Written by weiganla on Saturday, June 28, 2008

Quick Tip: Palm Freeware I Can’t Live Without


Palm OS isn’t all bad. Seriously. It really is easy to use, and it has a ridiculous software catalog that I’ve seen listed as 20,000 titles. Okay, so maybe 19,000 of them are about a decade old, but there’s some good stuff hidden out there. I’m a cheapskate, so since I got my Centro a few months ago I’ve been prowling for freeware.

beforeHands down my favorite find so far is SkinUI. Palm’s UI hasn’t changed much since, like, the 80s, except now after SkinUIinstead of being stuck in gray-tan and black you can choose from a whole menu of ugly color schemes. SkinUI to the rescue! Download skins here — my favorites are Cobalt and Tiger — install the program and skins to main memory and you’ve got an instant makeover.

The most useful freebie I’ve found is AttnGrab. It can make your device beep, vibrate, or flash its LED light when you have a missed alert. I have it set to shine the LED on missed calls and SMSs, so if I’ve been away from my phone or turned off the sound I know at a glance if anyone tried to reach me.

WatchmakerOne of my pet peeves with mobile devices is that most of them won’t tell you how much battery you have left. They’ve got those little barrel-in-three-pieces monitors that don’t tell you squat, and I don’t trust those things farther than I can throw them anyway. So I was happy to find Watchmaker, which in addition to the battery monitor handles alarms and comes with a collection of reasonably good-looking skins.

These three programs are just a few of the good Palm freewares I’ve run across. Since JAMM is expanding our Palm coverage I hope I can make this a regular column, and I’m on the lookout for suggestions. Leave a comment below if you have a tip!

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Klokmania
Jun 28, 2008

“Palm OS isn’t bad AT ALL”

OK, some of the apps are pretty old, but take a look at 1src.com and you’ll find programmers making new stuff too. One new alarm clock is BellTime and if you have a Centro try it. BellTime is much more functional than Watchmaker. You can have your alarms on the front screen and set them very directly. Use the 5-Way navigator or enter the alarm time with your keyboard. It has a collection of tools, like alarms, clocks, timer and world clock, and you can compose your display with just the tools you want.

One of the amazing things is the MP3 sound of BellTime together with Pocket Tunes. Normally MP3 volume is fixed per alarm, but here it changes while playing. Start quiet and just increase the volume gradually. And even in the free version this is better than Watchmaker. Well, besides the crazy skins.
I’m not sure, but I think you’ll find back all your Watchmaker gadgets (battery monitor etc.), it’s the same programmer.


Heatwave316
Jun 28, 2008

I think this is a great idea for a regular column. I’ve had a Palm TX for awhile, and just purchased a Centro. I should be getting it from Verizon on Tuesday. I think the battery meter is a great option.

I’ll look forward to learning about all kinds of new stuff.

Klokmania – I’m going to check out the site you mentioned. Thanks for the info!!!


weiganla
Jun 29, 2008

Klokmania, thanks for the tips! I did run across BellTime but I didn’t realize it had a battery monitor, which (besides looking prettier than most of the competition) is what I like in Watchmaker — I won Agendus in a contest and have been using it for alarms. The full version of BellTime is shareware (10 EUR) and it looks like the free version may not do MP3 when the trial period expires… I’ll check it out.

I would never have found 1src on my own and it looks like a great resource. Cheers!

Palm OS has a wonderful user community, but step outside of that and it comes in for a lot of bashing. Maybe the dated look of the UI fools people into overlooking how useful it can be. (Personally I think it has some quirky charm. :-) ) Hopefully the more JAMM covers Palm, the more people will realize that it does have a lot going for it.

On that note, we are looking for Palm writers to join the JAMM team. Please drop us a line through the “Contact Us” link at the top if you’re interested.

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