Meeting #41

General

Attendance

Wednesday	Saturday
Dave Allmark	Rob Bowen
Ron Apperley	Joel Burgess
Rob Bowen	Jonathan Castellanes
Stephan Cook	Alvin Chin
Kenny Delaney	Pat Cooper
Geoff Edgecombe	Terry Dewolfe
Sean D. Evans	Dave Dickson
Bryan Glaholm	Jim Dorsey
Dave Hanson	Sean D. Evans
Bob Lang	Ron Kolthoff
Kim Waddell	Bruce McKay
Trevor Wilkinson	Peter Midgley
	Sam Peralta
	Russell Scheer
	Greg Sullivan New member
	Peter Thomas
	Sue Thomas
	Alex Watson New member

Topic - Launchers

Happy New Year everyone.  I trust everyone had a warm and happy holiday season.  It was hard to tell what time of year it was, being that it was a green Christmas for those in Southern Ontario.  I actually still had flowers blooming outside up until a little over a week ago.

As with most types of Palm applications there are quite a number of launchers available.  These were the launchers that we discussed during the meeting.  There would have been more, but we were snubbed by the developers.  Obviously we won't recommend those ones.  There are a number of other launchers to look at and you can do so by going to Palmgear and performing a search on "launcher"

HandBrowser by betterPalm Software is an launcher that simplifies navigation and provides single tap access to application and files.  The great thing about this launcher is that you can associate file types with applications so that you can open the file without having to open the application first.  This isn't new to most computer users, but it is new to the Palm OS.  To learn more press here. 

Launcher III by Benc Software is a replacement for the built-in application launcher where applications are organized in tabs. Applications are easily moved from one tab to another, deleted or beamed by simply dragging its icon.  The Gadget toolbar is very useful and is quite configurable.  Geoff Edgecombe and I use this launcher and recommend it.  To learn more press here.

GoBar by Aladdin Systems gives your Palm a friendly face with the look and feel of your desktop, while providing quick access to your address book, datebook, and all of your most frequently-used applications with intuitive buttons and icons.  To learn more press here.

McPhling by Mike M^cCollister isn't technically a launcher, but is very useful.  It is a system extension (hack) that when invoked provides a list of the recently used applications, up to 14.  You can configure it to not show specific applications in the list as well as showing your favourite applications all the time.  e.g. DateBook is readily accessible by pressing it associated hard button, so there is no need to have it occupy a spot in the list.  Sean and I use this hack and find it invaluable.  To learn more press here.

Launch Em by Synergy Solutions Inc. is powerful launcher for Palm OS, allowing you to organize your files with convenient tabbed folders, with the simplicity of a drag-n-drop interface.  Both Peter and Sue Thomas have been using this launcher for a few years and highly recommend it.  To learn more press here.

Sean also discussed a few non-launcher related things. There is a new text input application called MessagEase created by Exideas.  This is an onscreen keypad in which you tap or tap-drag to produce the character that you want.  Each character requires either one tap or one tap-drag.  The meeting attendees were all in agreement that this did not seem like a very useful application.  One would have to learn another method of text entry while loosing a large portion of the screen.

Everyone who attended a January meeting received a demo CD from Aladdin Systems, which contains both Palm and desktop applications.  Everyone also received a copy of Hot Time.  Hot Time by Aladdin Systems synchronizes the clock on the Palm with that of the Desktop during the Hotsync operation.

iambic has done it again!  They have released a follow up to their Ababall game.  It is called Bump Attack Pinball and it is a wonderful pinball game for the PalmOS.  Be sure to check it out at www.iambic.com.  Look for Sean's review of Bump Attack soon in the Reviews section.

Prizes

Prizes were determined by means of a blind draw.