Reading novels on my Pre

One of my favourite apps is pReader. It allows me to read ebooks., and it's free. I hadn't been paying attention to the whole ebook trend. A couple months ago was reading a book by John Ringo - Dance With the Devil, when I found myself getting a little confused. I had picked it up as a quick read, thinking it was a complete story - it made no mention of other books - but I quickly realized I was missing a lot of backstory. I punched "John Ringo" into (the universal search on) my phone and tapped the wikipedia symbol and quickly brought up his bibliography. And found out it was book three. All three book listings had links to free online versions, which I clicked and downloaded from the Baen Free Library. They had palm-specific (webOS) formats. From there a quick search on the Free Apps App and I had a reader. Haven't turned a page since. It's also pretty cool that I can sit on a bench at night in a park (when it is still too hot to be inside) and not need a light, and have music on.

Outline Tracker

I am still waiting for an app or patch that will finally make my smartphone smart. I would be so awesome to be able to have my calendar, tasks, todo, and contacts all synced together. The closest I have found is Outline Tracker (full). But at $20 it's not cheap. I tried the trial first, which is full featured. However you can only have 50 records. At which point I was hooked and had to upgrade. It syncs tasks, to do (with categories) and contacts, but only the name. Not a major problem thanks to the more than adequate universal search, but still a pain.

What I like best about it is the way it allows me to group and organize my activities, goals, tasks and appointments, before during and after the fact. It's all branching, and I have yet to find and end to how deep I can add subsections to my groups. If only the syncing with contacts and calendar was dynamic and two-way, it would be perfect. So close.

It would be greatly improved if the contact name was linked to the actual contact, the location linked to google maps (like it does in the normal location of standard cal entries). Events from OT appear purple in the pre calendar, but do not appear at all in in the desktop google calendar, and you have to manually open up OT to edit the calendar event. Despite all that it has become an essential app for me and I have no regrets on the price. It is the best solution I have yet found and does the most for making my phone "smarter" even if it is still slightly dumb.

Palmela Handerson

Back in high school my mother worried that the relationship I had with my palm was a little strange. Fast forward twenty years and she has more reason to be concerned. I don't currently own a PC of any kind. Other than a few hours here and there at work, all my writing, surfing and playing is now done with the Palm (Pre) IN my hand.

I've got most of the best 3D games (mostly Gameloft, and a couple from Glu) for when I am feeling bored and uninspired. To stay in touch with the rest of humanity I have my google account, Facebook (mobile site and the App - I use the site more), and for a laugh or just to supplement the 800 songs stored on the phone there is always YouTube.

To keep my life on Track there is of course Google Calendar, which I have found to be much more useful by supplementing it with the paid version of Outline Tracker, (at $20 by far my most expensive app). What I love most about OT is how it integrates with Calendar as a To-Do/Tasks app. I got hooked on the free version and when I hit the 50 item limit I found myself with no choice but to buy it (or erase all my old tasks which sort of defeats the purpose for which I use it. For my daily to-do / agenda I use shoplist (not it's intended role but it does it so well for my purposes).

For my cloud document storage I rely upon Evernote at the moment, but I recently read some reviews on a new app (notes) that may take it's place. I may try it out this weekend. For now though Evernote meets my needs adequately enough. To actually produce the docs that i store (before eventually posting in my blog) I use scratch. I also use Scratch to compose any comments I wish to post on facebook, or in various forums or other sites that offer the ability to make posts. I have found it too difficult (especially when editing or correcting) to just type into the entry box from the little screen on my pre, copy and paste from Scratch is so much easier.

In the Gym I am still determining which app I like better, workout tracker or Istayfit. IstayFit has a slight lead. Interval Gym (and Pulse - a metronome app I have put to use for rhythm training) though has become essential in my Wing Chun Kung Fu training.

Snippets has become essential in all sorts of little ways, especially logins and passwords (I've always been a fan of clipboard apps long before mobile was a concept). Photo effects (pro) has saved me having to go to the library to tweak my photos. Track My work helps me to log my time, not just at work but in all I do (writing, training, playing).

Apps from P/C, WOR, GameCenter and Engadget keep me up to date on the latest news in the world of Smart phones and Gaming. But most important of all, by far my favourite and most used app would be pReader. Thanks to the free library at Baen Books (David Weber, John Ringo, Elizabeth Moon, and many other great writers) I no longer have to carry around big clunky books (which btw are much more difficult to read in the dark than my phone). With the most perfect summer ever (23 deg C for last 6 weeks here in Vancouver) it's nice to sit on the beach with a good book, not to mention the ability to take some of the scenery home with me. Life has been good. My Palm only leaves my palm when the juice runs out.

Now that I was able to fix my broken power/lock button (thank you so much WebOS Roundup!!) on my own without having to bring my pre in under warranty - and having to plunk a big chunk of change down as a deposit for a replacement (non-Palm) smart-phone, and because of how simple their fix was, I think I am going to try out some homebrew next. The tweaks to my Cards and the Music player sound particularly appealing. I will write about and share my experience with homebrew. Once I am done - next week some time.