Don’t Wait! Enhance your PDA Today – Part 2 of 2

Part 1 covered ebooks, launchers, and clubs. Today I’ll cover gadget news sites, games, and memory cards. Each one of these ideas are geared to giving you a new perspective and enthusiasm for that great PDA you use to organize your life.

4. Visit Gadget News Sites – If you own a Palm and you have not visited Palm Addicts or Treonauts, then you are missing out daily on great advice. For Windows Mobile try iPAQHQ, WindowsMobile24/7, and PDArcade. For all types of gadgets try engadget or Geek, they both cover a broad spectrum of gadgets that influence our lives with a great sense of humor.

5. Play Games – “All Work and No Play Makes Jack a Dull Boy”. There are thousands of games appealing to all types. My games at Smart Box Design are strategy and puzzle based, with an emphasis on easy and quick to learn. Astraware, PalmGear, PocketGear, or Sniderware all have a variety of fun games. And since most games have a trial period, you have little to lose but the time to try them.

6. Buy a Memory Card – A 256 MB SD card at Amazon is around $20.00. Imagine how much you can add to your device. Dictionaries, games, references materials, spreadsheets, pictures of your children, music. Skip going to the movies one week and buy a memory card! Once you have it you will wonder why you didn’t get one earlier.

There’s a lot to try in this list, and any one of these items will enhance your experience and justify the costs of your Palm, Treo, or Windows Mobile Device. Try each one and see where it takes you. If you have additional ideas, post your ideas or send me an email. I look forward hearing from you.

/1 Comment/by

Don’t Wait! Enhance your PDA Today – Part 1 of 2

I love starting a new year because everything feels possible again and it seems that everyone has an open mind (at least until they return to the office). Make a decision to try someting new in 2006 with your PDA. Here’s a list of three great ideas to start you off with three more coming tomorrow.

1. eBooks – If you have not tried eBooks, then make this your top priority. It is both fun and engaging to fill your device with books on a variety of subjects. It feels like you have your own personal library available at any time. While waiting in line or taking the bus you could be learning Russian, How to Start a Business, Investing, Hang Gliding, etc. Screen resolution has become so clear that I find it very comfortable to read a book on my Palm for extended times. To get started, try eReader which has a huge collection and includes a free reader or your local library (Seattle has thousands of books ready to be downloaded.)


2. Launcher – Both Palm and Windows Mobile come with a decent launcher and navigation system, but there is room for improvement. There are several great 3rd party launchers to try and one of them will be geared towards how you think and organize data. Do a search on Launcher at PalmGear or PocketGear and give them a try. For my Palm I’m going to give ZLauncher another look and WinLauncher. For my Windows Mobile phone I’m going to try PocketPlus and AgendaFusion. If you try one that you think is fantastic, let me know.

3. Join a Gadget Club – I belong to both SEAPUG and PSHUG. They both meet monthly and I always walk away learning something. Plus the attendees are bright and enthusiatic and want to help. You can find a local Palm Group here and a Windows Group here. If you don’t see one near you, then start one. It’s 2006, anything is possible!

There’s a lot of information above and any one can significantly enhance how you use your PDA. Look for Part 2 where I discuss, News Sites, Games, and SD Cards. Send me an email or post a comment if you have an idea to add to this post.

/by

Fewer Palm Games More Pocket PC

Maya Rozenshein of Palm Addicts makes several excellent observations in her post in regards to fewer Palm games being developed versus the number of Pocket PC games. To add to her post I thought I would give a brief developers point of view. My team creates both Palm and Pocket PC applications, although the majority of our games are on the Palm. Lets compare Palm and Pocket PC development.

Graphics

  • Palms started out with 4-bit, then added 8-bit, and finally 16-bit support. And is available in 160×160, 320×320, or 320×480 resolutions. Along the way color was added, crudely first then better in OS 5.x. For games to look great you need to customize the art for color and non-color devices. To further improve the art you should also redo it for 160×160, and 320×320. The Palm wants the art in a unique format. The tools for converting the art to work on the Palm are still very crude and cannot be larger than 64K. Yes, 64K! Most of the top game developers have had to develop their own game engine to run onto of the Palm OS to break away from these limits. Creating your own engine means maintenance for each new device releases and each iterations of the OS. Although, Palm works really hard to keep things backward compatible.
  • Pocket PCs on the other hand have predominately been 16-bit, do not have a 64K limit, and easily support PNG, BMP, JPEG, etc formats. Plus Microsoft posts code to help developers use art in their games.

Sound

  • Palms had limited sound support and to this day does not natively support WAVE or MP3 files. By natively, I mean that game developers have to convert the files to a special format for them to play. And sounds are also limited to 64K.
  • Pocket PCs easily run WAVE and MP3 files. Which means no extra steps for my team.

Message Boxes

  • Palm font support is very limited. To improve readability game developers often have to create their own fonts.
  • Pocket PCs are OK on fonts, offering a few more sizes.

Programming

  • Palms are straight forward to program for. Engineers coming from a Mac background usually have an easier time. However, developer tools are limited.
  • Pocket PC has Microsoft behind it, and they update and offer new tools frequently including newer compilers. I will say, until Windows Mobile 2003 came out, it was much harder to develop for the Pocket PC. Many of these tools though are very expensive. Microsoft Pocket PC development environment is similar enough to PC development makinf the transition for PC engineers easy.

Compatibility

  • Palms really excel here. We’ve found most of the issues are differences between 4.x and 5.x. Button / Key mapping are inconsistent across some devices.
  • Pocket PCs started out well enough but with new resolutions being announced regularly it will be an added expense to keep up

In my opinion, it is getting easier and easier for Window Mobile developers to create games, while the Palm game developers have several hoops to jump through. So why develop for the Palm? Easy to answer, the screens are beautiful, the devices are fantastic, and the community is loyal and enthusiastic. I am optimistic that Palm and Access will update the tools and improve support for the engineers. But it is easy to notice that there are fewer and fewer Palm games being released compared to 1 – 2 years ago. Also, my team and I enjoy developing for the Pocket PC. The newer devices with 640 x 480 resolution are stunning but expensive.

/1 Comment/by

Best of 2005 Lists

I love end-of-year ‘best of’ lists. There is something fun about seeing the top products in an easy to read list with explanations on why they are the best. I use these lists to buy end of year products or to find holiday gifts for friends and family. Since most software can be tried before purchases I will often try the recommended software to see if it is better than what I currently have. Last year I switched from Norton Anitvirus to PC-cillin based upon an end of year list. This morning, one of my favorite sites Geek.com, and one of my favorite writers Matt Miller, presented his list. I especially like his list because although he is a techy, he shares his computer with his wife and kids, which means the software he purchases and recommends has to be really great and practical. Also, his list is not limited to software, he includes headsets, chargers, furniture, travel bags and more. And if he recommends it, you know he is using it. You can find his list here. I’ve added Geek.com to my list of links so you can always find it by visiting my blog.

/by

Old or New Games

I was recently asked if I prefer to redo old games or create only new one. When designing a new game I look at old PC games, board games, arcade games, sports, etc. for inspiration. I’ve released Farkle and Triples, both based on older games but reinterpreted for the Palm and Pocket PC. I gave them a new twist by adding additional strategies. My two original games, Word Watch and WordPop! were both inspired by older games that I think did not go far enough or offered limited replayability. WordPop! was actually thought of after I was playing a math game. I liked some of the strategies and believed they could translate to a word game. I am interested in creating games that have several strategies whether they are original or based upon an older game. I still feel challenged and motivated by both scenarios.

How are inspired? Would you rather play old games or try new ones? Drop me line as I’d love to hear your thoughts.

/1 Comment/by