Number 213 - February 2001

Palm Computing For People Who Don't See Well
by Laura Balsam, NYPC Bytes
How I Came to Buy a Palm IIIc     This article describes my experiences in order to help people who want a PDA, find the Palm LCD screens unusable and are considering the purchase of a color palm-sized device.     Everyone's eyes are different, what follows worked for me. I hope this information helps you.     How I Came to Buy a Palm IIIc     I bought an NEC 750 two years ago because it was the best of the clamshell style PDAs (they were the only ones I could read.) I found that at 24 ounces, it was too heavy to carry all the time. I often didn't have it with me when I needed it.     All around me people were using their Palm Pilots. They are small enough to carry around all the time, software is cheap and plentiful. I wanted one, but could not read the screen.     Last Spring I had high hopes for the IIIc and the new round of WinCE palm sized devices. But when I saw a friend's IIIc for the first time I was disappointed. The screen was very bright, but the pixels (the dots that comprise the letters and icons) seemed huge and too far apart, making text difficult to read.     I went to PC Expo in June looking for a palm sized device running WinCE that had a better screen than the Palm IIIc. But I found that while the pixels (dots) were smaller and the letters appeared better formed, the fonts were too small for me. I asked the Microsoft salespeople to show me the largest font, but it was still too small.     I also asked if WinCE could display white text on a black background, I find this much more legible, and less tiring. The Microsoft people looked into it and informed me that the current version of the operating system can not do this nor could a third party create a program to change the display colors.     At the Palm booth I had better luck. The Palm salespeople referred me to Palm Gear HQ, (www.palmgear.com) a website for all things Palm. The Palm Gear HQ rep in the both checked his web site and found a program that allowed users to set their own color scheme and a font designed to make the IIIc more legible. After doing doing some additional research into the software I took a leap of faith and bought a Palm IIIc. Getting Set Up     Installing Software on a Palm III     If part of the software has to be installed on the PC, you will get a regular PC installation kit, (usually a .exe file) The kit may or may not setup the the Palm part of the software for you. (Sorry Mac, Linux, etc. users I don't know how to do this. If you will send instructions I will add them to this article.)     If there is no PC component the Palm installation kit is generally a .prc file.     Open the Palm Desktop software you press the Install button, a Window comes up that allows you to add software to be installed on the Palm during the next hot-synch You may see items already on the list, data scheduled to be synched has a .pdb file extension.     Click the Add button and select the .prc file you want to install, it will appear on the list, then click the Done button.     Synch up and the new program will be installed on your Palm.     White Text on a Black Background     The first thing I did was check out the software that inverts the color scheme, Chrome from (www.twinkletwinkle.com). I could have purchased it directly from the Palm Gear HQ web site, but I decided to check out twinkletwinkle.com's site first. That turned out to be a good move because I found a beta version of the software (v1.1) that does exactly what I want. I downloaded the (free) beta, installed it and by changing one setting (called "Invert") I got reverse video. It makes a big difference. Chrome v1.1 beta requires a Palm IIIc with OS 3.5. Fonts     Next I downloaded the special font. It turned out to require a font manager that does not seem to be available anymore. If anyone can suggest a way to get a more legible font on the IIIc, please let me know. If I get it working I will revise this article and list the details here.	The first few days I experimented with the medium and large built in fonts. Surprisingly I found the medium font easiest to read, so that is the one I am currently using.     One minor annoyance is that different applications can have different font settings, therefore you must go in and change the font option from within a number of screens. Once this is done things run smoothly. Using the Palm     When I am at home I use the desktop software exclusively. It is much easier to enter data via my PC's keyboard and my 19" monitor is a lot easier to read than the Palm's tiny screen. I synch up when I get home and again before I leave.     I was able to import the data from my old PDA with no problems. The Palm Desktop software handles most common database types and is easy to use.     Entering text on the screen of the Palm Pilot is easy. It comes with a built-in tutorial which took me about a half hour. A few letters are a little tricky, but on the whole it is very intuitive.     Having used WinCE for 2 years and the Palm OS for about 2 months, I find the Palm interface much more appropriate for a device of this size. The Palm is also a social tool, you can beam your business card or other data to others, you can play games with other people.     It can do lots of little things that make it very useful, most are inexpensive or free. Last summer the show guide for PC Expo was available as a free download, next time I won't have to lug the printed show guide around. You can get street and restaurant guides to major cities, databases of 800 numbers for travelers, special calculators, etc.     If you do not see well do not expect to use the Palm for reading lengthy articles or e-books. While the screen is fine for a few seconds at a time, reading it for any length of time would require too much concentration and be very tiring. Conclusions     I wish the screen were a little bigger and clearer, but I wish that about my 19" monitor too.     If you are considering buying a Palm IIIc and you are at all concerned, I strongly urge you to do the following:      Take a look at the IIIc in person.      Ask the salesperson, (or your friend) to show you the medium font.      Try to read telephone numbers. See if you can tell the difference between 8, 6, 9, and 0. I consider this the ultimate test      Take a look at the menus.     If the screen is marginal, imagine it in reverse video; white text, black background.     If you have any comments, suggestions or additions, please e-mail me at nypc@hookbuilt.com. Resources      Palm Gear HQ (www. palmgear. com)      Chrome (www. twinkletwinkle. com)      Tucows Palm Shareware (http:// sunet. pda. tucows. com/ palmsoft.html)      PDA Geek (www.geek.com/ pdageek/ pdamain.htm)      PalmStation.com (www.palmstation.com)      NYPC Palm Pilot SIG (http:// catalog.com/ nypc/ palm.htm)      Palm Pilot Web Ring (www. handango.com/ webring.shtml)      NearlyMobile.com (www.nearlymobile.com)
Number 213 - February 2001