Morning Paper

SmartToolKit? Never heard of it before but it's now on my list of "must-have" apps

As you all know, I'm continually checking out software whether for personal use or for reviews here on Morning Paper. Some of the stuff I see is junk, the most of it take it or leave it, but then there are the apps that become (or should become) must have applications.

SmartToolKit is just such an application.

From the Smartphone-Freeware.com site:

SmartToolKit adds some sweet functions to your device, as well as a beautiful interface.

A new Start Menu, which is more XP / Vista like is added, as well as a Clipboard function that allows you to Cut/Copy/Paste, activate 2P (Double Press) functionality as well as using the numeric keypad to navigate (acting like your D-Pad).

Published by e-Native Technology, SmartToolKit has already been through several iterations that shows in the polish of the application.

What the user is treated to is a whole new way of interacting with their Windows Mobile device. SmartToolKit replaces the standard Start soft-key of Windows Mobile and replaces it with a very slick and customizable start menu. You can assign 6 Quickstart applications for the pop-up window with access to all of your programs safely nestled at the bottom of the list.

Want to see more? A simple right press will give you access to more choices along the side from everything to My Documents to System Power options. Every application on your phone is readily accessible.

Want one button press to your Task Manager, SmartToolKit has it right there. You can also access running processes on your phone similar to on your desktop.

It doesn't stop there. SmartToolKit also allows for skinning and custom icons. There is also a very nice Screen Capture feature built-in to take screen shots of whatever you want on your device.

I'm personally still barreling through the User Manual to learn all of the tricks and tips this one application offers. Every time I use it I learn something new.

Just today I learned how to get rid of at least seeing some of the crapware applications AT&T thought should be on my Motorola Q9h. The best part is this is a complete skinning application so you never have to see the standard Windows Mobile menu screen if you don't want.

But the biggest thing, as you may have guessed from where I discovered this wonderful piece of software. It is absolutely and completely free. No spy-ware, no nagware. Free to try and configure as you like.

Download SmartToolKit and see for yourself why it has joined Facade and Agenda One as one of my "Must Have" applications for Windows Mobile.

(Did I mention it was FREE? Ok, sorry)

Update: I found out the developers name is Ahmad Amarullah from Indonesia. There is also an extensive forum for users with questions and he gives the answers. I'm looking forward to what else he has to offer in the future.

Spb annual survey for Windows Mobile and Pocket PC

The Spb folks are at it again this time rolling out the fourth annual Spb Pocket PC Survey which now includes Smartphone devices. Spb has been publishing their findings annually which gives some insights into usage and desired features for Windows Mobile devices and software.

From the Spb website via Mobility Site:

Spb Software House is one of the leading Windows Mobile software developers for the platform, and it is important for us to know the way you use your Pocket PC or Smartphone; your needs, preferences, expectations, and complaints. The information you give us will help make our current and future products better. Moreover, the overwhelming majority of the answers to the survey questions are very interesting to the whole Windows Mobile community. The most interesting results of the survey will be published at the popular Windows Mobile websites.

Obviously they use this information to develop their own leading line of great software for the Windows Mobile Professional devices but that doesn't take away from the useful information they will present on December 18th. It's like a peek into the Windows Mobile world from an almost unbiased source.

The survey is said to take about 5 minutes with the best part is the chance to enter to win a new Windows Mobile 6 device (Tilt maybe?) and other free stuff.

I'm hoping they will expand their great applications to include more Windows Mobile Standard devices so I will certainly be adding my two cents to the survey.

Here's the link and good luck winning free stuff.

REVIEW: Menuminder For Your Mac Menubar

You may or may not know this, but i love a good Menu app. Any app that I can quickly get to from the menubar is a great app to me, if it works. You've read my review and praise of the excellent menu app "AlarmClock Pro". ACP is a great app that lets you do a lot of functions right from your Mac menu bar. But I think I may have found an app to compete with it.

To be fair, Menuminder is a much smaller app with one reason for its use. Reminders, and it does a great job of doing what it was made for. Where ACP lets you do things like, wake or put your Mac to sleep, menuminder's main focus is on quick reminders. I really found this app to be a great help to my daily functions.

Click on the nice alarm clock icon and a little box opens. Type in your reminder and select when you want to be reminded, that's it. You can even set it to send the reminder to your email or SMS. I have used each of these features extensively, and all of them worked like a charm, without a hitch.

The first and more simple features "Quick Reminder" lets you select from 1 to 30 days to be reminded of the event you entered. The more detailed feature "New Reminder" let's you select a time and date, just in case your need to be reminded isn't on same the day and the delivery of the remnder is through email or text.

Sure there are a few good applications that will take care of reminders for you, iCal will also do this. But an app like Menuminder is better simply because reminders are its one and only objective, and it sits right there, a slight mouse move away in your menubar.

Menuminder is also priced right, at $10 the developer isn't trying to reach into your pocket and extract more than what is fair.

Menuminder is a MP recommended application, give it a try.

limit-point

REVIEW: Slingbox And My Treo!

What can I tell you about Slingbox that you haven't already heard a thousand times? Nothing, nada, zilch. But what I can do is tell you my personal experience. The very first time I saw the Slingbox I thought "WOW, now that's a gadget!" The idea of being able to hook up your television and view it on your phone or computer whereever you are on the planet is "cool" technology on an entirely different plain.

Now, admittedly I'm late to the party. Sling has moved past the entry "Slingbox AV Tuner", to bigger and more advance boxes like the ''Slingbox Solo and Slingbox Pro'''

The guys over at Sling were kind enough to set me up with AV tuner, and man "o" man am I happy. When I got it running on my Treo 755p, It was like I was 10 years old on Christmas morning pressing "GO" on my first Remote Control car.

But like that first Remote Control, there's always some sort of set back to spoil the anxious anticipation. The set up. Day One).

Slingbox requires that you hook it up straight to your cable modem and into your cable/satellite box. My DirecTV box is clear across the other side of the house. What to do, what to do?

Okay, I'll take my Airport extreme, plug up in the outlet next to my satellite box, plug in the Slingbox and route the extreme to the extreme base station. That should work right? Nope. Couldn't get the Slingbox to connect. I go to the Sling Media site, turns out this can be done, but it requires a whole lot of IP switching. At this point I'm tired, a bit frustrated and just decide to pack it up for the night.

Day Two)

I really want to make this work, so I go back to the site and begin reading through the well written support page detailing how to use the Slingbox with a router. Sure, I could have emailed Dave at SlingMedia and asked for some help but I'm stubborn, I know I can figure out most things on my own. But this is a pretty big task, there's a lot to do to get this kind of configuration up and running properly, and I'm pretty close.

Then suddenly it hits me. Before I switched to DirecTV, I had TimeWarner Cable, and the Cable line is still there, right next to the satellite cable. That Christmas feeling is coming back. I take the extreme base station, set it up next to the TV, hook up the Slingbox and viola! My computer connects. Okay, TV on your computer, big deal right, I want to see it on my Treo. I surf through, select the SlingMedia app "SlingPlayer Mobile" for Palm, which I had already downloaded, and hit play. MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Folks it doesn't get much cooler than this. The Slingbox gives you "your" television right there on your phone. Not Sprint TV, or Vcast or Mobi TV all with limited programming and extra subscriptions fees. Nope, You get on your phone or computer exactly what you get when you sit back in the comfort of your living room.

The Palm app is amazing, and what makes it really amazing is it hasn't froze or caused me to reset my Treo, it's very stable. The app has the full control of your remote control, allowing you to watch anything you've recorded, record anything you want, fast forward, rewind, change channels, pause, what ever you can do with your remote, you can do on your Treo or whatever phone you're using. Sprints EVDO network has served me well so far, the video is clear the audio is clear and the functions are quick and responsive.

As I wrote in the beginning of this review, there really isn't anything I can tell you about Slingbox that you haven't heard or read before. But if you like the freedom of watching television when and where you want, there is absolutely no better alternative on the market. None. SlingMedia is the kind of app and technology that really shows off the power and merit of your expensive smartphone.

If you've been thinking about it, pondering the pros cons, just know that there are no cons. I highly, very highly recommend the Slingbox.

SlingMedia

New Agenda One V.2 - Looks even better

Hot on the heels of my review of Agenda One from Developer One, they've now made public the latest version (V.2) with some spiffy upgrades to usability and over all look.

via msmobiles.com and from the Developer One website

• Great new features now available in the new Agenda One Version 2!
• Templates! (The most popular user request!)
  Powerful, yet incredibly easy-to-use templates are now available for creating Appointments and Tasks.
  Creating frequently used appointments and tasks is now easier and faster than ever.
• Additional Language Support
• Contact View Search Performance Improvements
• Contact View Navigation Picker
• Quickly Create Appointments and Tasks with Contacts from the Contact view
• SIM Contact Indicator in Contact View
• Compressed-Mode Contact List
  Finger-friendly input screens
  For touch-screen devices, Agenda One features large-size finger-friendly keypads to help you quickly enter appointment times and reminders.
• Improved Category Picker
  Now you may quickly jump to a category in the category picker by pressing a letter on your keyboard or soft-keyboard.
• Task View Navigation enhancement
• Contact Linking!
  Agenda One Version 2 now makes it easy to link a contact to one or more contacts within the Notes area of your Contacts.

They also did a list of bug fixes that include better compatibility with the new T-Mobile Shadow, Palm Treo 500v and the Verizon i760. They've fixed and improved things I didn't even think were broken! Impressive.

Guess you all know what I'll be doing tonight?

Is the search over for the best PIM app for my phone?

I think I've finally found it, the best PIM application for a Windows Mobile 6 Smartphone Standard edition device has to be Developer One's Agenda One.

I had been pretty happy with SBSH's Papyrus but decided to give Agendus a try a while back. After returning to Papyrus, I thought I had a pretty good choice after looking at the selection available. The one that kept niggling at me though was Agenda One, and when someone had it on sale, I downloaded the trial and couldn't believe what I had been missing. I liked it so much, I ended up paying full price (not on purpose but I missed the last day of the sale, eh, never mind).

Developer One has really thought through how to best enter, sort and find your daily information on your Windows Mobile device.

Once you load the application, it defaults to the Agenda view which gives you an overview of your appointments and tasks. Nothing terribly impressive except that it works - simply and elegantly.

Where the app starts to put some distance between itself and others is pressing the soft key lets you pull up other view options. D-pad to your chosen view and it opens quickly to give you just the view you want to see. It offers four calendar choices, an option for tasks as well as contacts with just one click.

I have to agree with their mission on their product page:

Our goal: to have you never again walk away from the doctor, dentist, etc with an appointment reminder card in your hands.

It really is that easy.

One push from the main screen will bring you to the create new Appointment? Task? and you're off. Nothing to do but enter the details with only the most pertinent details asked to create a quick entry, save it and get on with your day.

Contacts view has support for  pictures and will start searching as you are entering letters or numbers.

Across the application, you can dial any number from your appointments and tasks or notes of those appointments and tasks.

There are icons, icons packs and Developer One also has a free Theme Creator (and a pretty nice community of creators in their forums) if you aren't too happy with the candy-apple red.

The Theme options are pretty good and you shouldn't be hard pressed to find one that suits you if you don't like the standard default. My only complaint is about the included icons: they seem to be rather sterile and lack personality, especially when compared to what some other PIM makers are able to offer.

The options available give you a nearly dizzying number of choices but don't be put off. You can change global settings or simply customize your current favorite view and leave the rest to default. I've found the Monthly view (at top) to be the best since it gives a highlighted day with the details running down the right hand of the screen.

You can create new items from there or zoom in to the Agenda view with just one click.

I can't say enough good things about Agenda One for Windows Mobile 6 Standard. It works quickly and easily without a lot of fuss but still gives the user a great many option for customization if you are so inclined.

There is a version of Agenda One for Windows Mobile 6 Professional that anyone running the AT&T Tilt, Spring Mogul or T-Mobile Wing may want to look at. They are also the makers of Agenda Fusion, one of the founding fathers of PIM apps for Windows Mobile.

You can order it directly from their website which usually has the best price, everyone else seems to have a price mark-up unless you catch a sale somewhere. Here's the link for the trial for the Windows Mobile 6 Standard version.

Review: QuickTake 3.0

There are a few apps out there for your Treo that will allow you to take screenshots of your actions and screens on your Treo. There are those that will argue that the few free apps out there are just as good as Quick Take. After using Quick Take for a few weeks, I have to disagree with that assertion.

QuickTake is at it's heart, a very simple application. No real tricks, no bells and whistles or a long detailed feature list.

This is a shot of my "Home Screen" running UltimatePhone from Gx5. As you can see, the pic is crystal clear, click the pic to see a sightly larger version. QuickTake allows you to take either a BMP. or a JPG., as well as adjust quality level. A lower level will of course produce a not-so-hot photo. But if you've got a good sized SDcard, I suggest you put it at %100.

QuickTake also gives you a few choices of how you will take those screen shots. You can use your "Calendar, Phone, Mail or Power Button" to active the camera. Choice to hear the sound or turn it off. I use my Calendar button as I have found it to be the easiest for me.

I simply hold down the Calendar button and a screen dialog pops up and tells me "QuickTake Activated", a few seconds later the pic is snapped and automatically sent to me cards DCIM folder.

I really like this app and I can see that it is really going to help me in writing stories about different Palm apps, which would be my primary use for it. But an app like this could be useful for many Treo owners for many reasons.

Features
• Save any screen at any resolution at anytime and at anywhere
• Save screen to JPG or BMP format on the external card
• Pictures are small when is saved. Typically around 30K for 320x320 16bit color JPG
• Selectable quality for JPG
• Timer capture
• Take picture at any resolution
• Assign any of the four hard keys to take picture
• Sound notification when picture is saved
• Take camera picture on the Treo with QuickTake
• Send picture directly within QuickTake
Requirements
• PalmOS® 5.0 and higher.
• 150K of free main memory.
• External card is required.

• Price $9.95

I haven't noticed any bugginess with my Treo 755p since loading and using QuickTake, but, they're Treos, so "usage may vary".

If you need to take shots of your Treo screens, I highly recommend QuickTake over the free apps. I will not often do that if there are really good free apps out there. But I have tried a few of the screen shot apps, and all of them reset my Treo.

Toysoft

REVIEW: BusySync For Mac: Sync iCal Over Multiple Macs

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Review: Morning Paper - Palm Centro Hands On

It's sorta strange to actually hold a product that I've been talking about since June. But here it is in the perverbial Palm of my hands. I believed since the moment I saw the Centro (then Gandolf) that this new device would help Palm dig its self out of the hole they fell in. From the moment I was given the Black & White photo, I knew it wasn't the Palm I was waiting on, but it was the Palm that would get folks talking about the company again.

Now, to be straight up and honest (which I always am) I'm a bit tired of talking about this one device. The specs and so on have been listed and etched in the mind of the universal conscience, so I only want to talk about what I thought after finally holding it.

First, I was glad that I was able to get the Black one, the Cherry Red one would have been hard for me to deal with. After taking it out of the box, the first thing I noticed was the size. If you're new to Palm this won't be a big deal for you. But having owned so many Treo's, something just felt a bit off. Don't get me wrong, the smaller size is nice and all, but it's really small. Small is good but thin is better. The Centro isn't thin, in fact it's about the same thickness as my 755p which is thinner than the 700p.

I also had this same feeling the first time I picked up the Blackberry 8830, the shiny coating is slippery and makes you feel as though you might drop it easily. This of course makes you grip it harder than you normally would. To be fair I had the same feeling with the 700p. In fact I dropped the 700p a few times because of its slippery nature.

The OS as we all know did not change. But it is very responsive, very fast. Of course the best judge of this will be after a half of the onboard memory gets used on third party apps. Documents To Go worked very nice, opens quickly and of course handles everything well, which is to be expected. The included Suduko is quick and responsive as well. But again, I'm talking about the OS which is really no different than the 755p, 700p and in most cases the 680.

The screen takes a bit of getting used to, as does the key functions. As with any device, after using it a while you get used to it. But if your a long time Treo user, you will find the layout a bit cumbersome. I found using the "End" button a bit irratating due to the size and slipper coating. Each time I moved my thumb over to press it, I felt like it would slip out of my hands. I have yet to get comfortable with that action.

I like the 5-way navigator pad on my 755p much more than the new desgin on the Centro. This is pure personal taste though, as it is not bad and there is really nothing wrong with it. But for my personal taste, there is a tactile feeling with the center button separation from the navigation that lets my thumb do the work without my brain (or cognizant thought) being aware of of it.

Which brings me to my biggest problem with this device. The keyboard. I found writing on the Centro impossible. I do not have unusually large thumbs, but the keyboard is simply way too small. I had the same trouble with the Blackberry Pearl so this is not exclusive to the Centro. If you have small hands and skinny fingers, you won't have a problem at all. In fact, I hate to do this and say something that can be construed as sexist, but the Centro is perfect for women. In fact, it's perfect for the demographic Palm is aiming it to. Sprint should re-think its ad campaign because using an older man in an office is absolutely the wrong way to go for this device. The Centro will fit perfectly in the hands of most women and young men who are light casual users just looking to stay in touch with SMS, IM and or email. It's small Pearl-like size will be unobtrusive in back-pockets, shorts and small purse's, and its features will get any job done.

But if you are even remotely a power user, large male/female, you will find the low cost Centro very frustrating and you'll be better off with a Treo.

I think the thing to do with the Centro and probably even the Treo 500v, is to forget what you already know about the Treo and look at them as completely new and totally different devices. Which of course they are. But it's hard for longtime Treo users to forget what we are used to.

Form factor is very important when thinking about a new device. The Centro doesn't have a lot of the bells and whistles that a lot of other smartphones are offering. But the Centro is a very nice device for those looking to enter the smartphone market on the cheap. As a owner of Treo's, once I got beyond the shock of "this is not my treo", I quickly saw the value in the Centro's form factor. Even though the Centro is not for me, I do highly recommend it.

Display 320x320 pixel Transflective color touchscreen,
supports 16-bit color (up to 65K colors)
Radio Dual-band CDMA2000 EvDO backward compatible
with 1XRTT and IS95
Platform Palm OS 5.4.9
Bluetooth® Wireless Technology Version 1.2
Memory 64MB available user storage
Camera 1.3 megapixels with 2x digital zoom and
video capture
Battery Removable 1150mAh, lithium-ion
3.5 hours talk time, up to 300 hours standby time
Expansion microSD card (up to 4GB supported)
Connector Multi-connector
Dimensions 4.22" (L) x 2.11" (W) x 0.73" (D); 4.2 oz
Colors Ruby and Onyx
System Requirements Windows® XP
Windows Vista™
Mac OS X v10.2-10.4

REVIEW: The Missing Sync for Palm OS, v6.0.1:

Mark/Space has been doing great things with their application for making syncing with a Mac easy. Recently with the help of Murray of Palm-Mac, and his Blackberry Curve, we reviewed their oustanding foray into Blackberry syncing on your Mac.

Check Review Here.

Mark?Space has also followed along with Palm by making sure those that purchased any of Palm WM devices could continue to enjoy seemless syncing with their Macs.

Read about updated WM version here.

For this review I'm going to deal with the Mark/Space flagship and still champion of Palm-Apple syncing, Missing Sync for Palm OS, v6.0.1. If you are new to the Palm world and have been finding the Palm Desktop supplied by Palm and Apple not to your liking, like most Palm users, this is the program you want to get. And if this is your first try with it, you're in luck, this is hands down the best version yet.

Missing Sync allows you (unlike Palm Desktop) to choose what you want to do when you sync. If you only want to sync up that one contact you recently entered, you can do just that. Here are is a list of the usual apps one would expect to sync:

Address Book
Calendar
Photos
Music

But with Missing Sync you can also add Documents to go, Splash ID, Entourage just about any conduit that works for both Palm and Mac can be added and used when needed. Of course there is Backup, Restore and Install, which allows you to install straight to your device or to your SDCard.

Version 6.0.1 is a big improvement on an already great program. With new additions to the interface and supplied conduits, MS gives the user a few more options that make this version excel. Most notable by yours truly is the new SMS conduit.

SMS Backup

I am a big fan of Joe Goh's Funkeestory which is an app and conduit that pulls your text messages from your phone and puts them on your Mac for safe keeping. I hate to say it but MS version 6.0.1 makes that app sorta useless. Mark/Space has provided a very good version of the same utility. The conduit pulls all your SMS info along with any photo you've attached to the contact along with all of their info. You can then open and view the info in the desktop app. Very nice.

Another great new addition is the new "Video" conduit. Now you can put your encoded videos from your Mac onto your Palm using MS. You can also transport any video you've taken with your Treo into your iTunes. This is a great addition (NOTE: Although this is a great feature, I would like to also suggest mounting your SDCard as a HD and placing your videos onto the card manually. The MS conduit is great, but nothing will be as fast as mounting your card).

Call Log Backup

Another great feature is the call log conduit. Now instead of lumping your log into the "backup and achive" folders along with all of the other info from your phone, MissingSync gives you the opportunity to just sync and view your call log on your Mac. This is a great feature and long overdue in any sync app.

This new version of MissingSync runs very, very smoothly. It's fast and stable. I have never incountered a problem with Missing Sync in all the years I have been using it, but this is without a doubt the very best version. The new conduit additions and smooth new UI make it a Palm user "must Have".

If you already own MissingSync and have not upgraded, I really suggest you do.

Requirements:
A Mac running:
Mac OS X v10.4.9 Tiger or later, with support for Mac OS X version 10.5 Leopard (coming soon)
A Palm OS handheld or smartphone running:
Palm OS 4 or Palm OS 5
Native USB, Wi-Fi (802.11) or
Bluetooth connection

Full download $39.95
Upgrade: $24.95
If you purchased The Missing Sync for Palm OS prior to May 1, 2007, you can upgrade to v6.0.1 for Palm OS for only $24.95.

Read the full list of additions and uses here.