(Last updated July 19, 2009)

Welcome to

Hi there. This is my attempt to put together some information on the Palm, mostly collected from information I’ve discovered from reading and posting at palm forums like Brighthand, 1src, and Palm blog sites like Palm Addicts. I know that there are lots of sites and pages that discuss the Palm with the latest Palm news and I have no intention of competing with them. This is more of a “how to” type of blog than a news type of blog and I hope that you will not only find it entertaining but a helpful resource website as well.

For me, this is more of a way to express myself and share my excitement and enthusiasm of the Palm device that has dramatically changed my world and maybe help someone find out something that they didn’t know before. This will not be a fancy blog with lots of nice designs and background. I don’t like to make things too complicated but stick with the basics. As I’ve said, this is mainly for me since I enjoy writing and helping people and divide my time between the various Palm forums and other activities.

Depending on my time and what I feel like, this will be where I will be posting stuff that is mostly Palm related. From time to time, it may focus on other gadgets similar to Palms, cell phones as well as time management and organization. But mostly the themes will be mainly related to Palms. My hopes of this blog is to provide some helpful tips, software info and my overall experiences on the Palm device. I own a Palm Zire 71 PDA device since October 6, 2003 and have very much enjoyed having this special companion with me. I have since purchased a Palm Treo 650, Palm Tungsten T3 and a Windows Mobile Treo 750 and have changed the focus to include not only Windows Mobile (Pocket PC) software and accessories but other technology related devices, software and accessories as well.

My idea is to hopefully share some of my experiences with the Palm, thus, the title of my blog is about the “discovery” of this amazing device. Originally, I think I will be focusing on the “why” of owning a Palm versus sticking with the paper organizer, as well as hopefully dispelling the common misconceptions and notions of the Palm Pilot or PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). Then, I’d discuss the various applications of the Palm, especially for what’s in the Zire 71 since that’s what I own (edit: I now also own a Treo 650 since mid March 2006) so the focus will now shift towards the Treo 650. Eventually, I will discuss various third party applications that I’ve discovered over the years that I find useful as well as tips and tricks that may be helpful. So, that’s pretty much what this blog will be about: Palm related tips and tricks, reviews, accessories, software, etc. And, depending on how this site evolves and grows (I hope), the focus may somewhat shift and expand to hopefully include other “palm-sized” or portable devices and mobile related products. And yes, that will also include Windows Mobile device or even Blackberrys or other cellular phones (if I ever get my hands on those). Of course, the main focus of this site will be Palm but being a consumer and tech gadget enthusiast, I am always open to other competiors’s stuff because I try not to be narrow minded.

My idea of this blog came about through various ideas. I’ve always loved to write, originally in my childhood years, I wanted to write creatively, ranging from poems, to stories, to novels. As I got older, I still loved to write and I have created a few web sites (some were taken down while others are still hanging around, being updated periodically). The idea of writing a blog finally came to me once I found out how to create flash simulation files and thought that I could create something that could be helpful to Palm newbies, since I’m already reading and replying and helping Palm users at the various Palm forums. This way, with the blog, I can have a greater audience (anyone who’s willing to listen to read my stuff) and I can still help Palm users in a much better way in addition to my contribution at the various Palm forums. I really love making these Flash files as they’re a lot of fun and I’m sure that some may find it interesting and helpful to follow it. So, that’s how I came out creating this Palm blog. The name of Palm Discovery came to me as I was thinking of a name and I was finding that I was going through a journey of discovery with the Palm every day. I find and “discover” something new practically every day so the name became Palm Discovery stuck because it’s my journey or Palm discovery but I’m sure that every Palm user embarks on his or her own Palm discovery journey as well. Hopefully you guys enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy creating and writing this.

As a first blog, and to get you guys an idea that this is a very pro-Palm site, here’s my

Top reasons why you should get a Palm:

1 - To become better organized so that you have a multiple alarming device that reminds you of all the various appointments, tasks, etc so that you don’t need to. Currently, I don’t know of any non-PIM device that supports multiple alarms for a day. Believe me, you can be a much better and happier person if you are better organized since you are in better control and there’s less stress in your life .

2 - To have all your address book and contacts and businesses address information you want at your fingertips. If you need to order pizza, you don’t need to look for a yellow page because you’ve got it with you. Or, being able to figure out what the hours of operation a store has (but of course, you’d need to put it in first). I have made my Palm my own personal Yellow and White Pages. And if you have a Treo smartphone device, you can easily look up the number and place the call. It’s that simple and handy.

3 - To be have a current shopping list with you that can calculate how much the current running total is, where the product is cheapest, which aisle an item is located, etc so that you can optimize your finances by purchasing what you need at places where it’s cheapest.

4 - To be able to store digital ebooks (electronic books), like your popular novels, bibles, non-fiction, so that you can read it anywhere, especially during your downtime. You can easily store several books on your Palm, something that is not possible with physical books. Imagine having so much reading material in the palm of your hand.

5 - To be able to view movies or video. Yes! It’s possible! You can easily convert your DVD movies to be viewable on the Palm so that you can watch your TV shows, movies on it.

6 - To be able to listen to mp3 music or other compressed audio music. Imagine having your own mp3 player in your Palm along with all the other things it can store and do.

7 - To teach yourself a new language. There are many softwares available that can not only provide you with text translation and dictionary but also say it. With voice support, that really helps you learn a language faster. Compare this with other translation devices which costs hundreds of dollars.

8 - To be able to compose and edit Microsoft Word (word processing and documents), Excel (spreadsheet and database) and Powerpoint (slide presentations) documents and have it transferred and updated on the computer and Palm.

9 - To surf the internet wirelessly either via Wi-Fi, or bluetooth, or other wireless mediums.

10 - To store and view pictures on the Palm. Rather than being limited to having only one pic of your family, you can now store many pictures and have it with you. And if you have a camera built-in (Zire 71, Zire 72, Treo 600, Treo 650), you can easily take pictures with your Palm at any time and show it off to your friends or just as a reference. Rather than spend the money on these digital albums from places like Brookstone, if you have a Palm, you already have the capability to store and display your digital photos. Even the default Palm Photo application can make a slideshow of all the photos, so that you can leave it on your desk as the pictures are displayed in a slideshow.

11 - To record brief voice reminders or memos. I know someone who uses the voice memo to set up reminders and then set up an alarm to have it remind him. This is a lazy man’s way of doing appointments or memos, but it hardly takes any time to do and you don’t have to fiddle around to enter text.

12 - To have a digital camera with you everywhere to take special pictures you probably wouldn’t have otherwise. Most people don’t take their digital or film camera with them everywhere. If you have a Palm with the built-in camera, you can use it to snap pictures of anything you want. I personally use it for comparison shopping or when house hunting so that I have a picture so that I can refer back to it later.

13 - To have a database of information at your fingertips like your own Penguin guide for CDs, movies, etc. Having this database allows you to make a better decision when you’re out buying a CD, or a book, or a DVD movie, or whatever. There are many programs that give you updated movie ratings on a large database of movies.

Palm GPS Navigator featuring Garmin Mobile XT
Palm GPS Navigator Smartphone Edition 2
Palm GPS Navigator Car Kit

14 - To have your own GPS navigation system when you’re travelling. Some Palms have the capability with extra accessories, to become your GPS navigation system. With the software, you can be directed by voice prompts on where to go to get to your destination. Or, if you already have a Garmin or Magellan GPS device, with the right cable, you can hook it up to the Palm and have a better display of the maps.

15 - To have the ability to view anything you can view in Windows on your Palm. With a document converter software like RepliGo, you can convert anything visual that is document in nature in Windows: drawing, chart, web page, etc and view it on the Palm. Supposed you have a document at the office that you wish to have with you. Rather than printing it in hard copy, you can print it to the RepliGo program which will render it viewable on the Palm.

There’s a lot more capabilities that I haven’t even touched on. This is only 15 things it can do. Here’s a few more: phone capabilities, TV/DVD/CD/Stereo/Cable box remote control device, database program (anything to do with data organization and sorting like movie reviews, home inventory, etc), document converter, photo capture, video capture, webcam, dictionary, stopwatch, calculator for financial, medical and engineering professions, CAD program, pilot program, there’s so much out there I could spend days listing them all. Hopefully, you get the idea.

Well, it looks like PDA 24/7 has come up with quite an extensive list of uses for the PDA or smartphone. You may be interested in looking at a list of over 201 uses for the PDA or smartphone and I’m sure it will get bigger. Check out this list of (originally) 101 uses for a PDA or smartphone at PDA 24/7

Here’a a link from Palmsource (Palm OS) that provides a good list of the software programs that can suit your profession, or interests, or both. Check out their Palm Software Expert Guides. You may be surprised at how much more the Palm can do and the amount of software available. Remember, there’s a lot more software that’s not listed or mentioned there so you can imagine how much more software that’s out there.

I have a tendency to update my older postings when I feel that I wanted to add something extra or found something that is relevant to make it even better. So, you may find that the news feeds may come up again with the old posts. That’s usually because I’ve done some revisions.

I use Windows 2000 on a Dell inspiron 8100 laptop. My Palm is a Zire 71 with Palm OS 5.2.1. I originally purchased it as a special back to school package that included extra software including Documents To Go, Handmark’s Road Scholar. More info can be obtained from my Epinions review on the Zire 71.

If you notice, at the bottom of each posting, there’s some words under Categories: . These are del.icio.us tags. If you click on any of these tag links, you’ll be taken to my web page of del.icio.us tags for that specific topic or “tag”. For example, all archived postings will be in the archives link, but notes tags will only show up in postings where you can attach notes. This is a way to better organize each topic so that readers can easily figure out which posts they want to read.

Also, I’ve created the Archive Listings page which has a list with links of all postings . Simply click on the post you wish. The default categories on the right hand side will bring up ALL posts within that category and there’s no listing. It looks like del.icio.us is still the best way to categorize the postings in a listings format so I will continue to use this to categorize the postings.

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