo will not have headphone jack anymore. So the owner must use Bluetooth connection or micro-USB jack (if there's any) compatible. See the full specs here if you still can't get enough of this news.

Play Lucas Arts' classic games with your Treo 750

Classic games are the best in storyline, because back then the graphic card was not yet available so game developers relied mostly on the storyline to attract gamers, and with little help on better sound card. Yes, for those who's not experienced the beginning of PC games back in the '80s, where we need to add an additional sound card just to get musics & sounds out, instead of "beep-beep" sound from PC speaker. One of the emulators I recommend is ScummVM, at Jan 13th 2008, they released a new version for WindowsCE (also for Windows desktop, run fine on Vista too).

I tested it on my Treo 750v, and it works great! Although Treo's small squarish screen make my eyes squint to see the details, everything works fine until I finished the game: Monkey Island 2. Great-great game, specially it's musics which uses iMuse technic (nope, it doesn't have anything to do with Apple). Really brings back all the good memory of wit challenge games that can take you in for hours, even days. I really have to give two thumbs up for the people who dedicated their times & efforts to make such amazing engine, and it's free! But you still need the games, because they don't provide those games and recommend you to purchase them legally.

For you who never heard of old games like Day of the Tentacles, Full Throttle, Indiana Jones & the Fate of Atlantis, etc.; you should give them a try sometime. Specially the last one I mentioned, Indiana Jones 4th movie is about to be released soon; you can warm up a little bit with the old game. O' how I wish Lucas Arts make these kind of games again... I can hear the Indiana's theme song calling, I'm off to play it again, have a nice Monday y'all.

Prediction for the future of mobile companion market [part-4]

Still dazed by CES & MacWorld 2008 events, we all amazed by how many press attended both events and how crowded is the press room at peak hours. While gadgets consumers around the world are dazzled by Apple’s slim-sexy MacBook Air (I really can’t stop saying it, my bad), thus making thin is in again for laptop built trend. Although laptop vendors like Sony don’t agree right away, they insist that thinner built means less features, Gizmodo got the article here. Most likely Asus will follow Sony’s statement silently, but they’re for sure will improve the Eee lineups pretty soon now. What all of these got to do with Palm? Palm needs to refined their design for Foleo, if they still insist to use the one we last saw (the “cancelled” one) then nobody will be impressed enough to buy it anymore. The failure to launch Foleo on schedule, has undirectly backfires Foleo marketing campaign itself; because everybody wants it while it’s still fresh. With the new MacBook Air (MBA) already surfaced on the horizon, all eyes are on it. And without new strategy, Palm will never take those eyes from MBA to look at their Foleo. Some of you may argue that Foleo is to be release again at 2009, where MBA’s shiny aura has diminished at that time; but I’m betting my money that Steve Jobs will not sit still to let MBA loose it’s galore & popularity. The examples can be seen of iPod, Apple has announced new models every year now; prolonging iPod’s popularity as top selling music player. I’ve put Foleo, Redfly & MBA pictures side by side on my laptop’s screen; I must admit that I can’t stop staring at MBA although my heart really still with Foleo. So I pick up a pen & a paper to start drawing, what I would design for Foleo if I’m one of Palm’s engineers? How about you, if you’re Jeff then what would you change the Foleo to compete in mobile companion market at 2009 later? Hope Jeff understand, we’re doing this because we still love Palm...

Prediction for the future of mobile companion market [part-3]

What an unbeliveable coincident, as I am talking about Intel’s newest small platform called Moorestown; I read Sammy’s post about MacBook Air (MBA) announced at MacWorld 2008. I couldn’t believe myself how Apple’s newest slim-sexy laptop looks very similar to Palm’s “cancelled” Foleo, of course I still have to admit that Apple’s minimalis design is always more appealing. Even after I read Steve Jobs’ keynote speech and watch MBA Guided Tour movie clip, I really wish Palm could do something like that too for their next gen Foleo. Apple’s MBA even have exceed my expectations of what a smaller laptop platform can achieve, it’s smaller than any thinnest laptop right now but still capable to run Leopard. It’s belly inside only consists of electronic parts, HDD, & battery; almost like what Redfly and Foleo have too (heck, it’s way much thinner than Foleo). MBA’s secret for getting so thin built is none other Apple’s partnership with Intel to make a new smallest laptop platform & processor, as you can see at the picture: the platform is only sized long as a pencil & the processor is 60% smaller than before. During his keynote speech, Steve Jobs kept on thanking Intel for their effort to made those specially for MBA.
Now Palm, Ed Colligan & Jeff Hawkins, why can’t you guys do what Apple & Steve Jobs have done? As I’ve mentioned before at the previous post, a partnership with strong vendors is what Palm really needed right now. With mobile companion’s biggest advantages: thin built & light weight, have been surpassed and Celio’s Redfly is the only one in the market right now; which one you’ll likely will carry then?

Prediction for the future of mobile companion market [part-2]

The Palm's Stephane Mass statement of Palm Nova OS (aka. Palm OS II) is still scheduled to be release in early 2009 also sparks plenty of doubts among anylists & Palm fans, like myself. It’ll be the start of competiton in the new mobile companion market at that time of year. Another backdraw for Palm is they don’t produce their own hardware platforms for their new Nova OS such as processor, motherboard, memory, etc. So Palm still rely on other vendors like Intel to make their platforms, if Palm needs to do more adjustments in their Nova OS to be compatible with Intel’s Moorestown platform; this means the Nova OS engineers are going to have some over-time works till 2009 arrived (the sounds of whip cracked heard from far away...). But why whould Palm needs to use Intel’s Moorestown or any other of their platforms to begin with, you may be asking? In my oppinion, as hard I’m trying not to sounds like promoting Intel, it’s undeniable that Intel right now has the upper hand on processors fabrication in every market categories. AMD hasn’t been able to beat Intel yet now, while ARM & Samsung haven’t produce break-through processors for a long time and likely not in near future. So with that, Intel can easily make a platform according to their own advantages. As you can see at the picture, Intel’s Moorestown device can produce Apple’s Safari look-alike user interface; which shows how powerful their new small platform can perform. And Palm needs strong partners with the newest technology to build their next generation of Foleo mobile companion, and beat all the others competitors with the same product (Redfly for example?) when 2009 has come. Of course this is with assumption if they really intend to re-release Foleo ever again... Another copy-cat is borrowing Foleo name and twist it into “iFoleo”, read it on Sammy’s post here.

Prediction for the future of mobile companion market [part-1]

I had a bad couple of days with a disasterous flu stomach-ache, so until now I'm able to write another post although one of good news from Brighthand reviewed a Redfly mobile companion device has came out.
After read Brighthand review, I begin to get the idea of what Jeff Hawkins was trying to achieve back then with the “cancelled” Foleo. Specially the ease of using bigger screen and full size QWERTY keyboard, the two main things Treo and other mobile devices don’t have. With those in mind, it’s no wonder Redfly is closely sized to 12” laptop; and this has become the most crucial selling point whether mobile companion can make it’s own market segment or not in the business users & corporate companies circle. Ed Hardy (Brighthand) made a very good point there about how mobile companion devices can much lower corporate companies’ TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) per year, this could be the main reason why Celio Corp., and Jeff Hawkins too, think that mobile companion will survive and accepted. But I don’t agree with Celio Corp. if that’s become the factor why they don’t put entertainment features in Redfly, everybody need and love entertainment on the go; so Celio Corp. must have something else in their agenda besides the “target for business” reason.

Secure your informations with eWallet v6.0

Carrying important & sensitive informations inside your Treo 750 is very important and also handy, you can easily fire up the Treo and look at whatever you stored into it at breeze. But if you only wrote them with Notes, this is dangerous because everyone who get hold of your Treo can see them too.
This is when I tried eWallet v6 from Illium Software, the application already include the Windows desktop version and support WinMob 6. The whole features in it is almost the same as other electronic wallet apps, such as Spb Wallet that I tried & reviewed before. So importing the previous electronic wallet files are easy with the Wizard provided in eWallet, and you can sync what you have in your Treo 750 with eWallet installed in your Windows desktop. No hassle and trouble when I start using eWallet, since almost every features in it aren't much different from other same apps. I just hope Illium Software can update and improve the card looks, need more finishing touch to distinguish this great app from the other ones.
(blogged with my Treo 750v)

WinMob 7 review teaser

I've been searching articles that discuss Microsoft next project nick-named "iPhone compete", it's called Windows Mobile 7. Yes, it is the same name as the one you have there in your Treo 750; WinMob 6. Clearly Microsoft has been chasing Apple ever since they launched iPod, Microsoft's Zune has not doing well with what it's nick-named: "iPod-killer" meant to do. Instead Zune made a quite bad start when it was first released, and got mocked because of it's ridiculous colours; for one instance is brown. But Microsoft made a successful campaign regarding Zune, it is the Social; something that intended to compete with Apple's iTunes on-line store music.

Microsoft needs to gain more of that piece of cake of mobile OS that their share has been lessen since the arrival of iPhone famous user interface, if they don't do it now they'll surely going to be left behind for good. The best article that describe best of this new WinMob 7 came from GSMArena, you have to see it because it looks very promising. Specially for business users who have been forced to use WinMob devices because they need the compability with Windows & Exchange Server, Microsoft have picked up this vibe of how boring WinMob's UI compared to iPhone's. Another clear sign of this can bee see when they announce officially the WinMob 6.1 at professional Mobile World Congress 2008 (formerly known as 3GSM) held at Barcelona in February 2008, this upgrade will only going to improve it's UI but not it's features.

As a customer, I like this competion atmosphere that created by those two giants. But I'm keep on wondering how & when will Palm is going to take place to compete with them? WinMob 7 scheduled to be released at 2009 (no more details of date yet), which is the same as Palm's new schedule to release it's new Palm Nova OS (formerly known as Linux-based Palm OS).

Surely Steve Jobs and his Apple minions won't stay still just watching, I'm betting my money that the most rumored 3G iPhone will also be hosting a new UI; and this baby is set to be release this half of 2008. Apple's greatest strategy is to stay on the head of every competion by releasing newer products before everybody else do, and this has been proven to be successful. Every Apple products owner are taken the pride to held the devices that mark them as pioneer, thus creating the same loyalty that Palm users once had.

So to wrap my predictions up, this 2008 will be the year for WinMob devices. Because with WinMob 6.1 coming soon, and iPhone UI is likely won't be changed much; Palm is going to rely on WinMob since their OS is not ready until next year. And even Steve Jobs can't deny the fact that there are more WinMob devices out there in the market than his locked iPhone.

Boy o' boy, I can't wait till year 2009 where every big companies release their new mobile OS which includes Google's Android. Wish I have a warp engine right now, and beam myself faster than the speed of light to the future...

(blogged with my Treo 750v)

White Treo is mistaken as Centro

My worries of Palm’s Wanda strategy have becoming to reality. As I read on the news of TreoCentral guys at CES 2008 have spotted a white Centro, I crossed check all of them with the pictures and found out a simple yet crucial mistake: it's actually a Treo!
They took pictures of it up & close so clearly shows the Treo name logo, so why everybody keep on calling it Centro, not Treo? Even the IMEI sticker (at the battery slot) says: “PALM EVT Unit not for sale Treo XXX”.
The similarity, or let's just say identical looks have confused everybody because Centro has been well known first. Are you one of them?

The need of a picture in a blog

I'm quite surprised for the last couple of days even until now whenever I open my RSS aggregator in my Treo 750v, the total news it can get at average of everyday are more than 110 news! This got to do with the CES 2008 event that's still going on as you read this blog, news are flowing almost every minutes primarily from gadget review websites. And if you read my previous blog about one of a RSS aggregator for Treo 750, I also realize that sometimes there are news from those RSS feeds that don't provide any pictures at all; they are worse if the news only consist of just a link to another website (what's the point of posting the blog then?). With that RSS feeds aggregator, I can easily see which RSS news that provide picture and the ones that don't. Most of the time, if there's no pictures and the headlines are not that interesting; I'll just pass them through.I have to say that pictures have become one of basic inggriedients if you wish to make an interesting blogs, sure there're still many of you who likes to read many lines of words in just one blog; but you also can't deny the necessity to have pictures to support the subject of that blog too. Because it's like the saying of modern gadgets nowadays: "a picture can tell many stories". So, have you posted or email a picture along with your blog today?

(blogged with my Treo 750v)

The good & bad features of Spb Insight

For those who can't live without the latest news from the internet, like me, I rely myself to get them with RSS feeds aggregator application in my Treo 750v. Spb Software House always come up with great applications for Treo users, well they actually made them for WinMob & other platforms too. So I tried Spb Insight yesterday, gotta stay up to date with news from CES 2008 event. I must say I'm really impressed with it's channels list view, which showcase distinctive icon for each RSS feeds you subscribe with. When I click into the channel, Spb Insight provide thumbnail pictures, if available, at each of every news; very cool & good looking! But that's not all, the Spb Insight Today plugins can also provide those thumbnail pictures with slideshows and you could even click left & right to briefly see each news that it has just updated; very handy and alive.
Alright, those are the good side; now let's take a look at the bad side. The update method, I wanted to put this into the good side because it's fast and no hassle with advanced options. But the real deal is you can't decide yourself when it'll update the news and which channel, all Spb Insight capable of is an overal settings for every channels. So in the end my Treo 750v keep on downloading plenty of unnecessary data because Spb Insight download all the thumbnail pictures, even the ones that I'm not going to read. This will become an irritating problem for those who pay according to the data they downloaded. Another downside is Spb Insight doesn't have backup utility in it, so if I had to reset my Treo, I'll loose every RSS feeds and forced to subscribe them again manually. I hope Spb Software House also make it's Today plugin to be more flexible, for instance is I can't access Spb Insight channels list from Today screen; I have to scroll every news to get the one I wish to read and that's become tiring instead of handy & fast anymore...

Goodbye Bill while we laugh...

Ok, I know I should only post news about cellphones & Palm, but let's just say that this post is only relate to because the Palm Drucker little image teaser was shown after Bill made the slideshow presentation of the future of Windows Mobile. I just can't help myself to spread this news to you who don't know yet of Bill Gates funny video, the video made to make jokes of his last days in Microsoft; the casts in it includes Mathew McConaughey, Bono U2, Steven Spielberg, George Clooney, etc. It would be a shame if you missed the most talked video in CES 2008 right now. It's amazing what rich people can do, amazing what money can buy...

More Palm Drucker picture revealed

Now I called this undirect promotion of Palm’s newest successor of Treo 750: Palm Drucker, y’all still remember the image teaser of Treo 800w back awhile ago? Seems Engadget have been able to see what Bill Gates had in his hand while speaking in CES 2008 keynote session. I don’t really sure wheter they actually made the picture grained & blurry deliberately or not, but seems we have to suck up on this one too because there’s no official pictures of the new Palm Drucker even at BoysGenius report... Looks like Centro’s famous design of the ‘ribbon’ menu buttons is going to be used in every next Treo(s) new generation, if you happen to see BoysGenius report on Vodafone’s Winmob roadmap; you can see this design is also used by HP in their new handset too.

Palm's Wanda bad strategy

You must’ve seen Palm Wanda picture at BoyGenius website, maybe just like me; spontaneously said that is a Centro not a Treo. We might be right about that, there’s only small difference between those two. The obvious difference physically can be seen at the picture, I marked the space between the “Wanda” screen to it’s menu buttons with red marks. As you can see the space is much wider than Centro, and also the menu buttons space is wider to the QWERY keyboards too. These make Palm Wanda looks more taller than Centro... Of course we only seen the pre-release pictures, who knows it doesn’t look like that but really just a Centro with the change of name into Treo. It’ll only makes sense to me, Centro has been a sucessful hit in the market for Palm; so right now Palm want to make the most of it’s design by simply change the name and add some new features into it (HSDPA & integrated GPS). Not only Palm don’t have to design and manufacture new device, they can cut costs with those steps. In business spectacles, of course this steps are good; but I don’t really like it as a consumer. I would like to use a device that can be distinctive immediately when anybody see it, like the Treo 750v I’m using right now to write this post. Many people at the coffee shop at least took a look at it when I’m using it, makes me feels proud to own & use a Palm product. I suppose that’s what Centro owners feels too, because of the unique looks it has. I guess this has been Palm’s habbits since the Treo(s) lineup came out, from 700p/w to 680 & 750; physically they all are look alike but with different OS. I really hope they stop doing this if they really want to gain the competitive market nowadays... Cause Nokia, Motorolla & Sony Ericsson have all keep on producing new types of handset every year!

I received double surpises news today!

Wow, I never thought I'll get double surprises after the New Year's eve. First one of the surprise is I've been invited to become a guest author at PalmAddict, I'd like to thank Sammy for given me the honor. I hope my contributions can be useful for all PalmAddict readers. Second is the announcement of another Palm products to be released through Vodafone carrier: Palm Drucker & Wanda! Just like you Palm fans out there (and yes you too who read this blog, duh!) who have been waiting for another break-through devices from Palm, our wish have finally come true. Click on the link here for further informations on what will be released on Vodafone's roadmap 2008, now you wish that last year you didn't spend so many money on gifts because there are plenty new gadgets to get this year...But most importantly, now we all know that Palm is only going to produce a Windows Mobile based Treo(s) for the next year until their new Linux-based Palm OS ready. It'll be a long windy road for Palm OS owner, specially Treo 680, to hope for a new upgrade. But let's all pray for the best and expect the worse, because the Palm we once love for their devices and innovations, is also the Palm that now we hate for their inconsistency.

Have a weather forecast in your palm

Knowing how's the weather outside just before you open the door to leave your house is quite important, sure if it's going to rain you can easily see if the clouds are all grey or not. But the hardest part would be if where you live has winter & cold season, I know how crazy the weather can be for instance when you're about to leave home it's not that cold yet; but after few hours later when you're on your way home suddenly the freezing cold wind blows. Your ears are numb because of it and even though you keep both of your hands warm inside your pockets, your body can't stop shaking. In most of European countries those situations are will likely still going to occured for the next months to come, you can't quite predict the weather by insctinct and experiences. Then perhaps you can make use your Treo 750 more usefull by installing this SBSH product called PocketWeather which just been updated into v2.0.1 now, it's really one of the most sophisticated weather application for my Treo 750v I've ever tried. The most important of the new version is it's now support WinMob 6 Pro, and other many features which you can read at here.
Not only PocketWeather has many customized options you can change (I had difficulty understanding all of them at first try), the most notable is it's complete and vast weather database; I can find some of the most remote cities that never mentioned in another same applications. And the auto-updates of the weather database is very fast, plus you have plenty of additional settings for it; includes the map & pictures updates. I really like the earthquake notification, this should prove to be important in these days where natural disasters are happening all over the world; hope they'll add a Tsunami & flood alert as well. Lastly for you who love to put the weather infos at Today screen, PocketWeather has plenty of settings & icons to set different looks and native integration with PocketBreeze. And if that's not enough, you can change and make your own layout with a script; SBSH has thought of using PocketWeather with other Today screen launchers (smart move, every other application developers should do the same). Perhaps this will work with the most buzzed PointUI Home launcher too? If anyone have tried to use them, let us know the result will ya?

Monitor your Treo's data flow like a freak

Worried if your cellphone's monthly bill suddenly goes to the roof? Or you're just a control freak who loves to watch every data activities of your cellphone? Then the Spb GPRS Monitor is just the right application for you, it has the thorough watch-dog feature to look after every datas sent & received. The alarm notification can be set for daily or montly use, these ways you will not be surprised anymore by expensive data bill. If those aren't enough, you could put an icon of Spb GPRS Monitor at Today screen so you can access it faster anytime. Although Spb Software House have quite extensive library of carriers around the world, I'm surprised they haven't included mine; and it's a shame they couldn't immediately add the carrier I use when I informed them about it. It's also a troublesome if your country option is not available in your Treo 750, because this application's tariff is based upon the handset's global settings.
(blogged with my Treo 750v)

Foleo copied!

Well Palm, if just you agree with Jeff Hawkins at first to released Foleo right on time and instead of cancelled it at the last minutes; Foleo might be a new hit success and can bring more cash flows-in for Palm. Because I've just read news from Gizmodo (again, this is the second great news since the Office 2008 compability -see previous blog) that Celio Corp. is about to release the device that looks like and works like Foleo!This device will surely going to be introduce at CES event, and everybody will be keeping their eyes on this baby. I can't believe that Palm's another great -to be- device idea/concept is stolen right under their own nose, few days ago I've just wrote a blog about Foleo and how good it is if it actually released.

We all love Palm as a pioneer for great device that can do multi-tasks, now after one of their product that never been officially released yet is being copied; Foleo will no longer regarded as the first device for mobile companion anymore... Hope those big guys at Palm, including Ed Colligan learn from this mistake and produce yet another break-through device in the future; we need real lovable new Palm device.

MS Office and Mac gets along now

The long waited compability issues for MS Office 2008 & Mac OS is going to end at Jan 15th, Microsoft plans to release a native working Office 2008 for Mac OS so all of you who have MacBook and want to make documents from the newest format of Office 2007 won't be a problem anymore. Gizmodo has more complete story to dig, just click here.
Maybe this news is rarely affect those who own Treo 750, like me, they'll probably already own at least a Windows OS laptop/PC as well. Although it's rare if someone who uses a WinMob device but don't have Windows computers, and if you're one of them; you could rejoice for the compability issue will not going to hold you down anymore starting this month. Undoubtfully, MS Office has been used by many people, from students to corporate computers; so no wonder it's growing more followers everyday including Mac users.
(blogged with my Treo 750v)

Treo can becomes a useful companion on your dates

I have a date this evening, which I was sitting at A&W table with a tall cup of Rootbeer Float waited for her to arrived. I pulled out my Treo 750v and download the movies schedule at some of local theaters with Pocket IE. Just as it finished downloaded, my date arrived and I showed it to her to asked which movie available she wanted to see.
After we decided which one we should be going, we got into the car and headed forward. Alas, it's off office hours so the traffic jam was so frustating; we barely moved forward in hours. I can see she was bored, so I pulled again my Treo from my pocket, and she's excited when I offered her whether she wished to play some games with it. I tried to teach her the game from In-Fusio called Fried Chicken which has cute graphics that most girls would love, but seems her long thumb nail is preventing her from pushing the Treo's middle D-pad button. So she played Bubble Breaker instead, cause she can use the stylus; ... duh.
So we finally arrived and took a quick meal, while we're waiting for the meal come she asked to play again maybe she's still curious how to win it. I'm glad I decided to brought along my Treo 750v, even though it's bulky when inserted into my jeans pocket; somehow I managed to melt those icy & silent moments when you date someone.

The start of 2008

It's 2008! Another stay-up night for me & my buddies with our families, can't say there is anything different at all from any other nights. We were enjoying the view of massive & terrible traffic jam from the glass windows of the place we gathered, it has been three hours already and it hasn't made progress but only gotten worsen. Looks like we'll be forced to stay here until the morning comes, amazing how much people out there on the streets; feels almost like everyone poured on the road. Maybe it isn't clear enough at the picture, but it's raining when 2008 arrived. The whole year of 2007 was filled with natural catasthrope, mostly is flood in big & small cities in my country. Hope this year we can mend what those have been broken on this earth we love.