Treo as a Notebook Alternative

PC World has an article about using the Treo as a Notebook Alternative. They are using a PalmOS-based Treo 650, and basically trying to do the things they’d normally do with a notebook: “sending and receiving e-mail, with and without attachments; writing and editing Microsoft Office documents; and browsing Web sites.”

This is part 1 – part 2 will be posted next week.

Review of Cingular 8125 (HTC Wizard)

If you are looking at getting a mobile phone capable of running some of the genealogy software that’s available for handhelds, you might want to read this review (mobiletechreview.com) of the Cingular 8125 aka HTC Wizard (available from T-Mobile under a different name I believe). It’s a Windows Mobile 5.0 device, and Northern Hills Software indicates that Pocket Genealogist will run on it.

One of the nice features and one of the reasons it will handle genealogy software made for Windows Mobile/PocketPC devices – it has a stylus. More importantly, it has a slide-out keyboard, which even though it’s small, beats using a stylus for inputing or searching for names. It doesn’t have the fastest of CPUs (195MHz), but hey, it’s a phone.

It also has a 1.3MP camera with a flash for those times when you need to take a quick snapshot (and there is software available and/or being developed that is made to do OCR (optical character recognition) from camera phone shots).

Did I mention it has WiFi available? Beats using your normal service for downloading web pages, email, etc., when you have WiFi access available (ala a library or research center).

A quick check shows it retails for around $350 USD.

Mozilla releases new version of Minimo

Minimo, the open source web browser from The Mozilla Group, is now available in a Windows Mobile 5.0 version, and it’s “optimized to provide a small footprint and a good web browsing experience on small screens”. jkOnTheRun didn’t have a good initial experience with it on a Palm Treo 700w, saying that it had “instability issues and very slow performance. To be fair the low available memory on the Treo 700w may be the culprit”. That’s not to say it’s not worth a shot on other Windows Mobile 5.0 devices. Many of us are always looking for the next best browser, especially now that more mobile devices are supporting wireless internet access, and more and more places are providing the access.

via jkOnTherun

Pocket Genealogist 3.00A55

Northern Hills Software has a released a new public beta of the 3.0.x series of Pocket Genealogist, version 3.00A54. Pocket Genealogist is a PocketPC/Windows Mobile based genealogy application, and this series is part of the 3.0 public beta series.

Changes:
* Support for Legacy 6.0.0.81 “British Quarter Dates”. If you are using these dates, you should re-import your database. (And of course will need 6.0.0.81 or newer of Legacy)
* Added additional trace messages (“Tools”, “Sync Tracing”) for USB attached Windows Mobile 5 devices. (Actually it works for all devices) If you are having “Unable to Communicate” problems with ActiveSync 4 and USB, please try it again with tracing on, then send me the trace.
* A lot of additional functionality added to “Research Lists”. You can now add/edit/delete Research Lists and add/edit/delete items in the lists. (Items include Individuals, Families, Sources and Repositories – you’ll find a new “Add to Research List” button on those screens) This works for ALL imports. Family Historian users should re-import their database in order for all the new functionality to work properly.

Note: Although you can make changes to the lists, the changes are not exported to GEDCOM (for Family Historian) nor is there yet a “Research List” report on the desktop.

Pocket Genealogist Version 2.96.17

Northern Hills Software has released an update to their PocketPC/Windows Mobile-based Pocket Genealogist, to version 2.96.17.

Added:
Support for Legacy 6.0.0.81 “British Quarter Dates”. Must re-import database.

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