The following list is some of the software or sites that I have found useful. Click the link to see a brief description of the software and a link to their respective web pages:

• 3Com Palm Computing
• The Palm RapidFAQ
• Airline Schedules
• Application Usage
• ASCII Chart
• AV8R
• BackUpBuddy
• City Time
• Commander
• Flash!
• FPS Utility
• FlyByNav
• Magic Text
• MakeDoc Utility for Windows
• One-Touch Mail
• PalmTelNet
• Palm Web Ring
• Planetarium
• Pocket Quicken
• Quicksheet
• QuickWord
• Remote
• Soft GPS
• Translate
• FireViewer

After six years of faithful use I began looking for a suitable replacement for my Sharp YO-610 organizer that I finally wore out. My research led me to the PalmPilot. The U.S. Robotics, 3Com, Palm Pilot is the worlds most popular handheld organizer. In January of 1998 I purchased the PalmPilot Professional with one meg of memory. When 3Com came out with the Palm III unit with two megs of memory and infrared capability I immediately purchased an upgrade kit to enhance my unit. Then when the Palm IIIxe unit was introduced I upgraded to this latest model and passed my old unit to my son to help get his life organized. The Palm IIIxe unit comes equipped with all of the same features as it predecessors, a much improved display over the earlier models, eight megs of memory instead of the two megs with the earlier models.

The Palm unit uses two readily available AAA batteries and I typically get 3 weeks to a month of heavy use from a set of batteries. The competitors units using Windows CE typically measure their battery life in hours, not weeks.

Unlike my faithful Sharp unit, the PalmPilot is more than just an electronic organizer. It is really a "Palmtop" computer. Off the shelf, the Palm IIIxe comes equipped with software installed to perform all of the usual organizer functions, Date Book, Address Book, To Do List and Memo Pad.

Where the PalmPilot really excels however is the "after market" shareware software resources that are readily available for download from the internet. This site briefly describes and provides links to the additional software that I have installed on my unit to expand its capabilities.

Send me feedback

Delta Airline provides their timetable database to correspond to the effective dates of  their printed timetables that are available  at the ticket counters. Delta's Palm application provides all of the connecting flight information for the city pair that you select. The application researches the flight combinations and displays all that are available on the date specified and displays them in a box. If you also specify a departure time, the application will automatically  highlight the flight itinerary that is closest to your departure time. Detailed flight information for the highlighted flight is displayed below the box.

When the data base becomes obsolete it will advise you to return to the Delta website to update your database information.

After you select your desired flight itinerary you can have it automatically inserted in your date book by simply pressing the Date Book button.

The application also allows you to easily plan your return trip. By tapping the return trip button it will perform a new search using reversed city pairs. 

The database also provides reservation 800 phone numbers and international reservation numbers in foreign countries. 

United, American and Continental also provide PALM compatible timetables. Their applications provide similar information with some variations from the Delta format shown. The United, American and Continental applications update their databases automatically if your computer is connected to an active internet connection when you perform a HotSync on your PALM unit.

Other airline links will be added as I become aware of them.

• Numeric results of both time and usage count
• Usage bar graph
• Time bar graph
• Percentages of time and usage count

The data bases can be exported to a memo, or cleared to start counting from zero again.

Selected items can be copied to the clipboard and inserted into Memos or other applications. A great way to access some of the seldom used characters in ASCII character set in your Palm applications.

A great application for programmers to use as a reference to the ASCII character codes.

• Metric/English Conversions
  - Temperature
  - Distance
  - Volume
  - Weight
• Time/Distance
• Time/Fuel
• Density Altitude/True Airspeed
• Wind/Ground Speed
• Takeoff/Landing Crosswind
• Weight & Balance
  - Store data for up to 10 aircraft
  - Graph CG/Moment envelopes
• Includes CASL conduit for backing
  up and restoring databases

Download AV8R (version 2.0)
AV8R is shareware and you can download the demo version from here. Please share it with fellow aviators you know. The demo is fully functional, but will quit working 30 days after installation. The registration fee is $10, with proceeds helping to support the EAA Young Eagle's program. To register, contact PalmPilotGear H.Q. on-line at www.pilotgear.com or call them at 817-461-3480. They will process your credit card and e-mail instructions on how to download the registered code. If this won't work for you, send me an e-mail at dd@visi.com.

Enough hangar flying. Download av8r-demo.zip (71k). The ZIP file contains the following:

• wt-bal-demo.prc (24k) - Wt&Bal executable
• av8r-demo.prc (21k) - E6B calculator executable.
• CASLrt_pro.prc (43k) - CASL runtime for PalmPilot Professional & Palm III
• MathLib.prc (54k) - Math library for calculations requiring high end math functions (Wind & TAS)
  Important: MathLib.prc requires Palm OS 2.0 or higher to load. You will get a fatal OS error when trying to do a Wind or TAS calculation without MathLib.prc installed.
• Av8r_help.htm (24k) - Documentation for installing and using AV8R
• CASL conduit files (requires Windows95/98/NT) for backing up and restoring your AV8R databases using HotSync

This software resides on the computer that you use to HotSync your Palm. If you need to completely reload the software and databases in your unit it will restore all of the applications, data and settings that were in effect at the last valid HotSync.

This application is particularly valuable if you have loaded "Aftermarket" shareware which would need to be reinstalled individually if you used the normal HotSync Process. BackUpBuddy will automate this installation process and make it a painless operation.

Carry a Geochron in the palm of your hand. CityTime is a worthwhile addition to your Palm Computer. It provides a quick view of what the time is around the world, a must have program for your Palm computer.

The graphic to the left is a time lapse presentation of the City Time software in action. It shows how the display changes over a period of 24 hours in one hour increments. The shape of the day / night presentation also changes to conform to the seasons of the year. The shape shown at left conforms to a May or June time frame where the Northern latitudes have 24 hours of daylight and the southern latitudes are in constant darkness. 

After setting up your home city shown in the upper right corner of the display, you can then select 4 additional cities that you wish to track their current time. There are quite a few cities in the software data base that is supplied with the program. You can add your own unique locations also by providing a name, the Latitude and Longitude coordinates and specifics about the time zone (deviation from GMT and Daylight Saving Time information).

The Distance / Time page calculates the distance between any two locations in the data base of cities and the initial great circle direction to go to the location. If you provide a groundspeed it will calculate the travel time between the two points. Distances and speeds can be displayed in statute miles, nautical mils or kilometers.

The Sun Rise - Set page will show this data for your home city or any other city that is available in the data base. Version 3.1 also shows the current phase of the moon.

The Time Calculator page allows you to compare a predetermined time in your home city to any other four cities. This feature is great for scheduling conference calls etc. 

City Time Version 3.1 also allows you to swap cities between your home city and other locations in the data base when you re-locate. Also new in this version is support for the command stroke that is available in Palm OS 3.5

This software is available for either the black & white or color versions of the Palm units.

The owner message can be configured to automatically appear at power up to provide some hope that your unit might be returned when you lose or misplace it. The owner message screen has sufficient room to allow your name, address, phone number and e-mail to be displayed.

Commander Lite provides 'Shortcut Commands', which offer the same wide range of options as Startup Commands, such as revealing private records or turning on the backlight, but may be activated by entering a graffitti shortcut, from within any application. The shortcut commands allow quick access to your hidden records or to activate your pilot from the startup screen if you prefer to configure it for total security.

Palmation also offers ' Commander' another version of the application that includes a categorized application launcher in addition to the above features. This version is $14.95. 

• Provides a bar graph for your memory usage and battery voltage
• Provides preset alarms to warn you with sufficient time before your batteries fail
• Keeps track of battery life and time since the last reset
• Allows you to set the time duration before the unit automatically shuts down
• Lists the data bases and applications
• Allows you to export a database to the memo pad
• Allows you to delete applications or databases or beam them to other Palm units
• Provides information about your Palm OS
• Provides detailed information about the application or database

Another application from Skywritersoft is an application called FlyByE6B. This program provides most of the calculations that are available on the standard E6B calculator. FlyByE6B can be downloaded and purchased separately if desired for $14.95.

FlyByNav described above only calculates information between two points, FlyByNav Pro allows you to input your route with up to 11 waypoints. It then gives you the flight plan summary and also specifics about each leg of the flight just as FlyByNav does for just two points.

Click on the link below for a complete description of the software.

This program also requires MSVCRT.DLL and OLEPRO32.DLL- if you don't already have these Microsoft support DLLs on your PC, you can download them here.

MakeDocW is free for you to use and distribute, but is nonetheless subject to copyright:

Copyright 1996,1997 Mark Pierce
Compression and .PRC Packing code is Copyright 1996 Pat Beirne
All Rights Reserved

The main features of MakeDocW 0.7 include:

• Windows 95/NT4 user interface, based on common tab control
• Flexible treatment of line-break characters
• Optional splitting of a single large document into multiple sections, which allows you to download parts of a document selectively (when they are too big to all fit on your Pilot at once)
• Optional 2:1 compression of text, using Pat Beirne's DOS MakeDoc compression algorithm
• Optional removal of HTML tags, and substition of HTML character entities
• Support for Pilot document categories
• Optional automatic installation of converted documents (on next HotSync), with the removal of intermediate .PRC files if desired.
• Selection of multiple files for conversion when using the "Browse" dialog
• Automatic operation via the "Send To" pop-up menu, with multiple-file support

ptelnet 0.53

ptelnet is a powerful communication software for the Palm Computing platform. By using the built-in TCP/IP stack (telnet mode), it acts as a Telnet Client. By accessing the serial port directly (serial mode), it acts as a standard Terminal Emulator.
And best of all, ptelnet is FREE!

IMPORTANT: ptelnet is the software formerly known as PalmTelnet.

Features:

• RFC 854 Telnet protocol (telnet mode).
• RS-232 connection up to 57600 bps (serial mode).
• VT100 terminal emulation, including PF keys.
• Two fixed font sizes: 5x9 (regular) and 4x6 (small).
• Support to multiple character sets (besides the built-in Latin1).
• Screen sizes: 16x32, 16x64, 24x40 or 24x80.
• 12 configurable string macros (including ESC and control characters).
• Paste MemoPad record.
• Log input in MemoPad records (character or hexadecimal).

Planetarium calculates the position of the Sun, the Moon, all the planets and some of the brightest stars in the sky for any time and a any geographical position. Star gazers can use it to find or identify the planets in a clear nighttime sky. It can also be used as a compass when the Sun or Moon is visible.

The user enters the desired geographical viewing position (lat. and long.) and the desired date and time. He may also select the Pilot's current time to be used instead. 

The display allows you to locate the planets in the sky easily. It shows their azimuth and their altitude on a compass-like scale. At a glance you can see which planets are above the horizon and thus visible in the sky and which ones are below (see picture above). Or you could easily answer which planet it is, this bright one that you see in the southeast.

The useful time-increment function makes the program very interactive. It allows to step through the time quickly and answer many questions of the form "When is this or that?". One could for example find out when the Moon and Saturn have a conjunction or when the best times are for observing Jupiter's moons.

The second display mode draws a picture of the night sky as it can be seen by an observer at the specified location. It shows the positions of about 1600 of the brightest stars and the planets in a camera-like view (see picture at the left).

The program also calculates rise and set times of the Sun, the Moon and all the planets as well as the twilight times and displays them in a table.

The program can also be useful for instructive purposes. Show your kids how the Moon is waxing and waning during the month or show them a retrograde loop of a planet!

Pocket Quicken is the standard in mobile financial tracking software that makes managing your finances as easy as turning on your organizer. With an easy to use interface and excellent connectivity to the desktop, Pocket Quicken transforms your organizer into a mobile money manager that is flexible, easy to use and fast. There is no double entry and you can always keep your accounts up-to-date.

Capture your finances quickly and easily
Pocket Quicken makes it easy to keep your Quicken 99/2000 information up to date while your away from your desk. Now you can use your 3Com connected organizer to effortlessly capture checking, credit card, and cash transactions while you are on the go.

Quicksheet is the only Palm spreadsheet that synchronizes directly with Microsoft Excel without using laborious conversion utilities or cumbersome copy and paste from MemoPad. Your spreadsheets are accessed directly from within Excel for quick and easy access everytime. Instantly.

Brief summary of features: (see the users manual for all the features):

• has 48 built-in scientific, financial, statistical, date & time, lookup, and aggregate functions.
• supports multiple sheets per workbook and allows you to link the sheets
• large 996 rows x 254 columns per sheet
• workbook model allows incremental save, save as, or cancel changes
• advanced cell editing features that allow to you create and modify spreadsheets easily on the PalmPilot.
• allows to you format cells in a number of different ways and allows you to name the styles for easy use throughout the open spreadsheet
• integrates easily with Quickchart charting application
• supports row and column freezing, column resizing, and cell locking with sheet protection to guard against accidental changes to critical formulas
• allows you to search an open spreadsheet for a value or formula and then replace that value with another
• supports beaming spreadsheets between Palm III and supports the Palm System Find feature
• has an intuitive user interface that takes advantage of the screen size of the 3Com PalmPilot
• has a slick Microsoft Excel Add-In that allows to you work directly within Excel to open and save spreadsheets for synchronization with Quicksheet on your 3Com PalmPilot
• supports multiple users (individual licenses required) synchronizing with a single PC and a single user synchronizing with multiple PCs
• has the features to turn your PalmPilot into a decision making tool
• behaves very much like your desktop spreadsheet so you are productive immediately

Quicksheet is the only Palm spreadsheet to support a workbook model enabling multiple linked sheets in a single spreadsheet and allowing you to incrementally save changes or even cancel all edits. No other Palm spreadsheet affords you this type of power and control. Imagine making changes to a spreadsheet and not being able to cancel those edits. Only Quicksheet can provide this functionality.

IDocument Editor for Palm Computing® Handhelds

Overview

QuickWord is the text document editor and reader application available for Palm Computing® handhelds. It allows you to work with text documents on your Palm organizer. QuickWord can be used as a supercharged MemoPad or using one of the many 3rd party document converters available today, you can read and edit MS Word documents directly on your device. Plus, there are thousands of useful documents, books, and reference materials ready for you to download for free.

With this program you can load large text documents into your Palm for ready reference. to convert your file to a format that is compatible with the Palm unit you can use the MakeDocW program listed above.

Imagine making the ultimate home remote control to replace all of the other remotes littering your coffee table. Replace that so-called universal remote you bought thinking it would do everything you wanted, only to find out it didn't have enough buttons and/or didn't control the PIP on your television. With OmniRemote, these frustrations are a thing of the past!

Simply draw a button on the screen (any size) and "train" the button with the IR sequence you want it to emit when you press the button.

Button not big enough? Simply resize it. Need more buttons on the same screen? No problem for OmniRemote, just draw another button on the screen and "train" it. Would you like to press two (or more) buttons with one keypress? Simply setup a macro to queue the keystrokes you desire. Get all this and more with OmniRemote. The ultimate and only learning remote control that uses the Palm III's internal IR.

• Translates between English and up to 18 different languages
• Languages available: Danish, Dutch, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese (romanized), Latin, Mandarin (romanized), Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish, and Tagalog. Each is available separately, and can be loaded to your Pilot as needed. (Please see table below for details)
• Each language is doubly indexed for fast searching.
• Buttons to go forward or backward one (alphabetized) entry in either language, as well as buttons to go to the first and last word in either language.
• Allows editing and adding of entries.
• Cut and Pasting support.
• Allows Translation of phrases and sentences.
• Now uses data compression!
• Saves current state when switching between applications.
• Export entries to the Flash! program, to quiz yourself on later.