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Past Meetings: September 12, 2002
| Date: | Thursday, September 12, 2002 |
| Time: | 7:00 PM |
| Location: | Kensington Community Church |
| Attendees: | 30 |
This was our first meeting after our summer hiatus. We were supposed to meet
in room #211 in the new wing at Kensington, but the projector wasn't finished
being wired, so we had to switch rooms. We ended up in room #112, so we hope
no one went home unable to find us. Next month we'll plan again on #211, and
if there is a change we'll note it on the signs that we post at all the entrances.
It was great to see so many new faces. DPUG Co-Founder Tracy Dreslinski was sorry she couldn't make the meeting due to a conflict (she attended her oldest daughter's school open house). DPUG Cofounder Scott Dreslinski ran the meeting.
Our theme this month was "That's Entertainment!"--using your Palm as an entertainment device. Sure it's an awesome Calendar and Phone Book, but we took a look at some of the really fun things you can do with your Palm, things like:
- Games: Astraware makes some of the
best games for the Palm. We took a look at Bejeweled and Abysma. Bejeweled
is one of our favorites. This game is extremely addictive. Here are some reviews
of Bejeweled on PalmGear.com's web site:
- 12-Apr-02 by willow giambastiani WHAT A GREAT GAME! My husband would be on the computer for hours at night and I finally found out why. Ever since I "caught him" and kicked him off, I just cannot get enough of it. Forget the laundry and making dinner, I am busy playing BEJEWELED!
- 09-Jan-02 by Bob Aiese &(&$#! Why did you make this game?! I got hooked on it then I made the mistake of showing my wife. She's made every high score and pushed mine out. And I'm having a hell of a time trying to get my Palm back from her.
- 25-Jul-01 by art liem *&*^% you Astraware for such cocaine-addictive game. I've played this game now for 5 hours straight! Can you believe that a grown man paid for m505 only play this game. Curse you 'cause now I'm going to have to buy all your software. Stop making such excellent games!
- Both games are regularly $14.95.
- Astraware is having a special for DPUG. DPUG members were emailed the special promotion code to get any great Astraware game for just $9.95 instead of the normal $14.95.
- Visit www.astraware.com for more
information.
- PocketTV Browser - Ever wish you had something like "TV Guide" for your handheld? Pocket TV Browser is an electronic guide that makes browsing TV listings as easy as browsing the web, and makes searching simple, fast and fun! This product has just knocked our socks off. Being a PUG Cofounder, and a Palm software developer, Scott has used and reviewed an enormous amount of Palm software in the past several years. Says Scott, "This PocketTV Browser is the most useful and exciting piece of Palm Software I can recall." Nearly all the information displayed is a hyperlink to even more information and ways to search. Have a favorite entertainer? Search for his/her name and you'll never miss an upcoming TV appearance. Or search for "Season Premier" for the upcoming fall TV lineup so you don't miss any continuations from last years season finales. Pocket TV Browser, from DoubleBit Software ( www.pimcity.com), is a great value at $9.95. No monthly subscription fees, just a one-time $9.95 payment.
- Speaking of TV, what better way to watch it than with your PocketTV Browser
and software that turns your Palm into a learning remote control? We took
a quick look at Pronto
Lite from Philips ($19.95) , and Omni
Remote from Pacific Neotek ($24.95). Both turn your Palm into a learning
remote. Both are similar in that you have to “train” each button
on your remote before it will work. Of course if you have a Sony handheld,
they come standard with their own CLIE RMC application. These are great in
that you don't need the original remote; you just select the brand of the
TV from a dropdown and you're controlling those annoying TV's in Burger King
Playlands!
- Your handheld as a video player! Thanks to Andrew Hackman for reviewing
the Kinoma Player. This is a free video
player for your Palm by Kinoma. Requires Kinoma Producer $29.99 to encode
your own videos. Free movie trailers are available on the net.
- Book review of "Piloting Palm: The Inside Story of Palm, Handspring and the Birth of the Billion Dollar Handheld Industry. This book chronicles how Jeff Hawkins had an inspiration that led to the handheld industry. Former Palm Computing executive Butter and New York Times technology consultant Pogue recount how Hawkins and a few others started Palm Computing, surviving crisis after crisis until it was eventually sold to another company and ultimately spun off in an IPO but not before Hawkins and several of his followers had left to start another handheld company called Handspring. If you have any background in Product Development, Product Management, Marketing, or just enjoy reading about Palm handhelds you'll enjoy this book.
Give Aways:
- 3 copies of PocketTV Browser, compliments of DoubleBit Software
- 3 copies of Bejeweled and 3 copies of Abysma, compliments of Astraware
- Several TV-shirts and other miscellaneous gear compliments of Handango
- 3 copies of ConnectedTV, the remote control and TV guide combo for Palm device. The three winners won 3-month subscriptions to the service which sell for an annual cost $30. More info at http://www.connected.tv.
-
Also Palmloyal.com gave out 23 copies of the DictionaryToGo dictionaries by http://www.learningtogo.com/. DictionaryToGo is a very extensive and intuitive handheld English dictionary. Its full database contains more than 150,000 headwords. It has 3 versions, the different being the number of words contained in the dictionary. The 23 winners could pick which ever version they wanted.