Palm and Treo Hacks: Tips & Tools for Mastering Your Handheld (Paperback)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Palm OS is one of the most popular handheld operating systems on the planet. From the newest Tungstens and Treos all the way down the family tree, Palms are everywhere. Although the Palm OS is simple to learn and use, there is more to it than meets the eye--from new features in the Palm to capabilities you can get with add-on software, the Palm can be made to do quite a lot.

Palm and Treo Hacks gives you tips and tools that show you how to make the most of your Palm. A few minutes spent reading some of the hacks in this book will save you hours of research. Inside this book, you'll learn how to:

• Find great applications for your Palm and make the most of the ones you're using now
• Get super-organized, getting more from the built-in Personal Information Manager and learning how to manage complex projects with your Palm
• Extend the Palm with must-have software and hardware add-ons
• Take your Palm online, reading email, surfing the web, and sending instant messages
• Get some rest and relaxation with your Palm, whether it's listening to music, playing classic games, or watching video

Written for beginning to experienced Palm users, Palm and Treo Hacks is full of practical, ingenious tips and tricks you can apply immediately. Whether you're looking to master the built-in applications or you want to trick out your Palm to its fullest extent, this book will show you how.

About the Author

Scott MacHaffie has a B.S. and an M.S. in Computer Science from the University of Washington and Portland State University, respectively. He's programmed for 24 years, 17 professionally. Scott studied usability and user interfaces for 14 years. He has spent most of his programming career designing and implementing GUIs for scientific, math, and engineering software. Scott currently works for Schrodinger LLC designing GUIs for chemistry software. Before that, his last job was at Saltire Software, where he worked on geometry systems for a variety of desktop, handheld, and calculator platforms. He has also written several games for the Palm platform.

Product Details

• Paperback: 234 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.; illustrated edition edition (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059610054X
• ISBN-13: 978-0596100544
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #895,628 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

• This item is part of The O'Reilly Hacks Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lightweight survey of Palm OS capabilities, March 26, 2006

By	Jerry Saperstein (Evanston, IL USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)

[...] The "Hacks" series started off with some titles like Google hacks that were really loaded with good information. But successive titles have stretched the concept so far that they are nearly worthless. "Palm & Treo Hacks", while not worthless, is pretty lightweight.

There's nothing in the book that the reader couldn't easily find in one of the numerous websites, forums and newsgroups devoted to the Palm line, including the Treo smartphone. Much of the information in this hacks book is also found in the Palm user manual.

Twenty-nine pages are given to very brief reviews of various Palm applications. Anyone who is seriously looking for a replacement calculator program for their Palm can find several within seconds on the web: they don't need this book. Eight pages are giving to running Linux on the Palm. The section begins with the proviso that "Linux doesn't run on a lot of Palms." Excuse me, but I think you'd have to be a pretty die-hard tinkerer to spend a considerable amount of time getting Linux to run on your Palm.

All said, there's nothing here that can't be found elsewhere - and there is precious little that would qualify as a "hack." The writing is clear and the layout is nice. This book might be worth a quick browse, but in my opinion is certainly not worth $24.95. I noticed that at the time I'm writing this, Amazon has it for slightly less than $10. It's a maybe at that price.

Jerry

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice book that will teach PalmOS owners a few new things, January 23, 2006

By	Meryl K. Evans "Content Maven behind meryl.net" (Plano, TX) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

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.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE PALMS HAVE IT!!, August 17, 2006

By	John R. Vacca "Tech Write Independent Reviewer" (Pomeroy, Ohio) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Are you a Palm user from the days when the Pilot first got its wings or are completely new to the Palm family? If you are, then this book is for you! Author Scott MacHaffie, has done an outstanding job of writing a book about how to get more out of your Palm device, whether it is a PDA or a smartphone.

MacHaffie, begins by exploring the dusty corners of the basic applications. Then, the author focuses on using your Palm device to support specialized uses. Next, he covers a range of gaming topics from using Palm devices to supporting traditional pen-and-paper role-playing to multiplayer games to classic games. The author then discusses why a Palm device is really a general-purpose computer. He continues by showing you how to do web and phone conferencing, or find out how to configure a Treo to match the way you intend to use it. Then, the author shows you how your Palm device can talk to the Internet or to your stereo. Next, he shows you how to tweak the launcher, replace the built-in calculator, or even how to write your own programs. Finally, he shows you how to "get your hands dirty" with your Palm device.

Inside this most excellent book, you'll find hacks that explore the boundaries of the basic applications. More importantly, you'll also find interesting and novel uses for your Palm device.