.KEYWORD cfungadgets
.FLYINGHEAD EDITORS’ CHOICE AWARDS
.TITLE PalmPower Editors’ Choice Awards – Fun Gadgets 1998
.FEATURE
.SUMMARY Welcome to the last key area of our comprehensive Editors’ Choice Awards: Fun Gadgets. In Fun Gadgets, we recognize those products that are fun, are gadgets, or can be somehow tied into the category of Fun Gadgets (hey, some products are a tough fit!). In any case, we’ve got even more products that’ll knock your socks off. So start reading.
.AUTHOR David Gewirtz
Welcome to the last key area of our comprehensive Editors’ Choice Awards: Fun Gadgets. In Fun Gadgets, we recognize those products that are fun, are gadgets, or can be somehow tied into the category of Fun Gadgets (hey, some products are a tough fit!).
Table A, below, provides a short summary of the winners and categories. Be sure to check out the Product Availability section, at the end of the article, for contact information and Web URLs.
.BEGIN_TAB_TABLE Table A PalmPower Editors’ Choice Fun Gadgets Award Winners
.TAB_TABLE_HEADER Category Winner
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Handy hardware devices
(and the software that loves them) BeamLink (JP Systems)
Minstrel (Novatel Wireless)
CardScan Executive (Corex)
PocketFlash (PowerMedia)
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Extreme cases Titanium Hardcase (Rhinoskin)
Peel-It (Orang-Otang)
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Stylish stylus Fingertip Stylus (Concept Kitchen)
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Fun and games UBoat (PumpSoft)
IntelliGolf (Karrier Communications)
ShadowThief (R. Zane Rutledge)
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Reference checks
(reference applications) Aramis City Guides (Aramis)
TealMeal (TealPoint)
Thesaurus and Translate (DDH Software)
.TAB_TABLE_ROW Uses biggest iron PROFS-AutoPilot (FTB Systems)
.END_TAB_TABLE
.H1 Handy hardware devices (and the software that loves them)
The products that won the award in this category are those that integrate the Palm device with new and interesting hardware.
.H2 BeamLink from JP Systems
If this isn’t a Rube Goldbergian gadget, we don’t know what is (and if you don’t know who Rube Goldberg was, see http://www.rube-goldberg.com/). Here’s how BeamLink, shown in Figure A, works. First, you need a two-way pager with an IR port. Then you need an IR-equipped Palm device. So far, so good. Now, you write your email on your Palm device and then aim it at your pager. Using BeamLink, your Palm email is now in your pager and uploaded to the paging company, and then off to its intended recipient. It also works in reverse, bringing email in from the paging company into your Palm device.
.FIG A It requires some serious manual dexterity, but it’s cool making your Palm computer email through your pager.
.H2 Minstrel from Novatel Wireless
If you don’t have the dexterity for BeamLink (or you want to surf the Web and take advantage of other IP-related activities), you need to check out the Minstrel wireless modem from Novatel Wireless. This is a rig that snaps around the Palm computer (it makes the Palm computer about twice as thick), and gives you complete wireless email and Web access.
.H2 CardScan Executive from Corex
Imagine going to a trade show. You’ve met five hundred interesting people and have collected business cards for each one. Cool. Lots of opportunity there. Now, you want to get all those business cards into your Palm computer’s Address book. You could hand write the information with Graffiti (no chance!), you could hand type all the names in (foggetaboutit!), you could assign the task to your secretary (what secretary?), or you could use the CardScan Executive from Corex. This little box hooks up to your PC. You drop your business cards into it. It scans in the cards, OCRs the data (OCR is optical character recognition), enters them into its own little database, and then connects that data to your Palm Desktop. Lots of time is saved.
.H2 PocketFlash by PowerMedia
I gotta admit that I’m not a big fan of email on the Palm computer. I get hundreds of emails a day, and I’m fumble-thumbed with Graffiti, so the idea of handling email on my Palm computer seems a bit, well, crazy. But many people swear by their Palm-based email clients. While there are many excellent clients, we felt we should single out PocketFlash because it allows you to access your AOL mail directly from your Palm computer. It even allows multiple screen names.
.H1 Extreme cases
Normally, a Palm case just wouldn’t be interesting enough to win an Editors’ Choice Award. But there are two cases that just went over the top in terms of design that we felt they needed an award.
.H2 Titanium Hardcase from Rhinoskin
This is a hard act to follow. The Rhinoskin Titanium Hardcase is a Palm device case made out of titanium. It looks like something out of a spy novel. Stick your Palm computer inside this case and you’ve got a great way to safeguard your device.
.H2 Peel-It from Orang-Otang
If you can get over the silly feeling that comes from saying "Orang-Otang", you should consider the Peel-It! Case. In normal, walkabout mode, the Peel-It case wraps about the Palm device, moderately securing it inside it’s padded cloth. But, when it comes time to use the Palm computer, you wrap the Peel-It case around your arm, and suddenly you’re wearing the world’s largest digital watch. While the Peel-It’s not for everyone, it is quite useful for those times when you need your Palm computer and both hands.
.H1 Stylish stylus
This year marked a number of new and innovative styli, both in terms of design and material. But we only found one that truly stood out from the crowd — and had the quality and robustness to stand the test of time.
.H2 Fingertip Stylus from Concept Kitchen
Looking more like jewelry (and designed very artfully indeed), is the Fingertip Stylus, shown in Figure B. We’ve found that it makes a great alternative to the normal pen-style stylus (and used in combination with the OmniRemote, makes you into a channel-changin’ demon).
.FIG B Style is at your fingertip with the Concept Kitchen Fingertip Stylus.
.H1 Fun and games
The products that won the award in this category are a ton of fun. In fact, it can look like you’re hard at work on your Palm device, when you’re really having a great time sinking your enemy’s UBoat.
.H2 UBoat from PumpSoft
UBoat, shown in Figure C, is a turn-based game of Naval warfare. The game, modeled somewhat after Battleship, was developed by James L. Paul. You face a surface fleet of equal size somewhere in the Pacific and get to blow them all away. Try to sink all five ships before your own fleet is sunk. This is a highly addictive game everyone (especially those who like to blow things up) will enjoy.
.FIG C You sunk my UBoat!
.H2 IntelliGolf from Karrier Communications
It’s almost hard to characterize IntelliGolf as a game, but you can sure have a heck of a lot of fun with it. It’s really a complete information system for playing golf. This is an incredibly well-designed product, infused with a detailed understanding of what golfers want. Plus, it has excellent PC integration.
.H2 ShadowThief by R. Zane Rutledge
To old-time Mac users, ShadowThief will look a lot like Dark Castle. But it’s really quite a bit more. ShadowThief combines arcade play with real-time puzzles and even role play to create a fun-filled play experience.
.H1 Reference checks
There are hundreds of DOC files available for the Palm device that are excellent reference works you can store on your Palm computer. But there were only a few applications that really stood out as stand-alone reference applications. Here they are.
.H2 Aramis City Guides from Aramis Communications
The Aramis City Guide Series provides travelers with important city information you they need it, in the palm of your hand. Each City Guide covers dining, museums, sightseeing, tour operators, sporting events, nightlife, fine arts, activities for kids, lodging, recreational activities, shopping, and an overview of the city’s neighborhoods. Four editions are currently available: New York, Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, DC, with Guides for Boston, LA, Seattle, Silicon Valley, London, and Paris planned for the next few months.
.H2 TealMeal from TealPoint Software
TealMeal manages restaurant databases which can be selectively displayed by type or category. While you can modify the database on the Palm computer, you can also edit them on the PC and use TealMeal’s conversion programs.
TealMeal restaurant databases in the US include Atlanta, Athens, GA, Austin, TX, Baltimore, Chicago, Greensboro, NC, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New Mexico, New Orleans, New York City, Park City, UT, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, OR, Raleigh/Durham, NC, Reno, NV, San Diego, Seattle, Sunrise, FL, and Washington DC.
For those outside the country, databases are available for Amsterdam, Helsinki, Kuala Lumpur, London, Singapore, Stockholm, Tokyo and others.
For those of you in the Bay Area, TealPoint has TealMeal databases for Berkeley, Mountain View, Redwood City, San Francisco, San Mateo, San Rafael, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Sunnyvale, and Walnut Creek.
The only gripe we have with City Guides and products like TealMeal is that there never seem to be guides for the suburbs. Granted, Princeton "is no Palo Alto". But, gee.
.H2 Thesaurus and Translate from DDH Software
Thesaurus, with over 50,000 cross-references, is a very helpful tool for finding the right word. While a typical printed thesaurus might have double that amount, it’s still quite useful to have DDH’s Thesaurus handy on your Palm device.
Translate is an interesting, if simple, translation program that supports up to 18 different languages (including Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Latin, Mandarin, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Tagalog). Tagalog, for those who are curious, is a language spoken in the Philippine Islands. The Indonesian translation database contains only 1155 words, while the largest database (Dutch), has over 19,000 words. We wouldn’t want to use Translate to translate a contract, but it’s certainly reasonable enough to use as a travel aid.
.BEGIN_KEEP
.H1 Uses biggest iron
We’ve decided to wrap up our Editors’ Choice Awards this year with a product that has some unusual hardware requirements.
.H2 PROFS-AutoPilot from FTP Systems
PROFS-AutoPilot provides a conduit between IBM’s OV/VM OfficeVision calendar program and the Palm device. Changes made by you during the day on the PalmPilot are automatically entered on your enterprise calendar. In addition, changes made on your enterprise calendar during the day (by you and your co-workers) are downloaded to the Palm device at the next HotSync.
When testing Palm add-ons, we’re used to requirements like "requires 45K free" or even "requires 250K free". But when we got the following requirements statement, we knew we’d found our Biggest Iron winner: "To test our product you will require an IBM System 390 running VM and OfficeVision v. 2.0 or higher. You will also require a 3270 emulator with EHLLAPI connectivity and IND$File transfer capabilities. Please insure you have 2 to 4 cylinders free prior to installing our product." Ah. Sure.
Not sure what an IBM System 390 looks like? Check out Figure D.
.FIG D PROFS-AutoPilot is a conduit between an IBM System 390 mainframe and your Palm device.
While we’ve put this product in the Fun Gadgets article with the category "Uses biggest iron", you should not perceive that as diminishing the value of the PROFS-AutoPilot product, which is an important enterprise connectivity tool that will be valued by many who need to be on the road and stay connected with their peers.
.BEGIN_SIDEBAR
.H1 Product availability and resources
.GRAPHICPAIR E The following products are our Fun Gadgets winners. It’s time to start clickin’ away. There are some truly great products listed below and many of them can be downloaded for free (although, please be sure to pay the shareware fees).
.H2 Handy hardware devices (and the software that loves them)
BeamLink is available from http://www.jpsystems.com.
The Minstrel wireless modem is available from http://www.novatelwireless.com/html/minstrel.htm.
The CardScan Executive is available from http://www.corex.com.
PocketFlash is available from http://www.powermedia.com.
.H2 Extreme cases
The Titanium Hardcase is available from http://www.rhinoskin.com.
The Peel-It is available from http://www.orang-otang.com/.
.H2 Stylish stylus
The Fingertip Stylus is available from http://www.conceptkitchen.com.
.H2 Fun and Games
UBoat is available from http://www.pumpsoft.com.
IntelliGolf is available from http://www.intelligolf.com.
ShadowThief is available from http://www.dnai.com/~zane/shadowthief.
.H2 Reference checks
Aramis City Guides are available from http://www.aramis-inc.com.
TealMeal is available from http://www.tealpoint.com.
Thesaurus and Translate are available from http://www.ddhsoftware.com.
.H2 Uses biggest Iron
PROFS-AutoPilot is available from http://www.ftbsystems.com.
.END_SIDEBAR
.BIO
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?13@@.ee6c7ee
.END_KEEP
