Here is my Palm to Pocket PC Migration story. I started with the Palm III. I’ve also had a variety of Palm machines, a Zaurus, a Sony Clie, a Treo 300, and now a Windows Mobile Cingular 8125 Phone (running Pocket PC or Windows Mobile 2005). I’m only listing software I actually like and use.
Software
There are some “must-have” things from my Palm world. I’d like to have the same program, the PPC version.
- Handy Shopper. Great software to track store purchases or about any kind of “check-off” list you can imagine. There is a alpha/beta version available.
- Bible Software. I’ve used Olive Tree Software and bought their NASB database. I hoped the e-sword software was available since I use that on the desktop and like it a lot. E-sword just didn’t match up to the Olive Tree Software so I’m sticking with that for now. I’d like to try Sword Project which I used on my Zaurus, but I don’t see a PPC version.
- EBook reader. I liked Mobipocket on my clie, and I saw they have a new desktop companion software and PPC version. It pulls RSS feeds + all the content so in addition to e-bookness it has a little bit of AvantGo going for it. It can also distil word and pdf docs and send them to the PDA. Other than a few problems with some palm ebooks that work on my PDA not loading, I like it. I tried eBook, Microsoft eReader, didn’t like them, too slow.
- Registry Editor. Eventually you’ll need to tweak something on the phone. I tried five freeware ones and all of them didn’t do what I needed except TRE (The Registry Editor). Just go grab it. Another option is to just use Total Commander (but it has no import option).
- Total Commander The PocketPC File Explorer STINKS. This is what they should put with the OS. Trust me, just get it. PocketPC life is no fun without it.
New Stuff
There are things I could never do with my Palm. Like run MAME Aracade machine emulator.
- Mame for PPC. This is a tricky one. There have been several ports over the last few years but the PC Mame seems to be the only active one. Yes I bought ROMS so don’t ask.
- ADB Idea. This is a tool that lets you create an outline of ideas that can be document links, sketches, outlook tasks, recordings, or notepad entries. It is something I’ve always wanted but never found. In just a few days it changed how I organize everything.
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Local Copy of Wikipedia. Yeah I can usually just access the online one. This thing was great when I was going through the “World” exhibit at Epcot. I could look county facts etc. Of course since this is a 2003 dump of wiki data half of it might have been in error
Still cool.
Some Tricks and Tips
Every PDA needs some tweaks to make it just right, except the CLIE, that was practically perfect. Someone once said the Newton was perfect.
- The headphone port is non-standard. Read up on this page for some options for using a standard 3.5mm jack.
- Reprogram the buttons. You need to make windows go away or say “ok” to a dialog box yet the only OK is on the keyboard. I reprogramed the IE button to “Close/OK” under the control panel.
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I miss the rocker bar on the treo, thankfully someone has a hack to make the volume slider work like a scrollbar. it also does a few other nice things like kill the current program when you hold down a key. Smart Key - Great program.
Good Places to Find Pocket PC FREEWARE.
I was a little bummed here. Not nearly as much as the Palm, but I’ve found most of what I need.
- Freeware PPC Good site with just freeware. Pain to search, good starting point.
- Freeware Pocket PC Some more polished software than other places but watch out for demos (NOT FREEWARE).