Everything but the Ref

In this fast-paced world we live in today, everything comes in instant. If you are hungry there is instant noodles for you (or the fast food). If you need money you get instant cash through the atm. If you need information you get anything with a few clicks via the internet. What is even more amazing is that you can get all the “instant” help you can get through something just about the size of the palm. And hence, we call it the palm pda. I call it the “palm wonder”.

I am a secondary school math teacher and technology has been my buddy in teaching since I acquired some of it. In this article, my objective is to showcase the wonders of the palm pda; how something as small as your wallet can do so much. I use my zire 72 (palm pda) in my math classes. I seldom use it nowadays though with my acquisition of a tiny pc in asus eee. But it still is and remains to be what I fondly refer it to my students: “everything but the ref.”

Acquiring a personal digital assistant (pda) has been my dream since college because I have always been fascinated with technology. I had classmates who had one. Their device though could only do a thing or two, which I verified is not the true potential of pdas. There is more to the zire than a poor camera with some games and ugly organizer. There is a lot more.

As I am an art enthusiast I would like to begin with the user interface. This is the first thing I look for in a device: it has to be beautiful. I am not pertaining merely to the outside. The interface has to look good. Devices have very simple built in interfaces. I am not satisfied with that and so I did something with my palm so as to have the “vista” or “iphony” look I admire. Using zlauncher and some skins you can simply google, you can make your pda look like these: 

Having a good-looking interface means a lot to me because it makes me want to take more care of my device. It makes me enjoy looking at it too, which is an advantage especially if you have tasks that it reminds you of. This brings me to the next important thing your pda must have: the organizer.

Palm pdas have built-in organizers but I find it lacking a lot of things. Also, the interface is not so pleasing. What I will suggest for an organizer for your palm is the Agendus of Iambic. It looks like this:

 

The good thing about the Agendus is that it combines many organizer-features into only one program which handles them all pretty well. With the Agendus I get to be reminded of my many tasks in school and outdoor meetings with my friends. I also get to keep minutes of our meeting. There is no more forgetting of birthdays and phone numbers. Agendus is also a good way of keeping notes.

 

 

I mentioned how I wanted the look of vista in my device. Apparently, it does even more than just “looking like a pc”. My zire is actually a minute pc. Being so, it has a file explorer much like the explorer of windows. There are several programs available but I prefer Resco Explorer for simplicity. Here it is:

We now move on the more exciting part of “the wonder”. My pda, for one, is my mp3 player. I use the program Aeroplayer for my music needs. For my movies (yes, full-length/two-hour movies) I use the Coreplayer. Recently, this program has been updated to play even raw youtube videos (flv files) and that is what I like about it.

 

 

Palm is not behind in terms of gaming. There are a lot of games in the palm platform that are visually appealing. To name a few, I have the GTS racing, Bike or die, Warfare Inc. (capable of multiplayer via bluetooth), and ofcourse the ever-time-killer text twist.

 

Apart from multimedia, what else is the palm capable of? A lot. I use it as my remote controler of home appliances, my guitar/voice tuner, and my music/sound mixer just to name a few.

 

I mentioned that I am a math teacher. Now what is it that is useable for math? How about the hundred dollar-value graphics calculator? Powerone calculator can be used to graph and compute derivatives and integrals (calculus stuff). Apart from the calculator, among the useful programs for teachers like me and students alike are: the bible, the dictionary (ofcourse, and I prefer the Merriam pocket dictionary), the mini office applications (I use documents to go), the encyclopedia (I use columbia), the ebook, and the pocket internet (I use the opera mini for palm).

 

Other notable programs include the resco idguard, a program that safekeeps my passwords and important informations; Softick cache, a program that hasten the access to the sd card (note that my device only has 25mb of internal memory. I mainly rely on the external storage); Uninstaller (what could it possibly do?); Receiveit that allows me to receive practically any file type on my palm; Resco backup (it is useful to back up your files often, and you know why); and Liberty control, which allows me to wirelessly control my laptop. And yes, it controls even the mouse of the pc. The students just get stunned seeing technology at its finest.

 

These are the reasons my zire stays in my palm. It does a lot of things for something that is cheap. The key really is tweaking it, finding the right programs to make it work with its full potential. Do you have a palm pda? I would like to tell you it can do a lot of things. I am a teacher and let me tell you something. Reread this article and be convinced. Palm is everything but the ref.