• PC World
• »Phones
• »Smart Phones

The dog days of summer are here, a slow season for new PDAs but a good time to share some news and catch up with reader e-mail on topics ranging from Wi-Fi for Treo smart phones and annotating GPS data to the history of Palm Computing.

First, the news. Not to sound overly defensive, but this particular pundit just doesn't have the time or energy to check out all the wonderful software available for handhelds. However, the folks at Handango, the online emporium, see a lot of commercial programs for all manner of handhelds, so I pay attention to their annual Champion awards.

Presented several weeks ago at Handango's yearly partner summit in Miami, these awards honor software for several major handheld platforms in categories such as best applications for work, play, and life. I was pleased to see some of my personal favorites, including PDAapps' VeriChat for Palms and MobiMate's WorldMate for BlackBerries, in the mix. Here's a list of winners for the major PDA platforms; you can check out the complete list, including the winners in Windows Mobile SmartPhone and Symbian categories, at Handango's Web site. Regular readers of this column will see some familiar names.

Blackberry:
Best Application for Work: Mail2Fax (Software-for-Blackberry.com)
Best Application for Play: Ring Tone Megaplex (Terratial Technologies)
Best Application for Life: WorldMate (MobiMate)
Best New Application: ESpell (DynoPlex)

Palm OS:
Best Application for Work: SnapperMail Premier Bundle (Snapperfish)
Best Application for Play: Pocket Tunes Deluxe (NormSoft)
Best Application for Life: VeriChat (PDAapps)
Best New Application: SplashBlog (SplashData) Best Industry Application: Davis's Drug Guide (Unbound Medicine)

Windows Mobile:
Best Application for Work: Pocket Informant 2005 (WebIS)
Best Application for Play: Fish Tycoon (LDW Software)
Best Application for Life: SPB Pocket Plus (SPB Software House)
Best New Application: CodeWallet Pro 2005 (Developer One)
Best Industry Application: MobiLearn Talking Phrasebook (MobiLearn)

Intellisync Glitch

If you use Intellisync Handheld Edition to synchronize your Palm contacts and datebook with a desktop application, and you've been having trouble with either a Treo 650 or a LifeDrive, you're not alone. A glitch in the most recent version of Intellisync recently began causing the HotSync process to hang when it tried to sync the addresses in my Lotus Notes desktop software with those in my Treo 650.

Intellisync says it is aware of the problem and will be fixing it in a new release, due shortly. In the meantime, an Intellisync engineer sent me a workaround, which involved shutting down HotSync and then deleting a bunch of old log files from the Intellisync program directory (search for and delete all files with the extensions .log, .ish, .bk0 (that's a zero, not the letter O), .ini, and .old. After that I had to restart and reconfigure Intellisync, but the synchronization process then worked.

Treo Add-Ons

Jane Weiner of Louisville, Kentucky, wrote to ask something I've been wondering myself: Is anyone working on a Wi-Fi card for the Treo 650, to use in places where cellular service isn't available? What about an ethernet card?

So far, Jane, I've not heard of any plans for a Wi-Fi or ethernet SDIO card for the Treo 650 (or, for that matter, the Treo 600). But by the end of this month a company called Enfora says it plans to begin shipping Wi-Fi sleds for both the Treo 600 and Treo 650. The Enfora Wi-Fi Adapter looks like a bulky case for the Treos. The sleds have their own built-in rechargeable batteries, which Enfora says should power them for 5 hours of nonstop connectivity and three days on standby.

The included Enfora recharging cable provides pass-through charging to the Treo, so you can recharge both the phone and the Wi-Fi sled. Also, the sled lets you connect via Wi-Fi to the Internet while talking on your Treo over the cellular network; you can use a Bluetooth headset as well. Initial units will ship with WEP security only, but a firmware upgrade to enterprise-oriented WPA2 and LEAP/CCX security and authentication algorithms should be available as a free download by the end of August. The suggested retail price for the sled is $150, making it fairly competitive with Wi-Fi SDIO cards available for other units. You can preorder the unit at Treo Central, or wait to buy it from carriers, other online retailers, or brick-and-mortar stores such as CompUSA, Enfora says.

GPS and PDA Query

I'm noticing an increasing number of messages from readers asking GPS-related PDA questions. Here's one from the land down under: Greg Keeley in Margaret River, Western Australia, wants to know if there's a GPS-equipped PDA that can handle a pretty sophisticated task:

"I am looking for a PDA/GPS/database configuration which will enable me to pull a waypoint/observation point and attached E and N coordinates [and elevation if possible] out of the GPS and drop them into a database where I can add observations regarding particular attributes at that point," Keeley writes. "I'm sure that this sort of thing is available in serious surveying toys and software but I'm looking/hoping for something to suit common or garden Palms or IPaqs."

I forwarded this one to Ted Gartner at Garmin International, a company that is considered one of the top players in the GPS marketplace, and that has also created GPS-equipped handhelds for both the Palm and the Windows Mobile operating systems.

Gartner came back with this response from a tech-savvy colleague: "I am not aware of any off-the-shelf software that would accomplish this request," the colleague wrote in an e-mail. But, he added, "my initial impression is that a user could use the M3, M5 or the 3200/3600 (all are Garmin-GPS-equipped PDAs). A user could then mark a waypoint at the location. Then enter whatever information about the point that they desire in the notes part of the contact that was just created. These contacts can then be exported either from Outlook or Palm desktop. This could then be imported into whatever program that you want."

Sounds complicated, but doable. Good luck, Greg!

Palm Is Back

Just in case you missed my blog item on this, Palm is back. The company formerly known as PalmOne announced in late May that it had acquired full rights to the Palm brand name by buying PalmSource's interest in the brand. The two companies had shared ownership of the Palm brand after both were spun off from the original Palm Inc. a couple of years ago.

Side note: A reader who saw that blog entry said it wasn't quite right because it failed to credit 3Com for producing the first Pilot--the Pilot 1000--in 1996. Actually, however, Palm Computing was owned by US Robotics when the Pilot 1000 shipped. 3Com only got into the act when it bought US Robotics in 1999. Also, Palm Computing was an independent company when its very first product, the Zoomer, shipped back in 1993.