Meeting #5
January 6th, 1999 | January 9th, 1999 |
President’s message:
1999 certainly started off with a bang! By January 15th, we had been hounded with over 100cm of snow. The weather was not at all nice to members of Canada’s Premier PUG! On both meeting days, it snowed. It snowed enough that nearly half the members who planned to attend could not. But for those of us who did make it, we had a good time as usual.
I’m sure 1999 will be a year of surprises for the Palm Community. With the unknown Palm V on the horizon, the newly announced Palm IIIx, and, of course, the Palm VII to be released later this year, we are in for a roller-coaster ride in the world of PDAs. Can 3Com hold the market this year? Will WindowsCE catch up? What PDAs will Handspring bring forth? Only time will tell. And that time will be 1999. And Canada’s Premier PUG will be there to learn and report about it all!
Happy New Year everyone and Happy Computing!
Despite the snowstorms all week, this month we had 6 members join the Wednesday meeting and 10 join the Saturday meeting. Congratulations to all who made it through rain, snow, sleet and hail!
Welcome to several new Participating Members, Sunil, Tom, Brian, and Brent! Canada’s Premier PUG now has over 80 members in both participating and newsletter memberships!
Chris Tychansky, of Handheld Interfaces made his first appearance at a Saturday meeting of Canada’s Premier PUG. Handheld Interfaces continues to give all paid Participating Members of Canada’s Premier PUG free shipping on any orders.
O'Reilly Catalog and Discount
Sean handed out copies of O'Reilly's catalogs to everyone. They have published "PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide" and, recently, "Palm Programming". O'Reilly also provided discount coupons for members of Canada’s Premier PUG. Members may receive 20% discount on their orders. If you did not receive a coupon and would like one, please send e-mail to Sean. Sean also noted that he is reviewing the programming book and will be giving his impressions of it to members at a later date.
Sean also handed out copies of Tap Magazine, compliments of the company. The magazine is published bimonthly, and is packed with news, reviews, previews and interviews, all about our favorite handheld. Since there were not enough copies for everyone, some members will bring their magazine back next month to give to those who would also like to read it. If you really like the magazine, you can subscribe through PalmGear H.Q.
There was some discussion of the cases that members were using. These included the Slipper III, the Pod, and Pilotgear's case, which some members had. The number of cases on offer caters to all the different tastes of piloteers. It was suggested that a future meeting might be able to give us an overview of the available cases (possibly with a resource like Chris on hand, who has hands-on experience with many cases through his retail operation).
Today there were three hands-on presentations of wireless applications on the PalmPilot.
It should be noted that there is an ongoing discussion on this topic to be found on the Member discussion board. If you would like to continue the discussion, that would be a perfect venue.
Chris Tychansky demonstrated wireless access via GSM. This consists of a phone operating on the GSM personal communications system standard (in Canada, Fido) connected by a special plug and cable to the OPTION modem clipped to a PalmPilot. The system operates at 9600 baud, which is too slow for Web browsing but is ideal for mobile access to e-mail and fax capability.
Alan Lui demonstrated wireless access via a CDMA phone from Qualcomm. While no OPTION-type modem is needed for CDMA data transfer, the connection from the phone to the PalmPilot is not straightforward. It consists of a data cable to serial port, a null modem connector, and then a HotSync cable. Speed is 14.4 kbps.
Both the above wireless solutions required a program such as HandMail or One-Touch Communicator.
Ron Apperley, this time using the infrared port, demonstrated a third wireless demo. He brought his portable computer, which supported an IR port as well, and, using a program called IRSync, Ron demonstrated HotSyncing without the use of a cradle. While slightly slower than regular HotSyncing, this process enables one to back-up the PalmPilot anywhere, without having to carry a cradle or HotSync cable.
The upcoming wireless Palm VII was also discussed again. It was noted, however, that this solution seems more expensive than many currently available options for the PalmPilot. At $10/month for base service and $0.35 per 1000 bits of data transfer (not counting the price of the Palm VII), Palm VII will run on the Mobitex system. In Canada, Rogers Cantel may offer service.
Additionally, the integrated PalmPilot-and-phone combination from Qualcomm, the pdQ, was discussed. Hopefully, we will be able to see some demonstrations of this and the Palm VII when they are available in the near future.
There was also more news on Wireless Knowledge, the joint venture between Microsoft and Qualcomm announced last year. It was first thought this might undermine the pdQ, but it now appears that the venture is looking at automatic reformatting of regular Web content for handhelds, PCs and other platforms.
Sean is still soliciting contributions from members for PalmPilot Horror Stories, a new area for the website. Please send any to him directly via e-mail.
Sean shared his own horror story, where his Palm was in a diaper bag, and then fell, during transportation, into a puddle. When found and hour later, and carefully dried with kleenex, it still worked!
Dave Harvey shared another story. He and his wife were in a store over Christmas, when his wife asked him quickly for the reset paperclip he kept in his PalmPilot slipcase. It turns out the store was running a scavenger hunt, and the paperclip was the item that won him and his wife a Christmas turkey!
.....which brings us naturally to the next topic.....
Qvadis, a new start-up company, introduced itself by donating a copy of "PalmPilot: The Ultimate Guide" book and CD set, through Sam Peralta. This set was designated by Sean as the premier prize for the day, winnable with the following very simple but essential trivia question:
When was Canada's Premier PalmPilot User's Group created?
Unfortunately, no one was able to answer this, and the prize was reserved for another time. (Note: this is a hint: It may pay to visit Canada’s Premier PUG's website!)
Other trivia and questions ("What was the code name for the Palm VII?" –"Eleven") were answered - in time - and the following were able to win prizes:
Mark Misener – Casino by Stand Alone, Inc.
Scott Currie – Jpack by Land-J Software
Dean Willems - Pilot Info Manager by Kwan’s Research Laboratory
Brent Wilson – MobileDB by Mobile Generation Software
Brian Glaholm – Stylus/pen/pencil combo donated by PilotGear H.Q.
Sam Peralta - Travel Clock by Stand Alone, Inc.
Ron Apperley – Cplxcal by Evert Rozendaal
Steven J. Mandula – Choice of software by Evolutionary Systems
Dave Harvey - Set of Styli donated by 3Com
Rob Bowen – Backup BuddyNG
Alan Liu – OmniRemote by Pacific NeoTek
Sunil Gurushanta – Set of Styli donated by 3Com
Thomas Hawrylak - Pilot Info Manager by Kwan’s Research Laboratory
Thanks again to all sponsors for their support of Canada’s Premier PUG!
Please e-mail any ideas for trivia questions, contests, and so on that can be used to give away prizes at future meetings to Sean.
For continued reference, the following topics have been suggested for us to cover in the future:
Don't hesitate to suggest any other topics you would like to discuss.
The traditional format continues with two meetings per month - one on a weeknight and the other on a weekend, with exactly the same topics for each meeting. The next meetings are:
Wednesday, February 3rd @ 7:30 pm
Saturday, February 6th @ 12:00 noon
Pizza Hut on Appleby Line in Burlington is still the meeting location. Pizza Hut offers current and new members attending the meetings 10% off their bill for the meeting lunch!
Between discounts at Pizza Hut, Handheld Interfaces, O'Reilly Publishing, sponsors' prizes and lots of hands-on demos (for example, ever wonder what WriteRights actually look like? or how those combination pen-styluses actually feel in your hand?) Canada’s Premier PUG works hard to give members good reasons to drop by. So give it a try!
The suggested Topic of the Day for February meetings will be:
Web Browsing and E-mail on the Palm Connected Organizers.
See you there!
Respectfully,
Sam Peralta, Scribe, Canada's Premier PUG
Sean D. Evans, President, Canada's Premier PUG