• 10 Clever Ways to Wow Your Clients
• Are You Approaching Freelancing All Wrong?
• The Only 12 1/2 Writing Rules You’ll Ever Need poster. Should get this for my office. Actually have wall space. [Link: Deb Ng]
• Four Ways to Target Online Buyers with the Right Words
• Write for Food
• Grammar Lessons from the English Chick.
• 9 Niche Carving Techniques: Even if you want to be a Jack or Jackie of all trades, you can still have a niche as this entry shows.
• 50 open source resources for writers.

Interesting:

• Is the Palm OS Dying? Should you care? I do! I have owned a Palm device since 1995 and am still hoping the company will surprise us and SOON.
• Student twitters his way out of Egyptian jail. WOW. Talk about major twitter impact. If I had done the same thing, I’d still be in jail.
• 20 things to do with nail polish. Well, color won’t work well for some of these, but good tips. Men — it’s OK to use nail polish! [Link: Deb Ng]

And because we always look for ways to save money:

• AAA gas price finder

And because I had my first job out of college at DOT:

• Secretary of DOT blog: My first job out of college was as a DOT trainee. We rotated to three different areas in one year and then permanently settled with one of the areas. I still stay in touch with many folks there — they are good people. Don’t let the FAA’s problems deter you from thinking otherwise.

I wasn’t impressed with the Foleo when Palm first announced the product. The company believed it was introducing a new line of products known as the mobile companion. The Foleo is a $499 laptop for a smartphone. Well, Palm wised up and canceled the Foleo — a move that came a little too late.

Surprisingly, a few third party developers already created applications for the Foleo. If porting to Linux is easy, let’s hope these companies didn’t spend much time creating a Foleo-compatible version of their software.

I’m not against Palm and I hope the company survives the disaster. In fact, I still prefer Palm OS devices to Windows Mobile and am rooting for the company to come out with a new device to take Palm to the next level.

WorldMate 2006 Professional Edition is the “Swiss Army Knife” of travel as it contains 14 travel-related tools in one neat little package. The subscription-based application wirelessly provides updates to weather reports, world times, flight schedules and statuses, currency rates and satellite maps.

Itinerary

The itinerary holds all the information regarding your flight, car rental, hotel, cruise info, train and even meetings. Since services can e-mail you the itineraries, it might be easier to copy and paste the information into your device than to go through the Itinerary tool. [Click image to view larger]

Area Codes

When people give you a phone number, they might not include the area code or dialing prefixes assuming that you know them. The Area Codes tool provides GMT (Greenwich Mean Time), US and Canada area codes, and international dialing prefixes. Search for codes by entering the first letter of the city or country to jump to it. However, if you want to do a reverse lookup (i.e. enter the area code to find out where the call came from), you’ll need to rely on the Internet or another tool as this one doesn’t do reverse lookups.

Map

View the world day / night map to quickly see where it’s day and night around the world. Tap any spot on the map to identify the city or select the city from the list to see its exact location. A nice tool that would be nicer if we could zoom in.

Measurement and Currency

Someone tells you that where you want to go is 16 kilometers away. Americans continue to hold out on converting to the metric system, so enter the distance into the measurement calculator to find out that the destination is 10 miles. It also converts areas, length, speeds, volumes, weights and temperatures. Currency calculator works similarly where you can select three currencies for converting. Since currency rates change, the tool stays updated through the subscription service.

Packing List

Instead of starting a packing list from scratch, use the checklist in WorldMate’s Packing List. Check the items you need to pack, and they appear on “My List” so you only see what you need to take instead of all the items you’re not taking. Packing List also sorts items in categories for easier finding.

Tipping/Tax Calculator

Not all countries operate the same in terms of taxes and tipping. The Tip, Tax Calculator lets you select the country and service (restaurant, bar/pub, hotel porter, taxi, concierge, deliveries, airport and general) so you can figure out what you will owe. The calculator also gives you the option of adding the tip, tax or both amounts into the calculation on top of the bill amount.

Clothing

Business trip or not, you might want to shop for surprises and clothes for yourself. But the sizing in Europe, UK and Japan might not be the same as home. Instead of picking out three different sizes of shoes that look about your size — use the Clothing chart to look up your shoe size and find the right size. If you’re a female size 8, you’re a size 40 in Europe, 6.5 in England, and 25.5 in Japan. The application advises using the chart as a guideline.

WorldMate Professional supports many handheld devices, smartphones and cell phones. It’s a worthy investment for frequent travelers so they can stay updated on all important travel-related information. Mobimate also has a standard edition, which offers fewer services for a lower subscription rate.

Those who rarely travel won’t need something as powerful as WorldMate. Other applications exist that don’t require a subscription. However, this means you’ll need to enter the currency rates yourself for calculating and it won’t be updated unless you regularly check the rates. Weather applications that don’t rely on over-the-air updates can be updated when connecting the device to the PC through the cradle or USB cable.

WorldMate is available for just about every mobile device. Even a 2007 edition is available as well as a standard edition. Here are links to get you started and figure out what you’d be interested in.

Try WorldMate

While the review focuses on the PalmOS version of the game, some of its elements can apply to the PC version, Gameboy version, and Windows Mobile version.

Broken Sword: The Shadow of Templars is an epic adventure that begins in Paris where American tourist George Stobbart witnesses a murder in a (what else?) cafe. The murdered stole the ancient manuscript from the dead man. George takes an interest in the murder and begins unraveling a lengthy story surrounding the Knights of Templars. He doesn’t go on the adventure alone as he meets photojournalist Nico Collard.

George does all the grunt work and puts himself in danger while Nico stays comfy in her flat waiting for his visits or phone calls. While maneuvering on a PalmOS device gets tricky, Astraware does a spectacular job in bringing the adventure to the small device.

The engrossing story has kept me busy for hours and months. I’ve had the game for a long time, but due to other commitments — I couldn’t play it or took long breaks in between. More impressive, the long game plays beautifully on the PalmOS and never crashes. The graphics in the cutscenes, where you watch a mini-movie or stills, looked sharp and contained a cinematic effect.

The game contains many little details that appeared clearly on the small screen. The trickier parts of the game involved using two or more objects together. I had to play with the controls for a long time when I came across the first time a situation called for combining two objects. Once you figure it out, future object combinations go more smoothly — but not perfectly.

Adventure games have one drawback — replayability, or lack thereof. Few people replay an adventure game upon completion. But this one lasts a long time to earn its money’s worth. Not only does Broken Sword: The Shadow of Templars take you beyond Paris to Ireland, Spain, Britain and Syria, but also it provides plenty of comic relief. George’s quick-witted humor makes him instantly likable.

Considering I took breaks between game playing sessions, sometimes I lost track of the story. In most cases, the game gets you back on track. Playing Broken Sword: The Shadow of Templars reminded me of the old days when I loved playing adventure games like King’s Quest, Mystery House and Leisure Suit Larry. Be patient, absorb all of the dialog and you’ll enjoy the game to the fullest.

Broken Sword: The Shadow of Templars for PalmOS or Windows Mobile.

Compatibility: Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is not compatible with Palm Tungsten T and Tungsten T2, Sony CLIÉ UX40, UX50 and VZ90. It’;s also not compatible with low resolution (160×160) Palm OS® devices such as: Zire 21, Zire 31, Z22, Tréo 600, or QVGA (240×320) Palm OS® devices such as: Qool QDA 700 and the PiTech W300.

Pocket PC Compatibility: The game comes in two versions, one for Windows Mobile 2003 and the other for Windows Mobile 5. Be sure to get the right one.

Palm has introduced the Palm Foleo, the first mobile device companion. Smaller than a laptop and larger than a Treo, the mobile companion comes with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth built-in. This lets the Foleo connect to Treos and other compatible smartphones and handheld devices and available Wi-Fi connections.

The Foleo also marks Palm’s first product that uses the Linux-based operating system. How will a product like this do? I used to carry a portable keyboard with my PalmOS device, but a keyboard is smaller than the Foleo. Do business professionals want to carry a Foleo along with their smartphones? While traveling, they most likely won’t want to leave their laptops behind. Carrying a laptop AND a Foleo looks like gadget overkill.

Hey, aren’t tablets similar to the Foleo? Granted they weren’t made to be companions to smartphones and didn’t typically come with a keyboard. Tablets work well in doctor’s offices and for service providers, so they can update records and report services rendered. But they don’t serve the mobile professional well.

What if the Foleo worked like a Treo without the need for a Treo? Don’t think that would work either. People love to have the small phones they can stick in their pockets and purses. The Foleo doesn’t have the portability people want or need. Most of the time, business professionals carry briefcases, which gives them a place for the Foleo. But the Foleo’s role looks limiting after analyzing this from various perspectives.

The new device weighs 2.5 pounds and contains a five-hour battery life. The Foleo comes out later this summer at a special price of $499 with the $100 debate included. Like its handheld counterpart, the Foleo comes with instant off and instant on. No waiting for anything to load.

Personally, I’d rather see Palm spend its energy on taking the PalmOS interface to another level even with Linux as its backbone. PalmOS works better than Windows Mobile. Think of PalmOS like the Apple of handheld devices — simple and fulfills its purpose. Palm created its operating system with mobility in mind rather than trying to copy the desktop experience like Microsoft did with operating system on Pocket PCs and Windows Mobile devices. Thoughts?

The Treo takes up one whole chapter of this book plus references in the communication-related. Still although the Treo is a popular PalmOS-based device, it rightfully doesn’t dominate the book. After all, many owners of PalmOS devices don’t need or want to have a powerful device like the Treo.

In spite of “hacks” in its name, the book isn’t as geeky or technical as it sounds. A hack is also known as a trick or add-on for adding more power to a program or system. However, not all of the tips are technically hacks because they provide how-to advice: annotate everything, find anything, get the most out of the date book, how to become a better student, and so on.

One caveat, when the book references another hack or figures, the light gray text barely appears and it is difficult to read. MacHaffie also refers to third-party software as a way to add more options, games, and functionality to the PalmOS device. It’s tough to please people with varying interests. It might’ve been better to refer to places where you can find and download software. Many people would appreciate these discoveries.

The games section, for example, has references to quite a few role-playing games (RPG) in comparison to other types of games. Most of the sections only take a few pages, so it’s not a big waste if the topic doesn’t catch your eye. Again, it’s tough to address a wide audience and there wouldn’t be enough material to create a separate book addressing only PalmOS games, student tips, and advice for business users.

Roughly about a fourth of the book covers communications, phone PDA hybrid tips, and multimedia. So those who have basic PDAs without any connections still get a bulk of information they can use. The 55 tips are listed in the table of contents listed on the book’s Web page (http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/palmtreohks/toc.html) and checking it out should give you a good idea if you’ll find the book useful or not.

You won’t find much tech jargon so the hacks are easy to understand. The book has tips for beginners, moderate users, and experts and each hack is represented by thermometer’s temperature (high for expert and low for easy) for quick reference. Very few hacks are at the expert level, so beginners and moderates should have no trouble applying most or all of the hacks.

Title: Palm and Treo Hacks
Author: Scott MacHaffie
Publisher: O’Reilly
ISBN: 059610054X
Date: October 2005
Format: Paperback
Pages: 234
Cover Price: USD: $24.95 Amazon: $16.47

Since Palm has announced it will use Windows Mobile in an upcoming Treo, I’ve been trying to figure out what is going to happen to PalmOS. I’ve been having problems with my Tungsten, but I am not about to give up on PalmOS as I prefer it to Windows Mobile (I have a Dell Axim, which I use to write my PC Magazine column). I’d like to replace the Tungsten, but is Palm going to come out with a newer version of its OS? I am not impressed with the devices that have come out since buying the Tungsten T3.

But I can’t see where Palm is going for the long-term. I don’t want to buy another PalmOS device until I know something more. It has not been that long since I bought the Dell Axim and yet I can’t upgrade its OS to Windows Mobile 5 (only the x50 can be upgraded and I have x30). I don’t want that to happen when buying the next PalmOS device.

BusinessWeek (free registration required) believes Palm is not likely to dump its own OS. Computing Unplugged has a long article sharing the history and speculates the future. I vote PalmOS to stay. The OS is very different from Windows Mobile and replacing it is like replacing apples with oranges instead of Granny Smiths with Galas.

When I received the Tungsten T3, I was instantly happy with it except for one thing — the Graffiti. I had to unlearn years’ worth of the original Graffiti to use the T3. To date, I still can’t remember how to do punctuation. If I had the T3 first, then the Grafitti is great for a first-timer, but not for us long-time users.

You can return your PalmOS device back to its original Grafitti with this trick, but you need to find someone with a Tungsten T or Sony Clie with OS 5 to make this work. Using Palm m515, m500 or anything with the original Graffiti will not work. Thanks to Hong Kong PalmOS expert, Brando, for the instructions to restore the original Graffiti.

If you don’t have access to the Tungsten T or Sony Clie, there are other options. See PalmInfoCenter for details. I have not tried this since I don’t have access to either device. Remember — backup and you’re on your own. No blaming me if things go wrong.

1. Download a handheld file manager like FileZ so you can view the files, which are stored in the ROM. If you use FileZ, tick the ROM box.

2. Use a handheld that has the original Graffiti system installed (Tungsten T or Clie). Look for the following files using FileZ:

* Graffiti Library.prc, size: 30k, creator: grft
* Graffiti Library_enUS.prc, size 22k, creator: grft

3. Beam or copy the two files to the target handheld you want to change from Graffiti 2 to the original.

4. Perform a soft reset (press the device’s reset pin), and the original Graffiti should be ready to go.

Notes: Procedures has been tested with a Tungsten T. Successfully installed Graffiti over Graffiti 2 on a Tungsten T2, Zire 71, Tungsten C, and a Sony Clie NX80V. Other models that run Palm OS 5 should also be compatible. Even after the replacement, the write anywhere on screen feature of Palm OS 5.2 still functions. The on-screen Graffiti reference also reverts back to the original guide.

Restore Graffiti 2
If you want to restore Graffiti 2, you must perform a hard reset, so backup the data first. A hard reset it performed by holding the power button down during a reset. This restores the handheld to its original factory state, and will wipe out all of your installed programs and data, so make sure you have a recent backup on hand.

Another restore option from Ben Combee who provided this tip to revert back to Graffiti 2 without a hard reset. However, this does not work with the Sony Clie UX50.

1. In Filez, go to the Details form for each database. Change both the name and creator code of each one.

2. Soft reset your device.

3. In Filez, delete the two databases, then soft reset.